The Limitations Imposed on Hip-Hop
I could sense the author battling with feeling restricted as I read her section on hip-hop, and for that reason, the chapter was fairly short. This wasn’t due to a lack of knowledge on the subject, though, but rather the struggle of trying to go in-depth with a form whose “unconventional themes (usually sexual in nature)” (Morris 224) are considered restricted content. Thus, rather unusually, only three examples of this style were given, and even those consisted of only one or two short stanzas. In this way, I appreciated the author’s efforts to legitimize hip-hop/rap as a form of poetry. This was done by describing the complexity of the form as she explained how “a rapper must modulate tone, voicing, and inflection so that they complement the other sounds” (Morris 226). While it may seem like writing rap is relatively simple, there prove to be many artistic elements that go into creating a final product that flows well, suggesting the process to be actually quite complex — especially when it comes to freestyling. I found it interesting that another reason for hip-hop not being taken as seriously as other forms has to do with its origins. The author stated that she “cannot help but think that these forms are so easily dismissed because the community they emerged from is Black” (Morris 227). While I’d assume that this detail about the style’s origins is fairly well-known, I think the idea that this could be a reason for its lack of validation is not something that many people realized, myself included. While maybe just an opinion from the author, this concept is something to consider as it challenges us to wonder how hip-hop may be viewed if it had not grown from a minority group. That being said, its origins along with its language and “taboo” themes tighten the restraints on this style and keep it from being considered as a serious, artistic form.
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Morris, Tracie. “Hip-Hop Rhyme Formations: Open Your Ears.” An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Eds Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes. U of Michigan P, 2002. pp. 223–227.
