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!
Examine the allusions in Jay-Z’s song with
attention to the way in which they lend
meaning.
LYRICS: Inspired by 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…
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, see Malcolm
You see Biggie, see Pac, see success and its
outcome
See Jesus, see Judas
See Caesar, see Brutus
See success is like suicide
Suicide, it's a suicide
If you succeed prepare to be crucified…
ALLUSIONS:
Michael Jackson: King of Pop
Martin Luther King, Jr.: Civil Rights
leader, assassinated 1963
Malcolm 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&Tupac 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: 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: 90s 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, the king
They wanna be the, the, the king
They wanna be
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: 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.”