Metaphorical Conceptions in Hip-Hop Music

Home , Bad Azz (rapper), Bad Boy for Life, Beg for Mercy, Nappy Roots, New Kids on the Block, Notorious (soundtrack)

n my block, it's like the world don't exist. We stay confined to this small little section with dividends," O Scott Crossley is a proclaims hip-hop artist Scarface in his composition "On My graduate student in the Block." From the perspective of the artist, then, his neighborhood, English Department at the figured adequately as a block, takes on the qualities of a corporeal, University of Memphis and a three-dimensional square: one both confining and small. The visiting professor at impression of the artist, voiced through metaphor, allows the Mississippi State University. careful listener to envision an insider's representation of an The author wouid iike to urban, African American neighborhood. Whether the neighbor- express his gratitude to Dr. hood as a block is meant to resemble a jail cell, a cramped, subdi- Reginald Martin for his sup- vided apartment, or even an auction block is unclear, but it is port and critical readings of clear that Scarface pictures his neighborhood pejoratively. His the various drafts of this paper. The author would also block is not the same block of such phrases as "block parties" or like to thank Dr. Charles Hall "The New Kids on the Block." Rather, Scarface's metaphorical for his close readings of early block contrasts with pleasant and safe metaphors; his connotes an drafts of this paper. arguably unique African American enclosure or confinement. Correspondence concerning Scarface and many other rap artists also offer listeners fresh this article should be analyses and observations through some of America's marginal- addressed to: Scott A. ized voices (Ogbar 164). Their metaphors are generally specific to Crossley, Department of the subculture that either adopts them from the dominant culture English, Mississippi State University, P. O. Box E, or creates them to address their own cultural needs. Scarface uses Mississippi State, MS 39762- the metaphor of the block to describe impoverished urban 5505 fsc544(5)msstate.eduV African American neighborhoods, neighborhoods frequently ref- erenced as "the projects," "the crib," and "the bricks." What do these metaphors ultimately symbolize? How have they been reconceptualized by African Americans? By non-Black persons? Traditionally, literary scholars focused on three aspects of metaphorical language unique to human communication and dis- similar to literal language. Metaphor, to earlier semanticists, was important because it enabled speakers to express ideas and meanings that were difficult, if not impossible, to express in literal speech. Metaphor also gave speakers a particularly compact means of communication, one not laden with extraneous words. Most importantly, metaphors, urdike literal speech, were able to describe the vividness of human experience in terms that only humans could express (Gibbs 125-33). Metaphors tend to be language community-specific. They frequently become incorporated into a language commuruty as special expressions of precise meanings. New and innovative metaphors are important also because they can often serve as vehicles to create new concepts. While most people would agree that poetry depends on metaphor to create imaginative worlds (Ricoeur 12-13), fewer people are aware that metaphors have been pivotal in the sciences for their role in conceptualizing new theoretical orientations and models (Smith, Pollio and Pitts 912-

African American Review, Volume 39, Number 4 © 2005 Scott Crossley 501 13). Poetry and scier\ce studies show Perhaps the most radical approach that metaphors can be used to signal to tmderstanding the importance of the inchoate starts of reality shifts that metaphor with reference to human are only possible through the figura- conceptual systems was begim by tive and allegorical influences of lan- George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in guage. Metaphors We Live By. They claim that This idea is not as contemporary as the conceptual system in which it sounds; it reflects the phenomenon humans think and act is fundamentally known as Sperber's Law, after the metaphorical in nature, or construc- German H. Sperber, who first observed tivist. According to constructivism, the that topics that are either intensely objective world is not directly accessi- emotional or extremely incomprehensi- ble but rather constructed on the basis ble are likely to become centers of of the constraining influences of metaphoric attraction (Smith, et al. 412- human knowledges and languages. 13). When this occurs, language users Within this view, metaphor aids in cre- substitute more familiar and under- ating reality (Ortony 5). standable metaphorical concepts and Lakoff and Johnson theorize that terminology from fields or domains to metaphors are similar to other concepts illuminate the newer problematic sub- that govern our thoughts and structure ject. In like fashion, those problematic ideals that come to be understood what we perceive, how we get around through other domains of thought will in the world, and how people relate to be used in the future to help clarify one another. Counter to the general challenging matters. Sperber's Law, belief that metaphor is gratuitous in then, suggests that the principal con- everyday life and speech, this theory cerns of an historical era or discourse elevates metaphor and its use to a posi- community will likely be reflected in tion of importance in both thought and the chief metaphors of the time period action (3). Lakoff and Johnson posit and that these same metaphors will that human thought processes are come to direct and possibly to con- largely metaphorical, and since strain the direction of intellectual metaphorical expressions in our lan- analysis of that period and future peri- guage are tied to metaphorical con- ods. Some linguists have gone even cepts in a systematic way, the surface farther with similar objectives to sug- level metaphors that people utter could gest that to understand the intellectual be used to study the nature of history of a specific time period, one metaphorical concepts and to under- must explicitly understand the stand the metaphorical nature of metaphors of that time (Smith, et al. human activities (10-13). 913). As a key example of a metaphori- Past metaphorical research has cal concept, Lakoff and Johnson sug- shown that metaphors give people new gest that we see arguments as war. As understandings of their collective expe- an underlying concept, "argument is rience and new meanings to their past, war" allows us to see that we don't just their daily lives, and their collective talk about arguments in terms of war, knowledges and beliefs. New but actually win or lose arguments as if metaphors have the power to create a they embodied war. We see the person new reality for both the listener and the we are arguing with as an opponent speaker; they cause both to tinderstand and the argument itself is structured by their experiences in different ways. the concept of war (viz., attack, This new meaning is heightened fur- defense, counterattack, and so on). This ther when discourse communities conceptual metaphor is realized in adjust their conceptual system and daily speech by the wide variety of begin to act and think according to the expressions we use to define argu- terms of the new metaphor. ments in terms of war. As Lakoff and

