Poetry In The Age Of Hip Hop

Hip-hop was built on four basic elements: MCing, DJing, graffitiing, and breaking. Then came the fifth element, knowledge. Influential rapper KRS-One introduced four more in 2003’s “9 Elements,” but knowledge holds a place of supremacy among the elements, at least to me: it’s the circumference within which the other elements are able to coexist, the lens hip-hop devotees use to see the world. Hip-hop is a lifestyle, and those who adhere to it don’t stop living once the DJ packs up for the night or their spray-paint cans run dry. These are the devotees who contribute to The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop.

But hip-hop artists are most regularly referenced. Coval draws inspiration from Molemen beat tapes, Kristiana Colón nabs a couple lines from Drake’s “Headlines” in a clever wink to sampling, and Franny Choi rearranges the lyrics of Lil Wayne‘s “Pussy Monster” in order of frequency. Michael Cirelli describes the moment Melle Mel began writing “The Message“: like the weight of the world was resting on the MC’s shoulders. The best parts of The Breakbeat Poets exert the same force.  v

Edited by Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Nate Marshall (Haymarket Books)