I've taken sides
What is poetry? Well the answer I stand by that caused great discomfort to my English teacher is that poetry is democratically elected so whatever I say is a poem is a poem. Its very similar to the way I consider the word genius, your only a genius if no really argues against you. If I go up to any random person and say Albert Einstein and Stevie Wonder are genius's I bet that person will agree. Its that way with poetry, which is why I've never understood the blanket statement that rappers or emcee's are poets.
The opposite is still not true in my eyes, to say all rappers or emcee's aren't poets is just as false. To have a distinguished career that has given depth and definition to subject matter, that is a poet. Do I want to tell people that Eminem is a poet...the honest answer is no. As clever as this dude is his career is built on fart jokes and drug references. It might not even be important to meaningfully distinguish between the two, just write whatever you feel and if it doesnt suck let that be your reward.
I have seen some people so determined to be what they consider a good emcee that they never blossom into any kind of serious poet. An emcee to a lot of people is supposed to be someone who can play with words and has a mastery of that as a skill. The problem with this is if you perfect the meaningless management of words of words you never master the pursuit of the right words for your meaning. To a certain extent I am pissing in the wind here anyone who can easily define what poetry is or being a poet is...is full of crap. Rakim already defined being an emcee in a question "How could I move the crowd?"
Some emcees move the crowd with intellectual and inspirational verse that should stand right next to the classics. Some of them make cheap and tawdry party songs and yes I am old so I don't understand the layers of symbolism in the Yin Yang Twins music. All I really want people to do is think before they give someone the title, Sage Francis, Geologic from the Blue Scholars, and countless others have balanced being both emcee's and poets(who literally were spoken word poets first) but record sales and popularity don't determine it. Don't let a watered down simplistic message spread through mass media get you drunk on someone who is taking the spotlight from great minds.
The opposite is still not true in my eyes, to say all rappers or emcee's aren't poets is just as false. To have a distinguished career that has given depth and definition to subject matter, that is a poet. Do I want to tell people that Eminem is a poet...the honest answer is no. As clever as this dude is his career is built on fart jokes and drug references. It might not even be important to meaningfully distinguish between the two, just write whatever you feel and if it doesnt suck let that be your reward.
I have seen some people so determined to be what they consider a good emcee that they never blossom into any kind of serious poet. An emcee to a lot of people is supposed to be someone who can play with words and has a mastery of that as a skill. The problem with this is if you perfect the meaningless management of words of words you never master the pursuit of the right words for your meaning. To a certain extent I am pissing in the wind here anyone who can easily define what poetry is or being a poet is...is full of crap. Rakim already defined being an emcee in a question "How could I move the crowd?"
Some emcees move the crowd with intellectual and inspirational verse that should stand right next to the classics. Some of them make cheap and tawdry party songs and yes I am old so I don't understand the layers of symbolism in the Yin Yang Twins music. All I really want people to do is think before they give someone the title, Sage Francis, Geologic from the Blue Scholars, and countless others have balanced being both emcee's and poets(who literally were spoken word poets first) but record sales and popularity don't determine it. Don't let a watered down simplistic message spread through mass media get you drunk on someone who is taking the spotlight from great minds.
posted by veritas2 at
5:31 PM
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