Jay-Z and King David

I've never like rap music (if it can be called music). It irks me. In fact, I hate it. But I've tried, and I'm still trying, to appreciate it. An English professor has written a book called Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop. The professor, Adam Bradley, sees his book as a manifesto to his fellow academics, urging them to see Hip Hop as genuine poetry and to study it and critique it as any other poetry.

Bradley, along with Andrew DuBois (another English professor), has also published a 900 page compendium of lyrics entitled The Anthology of Rap. It includes 30 years worth of rap lyrics. But a more popular book has just come out, written by the rapper Jay-Z, called Decoded. It's part biography, part commentary of rap lyrics, and part philosophizing on rap—and of course a collection of lyrics.

I've not read any of these books; I've just read about them in The New Yorker in an article by Kelefa Sanneh entitled, "Word" (December 6, 2010). I learned a lot about the history of hip hop from her article. I don't think I can ever really appreciate rap because I can't place myself in the shoes of those who create it and love it. I'm a middle class white guy. I can no more understand hip hop than an affluent American can really understand the Book of Revelation (which is written for people undergoing persecution).

But one insight did come to me while reading the article. Jay-Z says that his own stories of hustling drugs that show up in his lyrics are not violent in any literal sense. He says, "I don't think any listeners think I'm threatening them. I think they're singing along with me, threatening someone else. They're thinking, Yeah, I'm coming for you. And they might apply it to anything, to taking their next math test or straightening out that chick talking outta pocket in the next cubicle."

I can relate a little to that. It's like reading the Psalms. The Psalms are full of talk about striking down their enemies, or asking God to do the favor. Extremely violent. But one strategy for reading those kinds of Psalms is to hear them as Jay-Z suggests his rap can be heard. When the Psalmist says, "Lord, break my enemies teeth out," we can pray along with him by imagining the 'enemy' of cancer or bigotry or depression or even militarism. By performing a literalistectomy on the Psalmist's lyrics we can turn the violent passion into a positive, healing direction.

If you listen to the lyrics of rappers you can hear some amazing word play and beautiful rhythmic artistry. There is talent and creativity involved. But try as I may, I can't enjoy it. That doesn't mean I can't appreciate the pain and alienation from which it comes. People who have been disenfranchised or exiled will naturally sing some violent feelings. Just look at the ending to Psalm 137.

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