502 AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW Johnson frame it, these include, but are guish its members from the dominant not limited to: society and even more their metaphors -Your claims are indefensible. from dominant social metaphors. -He attacked every weak point in my Loosely speaking, as characterized by argument. Bakari Kitwana, members of the hip- -His criticisms were right on target. hop generation were bom after 1965 -I demolished his argument. and before 1984 (12). They are predom- -I never won an argument with her. -If you use that strategy, he'll wipe you inantly African American; their culture out. they express in many different ways. -She shot down all my arguments. (4)^ The chief cultural creation is the pro- duction of rap or hip-hop music, but Lakoff and Johnson state that the the culture can also be defined through essence of metaphor is "understanding their language, attitude, style, and and experiencing one kind of thing in fashion, all of which are manifested in terms of another" (xx). In this way, popular media such as hip-hop music. using the "argument is war" example, Black gansta' films, hip-hop maga- the argument and the war are two dif- zines, and television networks such as ferent things, but argument is partially MTV and BET.5 The culture is also dis- structured, vmderstood, performed, played by its own celebrities like Mike and talked about in terms of war. The Tyson, Snoop Dogg, and Allen Iverson. concept is metaphorically structured, The continuation of the culture occurs leading the language to be metaphori- when both Black and White youth tum cally structured. This structuring in to these sources to find value and iden- tum, according to Lakoff and Johnson, tity. According to Emest Allen, rap leads our thought processes to be con- music, more than any of the other ceived in largely metaphorical terms indices mentioned, has been the funda- because so many of the concepts that mental force in creating and shaping are important to us are either abstract the hip-hop culture; it is the principle or not clearly defined by our experi- medium for the expression of the ence, hence our dependence on worldviews of African American youth metaphors to understand and articu- (qtd. in Smitherman 1997: 5). As a post- late them (5-6). modem popular art form, it confronts As a product of a historically oral and challenges deeply held social and culture that embodies familiar aesthetic beliefs (Shusterman 614). metaphorical traits such as satire, The power and influence of rap irony, indeterminacy, sexuality, loyal- music are enormous. Within 20 years, ty, betrayal, closure, and encasement from 1980 to 2000, rap music went (Gates 1988: 6), African American rap from underground cult status to the music is especially rich in metaphoric number one top selling musical format, language.^ Its roots, along with other complete with Grammy awards and African American linguistic traditions mainstream corporate support. (including signifying, the dozens, and Rappers themselves have helped to narrativizing), give rap music its shape hip-hop culture and influence exceptional linguistic variety.^ These countless members of the generation. traditions correlate the rapper to the Most rappers have been male, and as a modem "griot," a linguistically fluent result, rap music is more representative and a gifted storyteller (Smitherman of Black men's cultural norms than 1997: 4).4 Black women's (Neal 76). The hip-hop generation, whose Many hip-hop critics are rightly members have propagated hip hop cul- concemed, however, with what they ture and rap music, does not form a see as the hyper-commercialization of homogeneous group, so I want to rap music by the corporate record define as closely as possible who the industry.^ They also malign the influ- hip hop generation is. I want to distin- ence of dominant commercial concems

