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Showing posts from February, 2021

Dr. Seuss, Trap Rapper

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There’s a really viral video of someone rapping the book “There’s a Wocket in My Pocket” by Dr. Seuss to Walk it Like I Talk It by Migos ft. Drake.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH7lNOm8Uc8&ab_channel=Dr.Seuss Looking back on this video, it’s interesting because Migos are known for popularizing the triplet flow. So in the song Walk It LIke I Talk It, the chorus goes: “Walk it like I talk it,” but is sung like “walk-it like-i talk-it” which creates a choppy yet catchy chorus, with the stress on the first syllable of each pair. The triplet flow is extremely useful in bringing lots of intensity in a song,  It’s kind of the new thing in trap, and many club songs, like Bodak Yellow (Cardi B), Panda (Desiigner), and Bad and Boujee (Migos), utilize this flow to create a clear rhythm to dance to. In fact, with the triplet flow, many artists simply need to rhyme two or three syllables across the triplet. But with Dr. Seuss, the triplet flow is easily applied thanks to how he writes his p

musical links?

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Personally, I was an avid poetry hater for much of my life. Every time I read poetry, it felt like my brain was exploding. I went out of my way to avoid poetry. But besides in children’s books and English classes, poetry has managed to seep into our lives, despite most of the population’s active resistance. Many of commercial music’s most popular artists write poetry: Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Kurt Cobain, 2Pac, Eminem, and Alicia Keys. Writing poetry has elevated their level of lyricism; their words simply just sound better, easier and more pleasing to hear. And in a way, isn’t music a type of poetry? It’s a form of poetry akin to riding a bike with the training wheels on; the meter, rhythm, and cadence are given. For the past week, instead of actively avoiding poetry, I tried to search for poetry and found so much of it already present in my everyday life. There’s even a form of poetry, spoken word, which is basically a song without the music. And what about nursery rhymes? Or ev

My, What Big Eyes You Have/Got H2O?

The LOTR trilogy is probably one of my favorite series adapted to film of all time. It’s such a fantastical look at one of the oldest archetypes, the hero’s journey. But specifically, I want to focus on Gollum, the shrewd bearer of the Ring. Gollum spends his life hunting fish and stroking “his precious,” which Bilbo eventually finds and takes. Gollum is the catalyst for all of Bilbo’s swagger in confronting Smaug; sure, he had instances where his wit and cleverness helped him escape from situations, but with the ring, he finally had an advantage over his enemies. Bilbo’s cleverness in outsmarting Gollum and taking the ring is how he crosses the threshold in the hero’s journey. He now has this tool of great power that will allow him to continue to outsmarter larger and stronger enemies on his journey. Gollum provided him with the confidence and tools to meet the challenges he’ll face. Similarly, Gotama the Buddha is the catalyst for Siddhartha to begin his journey inward. It’s Siddhart