rap rituals/inadvertent invocation

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
language always says more than the speaker intends.



a lot of the time rap lyrics that are ostensibly about subjects such as jewellery, guns, girls, etc. take on a grandiosity beyond those subjects because of the language employed in them. through metaphor, allusion, referencing fantastical brand names and everyday religious language these songs can begin to construct a whole, rich narrative around themes that feel far more religious or transcendental than even the artists intended.

why? how? examples? am i wrong? what effect does it have? what does it mean politically? what does it say about us? what are they saying? what traditions does this belong to? has this occurred before in other cultures?


baptists, animism, free association, speaking in tongues, veneration of consumer goods, black man as rebel, black man as rootsy, afro-futurism/consumer-futurism, bling as worship (pyramids, vatican, etc.) , brands as free mason symbols, subliminal messaging, vigilant citizen, historical prevalence of religious iconography as aesthetic reference points


crucial to remember everyone.

what you say doesn't have to be true, only interesting. those two things are often mutually exclusive


i've seen it like a 27 inch zenith believe it

it's not about a tv.

pull up in a demon on god

pull up in poltergeist

they're not about a cars.

Raindrops on me like a storm on me (raindrop!)...
The Devil keep tryna come conquer me

not about jewellery
 
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sadmanbarty

Well-known member
offset uses loads of religious iconography so it's clearer with him, but it's everyone.

a lot of it's branding names that seep in to make poetry.
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
luke- do all your poetry workshop shit here please. air; the medium between all of us. meaning refracted. cheers.

corpse- please can you completely miss the point and ask loads of questions that end up revealing far more than i thought the thread would.

thirdform- can you get angry because it's not robo-bumming communism please.

blissblog- can you get all enthusiastic and ostensibly talk about some lyrics to some song when we all really know you're talking about rubbing one out to cardi b.

pattycakes- can you say how devoid of meaning it all is in a the most poignant heart breaking piece of pros i've ever read.

crowl- you're always the wild card, so i'll leave it there.

everyone else- can you just say how shit it is.

that'd be great, cheers.
 

luka

Well-known member

"this polar symmetry can be seen as underlying the most fundamental aspects of Islamic pattern; there are thus crystalline, 'frozen' shapes, or conversely 'warm,' fluid, outlines (arabesques). Although space does not allow a full examination of the implications, the next drawing illustrates the thesis that 'frozen' and 'moving' shapes are complementary, reflecting the concept that time is a flowing image of eternity.!

from Islamic Patterns by Keith Critchlow.
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
a lot of the time rap lyrics that are ostensibly about subjects such as jewellery, guns, girls, etc. take on a grandiosity beyond those subjects because of the language employed in them. through metaphor, allusion, referencing fantastical brand names and everyday religious language these songs can begin to construct a whole, rich narrative around themes that feel far more religious or transcendental than even the artists intended.

why? how? examples? am i wrong? what effect does it have? what does it mean politically? what does it say about us? what are they saying? what traditions does this belong to? has this occurred before in other cultures?


baptists, animism, free association, speaking in tongues, veneration of consumer goods, black man as rebel, black man as rootsy, afro-futurism/consumer-futurism, bling as worship (pyramids, vatican, etc.) , brands as free mason symbols, subliminal messaging, vigilant citizen, historical prevalence of religious iconography as aesthetic reference points
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
drill too has a whole liquid vocal palette, but about violence rather than jewellery: dip, wetted, splash

drawn to the same vocabulary through completely different input and stimuli.


"draw for the swords like shaman"
 

luka

Well-known member
part of it is about how language and metaphor functions.
one word stands for a multitude of things. they operate as symbols and all symbols
are multidimensional.
 

luka

Well-known member
it's always been part of music, at least as long as lyrics have been part of music.
it's the condition of language. language always says more than the speaker intends.
to pick one random example you can think of how power, electricity, voltage
is talked about in rock (and roll) to stand for both amplified instruments, but more
importantly excitement, charisma and libido.
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
i've got 4 explanatons and 5 hot take tangents.

whoever gets the most wins the thread. points if you come up with other ones.
 

luka

Well-known member
the devil has been an omnipresent part of the mythos since robert johnson sold his soul at the crossroads.
 

luka

Well-known member
art is always about the immaterial plane even when it is also (or ostensibly) about the material world.
 

luka

Well-known member
we create in that other world and pull it down to earth. that's the process. this, i think, is the ultimate explanation for the phenomenon you're describing.
 
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