I suppose the point of John's NYT piece on rap is that even in a dumpster, our basic humanity persists in the form of linguistic innovation. In particular, Black English, which is often unfairly maligned by the layperson as broken or illogical, is extremely rich, with both formal (Paul Laurence Dunbar) and informal (Shawn Corey Carter) poetic traditions, and it continues to progress rapidly, in many ways unfettered by the standard language.
Insomuch as John is celebrating this innovation and he recognizes the context in which his writing appears, he might have taken care to discuss whether rap is a form of black exceptionalism — whether, in fact, innovation has anything to do with "blackness" at all — and lament, in same breath, the great loss of formal language arts in our culture. These omissions give me the impression of coyness, especially in light of his previous work, which is critical of both hip hop and the decline of writing.
I suppose the point of John's NYT piece on rap is that even in a dumpster, our basic humanity persists in the form of linguistic innovation. In particular, Black English, which is often unfairly maligned by the layperson as broken or illogical, is extremely rich, with both formal (Paul Laurence Dunbar) and informal (Shawn Corey Carter) poetic traditions, and it continues to progress rapidly, in many ways unfettered by the standard language.
Insomuch as John is celebrating this innovation and he recognizes the context in which his writing appears, he might have taken care to discuss whether rap is a form of black exceptionalism — whether, in fact, innovation has anything to do with "blackness" at all — and lament, in same breath, the great loss of formal language arts in our culture. These omissions give me the impression of coyness, especially in light of his previous work, which is critical of both hip hop and the decline of writing.
Nightlife in Thailand was very poetic. Lol!!!
I prefer Jimi Hendrix's poetic lyrics (e.g., "Move Over Rover & let Jimi Take Over"). 🤣