Expert answer:Hip-Hop Writing Assignment 1-2 pages, Double Space

Solved by verified expert:Writing Assignment1-2 pages, Double Spaced
Respond to the Imani Perry chapter from the attached reading file below.
Briefly summarize the reading and describe how the critical vocabulary the author
presents will be helpful when writing your final essay. Your summaries don’t need to
cover the entire chapter; pick a couple things that will be helpful for your essay and stick
to them!
These papers are being evaluated first and foremost on clarity and writing style.
Please use double-spaced, point 12 Times New Roman Font. Every summary requires a
bibliography and sources should be properly cited (either Chicago or MLA style). Google
“Chicago Citation” or “MLA Citation” if you are unclear how these citation styles work.
Bibliography:
Perry, Imani. “Stinging Like Tabasco: Structure and Format in Hip Hop Compositions.”
In Prophets Of The Hood: Politics And Poetics In Hip Hop, 58-101. Durham: Duke
University, 2004.
perry.pdf

Unformatted Attachment Preview

7168 Perry / PROPHETS OF THE HOOD / sheet 68 of 248
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, yo! I’m the e of epmd.
—Erick Sermon of epmd, ‘‘You’re a Customer’’
You see I floats just like some helium and stings
just like Tabasco, been nice wit my skills ever since I had an Afro!
—Crazy Drayz of Das efx, ‘‘They Want Efx’’
I don’t fight clean, float like a butterfly,
stings like a scorpion ridin’ on the tip of a sick ding a ling.
—Heltah Skeltah, ‘‘The Grate Unknown’’
3
Stinging Like Tabasco
Structure and Format in Hip Hop Compositions
Tseng 2004.9.14 09:40
This chapter begins with lyrical references to Muhammad Ali. Countless such references to Ali exist in hip hop. He was one of the forerunners of hip hop, with his introduction of black oral rhyming culture into the mainstream. Hip hop uses Ali’s style—whether referring
to his Cassius Clay bragging or his Nation of Islam–inspired conversion into an outspoken black nationalist athlete—as a metaphor for skill
and grace. Ali was one of a handful of the first black celebrity figures to
bring black language styles and traditions into the public eye with dignity, self-possession, and power. He provided part of the foundation for
the explosion of hip hop, an artistic variation of traditional black cultural
forms, into the American popular cultural framework.
Boxing may serve as a good metaphor for hip hop anyway. Not only
because both foster a diverse group of bragging personalities with aggressive styles but also because they are strategic competitions. Hip
hop is poetry that shifts styles of defense and offense, moving between
From Prophets of the Hood by Perry, Imani. DOI: 10.1215/9780822386155
Duke University Press, 2004. All rights reserved. Downloaded 11 Apr 2016 18:38 at 137.110.66.185
7168 Perry / PROPHETS OF THE HOOD / sheet 69 of 248
grace and bull-like forward barreling. It dances, it leans back, and then
it attacks. It uses the broadest allegory to discuss the individual moment of confrontation. In the so-called ‘‘Rumble in the Jungle,’’ the 1974
Muhammad Ali–George Foreman fight, Ali threatened to match Foreman’s crushing power with dance.When the actual impact of Foreman’s
power became apparent, Ali responded with strategy, first surprising
Foreman with an insulting right hook, then faking him out for three
rounds, using up Foreman’s energy, and coming back in the final rounds
with new vigor. Analogously, in 8 Mile, the film loosely based on the
early days of Eminem, the climax of the movie occurs when the young
rapper prevails in a battle by asserting all of his weaknesses, anticipating
his opponents dissing, and thereby subverting power.
Todd Boyd speaks of the relationship between music and sport in African American culture, saying,
I remember hearing Miles Davis talk about how he structured a trumpet solo after watching a Sugar Ray Robinson boxing match. Sugar Ray
was known as a master of style. You know, he would walk into the ring
wearing two robes, and he’d take off the outer robe and underneath
would be this white silk robe. It was all about presentation and performance. But Miles focused specifically on how Sugar Ray, in the first
