Klarinet Archive - Posting 000538.txt from 1996/02

From: "Susan E. Pontow" <FBVB@-----.BITNET>
Subj: Re: rap music
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 1996 17:56:43 -0500

Date: Wed, 07 Feb 1996 18:21:00 -0500
From: Crim <row@-----.NET>
Subject: MUSIC

> I love rap. But, if has
>nasty swears or something about sex, no matter what the rythm might be, I
>hate it. I think that art and expressing yourself through music doesn't
>have to involve immature words. I think that in a few years, no matter how
>hard we start to try, the world will be trash. The least we can do is get
>this garbage off the radio.
>
>BETHANY

To Bethany and all others who replied to this thread:

I'm 22 and a senior at Indiana University of PA. Presently one of my classes
is a course in linguistics. The topic of rap music was addressed in the book
"Lanuage: The Social Mirror" by Elaine Chaika. The author explains the
origins of rap music, which I found interesting and gave me a new perspective
of that art form. IMHO and from my experience I've learned that one should
know the origins of a particular art form before criticizing it.

For those who don't want to read a very lengthy message you can delete now.
I'll highlight the sections of the book that deal with rap, so that those
interested may have immediate access to it.

p. 216-218
"Rap songs are, of course, the most prominent African American verbal
activity today. However, they actually derive from a long tradition in the
African American community, one well worth examining. Indeed, one cannot truly
understand rap without understanding where it comes from and what social
conditions produced its forebears and now rap itself.
M's quick allusions to sex, above,[in a conversation clip] are seen in
other ghetto speech activities as well. Polite fictions about sex are stripped
away again and again in black oral performances. The pinnacle of these
performances occurred in toasts(3), although they are rarely if ever recited
today. These were poems recited on street corners and in bars. The name toast
in and of itself is a parody of the polite and laudatory practise of toasting
at weddings, testimonials, and the like.
The toasts were, actually, epic poems. Admittedly, most people would
not think of epic poetry when they first hear black toasts. The ubiquitous
profanity and taboo subjects so shock middle-class listeners that most cannot
appreciate the skill it took to compose them. Although they now belong to the
realm of esoterica, examining toasts is a valuable lesson in the ways language
activities mirror social realities and fulfill the need for ego satisfaction.
The toasts--and other oral displays--are not braked by any coyness in language
or topic. In fact, one suspects that taboos are deliberately woven throughout.
Although they offend sensibilities, profanity and taboo subjectas are an
integral part of any sociologty of language as they reflect social conditions
and attitudes. This is true for all people, not just African Americans. We
are using that group for our examples, because their productions have been well
collected, African Americans have raised speech performances to a high art,
and, for the young, their speech and music have become the ones to copy today.
Because the message of the songs is as important as the form of the music
itself, its influence on all of American socitey is considerable.
The original toasts are actuall oral epics like "The Iliad" or
"Beowulf": long poems, originally meant to be spoken, that recount of
magnificent deeds of a hero. The hero is a model epitomizing the way men are
supposed to be. The epic not only entertains and thrills, but teaches.
Examining epic poems, then, reveals cultural attitudes.
The hero of the toasts is often a pimp or lawbreaker. He is just about
always a misogynist. Even if he is not, he is overtly antisentimental and
tough. Gambling, drinking, procuring, prostitution, and the treachery of women
are common themes. These wer the facts of life to the anonymous composers of
"The Fall", "The Signifying Monkey", "The Sinking of the Titanic", and other
tales of the Black folkheroes Shine and Stagolee. The attitudes found in the
toasts presented below have not changed very much, as an examination of the
lyurics of current rap songs show.
Epic poetry sets its scenes in wat. There heroes can exhibit the
traits that society expects of its men. The battlegrounds of the Black epics
are the slums of the large cities, as in these opening line from one version of
"The Fall":
4. It was Saturday night, the jungle was bright
As the game stalked their prey;
And the cold was crime on the neon line
Where crime begun, where daughter fought son
And your mom lied awoke, with her heart almost broke
As they loaded that train to hell
Where blood was shed for the sake of some bread
And winos were rolled for their port.

Where the addicts prowl, where the tiger growl
And search for their lethal blow,
Where the winos crump for that can heat rump
You'll find their graves in the snow;
Where girls of vice sell love for a price
And even the law's corrup'
But keep on tryin' as you go down cryin'
Say man it's a bitters cup.
(quoted in Labov et al. 1968. p. 56)

This stark and graphic opener leads into a tale of a pimp who exploited
a whore shamelessly, ending with his arrest:

5. Now as I sit in my 6 by 6 cell in the county jail
Watchin' the sun rise in the east,
The morning chills give slumber to the slumbering beast

Farewell to the nights, and the neon lights,
Farewell to one and all
Farewell to the game, may it still be the same
When I finish doing this fall.
(p. 58)

In "Honky Tonk Bud," the hero is convicted of a narcotics charge. Before
sentence is passed, he tells the judge:

6. He said, "I'm not cryin' 'cause the agen was lyin'
And left you all with a notion
That I was a big deal in the narcotics fiel'
I hope the fag cops a promotion.
It's all the same; it's all in the game.
I dug when I sat down to play.
That you take all odds, deal all low cards.
It's the dues the dope fiend must pay.
(p. 58)

"The game" is the way things are. Labov et al point out that the toasts do not
claim that the game pays off in any way. The satisfaction comes from playing
with dignity, and, according to the rules. The rules dictate that one never
compklains about what happens. Justice is not expected, nor is injustice
bemoaned. Heroism consists of great courage as it does in the middle-class
world, but, in the toasts, the courage consists partly of being willing to face
the penalties of crime.
-----------------------------------------
(3) Younger African Americans and even somewhat older middle-class ones are
largely unaware of these toasts, or, at best, recall a snatch or two from "The
Signifying Monkey", or vaguely recall Shine, the hero. In the movie "House
Party," however, the protagonist's father plays a recording by Domitian of "The
Signifying Monkey". Fortunately, folklorists have preserved many of these
toasts before they were forgotten.
----------------------

(To be continued tomorrow.... the computer lab here is closing.)

Susan Pontow
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
fbvb@-----.edu