Why Jay-Z Can’t Preach (Got Some Dirt On My Shoulder, Could You Brush It Off For Me?)
The poet stops and stares at that which most of us merely glance at; he pauses to notice what is humane, significant and important. The poet joins King David in observing that the human is “fearfully and wonderfully made”, and notices, regardless of his theological beliefs, the tragicomic nature of reality surrounded by both God’s judgement and his grace. Whatever else it may be, poetry is not trivial. It may be perverse or twisted, angry or bitter, rebellious or self-centered, heterodox or even blasphemous, but it is not trivial. I am inclined to agree with William Hazlitt, who argued that “all that is worth remembering of life is the poetry of it. Fear is poetry, hope is poetry, love is poetry, hatred is poetry; contempt, jealousy, remorse, admiration, wonder, pity, despair, or madness, all are poetry.” Reading verse rescues us from the mundaneness of life; it permits us to observe again with wonder, and shocks us out of our cynicism and joylessness. After a day in which we have been constantly distracted by electronic devices grasping for our attention, or numbed by a “to-do” list that makes even our PDA sigh with despair, we read Robert Frost’s “Birches”, and we are alive again–alive as humans, alert to beauty, to creation, to play.
A quote-unquote famous rap star, Jay-Z:
Lord forgive him
He got them dark forces in him
But he also got a righteous cause for sinnin’
Them a murder me, so I gotta murder them first
Emergency doctors performin’ procedures
Jesus. I ain’t tryin’ to be facetious
But “Vengeance is mine”, said the Lord
You said it better than all
Leave niggas on deaths door
Breathin’ off respirators
For killin’ my best boy, HATERS
On permanent hiatus as I skate
In the Maybach Benz
Flier than Sanaa Lathan
Pumpin’ Brown Sugar by D’Angelo
In Los Angeles, like an evangelist
I can introduce you to your maker
Bring you closer to nature
Ashes after they cremate you bastards
Hope you been readin’ your Psalms and chapters…
I know it’s old hat in 2009 to listen to bastard pop, but I have been loving the Jaydiohead album an awful lot lately. Radiohead’s infallible ‘scapes make the guilty pleasure of listening to Jay-Z mouthing off more than just a passing novelty. The tracks are kept sparse and not overdone, with Thom Yorke’s vocals only featuring twice, obviously on ‘No Karma’, and interestingly on ‘Change Order’ where Jay sings about drugs between Thom’s A couple more for breakfast / A little more for tea / Just to take the edge off. You gotta let yourself go a little, embrace it.
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