tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post451431547733082432..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: What is poetry for, how does poetry work, why does poetry botherAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-39112239237653457802016-01-31T21:04:16.165-06:002016-01-31T21:04:16.165-06:00I prefer Life after Death to Ready to Die, althoug...I prefer <i>Life after Death</i> to <i>Ready to Die</i>, although I have not listened to either for a long time.<br /><br />You are right, you have to give the rapper credit for the persona. Rappers understand irony.<br /><br />If I were writing this post now I would use Young Thug rather than Lil' Wayne. Biggie is a great example, though.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-58884211883872622592016-01-31T08:30:49.358-06:002016-01-31T08:30:49.358-06:00Just found your blog - love it. If we're talki...Just found your blog - love it. If we're talking rapping delight, and I know I'm going back to the old school here, but Biggie's Ready to Die conatins an amazing set of rhymes (and stories).<br /><br />LONG ASIDE:<br /><br />As for misogyny, homophobia, otherwise hate inspired language, I have a few comments:<br /><br />1. Who said it was aspirational?<br />2. Unreliable narrator<br />3. Anti-hero<br /><br />Anyone who adheres to the (debatably) implicit morality in Biggie oeuvre needs help in my opinion. But, despite that, he's my favourite rapper - can we not take a grim satisfaction, or even horrible glee, at the thoughts, words, and actions of arguably reprehensible characters in fiction?<br /><br />Complex and probably fundamentally unanswerable questions of the social effects of listening to music, reading books, playing games (video or otherwise), are one thing (and a thing I do not concern myself with overmuch). <br /><br />Personal enjoyment is another, and while we are all free to like what we choose, we shouldn't necessarily feel that our choice of art has to reflect in an obvious way our personal morality (or lack of it!)<br /><br />If you want to start taking things seriously, then for me, "Me and My Bitch" is a poignant, nay downright sad, indictment of the narrator's attitude to women: tone and story hint at a deeper, more profound, yet tragically unaknowledged and not consciously perceived connection with the woman he calls merely his "bitch."<br /><br />For others, perhaps not. It's all in the perceiver's mind, not fixed in the material itself, after all.<br /><br />P.S. I am, however, a terrible hypocrite: I find some of Nicky Minaj's output upsetting in what I consider it's implied misogyny. Which, in the end, makes me think we just end up showing our age more than anything else ;-) Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-32194929778023138182009-09-24T08:47:41.413-05:002009-09-24T08:47:41.413-05:00I don't think that poetry has to be about anyt...I don't think that poetry has to be about anything profound, so it doesn't even bother me if Lil Wayne raps about crap, because he does it so well. It's very impressive, if you ask me.<br /><br />The exception is homophobic, misogynistic, or otherwise hate inspired language. That IS crap.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-34967745217613470592008-08-17T08:50:00.000-05:002008-08-17T08:50:00.000-05:00I've seen one scholar, Kari Ellen Gade, who descri...I've seen one scholar, Kari Ellen Gade, who describes slanderous Icelandic poems as being used to "destroy an enemy"! She notes that, "a man who heard a slanderous poem recited about him was entitled to a large financial compensation and under certain circumstances he could kill the offender with impunity." Of course, you were supposed to kill him the same day, so that he wouldn't sit around the fire that evening, teaching everyone else the slanderous poem (if it was a really good poem and very catchy, by the next day everyone would be repeating it and you were doomed). Now that is what I call an appreciation of poetry. <BR/><BR/>But as you note, this hardly seems to belong in the same category with lyric poems.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-54928527496289235852008-08-16T20:47:00.000-05:002008-08-16T20:47:00.000-05:00Finally, someone asks for Lil' Wayne recommendatio...Finally, someone asks for Lil' Wayne recommendations. Finally!<BR/><BR/>This wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Drought_3) includes links to download the two discs of "Da Drought 3", a free and legal "mixtape", which also happens to be Lil' Wayne's best record. Try "Swizzy" for a string of rhymes, in the service of nothing but the joy of rhyming.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-59247599773702870122008-08-16T11:49:00.000-05:002008-08-16T11:49:00.000-05:00I keep hearing that Lil Wayne is gifted. I'm comp...I keep hearing that Lil Wayne is gifted. I'm completely unfamiliar with him. Can you point me in the direction of a few songs full of those "remarkable things" you refer to? I'd really like to see what he's up to.Justin Hammhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14960584050841295189noreply@blogger.com