Here’s the thing: I was a horrendous MC. I mean just abysmal. But those were basic lessons about writing, that stick with me to this day. Constrained by form, be it blog post, sonnet, or the beat, how do you say something original and beautiful? How do you do it with potency and economy? There’s a reason why “I can take a phrase that’s rarely heard\Flip it, now it’s a daily word,” is, perhaps, the most hailed couplet in all of hip-hop. It’s two lines of braggadocio which are worth about ten verses from your average battle rapper. But it’s also a beautifully circular statement about the power of words.
Feed Me Hip-Hop And I Start Trembling - Ta-Nehisi Coates
I rapped in high school. I was terrible, and all on Def Jux’s jock (Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein was Bible 2.0, “i want 108 mics”), but it taught me a lot about how words work. Rhythm, pacing, how people talk, how people think they talk, how to stuff a bar full of as many syllables as possible… I don’t remember any of my rhymes, though there’s a facebook message somewhere with a cipher between me and two friends.
It was dumb, and I was dumb, but it was valuable.
I’m not sure what my “now it’s a daily word” or “Microphone Fiend” is. I probably have a few. “I Remain Indelible,” a single line off Company Flow’s “The Fire In Which You Burn” stuck with me all throughout high school and beyond. Not a rhyme, not part of a couplet, just a line off a chorus. A declarative statement.
“I was here. I existed. You’ll never be rid of me.”