METAPHORICAL CONCEPTIONS IN HIP-HOP MUSIC 503 on the aesthetic and political values of and control their lives. Law enforce- rap music. Many also find fault with ment, school systems, and popular commercialized rap's neglect of politi- media all identify them as intemally cal, social, and racial consciousness, dangerous elements of urban America, African American linguistic traditions, and this identification leads to the and its development as a viable art social construction of rap as also fun- (Gladney 294, 304, Powell 2002). But damentally unsafe (Rose 1991: 279). As even Ice Cube, who glorifies violence, a result, hip-hop culture is often materialism, and viewed by main- misogyny in his Hip-hop metaphors show a stream society as lyrics, insists that impoverished, and his music is funda- profound lack of faith in the evidence used mentally socially those civii institutions to support this responsible and claim is rap. In the that his use of vul- charged with providing a minds of many garities helps to safety for biacits. within and out- communicate this side hip-hop, this responsibility to communities that culture is affiliated with unemploy- would otherwise be disinterested ment, violent crime (including the high (Ogbar 170). Other critics say that incarceration rates that accompany it), gangster rap, the major offender in the drug abuse, fierce materialism, and the commercialization of rap music, is a objectification of both men and women self-styled product of "the ghetto." As (Powell 2002). It is my contention that such, it purposefully reproduces the these topics, being both intensely emo- exaggerated "Blackness" of African tional and problematic to hip-hop cul- American ghettoes and the destruction ture (and consequently corresponding there and should therefore be seen as favorably to Sperber's Law), have an accurate and symbolic replica of the become centers of metaphoric attention urban African American experience within the community. (De Genova 106). The commercializa- More importantly, I believe that an tion of rap music and the ownership of evaluation of the relative metaphors many large record labels by African found in gangsta' rap can be used to Americans and the distribution of better explain and understand the money to African American artists, social history of the hip-hop generation producers, executives, and business and to reveal the underlying conceptu- managers have increased the success of al system formulated by the same.' many African Americans, but have This conceptual system was generated contributed little to the improvement to structure hip-hop reality and give it of the social reality of substandard meaning. The identification and classi- housing, medical care, and education fication of this conceptual system can that affects half of African American also give both the dominant culture children and accounts for a quarter of and the subculture a better under- African Americans imder the control of standing of the hip-hop generation. the justice system (Tate 11-12). Using this understanding, activists, community leaders, politicians, and In essence, for better or for worse, civil servants might more efficiently rap music is one modem response to meet the challenges that the hip-hop the social and economic ailments of the generation faces. At a minimum, this collective African American communi- knowledge may help them approach ty, which include joblessness, disem- the problems faced by contemporary, powerment, and poverty (Smitherman urban African Americans with a clearer 1997: 5) Young members of the hip-hop awareness of the experiences faced by generation find themselves essentially the same. in an antagonistic relationship with the Perhaps the most immediate expe- institutions that attempt to structure rience that members of the hip-hop

504 AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW generation encounter is their neighbor- This pervasive conceptualization of hood. As stated earlier, the hip-hop neighborhoods as restrictive objects generation has created numerous exemplifies how African Americans metaphorical references for the areas in have allegedly come to understand which they live or about which they their environments and is likely a key produce art, virtually none of them to the general suspicion and disenfran- positive. Critic Nick De Genova brands chisement that many of the hip-hop the ghetto of rap music as a "space of generation have toward US power death" and also as a space of "survival structures. Alongside the myth that the and transcendence." It is the "heart of Blackness" (119). In this sense. Black majority of Americans live in secure urban neighborhoods are mythically neighborhoods with little rational fear emblematic of the distance American of crime or danger is the myth that society has not covered in its effort to African Americans have for genera- end segregation. African Americans as tions been raised and come to age in constructed in gangsta' rap lyrics environments that are rife with danger remain strongly segregated from their and delinquency. This contradiction in White counterparts in neighborhoods mythic US neighborhoods is clearly that are ripe with criminal gangs, drug seen in the metaphors used by the hip- abuse, violent crime, inferior schools, hop generation and shows a trickle- and poverty. Those mythical African down effect in the amount of faith the American neighborhoods are glaring hip-hop generation has in those civil contradictions to the idea that progress institutions charged with providing a has been made from the civil rights safe haven for African Americans. movement and that there has been According to Kitwana, this faithless- great growth in the desegregation of ness includes a general lack of faith in America. At least a part of hip-hop's police, local and national politicians, "immoral" philosophy finds its origin the liberal Democratic movement. in the fact that the civil rights move- Black leaders, and religious organiza- ment did not fulfill its promise to Black tions (18-25).1O America (Evelyn par. 18, online). The rap/hip hop community realizes these A genuine rather than constructed inconsistencies, and constructs difficulty that African Americans face metaphorical concepts of their neigh- is disproportionate, rampant unem- borhoods that are portrayed in the rap ployment. Members of the hip-hop music that comes out of the hip-hop generation in particular are twice as culture. likely as their White counterparts to be The overwhelming majority of unemployed, and those with similar metaphors used to describe African skills and backgrounds continue to be American neighborhoods conceptual- paid less than Whites for the same jobs ize them as restrictive rather than pro- (United States Department of Labor, tective objects.^ Examples are: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002). The jobs that are available, and that tend to -I'm the reason that your block is be earmarked for Black youth, are low vacant (Baby, Clipse and Pharrell Williams, "What Happened to that wage jobs with poor environments and Boy") low expectations. Those who want to -I'm from Da Bricks where the weed start their own businesses often find go for two for five dick (Redman, that it is difficult to secure loans or "Brick City Mashin' ") financial backing. High unemployment -Get to the crib so I can call Big Slate up' (Outkast, "Decatur Psahn") rates coupled with a sense of futility -I'm real bloody man, the hood love with equal wages directly correspond me man with the number of Black youths Don't make me show up in ya crib like involved in the underground economy. bro-man Locked up in a pen, I still do my thing For many of the hip-hop generation, (50 Cent, "Poor Lil Rich Nigga") this underground economy appears to

