Det finns ett par underbara formuleringar och citat i "Book of rhymes" som belyser Bradleys slutsatser.
"To tell a familiar narrative in a new way is the motivating impulse behind a lot of rap storytelling. With a storyteller's mind, rappers create poetic narratives with character and setting; conflict, climax, and resolution. They do all of this while rhyming many of their words, and usually in less than four minutes."
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Så först ut på scenen i afton: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five "The Message", med en berättelse om storstadslivets utsatta tillvaro.
Albumet "The Message" räknas till de första hiphop-albumen och det har blivit en klassiker. Titel-låten är en av de mest kända hiphop-låtarna och placerades 2004 på 51:a plats i tidningen Rolling Stones lista över de 500 bästa låtarna genom tiderna. Källa: Wikipedia
The Message (extract), performed by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
(Låtskrivare: Ed "Duke Bootee" Fletcher, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Sylvia Robinson, Clifton "Jiggs" Chase. Sugar Hill Records, 1982.)
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
Broken glass everywhere
People pissin' on the stairs, you know they just don't care
I can't take the smell, can't take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away but I couldn't get far
'Cause a man with a tow truck repossessed my car
Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
Standin' on the front stoop hangin' out the window
Watchin' all the cars go by, roarin' as the breezes blow
Crazy lady, livin' in a bag
Eatin' outta garbage pails, used to be a fag hag
Said she'll dance the tango, skip the light fandango
A Zircon princess seemed to lost her senses
Down at the peep show watchin' all the creeps
So she can tell her stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got so so seditty
She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her own
(...)
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Adam Bradley anser att den mest inflytelserika historieberättaren inom genrens föränderliga utveckling är den brittisk-amerikanske rapparen Richard Martin Lloyd Walters, mer känd som Slick Rick, MC Ricky D och Rick the Ruler. Jag håller till viss del med om det. Men jag hoppar över honom i bloggens rap-lyrik eftersom jag tycker att han är en sämre textförfattare än Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones (a.k.a. Nas) och André Lauren Benjamin (a.k.a. André 3000) som avslutar det här inlägget.
Slick Ricks omtalade sång "Children's story" går att lyssna till genom spellistan (om Spotify får till överföringen).
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Innan vi tittar på sånglyriken till två av mina "favorithistorier" så bifogar jag ytterligare ett tänkvärt citat från Adam Bradley:
"If we understand rap simply as fact - as it would seem many Americans do - then it's no wonder that so many are scandalized by it. But if we treat it as fantasy, as entertainment, then its offensiveness becomes indistinguishable from that of other explicit material that those very same Americans who criticize rap seem to have a voracious appetite for consuming when it comes in the form of movies or television, books or graphic novels." (Ur Book of rhymes : the poetics of hip hop. BasicCivitas, 2009.)
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Den mest naturliga berättelsen är väl självbiografin. Bäst utförd som rap-story av Nas i låten "Fetus", en beskrivning av hans egen födsel.
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Fetus (extract), Performed by Nas
(Låtskrivare: Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones, Deric Angelettie, Allan Wayne Felder, Norman Ray Harris. Album: The Lost Tapes. Ill Will Records and Columbia Records, 2002.)
I existed in a womb, just like an abyss
Came from behind the sun, my hands balled in a fist
Punching on my moms stomach, kicking on her cervix
Twitching cause I'm nervous
Though my intended purpose
Was to be born to reign, not in scorn or vain
But to take on a name, my pops chose for me
Bloodstream full of indo
Developing eyes nine months process
Infant size, a Prophet in his early stages
Mother in her early thirties, was married to pops
Wishing what she carried would drop
I'm not worthy to come from a woman so pure
Ann-Jones, flesh of her flesh, blood of her blood
Her blood and bones, hearing prayers
She asking for my good health
That I'd become a man and learn to make a way for myself
Nervous she was and her paranoia got in my blood
Mixed with mariujana from my daddies geenes
'Lotta screams I'm hearin', it's crazy
Both parents is scrappin', I'm not even a baby
A miscarriage could happen
(...)
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André Lauren Benjamin (född 1975), mer känd under sitt artistnamn André 3000, är en amerikansk rappare, sångare, låtskrivare, skivproducent, dansare och skådespelare, mest känd för att vara del av hiphop-duon Outkast tillsammans med rapparen Big Boi.
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Families, The Shield, Be Cool, Revolver, Semi-Pro, Four Brothers, och den ledande rollen som Jimi Hendrix i All Is by My Side. Källa: Wikipedia
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(First verse of) A Life In The Day Of Benjamin Andre (Incomplete), performed by Outkast
(Låtskrivare: André Lauren Benjamin. Album: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. LaFace Records, 2003.)
I met you in a club in Atlanta, Georgia
Said me and my homeboy were coming out with an album
You looked at me like "Yeah, nigga, right"
But you gave me your number anyway
You were on the talcum...
Powder — How's about them oranges?
Moved away from home to school with big plans
By day, studied the history of music
By night, just to pay for that shit, you'd dance
To get your pants was a Mission Impo-ssible
We were both the same age, but I
Suppose wasn't on the same page, but in
The same book of life, so I'd page you when
I felt you that were getting off of work
Or either when you're on your way to school
We started hanging like Ernie and Bert
And in my idle head I'm thinking: "cool"
Just when I think I'm going down your shirt
You're hiking up your skirt now
The events that followed had me volley if your hometown would be
Heaven or hell
The angelic nastiness you possessed made you by far the best
Therefore hard to tell
(...)
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