PLIEGO DE ESPECIFICACIONES TÉCNICAS

The Anthology of Rap documents the tradition of rap written and performed in English, most often in the United States, over the course of four decades. Though it is not the first collection of rap lyrics, it is the first anthology of rap compiled with the specific intention of studying the lyrics as poetry. We have endeavored to include those indispensable lyrics that define the body of rap at the present time, lyrics whose formal virtuosity, thematic interest, or both merit preservation and sustained study.

The publication of an anthology is a potential moment of danger for any art form because it necessitates categorization and containment. For a tradition as dynamic as rap, this is a particular concern. Rap inherently resists such categorization; it denies our best efforts to define it and fix it under our critical gaze. As sociologist and cultural critic Oliver Wang observes, “So much of hip-hop’s history has involved crushing canons.” ¹¹ We offer this anthology, therefore, fully aware of the limitations of any effort to render rap’s lyrical legacy. Its publication is by no means the last word on rap’s poetry but rather is the inauguration of a dialogue about what matters in rap lyrics.

Selecting lyrics for this anthology required a different set of criteria from, say, compiling the greatest mix tape in hip-hop history or naming the hundred most influential rap songs of all time. A collection of the greatest songs in rap history would differ substantially from the contents of an anthology that looks at rap lyrics as poetry and at rappers as poets.

Great songs are more than just lyrics; indeed, sometimes great songs rely on the lyrics being unobtrusive and unremarkable.

Our lyrical selections aim to strike a balance among several competing interests. The most difficult challenge was in establishing the final table of contents. To do so, we began with a set of selection criteria. Each lyric included had to meet at least one of the following standards: (1) Does the

song contribute to an accurate representation of hip-hop’s lyrical history?

(2) Does the song display lyrical excellence that is observable on the page? (3) Does the song help contribute to the fuller understanding of an individual artist’s poetic range and development?

In terms of the first category, well-known and rightfully celebrated songs like Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” or Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message” have a place in this anthology both on their merits as poetry and for their wide-ranging influence on hip-hop culture.

The anthology also includes songs whose historical import necessitates their inclusion even if their lyrical quality or explicit language and subject matter might render their selection controversial, such as Lil’ Kim’s

“Queen Bitch” or Too $hort’s “Cusswords.” In addition, we have included lyrics to songs that are representative of particular historical moments, regional styles, themes, or elements of poetic form. The Sugarhill Gang’s

“Rapper’s Delight” has playful and even rudimentary lyrics that might not distinguish it as cutting-edge poetry, but its broader cultural influence as rap’s first mainstream hit makes it indispensable to the story of rap poetics.

Since this is an anthology that considers rap as poetry, it places heightened emphasis on those songs that distinguish themselves for their poetic interest. The second criterion, therefore, is observable excellence—

granting, of course, that excellence in lyric poetry comes in a wide variety of forms as defined by a wide range of people. A song like Common’s “I Used to Love H.E.R.,” for instance, is notable for its ambitious extended metaphor. Lauryn Hill’s “Lost Ones” stands out for the sharpness and innovation of her rhymes. Juvenile’s “Ha” calls attention to itself in the incantatory nature of its repetition. The quality of these lyrics is apparent on the page alone, without even hearing their superb performances. This evaluative category also explains the inclusion of certain songs that never achieved widespread popularity, but that we believe merit close consideration.

The third category underscores the importance of encompassing the full range of a given artist’s work. This means that certain songs might be included for their representative significance at the expense of other songs of perhaps greater aesthetic achievement. For example, one could make the argument for including every song from Nas’s classic debut album, Illmatic. That said, the anthology has a more compelling interest in representing a comprehensive selection of Nas’s lyrics from across his long career. So though we might wish to include “One Love” over, say, “Black

President” on lyrical merit alone, the more recent song tells a fuller story of Nas’s stylistic development.

Generally, artists with long careers garner more lyrics. Yet there are special cases in which the importance of an artist to the tradition demands what might be considered a disproportionate emphasis on that artist’s work. For instance, though the Notorious B.I.G. recorded only two studio albums before his death, his impact on hip-hop and popular culture exceeds many artists who have enjoyed longer careers and greater total output; thus the number of his songs that are included is meant to be roughly commensurate with his contribution.

