Poetry Hip-Hop

Line or Sentence	A bar
Paragraph or Stanza	16 bars or a verse
Repetition or Refrain	A hook or a chorus
Accents or stress and a foot(iamb=2syllables/anapest=3syllables)	Gaps and Pockets
Cadence (how a meter is read aloud)	Flow aka “Breath Control” aka “Breathe and Breaks”.
Meter (connecting stress and foot)	Beat, Melody, and Rhythm
Rhyme Scheme (how piece is formatted to rhyme)	Rhyme Scheme
Poem (a poetic piece of literary work)	Track

Above are listed some terms from both poetry and hip hop. In many ways these terms are used interchangeably, but each possesses a distinct function in its subtle nuances. Many skeptics may state that hip hop and poetry are nowhere near the same genre of composition, but undoubtedly they are. Though poetry doesn’t necessarily have to rhyme, much of the poetry young readers are first introduced to does. Educators teach terms like: line, stanza, stress and foot, meter, and rhyme scheme not realizing that these ideas can be directly translated to the art form known as hip hop or rap as it is also known.

From its roots hip hop has been a progressive and evolving form of music, sometimes being seen as a movement more than a category of musical expression. Only recently within the past 10-15 years has the art form began to suffer and become stagnant. The trendy catchphrase “hip hop is dead” may in fact be true if average listeners depend solely on the radio to provide them new sounds and innovations in hip hop. But, to the true hip hop fanatic the art form should only be sought in the places when it began, ie: the streets. Hip hop began as an underground phenomenon and therefore only the rawest and purest form of the music can be found in the underground.

In early Jamaican Dance Hall and Reggae parties the Disc Jockey would often play only the instrumentals to the more popular hits and sometimes simply the opening beat or break before the chorus. As the DJ would spin his records and rotate from one hit to another a Master of Ceremonies or “Toaster” as they were called, would either promote the record labels and music houses the region was in favor of or would condemn the production they hated. After the MCs would pitch their spiel the DJ and MC would give local talent the opportunity to showcase their own singing abilities. Most often they’d allow the local talent to sing over a sample of music from a rival region’s top billed artist in a game of one-upmanship. Kind of an indirect way of saying, “Yeah, you record may sell well on the other side of the island, but our local boys can do it better over your own music.” This was all done in relatively good spirits and was intended to be more of an activity to keep the crowd entertained, make them feel like they were really a part of something, and to also keep them dancing and having a good time. Though some rival record labels and music houses no doubt got peeved when they heard their companies being slammed on the radio, their best rebuttal would be to simply throw a better show than the competition’s the next time that radio station came to their region.

The inception of hip hop was indirectly influenced by this aspect of Dance Hall and Reggae music. The early years of hip hop began with DJs simply looping the most popular parts of well-known or local hit dance music with the DJ putting together fast witty promos to shout our quickly in between songs. Eventually, the job of one man grew to be too cumbersome and the DJ took on the partnership of an MC. Only difference is that in the beginning stages of hip hop it was a cardinal sin to ever sample another hip hop artist’s beats or replicate their lyrics, but today rappers make an art out of cleverly stealing other rappers work, this practice is known as “biting”. Hip hop has made many leaps forward in its progression and evolved into its own entity, but in many ways it has taken many unfortunate steps backwards as well.

In the simplest of explanations; hip hop is a disposable art. Whereas a poet may have a decisive intention or exact message behind his piece, most times a rapper simple wants to get his/her message and words out by any means necessary. It’s not really a “big picture” industry. Some artists do in fact have a “big picture” mentality and a lot of early acts indeed did, but a majority of artists today simply have the mind state of “Hey, I can rap. Hear me rap. Now pay me. Okay, that sold. Now here it is again changed-up a little bit. Now, I’ll keep following this formula until it doesn’t sell anymore.” This process grows stagnant very quickly and truly doesn’t allow for the rapper to experience a personal growth as an artist.

Continuing on with the idea or poetry and hip hop following the same lines of composition let me reintegrate that hip hop is a disposable art. Musically, it borrows or salvages pieces of other music which may have been forgotten or may sound mildly familiar to the listener, rearranges it, and makes it into something new, ie: a newly packaged song. This is done in a similar fashion as a sculptor might rummage through a junkyard to find many mismatched pieces of metal from various objects, weld them all together, sand it down and polish it, paint it, and create an entirely new piece of art in an entirely original form. Most times after all of the samples are cleared and all of the royalties are requested, the only 100% original aspect to a hip hop song is the lyrics. And some rappers don’t even work that hard to keep that credo. Biting is rampant in today’s hip hop industry. If a novice was to try to convert from literary poet to hip hop poet he or she would find it most rewarding to stay as absolutely original as conceivably possible.