METAPHORICAL CONCEPTIONS IN HIP-HOP MUSIC 505 be the quickest and most reliable -Thug ass niggas that love to bust source of income (Kitwana 40-46). (Notorious B.I.G., "Notorious Thugs," 1997) This method of industry, the -Cause a mothafucka try to get me in a underground economy, often finds jackin' (Notorious B.I.G., "Notorious itself metaphorized in rap music. As an Thugs," 1997)" example, in the opening lines of "On -Imagine your kids gotta sling crack to My Block" Scarface describes the survive, swing a Mac to be alive (NAS, "I Want to Talk to You") underground economy as: "a either -They watch us from the buildin but working or ya slanging cocaine on my niggaz still be on the grind (G-Unit, block. / Ya had to hustle cuz that's how "I'm So Hood") we was raised on my block." Notorious -My soldiers slangin' 'caine, sunny, B.I.G. in "Things Done Changed" (1994) snow, in sleet or rain (50 Cent and Young Buck, "Blood Hound") speaks of the selling of drugs as -I stack heavy doe, sell out every show "Slinging crack rock," and Bishop in (P. Diddy, Busta Rhymes, and "U Know U Ghetto When" (2001) M.O.P., "Bad Boy For Life") describes it as "push(ing) crack" and later as "juggling." Newcomers to the How the hip-hop generation con- hip-hop scene. Nappy Roots, describe ceptualizes working in the under- working in underground economy in ground economy is important for a the following way: "Get my grind on, variety of reasons. Perhaps the most hustle that bustle to make my grip in significant of these is the demystifica- any time zone / bimdle that bubble, tion of work itself. As a conceptual let's make it split" ("Hustla," 11. 68-69). metaphor, working in the under- These few examples suggest that mem- ground economy is by no means glam- bers of the hip-hop generation view orized; it is purposefully unpre- work, or at least work of the under- dictable. It is generally difficult work ground economy, as being conceptual- that also appears to discourage work- ized as frenetic movement. That is to ers. Although film and other popular say, that work in the underground culture media have portrayed it as economy is vmlike typical work found romantic, work in the underground within conventional economic endeav- economy is inconsistently available, ors. Much of the work that members of physically taxing, and always incon- the hip-hip community are either stant. Film, novels, television shows, familiar with or accustomed to cannot and music videos have convinced be described using the typical many people that work in the under- metaphors that the dominant society ground economy is prestigious and has established for entering data or alluring; the conceptual metaphors answering telephones. Instead used by the hip-hop generation contra- metaphors used by hip-hop culture dict this misperception. depict work as chaotic, uncontrolled, Working in the underground econ- dangerous, and possibly violent. As an omy forms only one of the many con- underlying concept, work as frenetic troversies about rap music. Perhaps no movement is further shown through other controversial theme has captured additional metaphors that image work the interest of the American media and in the underground economy: feminist movements as has the obvious sexual objectification of women in rap -Us niggaz had to hustle for the cash music. ^^ Album after album names (Tupac Shakur, 'To Live & Die in women as bitches, hoes, gold diggers, L.A.," 1998) -So I fight with my pen (Tupac Shakur, chickenheads, and so on. The representa- 'To Uve & Die in L.A./' 1998) tion of women as sexual objects for -I hit the studio and drop a jewel men's use is a common trope in rap (Tupac Shakur, 'To Uve & Die in L.A.," 1998) -Armed and dangerous, ain't too many Both male and female rappers fig- can bang with us (Notorious B.I.G., ure heterosexual intercourse as an "Notorious Thugs," 1997) object. A brief review of the metaphors

