Which artist would best represent hiphop culture to the literary world?

[Tom]

Which artist would u present to a group of Shakespearean cacs who don't consider hiphop to be a real artform and assume that it only consist of people bragging about how gangsta/swagged out they are over loud instrumentals?


Post all the Artist,songs, examples you'd feel would best represent the culture and help sway their minds. The ones you feel could go toe to toe with all the great writers of the past.

I can only really think of one obvious artist,

Spoiler

but I'm sure there's more

 

[JustCKing]

I think the best writers in Hip Hop use more literary devices than any other genre. Writing a rap song, IMO, is closer to pure poetry than any other genre because of the freedom. In other genres, there's not as much space to get creative with meter, rhyme scheme, and other literary devices.

Pac, Common, Nas, Jay Z, Eminem (Marshall Mathers LP era) are some of the emcees that I think represent that.

 

[phatphuck]

aint there some woman that kicks a lot of poetry on artist's albums on the intros and interludes? forgot her name, is it sarah jones?

 

[Chief]

None they are all Smart Dumd nikkas

 

[Lurking Class Hero]

It would undoubtedly be J-Live.




One of the greatest songs ever written imo.

 

[Lurking Class Hero]

 

[Lurking Class Hero]

Blackstar too.

 

[Mask and Da Glock]

You're confusing literary with ignorant white people who think rap is "Retards Attempting Poetry" (yeah I've heard this). With REAL literary types ODB is a favorite for various reasons...Kanye West...a lot of artists that you might not think because being a "lyrical spiritual miracle" rapper who just raps about how awesome he is at rapping is NOT literary. It's about SUBTEXT. Neither is being blatant about social matters. It's great but a literary type has no need to listen to that, there's so much of it.


I had really good ones in mind but I just woke up.


I once wrote a paper on gucci mane/kinda the entire trap rap "genre" freshman year...

 

[Tom]

You're confusing literary with ignorant white people who think rap is "Retards Attempting Poetry" (yeah I've heard this). With REAL literary types ODB is a favorite for various reasons...Kanye West...a lot of artists that you might not think because being a "lyrical spiritual miracle" rapper who just raps about how awesome he is at rapping is NOT literary. It's about SUBTEXT. Neither is being blatant about social matters. It's great but a literary type has no need to listen to that, there's so much of it.


I had really good ones in mind but I just woke up.


I once wrote a paper on gucci mane/kinda the entire trap rap "genre" freshman year...

Nah, I'm talking about a cac fresh out of the 1700s who reads and writes 100 books a day like this dude

 

[King Ming]

KRS ONE is the most articulate rapper.

 

[Food Mane]

Cam or Ghost for the reasons Mask and Da Glock laid out.

 

[YouMadd?]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjCTVGzFyqU&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjCTVGzFyqU&feature=related[/ame]

 

[zerozero]

not sure actually.. some names come to mind but you never know if they'll be impressive listening for the uninitiated

 

[Mask and Da Glock]

Nah, I'm talking about a cac fresh out of the 1700s who reads and writes 100 books a day like this dude

Well when you say literary it doesn't really refer to the mechanics or in the case of rap technical ability. A bit on content, but more on intent and the subtext of the work and what it means for that piece to have been made in that period of time and a million other factors.


I'd say tupac would be the best if you wanna go with your definition. Maybe Public Enemy?

 

[Long Live The Kane]

Early Lupe