Girl Gangsta Rap
Girl Gangsta Rapaka Enrapped & GamineYou're rapping in the street,you're crossing every bone.You stamp your booted feet,you never stalk alone.Four-letter words you mixinto your gush; you shakeyour...
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Dutch--I'm away from home, & have had to look in on SC in very brief sessions. As to "street arab," I don't find it at all offensive. It's not the newest slang for "jazz punks" or "gangstas" but I...
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Hi Crispin. This is mild compared with many raps and other current 'music'. Being offensive is IN. Forcing people to face up to their precious attitudes is poetry's strength. Four-letter words you...
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I'm sorry, but there's a difference between a black man from Compton calling himself a nigger and me - a white Englishman - saying it. The black man saying it is him 'reclaiming the word' from bigots...
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Dear Clive,My American dictionary's entry re "street Arab" doesn't feature any of the indications "archaic", "obsolete", "slang", "specifically British".This girl is rapping in the street and she's an...
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If we're going to rely on dictionaries, my OED flags this phrase as racially offensive. Given that it is old slang that has passed out of the language--or largely so--it strikes me as highly unlikely...
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I'm not sure how offensive "Arab" is here, but I do believe it's distracting. See how the whole thread centers on it now? The word has too many extra connotations.I want to read the final couplet, or...
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rlg -- I've rewritten the final line -- to enhance the build-up towards the couplet. (Cf. the oxymoron "vintage slum".) I think this revision adds a most ironic final twist as well! New line:"yeah...
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I think you're snagged on a subtle linguistic problem. It's an oddity of English, but the kind of dental apparatus you are talking about is invariably plural in English. A singular "brace" would...
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The couplet rewritten:"Quit hiding what defaces,yeah show your costly braces."Former version:"Deglamorize your face,yeah show your costly brace." "Sic vive tamquam cras moriturus, sic stude quasi...
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I like the new couplet. It rocks. I like the way opinions about content are being openly discussed here.The point Crispin made about being Politically Correct was one I have been thinking about too. I...
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Yes, poets should shock sometimes. It's hard to do well these days because the easy ways have been done so often.Shock also should make a point--shock for shock's sake is just grand guignol. Here,...
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<<Shouldn't poets use shock tactics sometimes?>>Hi Deneeez,Interesting question. IMHO, there's shocking and there's schlocking. There are shock tactics that wake people up and make them...
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I don't know why Crispin doesn't just change "Arab" to "urchin" - it has the same beats in the same place, so shouldn't muck up his metre at all.On Political Correctness - yes, it's become very...
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Hi,IMHO the ironic wordplay on "street Arab" as featured in my sonnet is only mildly offensive and as such defensible within the most generous limits of parody and satire. After all: the girl is an...
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Hi Crispin,The new couplet is much clearer to me. (I'm still struggling, in my 7th-grade-student-ish way, with how much clarity/lack of ambiguity is required in poetry. Repeating to self: A poet is...
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Hiya sista,Thanx! I've edited into "itchy"!~ Crispin "Sic vive tamquam cras moriturus, sic stude quasi semper victurus."~ Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536)
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Crispin, I don't understand what you are trying to say, sorry. Rap is only seen on TV here, so I must be missing something. 'Crossing every bone': waving her arms and legs around, or ??? Something to...
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Hiya sista,"crossing every bone" << "crossbones": "a representation of two thighbones placed across each other, usually under that of a skull, used as a symbol of death or danger." (Cf "pirate...
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I like the rewrite better. A couple of the allusive bits you explained just now went right over my head, I'm afraid, though to me "braces" on a kid automatically means dental.rlg
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