round of a fight, would set traps for his opponent without springing
them. And then he’d come back in the second round and spring one of
those traps, and the fight, of course, would be over. And Miles took that
idea and applied it to his solo, so at the beginning of the solo there are all
these traps set, and in the second half of the solo, he’s springing the trap.
So you can flow between those two disparate forms and find that sort
of inspiration. Art really does lay bare the questions, and the questions
can become much more interesting than the answers sometimes.1
Tseng 2004.9.14 09:40
Likewise, in hip hop tactical shifts occur within the style of metaphor,
which is highly variable even within one song, as well as in the distinctive style an artist might have as an individual, or if he or she is part
of a group, within the group. Hip hop music is a war of position, and
the position one takes manifests itself in the performance or language.
One of the most commonly used metaphors in this war is that of murder, one frequently employed in boxing as well. In the film depicting the
1974 Ali-Foreman fight, When We Were Kings (dir. Leon Gast, 1996), the
people of Zaire, in support of Ali, chant, ‘‘Ali bimboye,’’ meaning ‘‘Ali,
STINGING LIKE TABASCO
.
59
From Prophets of the Hood by Perry, Imani. DOI: 10.1215/9780822386155
Duke University Press, 2004. All rights reserved. Downloaded 11 Apr 2016 18:38 at 137.110.66.185
7168 Perry / PROPHETS OF THE HOOD / sheet 70 of 248
kill him!’’ Boxers themselves speak metaphorically of murdering opponents. In the lyrics, ‘‘Like Ali-Frazier / thriller in Manila / pinpoint, point
black microphone killer am I,’’ Chuck D of Public Enemy is the murderer on the microphone, verbally killing competing mcs.2 The use of
murder in hip hop varies. Narratives of gratuitous violence do exist, and
they are heavily critiqued by media pundits, yet there are also rhymes
in which violence stands in as a symbolic explication of skill, courage,
or power, as in the following example: ‘‘Picture blood baths in elevator
shafts / Like these murderous lyrics tight from genuine craft / Check the
print / swear a veteran sparked the letter and / Slow movin’ mcs waitin’
for the edition.’’ 3
At times, the mc will directly refer to the symbolism, telling the audience what he or she plans to do lyrically to other mcs; at other times, the
reference to skill or power comes obliquely, as in moments of role-play
as Asian martial arts experts or mafiosi. The reference to the crafted or
powerful violence of another, such as a mafioso, a Bruce Lee, or a boxer,
often comes combined with descriptions of the artist’s skill. Heltah
Skeltah rhyme:
I control the masses with metaphors that’s massive
Don’t ask of the nigga’ll bash shit like Cassius
I’m drastic when it comes to verbs I’ll be flippin’
Cause herbs just be shittin’ off the words I be kickin’
I scold you knuckleheads swore for the petty
But I told you rich niggas that heads ain’t ready
Now I mold you back into the bitch that you are
Fuckin’ with the Ruckus get bruised worse than scars.4
Tseng 2004.9.14 09:40
Here, the murder metaphor stands alongside proclamations of competitive orality and superiority. It is in fact an ego assassination that takes
place through the skillful dis. As in much of hip hop, here we find variations on the game of playing the dozens (an African American folk practice of competitive insult) and its competitive discourse.
Signifying, another element of black language that appears in hip hop,
is distinguished in African American culture from the dozens largely
for its suggestive and subtextual critique, an expression of cleverness
rather than overtness. The folk expression of signifying finds articulation in the stories of the Signifying Monkey, who tells the Lion that the
60
.
PROPHETS OF THE HOOD
From Prophets of the Hood by Perry, Imani. DOI: 10.1215/9780822386155
Duke University Press, 2004. All rights reserved. Downloaded 11 Apr 2016 18:38 at 137.110.66.185
7168 Perry / PROPHETS OF THE HOOD / sheet 71 of 248
Tseng 2004.9.14 09:40
Elephant has been insulting him. The furious Lion demands an apology
from the Elephant, who refuses and roundly stomps him. Only then
does the Lion realize his mistake of taking the Monkey’s word. So, for
