Now when I say bastard I by no means intend that in a negative way. In fact I myself am a bastard and I think of myself in a positive light. No, Snow is not my name thereby relating me to some blank, shapeless, colorless form. Instead I am the bastard that has thrived and grown from the lack of a structured home through my own tenacious efforts to succeed and be better than what others projected.
Hip-Hop is that statement in the music industry telling others I will be poetry but on my own terms. I have recently taken several formal poetry courses and they have all taught you this structured approach to writing the rhymes and observations. What happens however when you don't care about following a set of rules given to you? What happens when you insists upon abstract instead of concrete? The result are the words of Kanye West, J-Cole, and Jay-Z and what about Biggie, Mc Lyte, and Rakim. There words speak volumes. They paint a picture, sometimes it's not so concrete and at others time you know exactly what they are stating because you have been there before. Sometimes it is that opportunity to warp their world into your own. Interpreting their emotions as your own because these were once the things you felt.
There has been an ongoing debate to determine if hip-hop is truly a part of the poetry scene. The use of rhyme, metaphor, rhythm and story-telling certainly give hip hop the points for being a form of poetry. It's still however considered an entity onto itself and as a result not truly honored as a legitimate work of study. Only in California do they honor the words of Tupac with a class of study. Are we become such a society that we are ignoring new levels of art when at one time we embraced the emotionally empowered hymns of the slaves or the reverberating sounds of the rhythm and blues. Another form taken and made their own hip-hop to me is the poetry of music. I understand that lyrics of a song interpret one thing all together but hip-hop is so much more than matching your words to a beat. In the right hands a portrait is built of strife, of love. Repetition helping us to remember the strange fruit of Billie Holiday introducing history to another generation.
I am one certainly of liberal thought but I don't think it is too farfetched to consider hip hop as the current opportunity for poetry to re-invent itself.
From Time - Drake ft Jhene Aiko (Inspired)
What are you so afraid of
I don't know...
Feels like my mind moves fast
while the world strolls slow.
What if I don't know me any anymore
and you're the next one to walk out the door.
Got me thinking about that day and how I'll feel
Like a whole bunch of fiction, it'll be so unreal.
I don't even see you like I used to
So I'm second guessing wanting to know if you're still you.
Or if the world has had its way,
And turned you into a fan of a good day.
Cause when clouds come you can no longer cope
So ready for the rainbows you forgot how to stay afloat.
Sorry I wasn't there to save you,
but I was looking for myself and I just couldn't pull through.
