Poetry in Motion
‘The reincarnation of a famous poet’
Deceptikonz/P-Money
I have hidden abilities and refuse to show it: / my lyrics resemble the reincarnation of a famous poet; / my lyrics get to your skin even on A4 cartridge paper / and penetrate like CFCs through the ozone layer…1
In classrooms and youth groups all around the world Hip Hop is being used to hook young people back into the ‘language of literacy.’ Literacy (the ability to read and write) is seen as the key to ‘opportunity’ – to opening up the world of knowledge, skills and new ideas.
Rap as Literacy
But to many - through lack of options, interest or support – the door to literacy, and therefore power, remains firmly closed. Yet if we look back to a time before reading and writing was shared with all members of a society, communication of ideas and information was still possible. In the end, that’s what literacy is about – communication. Hip Hop joins a long list of traditions that make it possible for the ‘common people’ to communicate.
…rap is literacy... literacy is rap…literacy is a system of rapping and…rap is a system of literacy. It cannot be about one without being about the other.2
But it’s not just about rap lyrics… ideas, emotions and strong political messages can be communicated through all the elements of Hip Hop. You can think of the act of ‘reading’ as the ability to understand and/or process any particular thing – from printed words, attitudes, people, emotions, to any element of the world. Think about how you ‘read’ the faces of people, or the way they move. It tells us more than just what the person looks like, it also tells us how they feel.
Often the feelings and emotions of the people who join and stay in Hip Hop are missing or not explored… [it’s] a culture rich in emotional ties and feelings… a culture wealthy in respect, participation and enjoyment. Perhaps the ability to capture these feelings can only come from someone being an integral part of the [Hip Hop] community…’3
‘Crazy Legs’, founding member of the legendary Rock Steady Crew, says ‘…we learned how to dance based on a feeling…people were dancing to James Brown, to music that was coming out of the whole civil-rights movement. We danced with a passion that represented a social freedom and opportunity to express freely’.4
This feeling was one that passed through many of the US and local pioneers, no matter the element. DJ’s sample from pieces that ‘speak’ to them – have something to say – whether it be a line from Dr Martin Luther King, Bart Simpson, or fragments from our own language (i.e. Te Reo), as a way of expressing unique identity.
Having something positive to say and the ability to say it musically.
Te Kupu5
Aerosol art began with young people putting their ‘art’ on the environment around them and, just as rap sends out messages about the environment around the rapper, a writer paints a picture of how they see the world.6
And then, of course, there is rap, which ‘combines the rhyming of the spoken word with the ‘boom-bap’ of the Hip Hop beat to deliver an alternative narrative of ethnic history.’7 Some people liken rap music to traditions that began during the earliest days in human history – where ‘poetry’ took the middle ground between speech and song. In a book on this subject, James Winn8 talks of the first steps towards poetry, when primitive tribes ‘began to fit words into existing melodies previously sung with meaningless sounds’.9 This process led to sounds being shaped into patterns that could be repeated – and that meant ‘information could be held in a form which was more easily memorised and passed down’.10
A perfect example of this ethnic oral history is seen in West African culture, where each tribe has its own griot – one person who is a combination historian, musician and storyteller. Griots were often accompanied by instruments, drumming and/or handclapping, and might speak for hours – even days. Included in the griot’s chants were such events as births, deaths, marriages, hunts and wars – the whole collective history and culture of the tribe.
Shout Outs
It’s easy to see the links between this and Aotearoa’s history of memorising whakapapa through mihi . Māori are not the only peoples to have similar oral traditions… they can be found in many cultures around the world. That indigenous people everywhere have found ways of communicating long and complicated histories without the use of ‘formal’ literacy may help explain why Hip Hop has been so widely taken up by artists comfortable with this heritage. In fact, ‘shout outs’ to family, friends and neighbourhoods are really just another way of affirming one’s place within a society.
A New Way of Talking
It is also common for different sub-groups (or tribes) to develop their own unique ‘language’ for these things they consider important. Hip Hop is no different. According to young people, Hip Hop language can create a sense of kinship with otherwise unknown young people. It gives youth another way of relating to one another, and to define which ‘sub-tribe’ they belong to. ‘If they spoke in the same way, it would be like, oh yeah, and then with someone else…that doesn’t talk like that, you’ll think of them differently like you wouldn’t be comfortable with this one…’11
New ways to spell words have also been found, often giving double-meanings as in the name of the Wellington group ‘Foot Souljahs’ which ‘reinvests a low-ranking soldier with suggestions of soulfulness and Rastafarianism’.12
Hip Hop Poets
The idea of Hip Hop as poetry is not new. MC Tupac Shakur was a keen poet and member of ‘The Poetry Circle’ in California, and has had over 200 pages of poetry, including handwritten verses, published in the book ‘The Rose That Grew From Concrete.’
Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? / Proving nature’s law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet. / Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air. / Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else cared.
T. Shakur
English-born Jamaican Benjamin Zephaniah – sent to a school for the ‘uncontrollable’ and jailed for burglary – is now one of Britain’s top poets. He has also been called ‘a dub poet, an oral poet, a performance poet, a pop poet, a pub poet, a rap poet… the list goes on… I would start with an oral poet… because as I write my poetry I can hear the sound of it…oral tradition is timeless…[and] thrives when there are restrictions on people’s abilities to speak or when they have no access to the media.’13
I used to think nurses
Were women,
I used to think police
Were men,
I used to think poets
Were boring,
Until I became one of them.14
Aotearoa has its own Hip Hop poets. The Pasifika Poets Collective promotes, supports and celebrates Pacific peoples telling their stories through Pasifika Hip Hop and poetry. Masses of material online prove that Hip Hop is widely considered poetry.
Sartre, a French philosopher, once said ‘Every age has its own poetry – in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed…only through Poetry.’ If this is true, ‘the words, rhymes, and beats expressed in the rap music of Hip Hop culture are an example of such a Poetry’.15 By giving ‘voice’ to those otherwise made silent, rap hopes to use words and music to speak of issues, experiences, and views that are silenced in mainstream forms of expression.
If we use Hip Hop as a way to re-engage young people with language and physical expression – to give them a ‘literacy’ for their feelings and experiences – it is hard to argue against it. By viewing Hip Hop as ‘poetry’, it offers an exciting and engaging way to do this.
However, it’s important not to completely separate out the ‘words’ from the culture. Many from the Hip Hop world worry about this kind of ‘academic’ divide. The solution, perhaps, is not to shy away from such attempts to reach out to young people – but to invite the Hip Hop community into the learning… to take these role models and tap into their unique knowledge and style.
Test your knowledge
- What does the word ‘literacy’ actually mean?
- What are some ways of ‘reading’ messages, other than through words on paper?
- What is the role of a West African Griot?
- Can you name two Hip Hop poets mentioned in the text?
- What is the name of the French philosopher who is quoted?
- By giving ‘voice’ to those otherwise made silent, what does rap hope to do?
Extend your thinking
Think about times when you have experienced really strong emotions. Did these emotions affect the way you moved, spoke, or felt? Do different emotions change the ways you react? Why do you think poetry has been such a long-lasting and powerful way of expressing emotions and ideas? What makes poetry different from ‘normal’ language?
1 Deceptikonz/P-Money – ‘Touch somethin’.
2 Kun, J. 1994 ‘Reading, Writing, and Rap: Literacy as Rap Sound System’ Bad Subjects Issue 12, March 1994.
3 Tamati, S. 2004 ‘A window to our world’ ‘The Next – An Impression of Hip Hop Expression’ p52.
4 Pheidias & David, July 2002 ‘Breakin Through The Ages’ Published in Stance Magazine p105.
5 Khmer ‘Te Kupu’ September 2001 Published in Back2Basics: Aotearoa Hip Hop Magazine, Pioneer Issue.
6 Waiti, D. ‘Spotlight On: Angles on Global Hip Hop Culture’, in ‘The Next – an Impression of Hip Hop Expression’. p87.
7 Kun, J. 1994 ‘Reading, Writing, and Rap: Literacy as Rap Sound System’ Bad Subjects Issue 12.
8 Winn, J. 1981 ‘Unsuspected Eloquence: A History of the Relations between Poetry and Music.’ New Haven, CT: Yale UP.
9 Shute, G. ‘Hip Hop in Aotearoa as a Contemporary Art-form’– NZEPC essay.
10 Ibid.
11 Interviewee Two, Rotorua Group 2003 from 'The Next - An Impression of Hip Hop Expression'.
12 Shute, G. ‘Hip Hop in Aotearoa as a Contemporary Art-form’– NZEPC essay.
13 http://www.benjamin.zephaniah.com
14 Benjamin Zephaniah – ‘Who’s Who’ from ‘Talking Turkeys’ Puffin Books.
15 Kun, J. 1994 ‘Reading, Writing, and Rap: Literacy as Rap Sound System’ Bad Subjects Issue 12.
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