example, mc Lyte and Antoinette battled in the late 1990s. mc Lyte, in
her song, ‘‘10% Dis,’’ rhymed, ‘‘Beat biter / dope style taker / tell you to
your face you ain’t nothing but a faker,’’ a dozens-style confrontation,
while Antoinette responded, ‘‘Lights out, now the party’s over / Homegirl reminds me of my dead dog rover,’’ 5 using the world light as a double
entendre, signaling the impending demise of her competitor, and calling her ugly without saying it directly. While the monkey’s indirect assault in the folktale comes through false gossip, Antoinette employs the
homophone for hers.
Relying on Henry Louis Gates’s call for a vernacular-based literary
criticism in The Signifyin(g) Monkey, Sam Floyd describes the meaning
of Signifyin(g) when applied to the black music tradition: ‘‘Signifyin(g) is
a way of saying one thing and meaning another; it is a reinterpretation,
a metaphor for the revision of previous texts and figures; it is tropological thought, repetition with difference, the obscuring of meaning—all
to achieve or reverse power, to improve situations, and to achieve pleasing results for the signifier.’’ 6 As Nelson George says, ‘‘Recontextualizing someone else’s sounds was, after all, how hip hop started.’’ 7 It is a
Signifyin(g) form in its origins.
Signifiyin(g) also manifests itself in the previously mentioned multiple registers of hip hop. Access to these registers constitutes a test
in familiarity with the artist and, for example, his or her sociopolitical
or philosophical location. Sometimes the various registers conflict, so
that the first level of text may actually affirm stereotypes of black men,
for example, or appear to be misogynistic. Yet a deeper register of the
text may then challenge the assumptions, describe feeling locked into
the stereotype, reinterprets it to the advantage of the artist, or make
fun of the holder of the stereotype.8 When registers conflict with each
other, listeners find themselves in a quandary regarding the music’s interpretation. Should it be interpreted according to the deeper registers
or the most superficial, more accessible ones? Floyd writes, ‘‘Through
the energizing and renewing magic of myth and ritual, there emerged
from the volatile cauldron of Call-Response a music charged with meanings centuries old—meanings to which the initiated, the knowledgeable, and the culturally sensitive responded in heightened communi-
STINGING LIKE TABASCO
.
61
From Prophets of the Hood by Perry, Imani. DOI: 10.1215/9780822386155
Duke University Press, 2004. All rights reserved. Downloaded 11 Apr 2016 18:38 at 137.110.66.185
7168 Perry / PROPHETS OF THE HOOD / sheet 72 of 248
cation.’’ 9 Nelson George has described his surprise at the support for
2 Live Crew, the notoriously misogynistic and exploitative Miami Bass
rap group, expressed by black women students during a lecture at Spelman College in Atlanta.10 What the episode reveals, however, is that the
female listeners clearly understood a regional cultural register that told
them, ‘‘you can escape this misogynistic construction by not behaving
in a certain manner’’ thereby possibly not identifying the misogyny with
themselves, even if they perhaps should have been appalled by it.
Beyond the arena of music, the Signifyin(g) call-response trope extends to clothing styles, colloquial speech, spoken word, and the like, all
in conversation with rap and rappers. George describes this in video culture: ‘‘An exciting interplay—a kind of videographic loop—developed
between the consumers and performers. Performers would latch on to
a new clothing style in the street. That style would be showcased in a
video and the audience would then be turned on to the style, be it Run’s
hat or Snoop Doggy Dogg’s braids.Within a few weeks, an outfit worn in
Queens or Compton would suddenly become a national and sometimes
international trend. Or the dialogue would go the other way.’’ 11 The call
issued from the video to a national audience response is consistently
reinterpreted, modified, made local, and then made national again.
The Signifyin(g) that Gates articulated in landmark fashion in his
work on the African American literary tradition is abundant in hip hop.
