Who is copping the Anthology of Rap?
phongone
1,652 Posts
920 pages of transcribed rap lyrics from 1979 to 2009. The perfect Christmas present for culture nerds like the one O-Dub.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300141904?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0300141904
This guy at Slate is very
because the authors transcribed some rap songs incorrectly. http://www.slate.com/id/2272926/pagenum/2
???Here on "50 Shot Ya," 50 Cent says, "I'm familiar with problems, I know how to solve 'em, semiautomatically or trey-eight revolve 'em" not "Semiautomatic, Lugar trey revolve 'em," as the editors transcribe it. A trey-eight is a .38 handgun; 50 pronounces "trey-eight" like "trey-ay," but there is clearly no long u sound or g sound. He is not saying Luger, another brand of gun that is often mentioned by rappers. This mistake shortchanges 50's creativity, denying his clever use of the adverb "semiautomatically."
???Ghostface Killah, here in "Daytona 500," is referring to a prominent New York radio personality named Vaughan Harper when he says "voice be mellow like Vaughan Harper radio barber." He is not saying "voice be metal like Von Harper," as the editors have it. There is no such thing as a "Von Harper" with a metal voice. Vaughan Harper, with a mellow voice, was a host on New York's WBLS, 107.5 FM, at one time a popular hip-hop and R&B station.
???Here on "Act Too (Love of My Life)," Black Thought from the Roots is referring to a brand of eyewear called Cazal, popular in the 1980s. He is not saying "Gazelle, goggles," as the editors have it, but "Cazal goggles." Had the editors thought to include Redman in the anthology, they might have noticed his line on "Da Goodness": "as a juvenile bought Cazals off Canal" (i.e., Canal Street in New York).
???On "Triumph," RZA of Wu Tang Clan is clearly saying "March of the Wooden Soldiers," not "Watch for the Wooden Soldiers." When he says "a thousand men rushing in," he's comparing his group, the Wu Tang Clan, to the unstoppable army of automatons in the old Laurel and Hardy movie Babes in Toyland (1934), which was often broadcast in New York on television around Christmastime and became commonly known as March of the Wooden Soldiers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300141904?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0300141904
This guy at Slate is very
because the authors transcribed some rap songs incorrectly. http://www.slate.com/id/2272926/pagenum/2???Here on "50 Shot Ya," 50 Cent says, "I'm familiar with problems, I know how to solve 'em, semiautomatically or trey-eight revolve 'em" not "Semiautomatic, Lugar trey revolve 'em," as the editors transcribe it. A trey-eight is a .38 handgun; 50 pronounces "trey-eight" like "trey-ay," but there is clearly no long u sound or g sound. He is not saying Luger, another brand of gun that is often mentioned by rappers. This mistake shortchanges 50's creativity, denying his clever use of the adverb "semiautomatically."
???Ghostface Killah, here in "Daytona 500," is referring to a prominent New York radio personality named Vaughan Harper when he says "voice be mellow like Vaughan Harper radio barber." He is not saying "voice be metal like Von Harper," as the editors have it. There is no such thing as a "Von Harper" with a metal voice. Vaughan Harper, with a mellow voice, was a host on New York's WBLS, 107.5 FM, at one time a popular hip-hop and R&B station.
???Here on "Act Too (Love of My Life)," Black Thought from the Roots is referring to a brand of eyewear called Cazal, popular in the 1980s. He is not saying "Gazelle, goggles," as the editors have it, but "Cazal goggles." Had the editors thought to include Redman in the anthology, they might have noticed his line on "Da Goodness": "as a juvenile bought Cazals off Canal" (i.e., Canal Street in New York).
???On "Triumph," RZA of Wu Tang Clan is clearly saying "March of the Wooden Soldiers," not "Watch for the Wooden Soldiers." When he says "a thousand men rushing in," he's comparing his group, the Wu Tang Clan, to the unstoppable army of automatons in the old Laurel and Hardy movie Babes in Toyland (1934), which was often broadcast in New York on television around Christmastime and became commonly known as March of the Wooden Soldiers.
Comments
b/w
Well now you're forced to listen to the teacher and the lesson
Class is in session so you can stop guessin
If this is a tape or a written down memo
See I am a professional, this is not a demo
In fact call it a lecture, a visual picture
Sort of a poetic and rhythm-like mixture
Listen, I'm not dissin but there's somethin that you're missin
Maybe you should touch reality, stop wishin
For beats with plenty bass and lyrics said in haste
If this meaning doesn't manifest put it to rest
I am a poet, you try to show it, yet blow it
It takes concentration for fresh communication
Observation, that is to see without speaking
Take off your coat, take notes, I am teachin
a class, or rather school, cause you need schooling
I am not a king or queen, I'm not ruling
This is an introduction to poetry
A small dedication to those that might know of me
They might know of you and maybe your gang
But one thing's for sure, neither one of y'all can hang
Cause yo I'm like a arrow, and Scott is the crossbow
Say something now ... thought so
You seem to be the type that only understand
The annihilation and destruction of the next man
That's not poetry, that is insanity
It's simply fantasy far from reality
Poetry is the language of imagination
Poetry is a form of positive creation
Difficult, isn't it? The point? You're missin it
Your face is in front of my hand so I'm dissin it
b/w
This is the type of crap that gets pushed onto students by teachers(College and regular) who wanna "use Hip Hop" as a learning guide and shit. Its an abomination. LEAVE HIP HOP ALONE??.
Why is it so hard to get rap lyrics right?
http://www.slate.com/id/2272926/
They don't care about black people
Did you see in the comments over at Slate one of the editors goes on to say that there are a lot more errors in there, he and his co-editor have found more... not sure why he'd think admitting that was a good idea.
He then suggests that readers should send in corrections so it can eventually be pretty accurate, maybe in like 50 print runs from now.
Also the revelation that it has the same mistakes as www.ohhla.com means they just copied the lyrics from there and didn't correct it all thoroughly - not very scholarly.
This was interesting, especially the update at the bottom -
http://wernervonwallenrod.blogspot.com/2010/11/great-big-book-of-rap-lyrics.html
and to be fair, one of the mistakes is fwom da Wza
ahh
seems barely one step removed from rap glossary. don't want.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131063935
kind of redeemed the awful NYMag piece it references.
A big part of being into HipHop is not liking Lil Wayne, though he may find that out too, in time
Reading > Listening.........
Leave rap alone
Yeah, I liked it too. I get people's misgivings about treating rap lyrics in the same way they'd treat poetry, but by the end of this article this guy seems to have grasped the pointlessness of that approach, so that's a positive.
And quite honestly, after reading two diabolically bad pieces in the Guardian earlier this week (mainly down to the comments they drew) concerning how you'd go about introducing rap to someone who'd never listened to it, it's a welcome relief to read something that at least approaches the topic from a more interesting angle.
Ha ha, I thought the same, although I gave up halfway through the second piece, I just got confused by the tracks they were offering up and having just looked at the final playlist, it's confused me even more. A playlist for people who've never heard hip hop, apparently put together by people who have never heard hip hop. I think they should stick to arguing about The Vaccines.
http://nildoctrine.com/nil/14-more-mistakes-i-found-in-the-anthology-of-rap/
Comments at the bottom are interesting - apparently one of the editors got his university students to transcribe a bunch of it, and they were told to use internet lyrics as a starting point
http://www.slate.com/id/2275145/
Grandmaster Caz finds mistakes in his own lyrics, even though the anthology says he vetted his lyrics,
and the book's advisory board basically trash it