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Glyph

Glyph is worse than some and better than others. He believes that life is just one damned thing after another, that only pop music can save us now, and that mercy is the mark of a great man (but he's just all right). Nothing he writes here should be taken as an indication that he knows anything about anything.

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18 Responses

  1. Jaybird says:

    I’m everlasting, I can go on for days and days
    With rhyme displays that engrave deep as x-rays

    He’s Muslim. That might have much to do with his lack of cursing.Report

    • Glyph in reply to Jaybird says:

      I did not know that. But, and maybe I’m old-fashioned, I like the fact that he works “clean” and could still level just about anybody. Burt was mentioning that certain words in rap songs threw him off, so I was hoping something like this might work better for him.Report

      • Jaybird in reply to Glyph says:

        He signed on with Dre’s “Aftermath” but…

        Well, I’ll lift this from the wiki:
        Rakim used a metaphorical example that Dr. Dre wanted Rakim to write about killing someone, while Rakim wanted to write about the resurrection of someone.

        I am sorry that I was not given the opportunity to purchase “Oh, My God”.Report

      • Kazzy in reply to Glyph says:

        To make a weird comparison, I saw Seinfeld talk about how he doesn’t use curses. He tried once, and it didn’t feel right. More importantly, he felt (and others agreed) that it was generally more challenging to be funny without cursing. I wonder if something similar is true with rap.Report

  2. Chris says:

    Oh man, I know what I’ll be listening to tonight. I’m glad you like Follow the Leader.

    Rakim was just on another plane. I always feel like he must have recorded his rhymes in one take, and almost like he freestyled them. I don’t get that sense much from artists today. Except for… well, I’m not even going to name him. I’ll just say that I saw him freestyle, and it was incredible. And also point to this, because yes!

    Also, I think I may have mentioned it before, but I listen to a lot of non-American hip hop, and non-English language hip hop in particular, especially while I’m working (I keep meaning to do a post, but I’m afraid I’m the only one who’d like it). One of the things you hear from German, French, North African, even Russian rappers is that there influences were: X, Y, Wu Tang, and Rakim. Biggie is a distant third in number of mentions, but Wu Tang and Rakim are ubiquitous. I think it says something about your talent when everyone, everywhere, tries to rap like you even 25 years later.Report

    • Glyph in reply to Chris says:

      I’m not ready to say Follow the Leader is better than PiF…but it may be better than PiF. So yeah, thanks for the recommendations.

      RE: Rakim’s non-English influence….I have mentioned before that I often don’t notice lyrics unless they are great, or terrible, and hip-hop in particular is so dense with words that many (or even most) just slip by me…but with Rakim, like I said I hear the “strikes” or syllabic emphases around each beat, pulling forward or back (and even, somehow, up and down; almost like a “shot grouping” around each beat). It’s intensely musical.

      I imagine that *sound* comes through, even (maybe especially) if you don’t speak English.Report

    • Maribou in reply to Chris says:

      I wish you would do a non-American hip hop post, and I’m pretty sure I’d like it.

      One of the songs I’ve never stopped listening to is Los Orisha’s track Niños, from 2002…

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKFBlIEvTkYReport

  3. NewDealer says:

    Random Old School but relevant to this week’s events:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgcTvoWjZJUReport