so what is refined english breh.......you gonna come through or....?
I am not able to find something that depicts what I'm talking about at the moment. The best thing I could find were conversations with venerable writers and academics. But "intellectual" speak doesn't quite touch on what I'm talking about either. I'm going to continue to keep my eye out though because I really do want to post an example.
The best way that I can describe it is like the linguistic version of jazz improvisation. Which is why the above videos of writers and academics miss the mark because many of the conversations they have, they've been briefed of the subject matter or given questions beforehand so they have time to prepare responses.
Which is why, when I have heard people speak in this manner, it has been in person. These people are brilliant with their command of the English language, and like jazz artist, are able to breakdown words and phrases and use them in non-traditional avant garde ways. Ways in which that are not natural to the average person. So what you get is this colorful linguistic mosaic that's works beautifully.
I will admit, I have mostly been in elite white spaces to observe this. Which is why I said most Americans have probably never even heard English spoken in this way.
Black people who were known to speak like this were people like Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou...actually a lot of poets speak in this manner. So you can actually probably extend this to some rappers.
But again, it's hard to find a video that accurately depict this sort of dialogue. And when you have two or more people in conversation who are great at this, the type of sparring that they do when they recognize all parties have a majestic command of English is orgasmic.