506 AFRtCAN AMERtCAN REVtEW used in only one song, "T-Shirt and hip-hop generation is the putative Panties On," by Adina Howard, shows resentment or outright dismissiveness sex is, metaphorically, an object to be that Black men feel towards Black hit, tumed out, taken, and "freaked": women who have ostensibly enjoyed -We're gonna tum it out greater economic success since the -Hit it from behind height of the civil rights movement. In -Have Gloria freak it reality. Black women complete under- -Take it cause I'm all alone graduate and graduate degrees at twice the rate that Black men do (Close Howard makes it clear that the sex act, 45). Terminal degrees in law and in within her conceptual pattems, is not medicine have been disproportionately only an object, but also an object and earned by Black women in comparison an act of violence. These terms separate with their male coimterparts. This gen- heterosexual intercourse from emo- der gap theoretically leads Black tions, intimacy, and cognition, and women but not Black men to material they correlate with the pervasive idea success. This alleged greater material that many African American males of success is another possible reason for the hip-hop generation have embraced the objectification of Black women and, nihilism over emotions (De Genova 89- as a result, material wealth has become 90). The sex act is openly portrayed as an index of success for the hip-hop being about the body and the availabil- generation, whose members tend to ity of the body. The use of neuter pro- focus more on professional careers, nouns to refer to heterosexual inter- material items, and financial wealth course heightens its alleged objectivity than on intimacy and relationships and divorces it from personal signifi- (Kitwana 107-18). This attitude leads to cance. Additional examples of the a general conception that material objectified violent nature of heterosex- objects are the signs of success and has ual intercourse pervade the lyrics of affected the hip-hop generation's other rap artists:^^ approach to love, sex, and relation- -I'm qualified to knock a hoe (Snoop ships by perceiving them as being Dogg, "Bring it on") materialistic and objective (Kitwana 6- -You wanna bang, let's bang it (Snoop 12). Dogg, "Bring it on") -Got it cracking with my hoe (Snoop Materialism constitutes another Dogg, "Bring it on") recurrent theme in rap. Rap advertises -Let me hit that from behind (Notorious B.I.G., "Fuck You the ideal of conspicuous consumption, Tonight," 1997) and rappers expend those things asso- -I got you all pinned up (Notorious ciated with materialism, including lux- B.I.G., "Fuck You Tonight," 1997) ury cars, women, technology, clothes, -I push my seed somewhere deep in and jewelry. Whatever the connection her chest (The Roots, "The Seed") -And even if I did twist her (Clipse, between an alleged African American "Ma, I Don't Love Her") hyper-materialism and a "racial reflex" -I get her and wear her down, next ingrained in black people as a result of door neighbors hear the sound their having once been sold as chattel Pictures hittin the ground, just enough (Dyson 110-11), materialist notions and to hold us down I'm stickin and movin, cruisin after the their consequences have seriously third round (G-Unit, "Wanna Get affected African Americans' collective to Know You") pursuit of the American dream -And when if s firushed over and done (Shusterman 622-23). with Imma smoke a blunt and Interestingly, rap music's knock the pussy off some bitch metaphors of materialism exhibit sig- (Mystikal and Butch Cassidy, "Tarantula") nitieant metonymy. Metonymy, while metaphoric in nature, is distinguish- One possible reason for this objec- able from metaphors proper in that it tification of raced sex acts within the involves a part standing for the whole

METAPHORICAL CONCEPTIONS IN HIP-HOP MUSIC 507 {wheels for a car, the law for police offi- This dude got the juice of a pimp in cers) or an individual example stand- him I'm turning stones like medusa had ing for a related general category (a gUmpse of them (Fabolous, "Not mother for motherhood) (Chandler 125- Give a Fuck") 39). In this way, metonymy grounds -Hey y'all, all I'm tryn' a do is stay itself in the object to which it refers, ballin' and takes its essential meaning from Thick papers in my pockets, credit the object itself. This tendency is exhib- cards in my wallet ited in rap music through such terms Ben Franklin on my answer machine as chromes for hubcaps, stones and chips (Daz and Bad Azz, "U Ain't Shit") for jewelry, paper and Benjamins for As a conceptual metaphor, dollar bills, and wealth generally "Materialism is Essentialism" relates to through terms like bank and trump many of the key criticisms that are lev- (referring to Donald Trump). Because eled at the hip-hop culture. Chief the hip-hop culture frequently tends among these are the criticisms that the not to separate materialism from the hip-hop generation is devoid of a com- physical entity that it is attached to mon spirituality and hides itself behind (through metonymy) and instead various masks (including material wor- keeps an obvious link between the ship) and ultimately nihilism. metaphor of the signified material According to Powell (2002), Dyson, alive, it sees materialism analogous to and De Genova, the hip-hop genera- essentialism. In other words, material tion has become almost synonymous items of value cannot be separated with materialism. from their physical constructions with- out losing that same value. As a con- There are vast statistics document- ceptual metaphor, "Materialism is ing African Americans killed by other Essentialism," can be seen in the fol- African Americans, and, at times, these lowing lyrics: records lead to critical discussion of Black on Black crime in America (Rose -I got a fetish for the stones, I'm heavy 1991:288). Critics such as Tricia Rose on the ice man (G-Unit, "Poppin' point out, though, that this focus on Them Thangs") Black on Black crime can silence dis- -You try and play me I'm a blaze it in My chromes cost more than the crib cussions of other serious troubles faced ya momma raised ya in (50 Cent, by African American communities, "Poor Lil Rich Nigga") including socioeconomic difficulties, -Cause this paper we makin' is real, all substandard housing, nominal health day care, inadequate mimicipal services, Chains showin', rings glowin'. Range Rovin' police harassment, and racial discrimi- And my nigga push ki's like Beethoven nation, and that "Black on Black crime" (P. Diddy, G. Dep, and The has become a catch phrase for all that is Hoodfellaz, "If You Want This wrong in African American neighbor- Money") hoods (Rose 1991: 288). In response to -Young broad go around in them cus- tom drops poverty, disenfranchisement, and And ifs nothing to grab the nines and despair, many young African spit at ya Americans regard Black on Black crime Bare broke, to roll your stones like as an effective strategy for self-actual- Mick Jagger ization. Rapper Talib Kweli invokes the Hot chrome properly to your dome (Foxy Brown and Capone-N- voice of the impatient: Noreaga, "Run Yo Shit") -Thinkin I'm Gotti and shit, fuck with They don't wanna raise the babies so anyone of them bitches you wit the election is fixed Pushin a six-hundred, wrist flooded That's why we don't be fuckin with with chips^^ (Guru, Ice-T and politics Suspectz, "tJnderground They bet on that, parents fought and Connections") got wet for that -Half of my roots is Domirucan Hosed down, bit by dogs, and got Me gusta le benjamins Blacks into house arrest for that

