Fuck the state pen, fuck hoes at Penn State
Notorious B.I.G in “All About the Benjamins.” Or an example of the type of lyric Sam Anderson should have considered when listening to Notorious B.I.G for the first time for his New York Magazine piece this week.
THE BACKSTORY
In this week’s issue of New York Magazine, Anderson sounds off on how a self-proclaimed “language dork” finally fell in love with rap and how he’s “so evangelically excited” about The Anthology of Rap, Yale University Press’s monumental new collection of rap lyrics.
“Some rap, inevitably, doesn’t quite hold up on the page: The words, without the special gravity of their historical moment or the mojo of their delivering MC, just sit there awkwardly. A few of history’s greatest rappers—voices I had expected to love in print—left me disappointed….” he continues, “I’m afraid to admit this publicly, but even the Notorious B.I.G., while occasionally funny (“Oh my God, I’m droppin’ shit like a pigeon”), never blew my mind like I wanted him to. The chasm between his reputation and my experience might be the strongest indicator of how much is lost in the transition from oral to written rap.”
It’s not just Biggie that Anderson is unimpressed by, Lil Wayne, Wu-Tang, and Nas don’t quite make the grade either.
How badly do I want to send this guy a mixtape to show him what he’s missing?
Reading the piece prompted me to share a quick lesson in the hip hop wordsmiths Anderson found underwhelming.
- Nas “Rewind” Plenty of rappers can tell a story, but how many can tell it backwards? [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Sd2gDkSV8 ]
- Wu-Tang Clan “Triumph”: “I bomb atomically / Socrates’ philosophies and hypothesis / can’t define how I be droppin these mockeries / lyrically perform armed robbery” [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isumZjs3dKA]
- Lil Wayne “Lollipop (Remix)”: ‘Safe sex is great sex / better wear a latex /
‘cause you don’t want that late text / that “I think I’m late” text.” [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ghm1Obn1ww]
Each of these artists has a library so vast, it’s hard to narrow down the lyric that best flaunts their talents. But anyway you slice it, discrediting three of the east coast’s biggest hip hop talents means you’re just not listening hard enough.
