[Ex Death]

If so, do you like rap music? If not, why not? Rap is essentially poetry alongside a beat. Might it be because of the 'gangster' stereotypes perpetuated within mainstream rap music? Some rap music I have heard is some of the best poetry I have ever heard.

[spacepirate-James]

I like poetry a lot. I like beat poetry and spoken poetry but I like them less since often, I find, they sacrifice meaning/imagery for speed and half-hearted metaphysical statements designed to be deep, but are actually pretty shallow.

I also like to think about poetry; spoken poetry does not offer any time to do that. As you said, my experiences of rap are muddied by what the pop industry churns out.

[sitbywolf]

I'm starting to get into poetry a lot more. Rilke, Baudelaire and Apollinaire to name a few. I really like calligrammes! I don't dislike rap, although it's what I like to listen. They are still separate genres, although poetry and rap might have some similarities to some degree. It's not the same thing!

[Kater Murr]

(Original post by Ex Death)
If so, do you like rap music? If not, why not? Rap is essentially poetry alongside a beat. Might it be because of the 'gangster' stereotypes perpetuated within mainstream rap music? Some rap music I have heard is some of the best poetry I have ever heard.

Well, even people who 'like poetry' don't 'like all poetry'; most rap music uses very different language, imagery and tone to most poetry. It doesn't mean there aren't overlaps, and artists like Gil Scott-Heron who still manage to transcend the boundaries of their genre, but it certain't isn't snobby, or simply about stereotypes, that lots of poetry fans don't like rap music.

And I say that as a big fan of old school hip-hop, as well as Philip Larkin; but they're both very different things.

[WillowSummers]

I like poetry, but definetely not rap, not least 'cause I can't understand what they're saying most of the time. I'm more of a Classical man myself. I'm also not fond of modern poetry, but give me a piece of Baudelaire and put on the Shostakovich and I'll be fine.

[lollington-mccoy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW0iiriacSg- genius.... I love this and a lot of rap music

[Ex Death]

This song is what I was referring to when I said that the best poetry I have heard is a rap song.

[JCC-MGS]

I like both, liked rap before I liked poetry

[Tackla]

I like that Shakespeare bloke.

[Jingers]

Rap is poetry.

William Blake though >>>>>>>>>

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.



This thread needs more of George. He's my friend and he used to rap and he's doing poetry now. He said in one of his interviews that he chose to do it without a beat because of the negative connotations of rap music so people would automatically discount what he had to say. I don't disagree.

[Naminam]

I prefer Spoken Word to Rap. Most rap I hear is rubbish. Right now there's a load of crap by Nikki Minaj playing and she'd get nowhere as a poet. She's just tried to get away with rhyming a word with itself, and filled the space in a line by saying 'I' four times. Argh.

Spoken Word is rap without the bling and gimmick, I find, and it's a great scene once you get into it. If Spoken Word artists ever made it into the rap industry, that would be amazing...

[writergirl]

I love a lot of poetry, but then I dislike some poetry too. My MA 'Studies in Poetry' next year will either make or break my first sentence...i'll re-comment on this thread in a years time.

[ZOMFG_it'sCaiters]

I love poetry and write lots in my spare time but I find popular rap music nowadays to be tiresome. Rappers such as lil wayne better be thankful that f_ck rhymes with f_ck -.- They really have no poetic skills.

[Joana10]

I like poetry but I dislike what goes under the name of poetry these days, which is prose broken down to multiple lines!!

[Ex Death]

(Original post by ZOMFG_it'sCaiters)
I love poetry and write lots in my spare time but I find popular rap music nowadays to be tiresome. Rappers such as lil wayne better be thankful that f_ck rhymes with f_ck -.- They really have no poetic skills.

I agree that sh*t rappers such as lil wayne have tarred rap music as a bit of a joke. But what did you think of the song I posted earlier in the thread? This song is an 'underground' rap song which not many will have heard so it's easy to generalise that all rap music is sh*t.