508 hFRtCAN AMERICAN REVIEW Ifs all good except for that—we still Regardless of rap's positive and poor negative messages, it is the defirute cul- Money, power and respect is why we kill for, for real ("The Proud") tural movement of the hip-hop generation, and its influences far outreach the As a societal problem. Black on African American community. US con- Black crime is one group's response to, sumption of rap music is not limited to as Kweli states, a pathologizing lack of Black men; African American women wealth, power, and civil rights as well male and female European reserved for African Americans. When Americans, Hispanic Americans, and any of these core elements is missing Asian Americans consume this music. among any peoples anywhere, then the Moreover, it is an intemational value of human life everywhere crossover success. Rap's ability to becomes negotiable, even bankrupt. impact social change is immense, but Consequently, in hip-hop metaphors this success is tarnished given that the source of human life, the body, some of the social changes the rap becomes objectified and inanimate.^^ In brings about are arguably negative and counterintuitive. The objectification of violent rap lyrics, for example, victims women through metaphor in rap music of aggression are treated as inert has likely helped to sustain the concep- objects that can be molested and con- tualization of women as a commodity trolled. Frequently bodies are disap- as well as continue the material and peared, laid somewhere, bent, emotional divide between African bumped, and knocked about. American men and women. The search Accordingly, rap music represents for material wealth, as found conceptu- black victims of Black on Black crime alized in the metaphors of rap music, as devastated bodies. has also likely led many to believe that -But I'll hunt or duck a nigga down the hip-hop generation suffers from a like ifs sport spiritual barikruptcy, while crime and Front on me, I'll cut ya, gun-butt ya or violence in urban African American bump ya (50 Cent, "What Up neighborhoods continue to create an Gangsta") atmosphere of limitation as seen in the -A new mind a new 9,1 had to cock conceptualization of living spaces and back and spray Lay ya down for that title and crown economic opportunities in rap (Daz and Bad Azz, "U Ain't Shif) metaphors. The negative representa- -I don't know what you been thinkin, tion of women in rap, along with the don't know what you been drinkin overt glorification of the gangster But you get outta line boy, I'll lay your underground, materialism, and violent ass down ... crime, as seen in rap's conceptual The 16 top shot loader'U bend ya ass up like yoga metaphors, has likely caused many to Your fuckin wit a soldier (G-Unit, "Lay view rap music as degenerative and You Down") problematic. This pessimistic view of -Nigga told me, "Do your dirt all by rap has led many people to ignore its your lonely" potential for addressing and under- So I go hit them niggas 'fore 50 couldn't standing social issues such as inade- even hold me I'm waiting, anticipating to put a rugga quate housing, shrinking economic under (G-Urut, "Gangsta Shit") opportunities, and general loss of -Shells hit your chest go out your back hope. man See me I put in work, man I been doin' The conceptual metaphors found dirt in rap music are symbolic of more than For so long when niggas get laid out just the psychological and physical (laid out)... nature of the hip-hop experience. They I'll knock a bailer off his pivot with this motherfuckin' choppa' (50 are emblems of the social inadequacies Cent and Young Buck, "Blood that still exist in the United States and Hound") of the economic and institutional dis-

METAPHORICAL CONCEPTIONS IN HIP-HOP MUSIC 509 advantages that many African ing influences of human knowledge Americans still face. Metaphors of rap and language. Metaphors are instru- music shape hip hop culture, and mental in creating this reality and the enable its comprehension. Rap, accord- surface-level metaphors found can be ing to Kiema Dawsey, is an art form used to study the character of that accurately reports "the nuances, metaphorical concepts and understand pathology and most importantly, the metaphorical nature of human resilience of America's best kept secret activities. The metaphors of the hip- ... the Black ghetto" (qtd. in hop generation as established in rap Smitherman 1997: 7). The conceptual music help to identify and understand metaphors created within the "Black the problematic ideals and obstacles ghetto" are evidence of the secrets hid- faced by the younger generation of the den within. African American community. They As Lakoff and Johnson state, the also help to clarify the challenging mat- objective world is not directly accessi- ters that the hip-hop generation must ble but rather built upon the constrain- confront.

