To most, rap is just beats and bravado. To 041culture writer Mvume Ndima, it’s pure storytelling—words, wit, and life lessons. From Freddie Gibbs’ reflections on struggle to Baby Keem’s six-word burns and 2 Chainz’ “sauce,” rap shows him how to be concise, see the positives, and handle life (and love) with style.
I’m a huge fan of rap music. I love all genres of music and can appreciate any song you show me, but rap has a very special place in my heart.
As a writer, rap (for me), is the purest form of written art. Most rappers don’t have great singing voices, they generally don’t produce their own music so the only thing they have, in essence, are words. Plus, I love a convincing lie, about your money, your relationships, the power you command, whatever it is. I want to believe the lie.
To most casual listeners, a rap song is a rap song, they play a beat, call you a broke b**** for 3 minutes then the song ends. For people like myself, who have an ear for lyrics and word placement, there’s a deeper piece of art at work.
I think of a gentleman by the name of Freddie Gibbs who on his song “Something To Rap About” he calmly says “God made me sell crack, so I’d have something to rap about.”
Now as silly as that bar is, it’s a concise and colloquial way to tell the listener, “hey. Those adversities and difficulties you’ve had to endure only add to the story of your life. God doesn’t put you where He puts you for fun, those deplorable conditions you found yourself in are the perfect place to develop the skills that could potentially change your life, if you keep the right mentality.”
The coolest thing for me about rap is the art of concision. Many a night I sat playing back Baby Keem’s music, marveling at how succinctly he is able to make a point in as few words as possible, add to that, the fact his career in it’s entirety lasted about one summer (by his choice) speaks volumes about the man himself. He arrived, made some music with his cousin Kendrick Lamar, made enough money to care for himself and his family and retired. In a self-titled song on his only studio album, he makes a scathing commentary about his imaginary opps financial situation and the fact that the unnamed opp is unable to care for himself and his loved ones in one single line, he raps, “I heard your b**** wears Sketchers.” Hilarious in context, but he said so much here with only 6 words… masterful.
Another one of my favourite rappers is a fellow named Ray Vaughn, he speaks to the pain of losing a woman he was intimate with, as he discovers that she is moving on with her life. In his song “Mannequin” he tells us that he is unhappy with her choice of mate, and thinks she can do far better than who she chose. He says this by simply saying, “block that b****, she’s posting sonograms. I don’t want to see you with that man again, he’s a nobody, he’s a mannequin.”
While the language is extremely aggressive and doesn’t hold back from using profanity, from a technical standpoint, the more rap I listen to, the better I write.
The more information I absorb, even when it is not necessarily intentional, the better my ability to tell stories becomes.
Sadly, I don’t get to listen to as much rap as I’d like to (my girls are obsessed with K-pop now) and I made a personal choice to ban rap from my ears on Sundays, but on the way into work I put one of my favourite albums on (Pretty Girls Love Trap Music) and I heard 2 Chainz tell me “Any time she wants to dip, I’m providing the sauce.” which doesn’t make sense until you consider that he is telling you that his women are able to leave at any time, if they so choose.
In fact. Should a woman decide she wants to walk away from him and leave (dip), he will make sure that she is cared for financially and able to still move and dress in a manner that she has become accustomed to , (providing the sauce). Stark contrast from the younger, more brash young man Mr. Vaughn, showing how the same situation can be handled completely differently depending on your age and the things you’ve seen in life to that point…
So in conclusion, I am committing myself to be more like the rappers I admire.
– Take the positives from every situation, even if the situation is me selling crack
– Practise being concise, if I can make a point in 10 words I can make it 5.
– Allow people to move on with their lives, feel how I feel about it, but not let it change how I treat them.
And that ladies and gentlemen, is my promise to you as the reader.. I promise to keep selling that crack, make sure my girl wears Nike and above, and if she decides to dip, I’ll be damn sure to have that sauce ready for her.
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