Though the majority of the MCs featured in this anthology are the authors of their own lyrics, in some instances the writer and performer are distinct. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message,” for instance, includes lyrics by the song’s performer, Melle Mel, and by a songwriter, Duke Bootee. Big Daddy Kane began his rap career writing lyrics for his label mates Biz Markie and Roxanne Shanté. Run-DMC wrote some of the verses on the Beastie Boys’ debut album. The importance of these artists to rap’s history is undiminished by the fact that they did not author all of their rhymes.

Ghostwriting, the practice of one artist supplying lyrics for another to perform, has been around since rap’s beginnings. However, given the audience’s expectation that rappers’ words should be their own, it has almost always been transacted behind the scenes. Rap lyrics are so closely associated with the identity of the artist that the idea of a distinction between writer and performer seems counterintuitive. Nonetheless, rap is in its essence a collaborative art form, from the tapestry of its densely layered samples to its borrowed lyrical riffs and references. For the purposes of this anthology, we have elected to include all lyrics under the names of their performers. We do this for both practical and aesthetic reasons. Practically, we recognize the impossibility of discerning with absolute certainty which artists wrote their own lyrics and which did not.

Aesthetically, we believe that the act of performance constitutes a kind of composition; though the Beastie Boys, for instance, did not compose all the verses on “Paul Revere,” their distinctive voices and deliveries shape the song and remain in our memory, even when the lyrics are brought back to the page.

As a rule, however, this anthology emphasizes poetry over performance. This is not, after all, a collection of lyrics from rap’s greatest hits, but rather a collection of rap’s best poetry. Some of the

biggest hits in hip-hop history include lyrics that are undistinguished. MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” had one of the most infectious hooks of the 1990s; anyone listening to the radio at that time undoubtedly can recite the lyrics, no matter how much they might now distance themselves from the song. Hammer’s album went platinum many times over and helped launch hip-hop into the realm of popular music, but considering “U Can’t Touch This” for its poetic merits misses the point of the song. Many hit songs derive their appeal from performance rather than language; the substance and structure of the lyrics play a secondary role to the pop-ready hooks, catchy samples, and banging beats. To offer the lyrics alone in such cases would do an injustice to the songs themselves, to sap them of their vitality and value as popular entertainment. It would also do a disservice to the songs included in this anthology, whose lyrics better reward close attention.

For every song we include, there are likely a dozen others that we might also have selected. The purpose of this anthology, however, is not to be exhaustive, but rather to represent in a readable fashion the full depth and quality of rap from its roots to the present. We encourage readers to consider these selections as a starting point for further discussions of rap’s poetry. And we hope that this anthology inspires others to compile their own collections of rap lyrics.

We regret that limitations of space and focus do not allow us to delve into the rich territory of rap outside the United States. Though we include a few lyrics by Canadian and British MCs, we have consciously chosen not to include artists from other parts of the world—continental Europe, Asia, Africa, the countries of the African diaspora, and South America among them. Only an anthology dedicated to global hip-hop could do justice to these rich traditions of innovation. Indeed, much of hip-hop culture today thrives outside the United States. We hope that such a collection will soon emerge.

One of the challenges in compiling an anthology of this scale is the practical matter of acquiring lyric permissions. Artists and labels maintain a financial interest in the song lyrics and command compensation.

Acquiring permissions can become a costly, time-consuming, sometimes Kafkaesque process. A single song may have as many as a half dozen or more copyright holders, each of whom is owed some percentage of the total compensation. Often, these individuals are difficult if not impossible to contact. We have made every effort to reach all individual copyright holders for each of the songs we include. Some readers may bemoan the

absence of certain classic songs, songs that logically should belong in this anthology. In such cases, there is a good chance that the reasons for not including the lyric have something to do with the practical matter of being denied the proper permissions. We are grateful to those artists and labels that facilitated our attempt to honor their impact on rap.