Notes 1. Other metaphorical concepts that Lakoff and Johnson discuss indude "Ideas are food, plants, people, products, etc.," "Love is a physical force, a patient, madness, magic, and war," "Life is a con- tainer or a gambiing game," and various others (15-51). 2. These traits paradoxically mimic many of the metaphoric conceptuai categories discussed in this paper. 3. Rap metaphors also have many corollaries with the Black Arts Movement, which iike rap, created a voice to reach and replicate the lives of ordinary African Americans. The poetry of both the Biack Arts movement and rap not oniy "taps the reservoir of the Biack Cuiturai Universe," but does so using the language of the Black community (Smithennan 1973). The Black lexis, ripe with the oral cuiture of Africa, gives the Biack artist a fantastic history of metaphoricai awareness and metaphorical choices (Smitherman 1973: 265), many of which are used in rap music. Further, as Addison Gayle, Jr., argued. Black art is historicaliy ingrained with the anger that is felt by the African American community and, to this end, hip-hop culture and rap music have respectiveiy sustained various aesthetic convictions that arose out of the Biack Arts iVIovement of the 1960s (Gladney 291). 4. Gates refers to this storytelling ability as the ability to talk in innuendo, carp, cajole, lie, and nee- dle. It refers to the ability to talk circles around your opponent (Gates 1987: 238-39). 5. Rap itself was originally a metaphor for romantic, sexual interactions among African Americans. By the 1960s, it had lost its sexuai affiiiations and instead referred to strong and influential speech (Smitherman 1997: 4) 6. This contention is not to negiect the commercialization of Hip-Hop in brand advertising as diverse as Coca-Cola, Taco Bell, KFC, Mattel, DC Comics, J. C. Penney, Spiegel, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Levi-Strauss, Pepsi, and Calvin Klein (Speigler 122-25 and Miller 10-11). 7. This study will concentrate mainly on the dominant metaphors found in the sub-genre of gansta' rap. Gansta' rap, while obviously commercialized, is the highest grossing rap genre and portrays changes in urban life and values. 8. Perhaps for whites the house is seen as a protective place to escape from the daily obstacles of life. Thus the home is a revitalizing fixture in white lives. Conversely, rap and hip-hop figure African American living spaces as restrictive and controlling. 9. Unlike a baby's crib, which might imply safety and security, this crib is likely borrowed from the onginal metaphor of crib as a small, tightly controlled room for prostitutes in a brothel. 10. Racial profiling, the miiitarization of urban police forces, random parole sweeps, and the use of community informants in Black neighborhoods have deteriorated trust between law enforcement and hip hoppers. 11. Jackin' is a linguistic shortening of the term carjacking, a word associated with hijacking, both of which are based etymologically on jack, the denotations of which include to rob, mug, or steal. It perhaps derives from the practice of stealing tires by "jacking up" a car, hence the colloquialism "jack you up." 12. While men are also sexually objectified in rap music, their objectification has received little attention from media or political groups.

510 AFRICAN AMERtCAN REVtEW 13. The sexual objectification of women is not a problem that occurs only within hip-hop culture. The objectification of Black women by Black men has garnered more attention than the corresponding objectification of women in mainstream society. As Rose points out, the objectification of women has long been a Black cultural practice, but it is no different than that found in other cultures as well (1991:289-90). 14. Rap is not the only genre to objectify sex. Billboards, television shows, product advertisements, and music videos also objectify women. 15. Of further interest is the 'Italian Mob" metaphor glorified in many gansta rap lyrics and videos. Snoop Dogg, for instance, labeled his sophomore LP The Doggfather and Jay-Z raps about his god- father flow. Many gansta rap video are littered with mythical Italian Mafia tropes like expensive cloth- ing and cars. Such metaphors glorify crime, violence, and materialism (Ogbar 167-68). 16. Smitherman noticed a similar metaphor when she wrote that for the rap group Naughty by Nature "the chain remains the same as in enslavement" (1997: 6).

