Joe Greenwald
August 28, 2013
The Power of Language over Time
Regardless of the setting, whether it be the Ancient pre-Islamic World in the Middle East or the modern realm of Hip-Hop and Rap, the importance of linguistics and syntax was relevant in both. No, not just relevant, a popular art, not to mention mystic, divinely inspired works. Such an art requires skill, quick thinking, and linguistic creativity. Metaphors, similes, alliteration, and other figurative language techniques were tough to develop and received deserved attention. These poets were understood in the Ancient pre-Islamic world to be other-wordly, and supernaturally stimulated. For example, one poet known as Sha’ir was a pre-Islamic Arab poet who was believed to have paranormal gifts. As stated on the Online Britannica Encyclopedia, the Sha’ir was recognized as tribal dignitaries, and spirits called the Jinn and the Shaitans were said to have supernaturally inspired the words of the Sha’ir.
Such a world’s relation to the 2013 hip-hop world (which I will explain in just a moment) couldn’t be more relevant for a college-aged individual/hip-hop fan/freestyle wordsmith genius attempting to relate poets like Sha’ir to something pertinent in my own life. I chose to relate such a distant setting to the one I am in currently, as I am writing this down, headphones vibrating over my ears playing an A$AP Rocky song titled 1Train. In this song, this prominent rapper A$AP Rocky (A.K.A. a less supernatural equivalent of Sha’ir from Harlem) recites a rhythmic verse with ingenious figurative language and linguistic flair, perfect timing and deliverance, and a story to tell. He opens with “feeling like a vigilante or a missionary; tell my A$AP killers get they pistols ready. Send ‘em to the cemetery with obituaries. Don’t be scared, *****, is you ready?” (Rap-Genius). In Short, A$AP is saying that he is rallying up his crew or “killers” (posse, entourage…) to defend him with violence, using literary devices like juxtaposition, allusion, and a double entendre. But such devices are not the essential part; those three lines are a mere prelude to a 6-minute musically poetic masterpiece featuring other rap artists (poets).
