Word: rapped
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Aesop contends that calling rap a “poem on a beat ... is pretty valid,” and that the many parallels between the two forms are “not a coincidence.” But he also stresses that “overinterpretation happens a lot” when critics try to analyze his convoluted flow, probably because his work is “not as linear” as their preconceptions of rap allow. “You get used to it,” he sighs, with the seemingly unperturbed air of the superscrutinized...
When pressed for musical and lyrical influences, Aesop doesn’t spout off references to Yeats or Ashbery, but instead constructs a veritable Who’s Who of classic rap lyricists, including Slick Rick, Ghostface Killah, and his mentor El-P. Instead of spending hours on end fine-tuning his rhyme scheme to match some stifled polyameter, Aesop’s main concern has always been to find “something I can work with, [...] then to assemble it over a beat...
Also, reports of the Benz/backpack dichotomy between mainstream and underground rap that Kanye West claims to have transcended seem to have been greatly exaggerated. Hip-hop legends like Wu-Tang Clan, Rakim, Nas and Notorious B.I.G. have been weaving abstract rhymes into their oeuvres for years (albeit less pretentiously), along with left-field heroes like De La Soul, 3rd Bass and the Native Tongues Posse (Q-Tip’s nickname is even “the Abstract?...
Spellbound by the first acoustic strains of Bubba Sparxxx’s rap opus, “Deliverance,” I took a seat in English 150, fished out my textbook, and then popped my knuckles as if to say, “You are no match for me, Percy Bysshe Shelley...
...admit that the track’s unprintable analogy comparing his flow to a Sapphic sex act is shamefully ridiculous) so it’s worth a once-over. And the chorus is catchy in a nostalgic, “hey, remember how great synth-based gangsta rap was?” sort of way. Remember how scared your parents were of you getting shot by gangs? I was fat, and couldn’t run fast, so my parents were especially worried...