Allen, Ernest, Jr. "Making the Strong Survive: The Contours and Contradictions of Message Rap." Works Dropping Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture. Ed. W. E. Perkins. Cited Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1996.159-91. Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics: The Basics. New York: Routledge, 2001. Close, Ellis. "The Black Gender Gap." Newsweek 3 Mar. 2003: 44-48. Dawsey, Kierna M. "Caught Up in the (Gangsta) Rapture." The Source June 1994: 58-62. De Genova, Nick. "Gangster Rap and Nihilism in Black America: Some Questions of Life and Death." Social Text 43 (Autumn 1995): 89-132. Dyson, Michael Eric. "Behind the Mask: Helping African American Men Feel Secure." Essence November 1999: 109-12. Evelyn, Jamilah. "The Miseducation of Hip-Hop." Black Issues in Higher Education (online) 7 Dec. 2000. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. The Signifying Monkey. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. —. Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self. New York: Oxford UP, 1987. Gibbs, Raymond W., Jr. The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1994. Gladney, Marvin J. "The Black Arts Movement and Hip-Hop." Mrican American Review 29 (1995): 291-301. Kitwana, Bakari. The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in the African-American Culture. New York: BasicCivitas, 2002. Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1980. Miller, Cyndee. "Marketers Tap into Rap as Hip-Hop Becomes Safe." Marketing News 16 Jan. 1993: 10-11. Mitchell-Keman, Claudia. "Language Behavior In a Black Urban Community." Monographs of the Language-Behavior Research Laboratory! (1974). Neal, Mark Anthony. Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic. New York: Routledge, 2002. Ogbar, Jeffrey O. G. "Slouching Toward the Bork: The Culture Wars and Self-Criticism in Hip-Hop." Joumal of Black Studies 30 (November 1999): 164-83. Ortony, Andrew. Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1979. Powell, Kevin. "Interview." The Daily Fotty-Niner A6 Oct 2002. —. "Rage and Revolution." Essence November 1999:127. Rapoport, Anatol. Semantics. New York: Crowell, 1975. Ricoeur, Paul. The Rule of Metaphor: Multi-Disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1975. Rose, Tricia. "Fear of a Black Planet: Rap Music and Biack Cultural Politics in the 1990s." The Joumal of Negro Education 60.3 (Summer 1991): 276-90. —. "Black Texts/Black Contexts." Black Popular Culture. Ed. Gina Dent. Seattle: Seattle Bay P, 1992. 223-28. Salaam, Mtume ya. "The Aesthetics of Rap." African American Rev/ew29 (1995): 303-15. Shusterman, Richard. "The Fine Art of Rap." New Literary History 22 (Summer 1991): 613-32. Smith, Michael K., Howard R. Pollio, and Marian K. Pitts. "Metaphor as Intellectual History: Conceptual Categories Underlying Figurative Usage in American English from 1675-1975." Linguistics 19 (1981): 911-35. Smitherman, Geneva. "The Power of the Rap: The Black Idiom and the New Black Poetry." Twentieth Century Literature 19 (October 1973): 259-74.

METAPHORICAL CONCEPTIONS IN HIP-HOP MUSIC 511 —. "The Chain Remains the Same: Communicative Practices in the Hip-Hop Nation." Journal of Black Studies 28 (September 1997): 3-25. Speigier, Marc. "Marketing Street Cuiture." American Demographics 18 (November 1996): 122-33. Stern, Gustaf. t\Aeanmg and Change of Meaning: With Special Reference to the English Language. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1965. Tate, Greg. "Nigs R Us or How Blackfolks Became Fetish Objects." Everything but the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture. Ed. Greg Tate. New York: Harlem Moon, 2003.1-14. Walpole, Hugh R. Semantics: The Nature of Words and Their Meanings. New York: Norton, 1941.

Discography Baby. Birdman. Universal, 2002. Bishop. U Know U Ghetto. Edel America, 2001. Brown, Foxy. Broken Silence. Universal, 2001. Ciipse. Lord Willin. Arista, 2002. Dillinger, Daz. Dpgc: U Know What I'm Throwin Up. Gangsta Advisory, 2003. Fabolous. Street Dreams. Elektra/Asylum, 2003. 50 Cent. Get Rich or Die Trying. Interscope Records, 2003. Jay-Z. The Black Album. Def Jam, 2003. G-Unit. Beg for Mercy. Interscope Records, 2003. Guru. Baldhead Slick & The Click. Landspeed, 2001. Howard, Adina. Second Coming. Rufftown Records, 2004. Kurupt. / Didn't Change: B-Side. Unreleased, 2002. Kweli, Talib. Quality. MCA, 2002. Mystikal. Tarantula. Jive, 2001. Nappy Roots. Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz. Atiantic, 2002. Nas. I Am. Sony, 1999. Notorious B.I.G. Life After Death. Bad Boy, 1997. — Ready to Die. Bad Boy, 1994. Outkast. ATLiens. La Face, 1996. P. Diddy. P. Diddy & Bad Boy Records Present: We Invented the Remix. Bad Boy, 2002. —. The Saga Continues. Bad Boy, 2001. Redman. Doc's Da Name 2000. Def Jam, 1998. Scarface. Fix. Universal, 2002. Shakur, Tupac. Better Dayz. Interscope Records, 2002. —. Greatest Hits. Interscope Records, 1998. Snoop Dogg. Tha Last Meal. Priority Records, 2000. The Roots. Phrenology. MCA, 2002.

512 AFRICAN At^ERICAN REVIEW