Hip-Hop Ibsen
Seriously, folks; I have started at least three weblog entries this year and abandoned them. Here is the process:
- I attend a play.
- I think of a funny anecdote to say about it.
- I write it down in this weblog.
- I leave it as a draft for a week. In the meantime I tell my anecdote to everyone I know.
By the time I’m ready to post, I’m sick of the story!
So let’s post something quickly: playwriting notes! New notes for a play written over a year ago!
I need more rap in It Takes A Nation of Norwegians to Hold Us Back!
Obviously, the title comes from Public Enemy.
But I was jazzed up on Dead Prez and KRS-1 when writing the play. I wanted to get in the following lines and have them spoken by Stockmann:
“You would rather have a Lexus or justice? Some cash or some substance?”
– Dead Prez “Hip Hop”“I tell my kids to watch the education they give ‘em. Because it’s really all about street wisdom.”
– KRS-1 “Get Yourself Up”And now tonight I heard Mos Def rapping in Black Star’s “Children’s Story.”
“Why you sellin’ lies to our wives and children?”
– Black Star “Children’s Story”All three of those lines could conceivably be spoken by Stockmann, with maybe some minor alteration.
Notable is that all three of these songs are hip-hop self-analysis.