I Challenge You...

[KrazyHorse]

Now, write a sonnet without making up words like rap artists are allowed to do.

[Al B. Sure!]

David, you seem to have a problem with 'gangster' rap... and there's dozens of rappers who got the same problem... read these lyrics....

(Talib Kweli)"Give me the fortune, keep the fame," said my man Louis
I agreed, know what he mean because we live the truest lie
I asked him why we follow the law of the bluest eye
He looked at me, he thought about it
Was like, "I'm clueless, why?"
The question was rhetorical, the answer is horrible
Our morals are out of place and got our lives full of sorrow
And so tomorrow comin later than usual
Waitin' on someone to pity us
While we findin beauty in the hideous
They say money's the root of all evil but I can't tell
YouknowhatImean, pesos, francs, yens, cowrie shells, dollar bills
Or is it the mindstate that's ill?
Creating crime rates to fill the new prisons they build
Over money and religion there's more blood to spill
The wounds of slaves in cotton fields that never heal
What's the deal?
A lot of cats who buy records are straight broke
But my language universal they be recitin my quotes
While R&B singers hit bad notes, we rock the boat
of thought, that my man Louis' statements just provoked
Caught up, in conversations of our personal worth
Brought up, through endangered species status on the planet Earth
Survival tactics means, bustin gats to prove you hard
Your firearms are too short to box with God
Without faith, all of that is illusionary
Raise my son, no vindication of manhood necessary

(M.D.) Not strong
(T.K.) Only aggressive
(M.D.) Not free
(T.K.) We only licensed
(M.D.) Not compassioniate, only polite
(T.K.) Now who the nicest?
(M.D.) Not good but well behaved
(T.K.) Chasin after death
so we can call ourselves brave?
(M.D.) Still livin like mental slaves
(both) Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
(both) Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice

(Mos Def)
Yo, I'm sure that everbody out listenin agree
That everything you see ain't really how it be
A lot of jokers out runnin in place, chasin the style
Be a lot goin on beneath the empty smile
Most cats in my area be lovin the hysteria
Synthesized surface conceals the interior
America, land of opportunity, mirages and camoflauges
More than usually -- speakin loudly, sayin nothin
You confusin me, you losin me
Your game is twisted, want me enlisted -- in your usary
Foolishly, most men join the ranks cluelessly
Buffoonishly accept the deception, believe the perception
Reflection rarely seen across the surface of the lookin glass
Walkin the street, wonderin who they be lookin past
Lookin gassed with them imported designer shades on
Stars shine bright, but the light -- rarely stays on
Same song, just remixed, different arrangement
Put you on a yacht but they won't call it a slaveship
Strangeness, you don't control this, you barely hold this
Screamin brand new, when they just sanitized the old ****
Suppose it's, just another clever Jedi mind trick
That they been runnin across stars through all the time with
I find it's distressin, there's never no in-between
We either niggaz or Kings
We either *****es or Queens
The deadly ritual seems immersed, in the perverse
Full of short attention spans, short tempers, and short skirts
Long barrel automatics released in short bursts
The length of black life is treated with short worth
Get yours first, them other niggaz secondary
That type of illin that be fillin up the cemetary
This life is temporary but the soul is eternal
Separate the real from the lie, let me learn you
Not strong, only aggressive, cause the power ain't directed
That's why, we are subjected to the will of the oppressive
Not free, we only licensed
Not live, we just excitin
Cause the captors.. own the masters.. to what we writin
Not compassionate, only polite, we well trained
Our sincerity's rehearsed in stage, it's just a game
Not good, but well behaved cause the ca-me-ra survey
most of the things that we think, do, or say
We chasin after death just to call ourselves brave
But everyday, next man meet with the grave
I give a damn if any fan recall my legacy
I'm tryin to live life in the sight of God's memory
Like that y'all

(Mos Def)
A lot of people don't understand the true criteria of things
Can't just accept the appearance
Have to get the true essence

[Al B. Sure!]

Tassadar:

I already am 'enlightened' to the artform of writing a story... i never denied that writing is an art...


and rappers don't make up words... they use slang words that are used already... even crazy words like shizzle or whatever the **** was actually being used colloquially in the bay area.

[Drake Tungsten]

I support you, Speer. Rap is a great form of music. These dumb-ass white boys don't know what they're talking about.

[monolith94]

"Now, write a sonnet without making up words like rap artists are allowed to do."

I call bullshît. Don't you know that a sonnet doesn't have to rhyme???

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by monolith94
"Now, write a sonnet without making up words like rap artists are allowed to do."

I call bullshît. Don't you know that a sonnet doesn't have to rhyme???

Really.

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sonnet.html

[monolith94]

If you're going to do an italian or english sonnet, sure, but a sonnet by itself is just fourteen lines. So yeah, I'm still right.

[David Floyd]

AS, sorry, but I have a problem with music that horribly mangles grammar. Maybe I'm just prejudiced, or live in an ivory tower, or whatever, but that's just what I like, or rather, don't like.

As for rap being poetry, much of what is considered "great" poetry doesn't even rhyme, so I'm not sure that your reason for calling rap "poetry" is valid. Then again, I'm not a fan of poetry, either, for entirely different reasons (it tends to bore the **** out of me).

[Al B. Sure!]

David:

i'm not sure Talib Kweli and Mos Def really mangled grammar in that piece... if they did, it's no more than normal colloquial laxing of grammar.

great poetry prior to that gay guy who wrote leaves of grass or whatever almost always rhymed... rap is the return of verse poetry after over a century absence.

[Drake Tungsten]

great poetry prior to that gay guy who wrote leaves of grass or whatever almost always rhymed...

I don't know why, but I found that really funny.

[David Floyd]

if they did, it's no more than normal colloquial laxing of grammar.

Which is something I don't like, either

rap is the return of verse poetry after over a century absence.

If you are now trying to say that rap is good and takes intelligence because it is the new poetry, then I would have to say you're grasping at straws.

Rap is not poetry, nor is it meant to be poetry. It just happens to rhyme.

[monolith94]

Walt Whitman. Check him out some time, Albert. Surely you can spend $5 on a small book of his poetry when your peers are spending tons of money on pot, eh?

[Nubclear]

POETRY

Rap Sucks C0ck,
It's Much Worse than Bach,
We Should Seal it With a Heavy Lock,
Rap Sucks C0ck.

[Al B. Sure!]

David:

did you read the lyrics i posted at the start of the thread and/or the ones i jost posted? they're not amazing or nothing but i can't see how you wouldn't agree that they are poetry.

[David Floyd]

I agree that they rhyme, but that doesn't make them poetry.