The Poetics of Hip Hop

 Sonnet comes from the Italian

sonetto, both meaning little
song.
 By the 13th century, it had
come to signify a poem of
fourteen lines following a strict
rhyme scheme and logical
structure.
 These have changed during its
history.
 Traditionally, English poets
usually use iambic pentameter
when writing sonnets (Sonnet
18).
 Shakespeare took the sonnet fo
rm from the Petrarchan sonnet
(Italian poet Petrarch) and has
an octet (8 lines) followed by a
sestet (6 lines).
 In the octet, the poet would ope
n with a strong statement or an i
ntellectual or emotional question.
 In the sestet, the poet would res
olve the question asked in the be
ginning of the poem.
 Petrarch made the sonnet form f
amous.
 What is the rhyme scheme of the
Shakespearean sonnet?
 The Petrarchan rhyme scheme w
as ababcdcd cdecde.
 Shakespeare's sonnet, as shown
by the rhyme scheme, has 3 qua
trains and an ending couplet.
 This allows a freer connection of
images from quatrain to quatrain Rhymes are more easily
that comes to a resolution in the created in the Italian
concluding couplet.
language while words in
 The Shakespearean sonnet wor
ks the best in English: English do not allow for as
many rhymes.
 Hip Hop & Poetry
 Is Hip Hop a form of poetry? W
hy or why not?
 What do hip hop and poetry (us
ually) have in common?
 Some characteristics are carefu
l attention to rhythm in lyrics, a
s well as
 end rhyme, Sonnet 18
 slant rhyme, Taleb Kweli, Nas
 internal rhyme, Nas (2:27)
 alliteration, Sonnet 18
 and assonance; Taleb Kweli
 use of repetition for emphasis;
 manipulation of language to expre
ss powerful emotions and messag
es (sometimes controversial and/o
r personal); choice of words base
d on audience.

 Shakespeare wrote using
vocabulary popular during
his day, and similarly, hip
hop artists use "urban"
slang in their lyrics.
 Shakespeare wrote in
iambic pentameter, rap
artists often write in Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? a
sixteen-bar stanzas, Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
normally followed by Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, a
four-to-eight-bar hooks. And summer's lease hath all too short a date. b
 Hip hop is actually a kind Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, c
of poetry. And often is his gold complexion dimmed; d
 Let’s look at a song and And every fair from fair sometime declines, c
see if it follows the By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimme
sixteen-bar stanza. Not But d;thyd eternal summer shall not fade, e
all songs follow the
typical format; some of Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, f

the best artists become Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, e
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st. f
famous for breaking
established and expected So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, g
forms (i.e., Shakespeare).So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. g
 There is much to be learned
about poetry from hip hop. Let’s
look at Nikki Giovanni's poem "
Ego Tripping " (1973).
 Which poetry characteristics can
be found in Giovanni's poem?
Give specific examples. (SQ)
 The references to Egyptian
imagery are a common in
poems by Harlem Renaissance
writers.
 They referenced Egyptian
history to embrace their African
heritage.
 They included symbols of
African history in their works in
response to some of their
contemporaries, whom many
believed rejected their black
identity in order to be accepted
into the dominant white society.
 The writers' word choices and syntax enhance
meaning as well. Some examples include the
following:
a) the repetition of the word "so" in the line "I am so
perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal" works to create
momentum and emphasize the speaker's praise of self
for surviving unfair challenges
b) the alliterative use of a "soft" syllable like "s" in the line
"as we sailed on a soft summer day" mimics the smooth
travel of sailing on calm waters, particularly as compared
to the "hard" consonants of "d" and "p" and "t" in the line
"I stood proudly at the helm
c) the rhythm in the line "I walked to the fertile crescent
and built the sphinx" imitates the movement of the
speaker; the speaker is walking for eight long syllables
and creates the sphinx in three syllables, with "built"
and "sphinx" as two stressed syllables, thereby
emphasizing the weight of the god-like action of
building the sphinx. In other words, the line "I walked to
the fertile crescent and built the sphinx" has a very
different pacing and rhythm than, for example, "I walked
to the crescent and created the astonishing sphinx"
d) the rhyme in "so ethereal so surreal" works to create a
fluid rhythm and move the poem forward e) phrases
such as "I am bad" and "I am so hip" work to link the
images of ancient history with a modern-day time,
thereby speaking to a modern-day audience.
 Rhythm in poetry and hip hop can be closely aligned.
 Listen to Blackalicious's version, "Ego Trip by Nikki Giovanni
.”
 Listen to the expert rhythmic qualities of her poem. Compar
e it with the poet’s actual reading of the poem.
 Poets are expert at writing rhyme, but rappers are the maste
r of the rhythm!
 Jurassic 5's "Freedom"
 Choose 3 stanzas and
identify the rhyme scheme
used by the hip hop artist.
 Notice the driving beat and
"head-bopping" rhythm.
 Take 1 stanza of the song
and examine the pattern of
stressed and unstressed
syllables. Notice how the
lyrics often consist of iambs,
just as Shakespeare wrote in
iambs in his sonnet.
 How would you describe hip
hop to someone who has
never heard it before?
 Write down any word or
group of words they can
think of that would help
describe the music,
including made-up,
onomatopoeic words (words
that imitate sounds) that
may evoke certain rhythms,
a driving beat, or
"scratching".
 “Hip hop” is actually one
example of an
onomatopoeic word.
 Referring to the list of poetic
terms at the end of the
chapter point out the poetry
characteristics in "Freedom"
and discuss in a group the
effect of rhyme, rhythm,
alliteration, and so on in
Jurassic 5's song.
 Saul Williams is another
writer who uses many of the
poetic characteristics found
in Giovanni's poem as well
as more directly related hip
hop references.
 Look at an excerpt of his
poem "Amethyst Rocks":
 In a group, point out
instances of repetitions of
sounds found in "Amethyst
Rocks," specifying whether
it is an example of internal
or end rhyme, exact or slant
rhyme, alliteration, or
assonance.
 How does the use of rhyme
and assonance add to the
success of the poem.
 What are some of the
similarities and differences
between "Ego Tripping" and
"Amethyst Rocks," including a
sense of empowerment in the
speaker of the poem as well as
references to mythical and
religious figures?
 Notice how Saul Williams's
poem, like Giovanni's "Ego
Tripping," addresses a theme
of victory over hardship.
 While Giovanni speaks more to  Instead of "takin' drags of
a collective history, Williams's f of collards and cornbrea
speaker succeeds over the d / free-basing through s
day-to-day challenges of living axophones and flutes like
on the streets and avoiding mad" and finding peace t
drug addiction.
hrough spirituality.
 Saul Williams is an example of
a slam poet.
 Slam poetry is a postmodern
form of performance poetry
that occurs within a competitive
poetry event, called a "slam", at
which poets perform their own
poems (or, in rare cases, those
of others) that are "judged" on
a numeric scale by randomly
picked members of the
audience.
 It can also consist of several
poets performing without being
judged.
 In other words, it is similar to a
hip-hop beef contest, but
without the aggression.