Poetry and Rap JayZ says I was good

Poetry and Rap Jay-Z says: “I was good at battling and I practiced it like a sport. I’d spend free time reading the dictionary, building my vocabulary for battles. ” Published 2011 “Since rap is poetry, and a good MC is a good poet, you can’t just half-listen to a song once and think you’ve got it. Here’s what I mean: A poet’s mission is to make words do more work than they normally do, to make them work on more than one level. For instance, a poet makes words work sonically—as sounds, as music…” So, is rap poetry? You decide!

Further Analysis Examine the allusions in Jay-Z’s song with attention to the way in which they lend meaning.

LYRICS: Inspired by Basquiat, Basquiat my chariots of fire ALLUSION: Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) • Began career as a graffiti artist • focused on "suggestive dichotomies" such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience • Work was a "springboard to deeper truths about the individual" • Basquiat's paintings dealt with power structures, racism, critiques of colonialism, support for class struggle *Art to the right is the namesake for Jay-Z’s song

LYRICS: Inspired by Basquiat, my chariots of fire Allusion: Biblical • Chariots of fire appeared to transport a young man to heaven in the Bible • Also, a 1981 movie of the same title portrays a fact-based story of two Olympic athletes competing for moral values (glorifying God and overcoming prejudice) in 1924

LYRICS: Hov got flow though he's no Big and Pac but he's close How I'm supposed to win they got me fighting ghosts… ghosts Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls: rivals in West/East coast rap feud. Both were killed. ALLUSION Jay-Z says: “This is no shot at Big or Pac. The truth is that you can’t compare us; Big only did two albums before he was killed, and Pac was still going through metamorphosis; who knows where he would’ve ended up. So when people make the comparison as they always do— they’re comparing my work not just with the work of Big and Pac, but with what they could’ve been— should’ve been—and what their lives and deaths represented to the entire culture. Their shadows still loom over all of us who were their peers. ”

LYRICS: (Most kings get their heads cut off) Same sword they knight you they gonna good night you with… WORD PLAY! Jay-Z says: “I wanted to conjure an image here: someone kneeling, first to accept the honor of being knighted, and then being beheaded with the same sword, the posture of honor transformed to one of execution. ”

LYRICS: Don't believe me ask Michael See Martin, Martin see Malcolm You see Biggie, Biggie see Pac, Pac see success and its outcome See Jesus, Jesus see Judas See Caesar, Caesar see Brutus See success is like suicide Suicide, it's a suicide If you succeed prepare to be crucified… ALLUSIONS: Michael Jackson: Jackson King of Pop Martin Luther King, Jr. : Jr Civil Rights leader, assassinated 1963 Malcolm X, X a controversial civil rights activist admired by some for his critique of whites’ mistreatments of blacks and disliked by others for black supremacy ideals and violence Jay-Z says: Biggie Smalls& Smalls Tupac Shakur: Shakur rivals in “I wrote this before MJ East/West Coast rap feud died, and his death only proves my point: Jesus Christ &Judas Iscariot: Iscariot Jesus was when he was alive, the a religious leader who was betrayed King of Pop, people were tireless in by Judas, one of his disciples taking him down, accepting every accusation made against him, assuming Caesar & Brutus: Caesar was a Roman ruler betrayed by one of his the worst until they drove him away. friends—Brutus When he died, suddenly he was beloved again—people realized that the charges against him might really have been bogus…”

LYRICS: Every step you take they remind you, you ghetto So it's tough being Bobby Brown To be Bobby then, you gotta be Bobby now Now the question is, is to have had and lost Better than not having at all Because dawg Bobby Brown: 90 s R&B star after starting with New Edition. Landed in trouble with the law. Was married to Whitney Houston for a time. Jay-Z says: “Bobby then was a young star when he was known for his hit record “Every Little Step”; Bobby now is better known for the hit reality series, Being Bobby Brown, a cautionary tale about how it can all slip away. ” LITERARY ALLUSION to a poet! Jay Z says: “Shout-out to Alfred, Lord Tennyson: ‘ ‘Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. ’”

LYRICS: [Hook: Chris Martin] Most kings get their heads cut off Keep on climbing 'till you reach the top Keep on coming if they ready or not Most kings get their heads cut off The, the king They wanna be the, the king They wanna be ALLUSION? ? ? Perhaps an allusion to the children’s game of Hide and Seek? : Ready or not, here I come!

LYRICS: Everybody want to be the king till shots ring You laying on the balcony with holes in your dream Or you Malcolm Xed out getting distracted by screams Everybody get your hands off my jeans Jay-Z says: “Here I’m playing with “king” and King—Martin Luther King, who was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. ” “Malcolm was distracted by screams before he was shot—a man shouted [about getting hands out of his pockets] and then the fatal shots rang out. ”

LYRICS: Most kings get driven so insane That they try to hit the same vein that Kurt Cobain did Jay-Z says: “Kurt Cobain OD’d on heroin before committing suicide, but he also OD’d on fame. Cobain was like Basquiat: They both wanted to be famous, and were brilliant enough to make it happen. But then what? . . . ” NOTE: Kurt Cobain was the lead singer/guitarist/ songwriter for the grunge band Nirvana. He died in April of 1994 of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.

LYRICS: ALLUSION But real kings don't die, they become martyrs, let's toast to em King Arthur put a robe on em like James Brown ALLUSIONS: King Arthur: legendary British king who formed the Knights of the Round Table to protect the kingdom James Brown: Brown The “Godfather of Soul” was known for his “cape routine” during shows: at the end of a performance, the MC would drape a cape over Brown's shoulders and escort him off the stage

LYRICS and METAPHOR: So dangerous, so no strangers invited to the inner sanctum of your chambers Load chambers, the enemy's approaching so raise Your drawbridge and drown him in the moat Jay-Z says: “You have to lift the drawbridge of your life once you get famous to keep outsiders outside—whether they’re new hangers-on just trying to exploit you, or, like in the streets, they might literally wake you up with a gun to your nose trying to take your [stuff]. But the “inner sanctum” isn’t just your physical home, it’s the inner chamber of your life and identity, the place where you protect your essential self. If invaders break in there, you’re finished. ”