Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

This is the culture article I had hoped to do last week, but it’s really timeless. I’d like to start with a personal story. Back in the oughts, when I was working at AAA, and our cubicles had low walls so we could see and possibly talk to people across to us, one day the woman across from mee said something, I forget exactly what, but with which I heartily agreed. I had seen a joke that morning which put me in mind of a particular phrase and I responded “For shizzle!” She was startled and said, “I didn’t even think you would know who Diddy was.” I said, “Well, yeah, I listen to classical music pretty well all the time, but that doesn’t mean I have to be ignorant.” And she replied that most people don’t think that way. And that little conversation was what led to our becoming BFFs. And I have learned so much and gotten so much joy from our friendship, and I think she has too, that I am so grateful to have, and so determined to continue having, an open mind.

However, I’m afraid she was right – most people don’t think that way. I can’t forget all the heads that exploded when Mr. Robert Zimmerman received the Nobel for Literature one year. Or that when the musical “Of Thee I Sing” received a Pulitzer and every creative talent who worked on it received the award except George Gershwin – that was not in my lifetime, but it’s such a well-known event, and so ironic, it sticks with me. And then, there’s “The Lexicon of Musical Invective,” a collection of quotes from history in which older composers, and some critics, verbally destroyed younger composers who turned out to be as great as or greater than their critics. You wouldn’t believe, for instance, the trash talk about Beethoven.

So when I saw this article about how one creative activity can spill over into, and even foster, a different creative activity that is unexpected, I wanted to share it. You don’t need to agree with me or the author – you don’t even need to read it – but it’s natural for me to want to share something – a type of openness – which has given so much to me.
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Kanye may not like books, but hip-hop fosters a love of literature

A.D. Carson, University of Virginia

When Ye – the artist formerly known as Kanye West – stated during a recent podcast that he doesn’t read books, some people questioned whether he was sending the wrong message to children.

Those questions took on more importance in light of the fact that Ye recently launched Donda Academy, a private educational venture named after his late mother, Donda West, who was herself an English professor.

As a rap artist, author and academic, I would never argue that reading lots of books is the only path to gaining knowledge or showing intelligence.

After all, I created the first-ever peer-reviewed hip-hop album published by a university press. For my doctoral dissertation in 2017, I made a rap album and resisted any calls to submit a formally written explanation of the work.

Verbal intelligence

Even as a former high school literature teacher, I never believed the only way – or even the primary way – for people to demonstrate intellect was through reading books. I think that performing a freestyle – that is to say, writing and reciting seemingly spontaneous rap lyrics on the spot – requires levels of intelligence that are often overlooked or racistly cast off as “natural talent” that don’t require studying or practice. For instance, the mind-blowing 10-minute freestyle that rapper Black Thought performed live on New York radio station Hot 97 in 2017 is a master-class demonstration of brilliance that is a result of years of study and practice.

In some ways, you might say Kanye West and I are on the same page. Where I disagree with Ye, however, is in his total dismissal of reading books, which he likens to “eating Brussels sprouts.” Rap music is a lot of things, but it includes quite a bit of reverence for literature.

Kanye as ‘Gatsby’

Books have a high place in hip-hop. As I’ve pointed out in the various book chapters that I’ve authored on different aspects of rap music – and in the classes that I teach – a wealth of lyrics that contain direct and indirect references to a rich array of literary works. These works span multiple millennia and originate from across the globe.

And long before the book-hating controversy, I once referred to Ye as potentially being hip-hop’s Jay Gatsby, a reference to the central character of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel “The Great Gatsby,” because of the striking parallels that I saw between their lives. The novel contains teachable comparisons to “Graduation” in its use of the flashing-lights metaphor for hope and desire for wealth and class.

While Kanye West professes a disdain for books, the same cannot be said of many of his predecessors and contemporaries.

For instance, in 1996, Tupac Shakur released his 1996 album “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory” under the alias Makaveli – a variation of the name of author Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavelli’s 16th-century works “The Prince” and “Discourses on Livy” could offer interesting insights into the album and the creative process that Tupac undertook during the final period of his life. For example, Machiavelli famously details his observations on obtaining and keeping political power in “The Prince.” Similarly, Tupac ends his album by talking about his own ascendancy of sorts, shouting out “soldiers with military minds” and detailing foretold rules of war.

What follows is a brief overview of other notable instances in which rap artists refer – either directly or indirectly – to influential literary works written by authors from around the world and throughout the ages.

Black Star’s 1998 ‘Thieves in the Night’

This song name-drops and quotes Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” The hook of the song borrows and revises the quote from the novel:

“… for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life.”

Noname’s 2021 single ‘Rainforest’

This song directly names the 1961 book “The Wretched of the Earth” by psychiatrist and political philosopher Frantz Fanon. It is a lyrical allusion to the ongoing effects of colonialism.

KXNG Crooked and Joell Ortiz’s 2022 song ‘Heat Wave’

Crooked makes a passing reference in this song to Plato’s philosophical text “Symposium,” in which characters, including the philosopher Socrates, compete performing improvised speeches. Plato isn’t exactly writing about rap battles, but there are similarities.

Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’

There are interesting parallels to Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” throughout the album. The insistent reference to “yams” on the song “King Kunta” evokes the scene from the 1952 novel in which the narrator encounters a vendor selling yams, which remind him of home, so he eats them until they make him sick.

The Roots’ 2004 album ‘The Tipping Point’

This album borrows its name from a 2000 Malcolm Gladwell book. Gladwell describes a tipping point as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” The album cover features a photo of a young Malcolm X, presumably at a tipping point of sorts, before he becomes a world-famous Muslim minister and eventually co-authors the influential 1965 “The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley.”

Common’s 2000 album ‘Like Water for Chocolate’

This album takes its name from the 1989 novel by Mexican author Laura Esquivel. The book uses magical realism to convey the emotions of the main character, Tita, to the people who eat the food she makes while being a caretaker for her mother, which prevents her from fulfilling her true desires.

The album also features a song called “A Song for Assata” that features audio from an interview Common did with exiled Black freedom fighter Assata Shakur, author of the 1989 book “Assata: An Autobiography.”

Dead prez’s 2000 album ‘Let’s Get Free’

This album features many literary illusions and influences. Notably, the lyrics of the song “We Want Freedom” begin with the words, “I Ching,” which is the name of an ancient Chinese text. The group’s logo comprises a symbol, hexagram 46, used in the text that represents the word “army.” Group member stic.man says the symbol is meant to represent “forward motion, progress and adapting in our lives.”

Rapsody’s 2019 album ‘Eve’

All the titles of the songs on this album are the names of noteworthy women. “Eve” is the first woman named in a major work of literature – the Bible – and several of the other women mentioned are authors, including “Oprah,” “Myrlie,” “Michelle” and “Maya.” The song named for Maya Angelou focuses on themes in Angelou’s work and also quotes from her writing.

Perhaps Kanye West’s recent remarks about reading will inspire some thoughtful conversation about how American society views reading and determines intelligence. If they do, the archives of hip-hop – whether in book form or music – offer an abundance of ways to take those conversations to greater depths.

A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, University of Virginia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, we don’t all need to be alike – in fact, we shouldn’t. But paying attention – and respect – to things that others care about, and the roles those things play in their lives, can open us up to a world of wonder we didn’t know existed. Help us to do that, in ways that work for us, as best we can.

The Furies and I will be back.