| Variant title |
What is good |
| Contents |
Rhetorical questions: I'm into having sex, I ain't into making love -- Rewinding: to be the man on the mic, to be the man on your mind -- On cool: what's normal to us is an illusion to them -- On me: I heard the beat and I ain't know what to write -- Serious rap: what you hear is not a test -- What's good. Word machines: I make butter fly -- Slang evolution: speakin' my language if you talkin' 'bout tilapia -- Slang and slipperiness: you'll never find a rhyme like this in any dictionary -- On rhyme: try me, try me -- On register: bitch I'm morose and lugubrious -- Haunted roots: hangin' on for dear life -- Code and contraband: I got twenty-five lighters on the dresser -- Intelligences: they don't call me Big for nuttin' -- Power play: I'm on point like a elbow -- Word as bond: speech is my hammer bang the world into shape -- Anti-simile: I'm the motherfucking king like Oedipus -- =, [equal sign with a slash]: I ain't Q-Tip but I'll make your breathin' stop -- #: I got bars sentencing -- Economy and time: Four Seasons, three words: do not disturb -- Signifying chains: I take seven MCs, put 'em in a line -- Recycling: flow retarded, I'm on some special ed shit -- Elective chronology: once upon a time in the projects -- Ancestor worship: we're holdin on to what's golden -- Writing/biting: I got ninety-nine problems and a bitch ain't one -- Aggravated quotation: beat biter, dope style taker -- Hyperlinks: Wikipedia that, if you didn't know -- On cliche: kickin' the fly cliches -- Who wore it better?: Now I'm butt naked in a Lamborghini -- Deniable plausibility: might look light but we heavy though -- On first person: I live it, I see it, and I write it because I know it -- Truth and consequence: calling her a crab is just a figure of speech -- Criminal slang: I'm the biggest Dope Dealer and I serve all over town -- Selling work: the dope I'm selling you don't smoke you feel -- On values: I'm out here making sense 'cause I'm out here making dollars -- On the B-word: who you call in' a bitch? -- On the N-word: she could be my broad and I could be her -- On white people: please listen to my album -- On second person: if that's your chick then why she textin' me? -- Is rap poetry?: I take this more serious than just a poem -- Writing/not writing: I wasn't born last night -- What you hear is not a text: I can't help the poor if I'm one of them -- On possession: hi haters, I'm back off hiatus -- On possession with intent to sell: cash rules everything around me -- Signifying ornaments: I spell it how the fucks I want -- Outsider art: and all the people always know me for my comedy -- On irony: this is fucking awesome -- Dumb love: microphone check 1-2 what is this -- Criticism and categories: not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good -- A larger English: lampin' in the Hamptons like "what the fuck is a hammock?" -- Witness: party and bullshit. |
| Abstract |
This book is a work of passionate lyrical analysis, a set of freewheeling liner notes, and a love letter to the most vital American art form of the last half century. Over a series of short chapters, each centered on a different lyric, the author considers how rap's use of language operates and evolves at levels ranging from the local (slang, rhyme) to the analytical (quotation, transcription) to the philosophical (morality, criticism, irony), celebrating the pleasures and perils of any attempt to decipher its meaning-making technologies. Ranging from Sugarhill Gang to UGK to Young M.A, Rakim to Rick Ross to Rae Sremmurd, Jay-Z to Drake to Snoop Dogg, the book reads with the momentum of a deftly curated mixtape, drawing you into the conversation and teaching you to read it as it goes. A book for committed hip-hop heads, curious neophytes, armchair linguists, and everyone in between. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references. |
| LCCN | 2021014176 |
| ISBN | 9780872868762 trade paperback |
| ISBN | 0872868761 trade paperback |