Both the cultural tradition of Signifyin(g) that hip hop in many ways
descends from, as well as the literary theoretical articulation of signification that Gates conceptualizes form part of the music. Gates quotes
linguist Geneva Smitherman’s eight features of signification:
1. Indirection, circumlocution
2. Metaphorical-imagistic
3. Humorous, ironic
4. Rhythmic fluence and sound
5. Teachy but not preachy
6. Directed at person or persons usually present in the situational
context
7. Punning, play on words
8. Introduction of the semantically or logically unexpected 12
Tseng 2004.9.14 09:40
These elements are present within the universe of the hip hop narrative, but also in the construction of the music, through deejaying, and
62
.
PROPHETS OF THE HOOD
From Prophets of the Hood by Perry, Imani. DOI: 10.1215/9780822386155
Duke University Press, 2004. All rights reserved. Downloaded 11 Apr 2016 18:38 at 137.110.66.185
7168 Perry / PROPHETS OF THE HOOD / sheet 73 of 248
as part of a musical canon. While the textuality is distinct in hip hop as
it is brief, oral, and aural rather than written, and has the appearance
of being entirely vernacular (a false appearance, but significant nonetheless), it does rely on some of the same tools Gates articulates. The
Signifyin(g) on other texts in hip hop occurs both within the world of
rap, and across black music, and even across music in general. When
Dr. Dre lays lyrics of gangster destruction over mellow soul, his composition signifies on that earlier music’s interpretation of black experience
and yet uses it as a vernacular for creating the contemporary meaning
he articulates. When Biggie Smalls first came out, he was an East Coast
signification on West Coast forms of storytelling, language, and celebrations of wealth and death. Gates describes Signifyin(g) as it appears in
oral tradition:
Motivated Signifyin(g) is the sort in which the Monkey delights; it functions to redress an imbalance of power, to clear a space, rhetorically.
To achieve occupancy in the desired space, the Monkey rewrites the received order by exploiting the Lion’s hubris and his inability to read the
figurative other other than as the literal. Writers Signify on each other’s
texts by rewriting the received textual tradition. This sort of Signifyin(g)
revision serves, if successful, to create a space for the revising text. It
also alters fundamentally the way we read the tradition, by defining the
relation of the text at hand to the tradition.13
Tseng 2004.9.14 09:40
Biggie’s genius as an mc was to take heed of the manner in which West
Coast rap had eclipsed the East and to adopt and reinterpret the symbols
of West Coast hip hop through an East Coast style. In 2003, the Queensbred 50 Cent, whose album was released at number one, made a similar
move integrating Southern and Western hip hop sensibilities into his
style. In rap, the figure of the lion as having brute power, as opposed
to the intellectual nuance and trickery of the monkey, might be read as
white supremacy, but other readings are possible too: it might be read
as the power of the trained musician, the power of the civil rights–era
establishment for determining black public discourse and concerns, the
perceived greater social and economic power of black women as compared to black men, all of which might be troped in text. The Signifyin(g)
in rap in sophistication far exceeds a simple reference or response—it
is engagement with other texts and their traditions in the midst of one’s
own piece, using the former as part of the ultimate creation of the latter.
STINGING LIKE TABASCO
.
63
From Prophets of the Hood by Perry, Imani. DOI: 10.1215/9780822386155
Duke University Press, 2004. All rights reserved. Downloaded 11 Apr 2016 18:38 at 137.110.66.185
7168 Perry / PROPHETS OF THE HOOD / sheet 74 of 248
In fact, the use of the monkey in the folktale itself reminds us that rap
is but a child of earlier forms.
Of the many colorful figures that appear in black vernacular tales, perhaps only Tar Baby is as enigmatic and compelling as is the oxymoron,
the Signifying Monkey. The ironic reversal of a received racist image
of the black as simian-like, the Signifying Monkey, he who dwells at
the margins of discourse, ever punning, ever troping, ever embodying
the ambiguities of language, is our trope for repetition and revision,
indeed our trope of chiasmus, repeating and reversing simultaneously
as he does in one deft discursive act.14
Exploiting the stereotype while simultaneously expressing literary skill
is one of the prominent ways of using the black literary tradition.
The complex use of the structures of language and storytelling are
critical features that help to describe what hip hop does, and to begin
to develop a critical eye toward its evaluation. The basic elements of
figurative language abound in the form, particularly metaphor. In hip
hop, metaphor allows transcendence. Its frequent use lies at the heart
of artistry in hip hop. It plays on the African American male tradition
of finding freedom in mobility.15 Metaphor in hip hop is about motion
and transformation; its usage allows the artists to move outside of the
boundaries of their communities, and even transcend the limitations of
human fallibility.
Milk: Do you understand the metaphoric phrase ‘‘lyte as a rock’’? It’s
explaining how heavy the young lady is, you know what I’m saying,
king?
Gizmo: Yes, my brother, but I would consider ‘‘lyte as a rock’’ a simile
because of the usage of the word ‘‘as.’’ And now, directly from the planet
of Brooklyn, mc Lyte as a rock! 16
Tseng 2004.9.14 09:40
This exchange, spoken by mc Lyte’s hip hop artist brothers the ‘‘Audio
Two,’’ a.k.a. Milk and Gizmo, introduces her song ‘‘Lyte as a Rock.’’
It explains the simile in the title with the word heavy (as a rock),
meaning having profound insight and wisdom. This song features a
self-conscious use of figurative language, with metaphor and simile
functioning as the most important nonliteral elements in the lyrics, a
phenomenon found throughout hip hop lyrics.
‘‘I’m like . . .’’ is probably one of the five most popular phrases to begin
64
.
PROPHETS OF THE HOOD
From Prophets of the Hood by Perry, Imani. DOI: 10.1215/9780822386155
Duke University Press, 2004. All rights reserved. Downloaded 11 Apr 2016 18:38 at 137.110.66.185
7168 Perry / PROPHETS OF THE HOOD / sheet 75 of 248
Tseng 2004.9.14 09:40
hip hop stanzas. Metaphor and simile function in three notable ways in
hip hop. First, they fulfill the obvious task of explication. The mc tells
the listener about him- or herself, or whatever other subject is up for discussion, through comparison with or use of the characteristics of other
objects, creatures, or entities. Second, they serve as great tools for exhortation and proclamation because through the metaphoric naming
of great things, the mc proclaims his or her own greatness: ‘‘Lyte as a
rock / or I should say a boulder rollin’ down your neck / poundin’ on
your shoulders.’’ 17 But perhaps most important, metaphor and simile
engage the imagination and expand or transform the universe in which
the mc dwells. With them, the author creates a space of possibility.
Emcees often create dramatic contrast within the sphere of the rhyme
between life as it exists and life as it might be, and they often juxtapose those two realities. The conclusion of Special Ed’s ‘‘I Got It Made’’
is reminiscent of Nikki Giovanni’s famous 1970s poem ‘‘Ego Trippin’,’’
as he tells his readers through example about his greatness, or rather
how he ‘‘has it made.’’ 18 Interspersed with tales of part ownership of
Tahiti and his personal waiter bringing him potato alligator soufflé, are
‘‘My hair was growing too long so I got me a fade / and when my dishes
got dirty, I got Cascade / when the weather was hot, I got a spot in the
shade.’’ 19 These are distinctly possible and mu …
Purchase answer to see full
attachment

How it works

1. Paste your instructions in the instructions box. You can also attach an instructions file
2. Select the writer category, deadline, education level and review the instructions 
3. Make a payment for the order to be assignment to a writer
4.  Download the paper after the writer uploads it 

Will the writer plagiarize my essay?

You will get a plagiarism-free paper and you can get an originality report upon request.

Is this service safe?

All the personal information is confidential and we have 100% safe payment methods. We also guarantee good grades