Pick a creative out of the blue and ask them who their favorite poet is.

You will hear names from Poe to Baudelaire along with praises about how they so effortlessly weaved poetic devices into their works and revolutionized their crafts. At the time of this writing, the genre of rap music was barely 50 years old and since its inception, has gone on to birth a myriad of sub-genres beneath the umbrella of rap. Many critics have complained that rap isn’t art nor poetry and commonly refer to the Bling era of the 00’s as the smoking gun. This is a dated and frankly bigoted view on a genre responsible for some of the most innovative poets of our time. 

 The first point I would like to make is that rap is indeed poetry. Poetry is defined as a literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. Which makes rap music poetry by definition if there was ever any doubt. To further emphasize this point, I’ve done the busy work and will seek to point out some examples of poetic devices utilized in rap music.

But first, I’d like to focus on the rhyme scheme of Boldy James’ verse on the song S.N.O.R.T featuring Freddie Gibbs: 

“I'm making short-term goals, make the work turn pro (Yeah) 

Started with a diamond in the rough, just a lump of coal 

Snipe a nigga soul, lil' Joseph, he'll up the pole 

Wipe a nigga nose, for his Rol' and them Buffalos 

Swiping custos, selling blows, running through them 'bows 

How you loving those? Never told on none of my bros 

I be on the road, ducking patrol, coming through the toll (Yeah) 

Tryna keep it low, but Lord knows I need to move this load 

Shootin' through the O, on 75, set the cruise control 

It's moving too slow? Give it to Taj, he gon' move it whole (Drug store) 

It ain't what you know, it's who you know, plug toot his nose 

Every time it touch, it put me right back in the Super Bowl (Back in the game) No, this ain't Quali, that was Hi-Tech in my juice I poured 

On my mama stove with a Pyrex full of sushi roll 

I hit it with them ice chips in Ramen noodle bowls (Ugh) 

It harden up and turn into a block, looked like the soup was cold”

Boldy puts on a rhyme scheme masterclass with this 16. He employs the use of end rhyme (rhyming the final syllables of a line) and incidents of internal rhyme (rhyme within a single line of a verse where a word from the middle of a line is rhymed with a word at the end of the line) throughout the entirety of his verse! Just reading it to yourself will have the flow stick out to you and hearing it for the first time will tie the entire experience together. It’s even more impressive that James is actually telling a story in his rhymes. Nowadays it feels that when certain people mention “lyrical” rappers they’ll bring up artists who tend to rap at a brisk pace or implement complicated rhyme schemes for the sake of it. These verses are mostly empty, emotionless and don’t really showcase the artistry that rap truly holds. 

  Not everyone needs to be or necessarily wants to be intricate with their pen. To further this point, poeticism isn’t plainly about intricate rhyme schemes and wordplay. Rap is still music and sees many benefits from instrumentals, the rapper's voice, and the subject matter. Lyrics, I feel, have the important job of not only impressing the listener but imprinting emotions on them. Whether it’s to have fun, educate, or evoke a combination of emotions, lyricism is an often glossed over component of the poeticism in rap. Rappers like Moor Mother and the group Armand Hammer have carved their lane in the rap scene with a style that outlines them more as poets who rap. Take for instance these two verses, the first by Moor Mother on her song Rock Cried featuring Billy Woods and the second verse by ELUCID of Armand Hammer on his song Ramesses II.

“I hold space that can't be curved 

Snake coil, ribcage of dark goddess 

Hallow be thy name in the belly of existence 

Mystic nights of square fables, snake and man 

Lamb and sacrifice, mothers of darkness 

A priest without his head council of 33 inside the dome of heaven 

Under the tongue a reverend 

Oh lord, oh God, don't come down, stay high 

The rock cried, I can't hide you 

They gon' find you 

They gon' lynch you and call it suicide 

Where you gonna run to? 

The rock cried, the rock cried” 

“Never learned how to whistle, still can’t do the moonwalk

I’m running red lights and I hate to have my picture taken Catch me in the corner not speaking 

Doesn’t mean I don’t have much to say 

I bet you can’t tell when I’m tweaking 

My anxiety don’t look like yours 

I just relearned to skate, hands on my lady’s waist Got a sitter, made a date 

Where we at is the place of the most high 

Who no know gon’ know now, no doubt 

We got on like a house on fire 

A testimony ain’t nothing but 

Being wild and living to tell the story 

19 naughty now, my uncle on a 40-run 

Sawed-off on the three-quarter level 

Niggas never saw it coming 

All CashApp donations go toward my gold fang fund My appreciation for your participation 

Overstanding no such thing as spare change Blank faces holding space, feeling cramped Maybe I’m not who I thought I was 

Or can be who I said I would 

My conjure tongue strong blood 

Immaterial to material damn cuz 

Make it so, in the image of my most perfect projection Life is anything but static, supreme mathematics Repeating numbers, cycles patterns 

Summers, winters 

Starting later, ending faster 

Babel question, chaos answered 

Wave reflected all direction”

Moor Mother’s verse exudes an overwhelming sense of dread which plays off of the religious symbolism within this verse. The mood of this verse is sullen even suffocating with a somber tone. In comparison, ELUCID’s verse, rapped a cappella, comes across as more reflective and 

insightful. Focusing on repairing what he feels are shortcomings within his life and focusing on the fluid and open-ended aspects life has.. These two conflicted moods derived from two separate artists encapsulates the poeticism in rap for me. The purpose of this deep dive was not to condemn or separate but to educate. Poeticism in rap is so frequently glossed over or flat-out ignored and I feel that is an injustice and an insult to these artists. Rap has been around for half a decade and has moved fans to laugh, cry, revolutionize and organize all in this short span of time. Its very existence is poetic. Whether you’re a rhyming wizard-like Rakim or recounting tales of the trap like RX Papi, not only is the artistry there, so is the beauty and intensity of rap as it has always been.