The poetry of hip-hop “Hip-hop lyrics—not just my lyrics, but those of any great MC—are poetry if you look at them closely enough.” Jay Z, Decoded   Hip Hop, despite its success still aches for respect and recognition. Having already achieved it as businessmen, rappers would now like you to see them as artists – proper artists. Poets, even.   The release this month, of Jay Z’s ‘Decoded’, a collection of footnoted lyrics accompanied by biographical anecdotes and observations, marks the next front in this battle.   And he is not alone. Adam Bradley an English professor and, author of Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop writes, “The best MCs—like Rakim, Jay-Z, Tupac, and many others—deserve consideration alongside the giants of American poetry. We ignore them at our own expense.”   He urged fellow English professors and scholars to expand the poetic canon to embrace rap. ‘Book of Rhymes’ uses the terms of poetry criticism – assonance, alliteration, exaggerated stress patterns - to admire both the content and form of rap lyrics.   For anyone, with even the vaguest interest in the English language both books make for compelling reading.   For more info see this article in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/12/06/101206crat_atlarge_sanneh?currentPage=1

The poetry of hip-hop

“Hip-hop lyrics—not just my lyrics, but those of any great MC—are poetry if you look at them closely enough.” Jay Z, Decoded

 

Hip Hop, despite its success still aches for respect and recognition. Having already achieved it as businessmen, rappers would now like you to see them as artists – proper artists. Poets, even.

 

The release this month, of Jay Z’s ‘Decoded’, a collection of footnoted lyrics accompanied by biographical anecdotes and observations, marks the next front in this battle.

 

And he is not alone. Adam Bradley an English professor and, author of Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop writes, “The best MCs—like Rakim, Jay-Z, Tupac, and many others—deserve consideration alongside the giants of American poetry. We ignore them at our own expense.”

 

He urged fellow English professors and scholars to expand the poetic canon to embrace rap. ‘Book of Rhymes’ uses the terms of poetry criticism – assonance, alliteration, exaggerated stress patterns - to admire both the content and form of rap lyrics.

 

For anyone, with even the vaguest interest in the English language both books make for compelling reading.

 

For more info see this article in the New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/12/06/101206crat_atlarge_sanneh?currentPage=1

The poetry of hip-hop “Hip-hop lyrics—not just my lyrics, but those of any great MC—are poetry if you look at them closely enough.” Jay Z, Decoded   Hip Hop, despite its success still aches for respect and recognition. Having already achieved it as businessmen, rappers would now like you to see them as artists – proper artists. Poets, even.   The release this month, of Jay Z’s ‘Decoded’, a collection of footnoted lyrics accompanied by biographical anecdotes and observations, marks the next front in this battle.   And he is not alone. Adam Bradley an English professor and, author of Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop writes, “The best MCs—like Rakim, Jay-Z, Tupac, and many others—deserve consideration alongside the giants of American poetry. We ignore them at our own expense.”   He urged fellow English professors and scholars to expand the poetic canon to embrace rap. ‘Book of Rhymes’ uses the terms of poetry criticism – assonance, alliteration, exaggerated stress patterns - to admire both the content and form of rap lyrics.   For anyone, with even the vaguest interest in the English language both books make for compelling reading.   For more info see this article in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/12/06/101206crat_atlarge_sanneh?currentPage=1

The poetry of hip-hop

“Hip-hop lyrics—not just my lyrics, but those of any great MC—are poetry if you look at them closely enough.” Jay Z, Decoded

 

Hip Hop, despite its success still aches for respect and recognition. Having already achieved it as businessmen, rappers would now like you to see them as artists – proper artists. Poets, even.

 

The release this month, of Jay Z’s ‘Decoded’, a collection of footnoted lyrics accompanied by biographical anecdotes and observations, marks the next front in this battle.

 

And he is not alone. Adam Bradley an English professor and, author of Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop writes, “The best MCs—like Rakim, Jay-Z, Tupac, and many others—deserve consideration alongside the giants of American poetry. We ignore them at our own expense.”

 

He urged fellow English professors and scholars to expand the poetic canon to embrace rap. ‘Book of Rhymes’ uses the terms of poetry criticism – assonance, alliteration, exaggerated stress patterns - to admire both the content and form of rap lyrics.

 

For anyone, with even the vaguest interest in the English language both books make for compelling reading.

 

For more info see this article in the New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/12/06/101206crat_atlarge_sanneh?currentPage=1

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