[Jeff Holt]

[quote=Uche Ogbuji;243155]Hi Jeff,

I must also take great issue with your saying that clever rap lyrics are a rare thing. There is plenty of hip-hop of astonishing lyrical virtuosity out there, though most of it is not on the Clear-Channel-run airwaves. I could quote long passages from Talib Kweli, Lyrics Born, Jean Grae, Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch, Black Thought, Lauryn Hill, The Genius, Canibus, Posdnous, Ghostface Killah, and even MF Doom which exhibit half the tropes laid out in any Elizabethan prosodic manual. And that's just in English. When you talk the likes of MC Solaar and Passi from France, Specializtz from Germany, Born Here from Palestine, MC Paul Barman (sorta) from Israel... I'll pluck one example out of hundreds of the global power of eloquent rap lyrics, if you speak French just give a listen to El Général's "Rais" which sparked the Tunisian revolution and thus the Arab Spring.

I appreciate your response, Uche. Actually, I confess, I know very little about rap--just a few late 80s groups I liked a little in high school, such as NWA and Ice T, and a little mid 80s rap, such as Run DMC and the ultra silly, but very fun Beastie Boys. What I want to clarify, though, is that I wasn't saying clever rap lyrics were rare. In fact, I wasn't making any serious statement at all, except to say that the Dallas slammers, at least eight years ago, made me think far more of white people who could actually rap quite cleverly than what I, personally, was looking for in poetry. As a casual side remark, I stated that white people rapping cleverly was was a rare thing. I suppose I should have added "in my experience, b/c for all I know there could be millions of brilliant underground white rapppers; I just wouldn't know, nor particularly care.

So if anyone wants to take issue with something I said, he or she could say that I'm prejudiced against white rappers. Since I'm white, and haven't heard any white rappers but Vanilla Ice (shudder) and Eminem, whom I simply find annoying, I felt comfortable in making this crack. However, as I've said, I realize I could be absolutely wrong about this. However, it wouldn't change anything I was really intent on saying; it was a very minor point.