The Power of the Rap: The Black Idiom and the New Black Poetry

Author(s): Geneva Smitherman

Source: Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Oct., 1973), pp. 259-274
Published by: Hofstra University
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GenevaSmitherman

The Power of the Rap:

The Black Idiom and
The New Black Poetry

Black ArtsLiterature--of whichthe New Black Poetryis the mostimpor-

tantmanifestation-emerged duringthepast decade as the appropriate artistic
counterpartto Black Power.Rhetoricand shoutingaside,thisnew thrustwas,
on a verybasic level,simplya call to Black folksto redefineBlacknessand re-
evaluatetheBlackExperience.For thewriter, thisreassessmenthas culminated
in a redefinition
of the role of the artistand a new perspectiveon whatcon-
stitutesArt.The creatorof Black ArtsLiteratureenvisionshimselfas a Nec-
romancer," a skillfulmanipulator of theArtof Black Magic,whosejob it is to
"heal" Black folksthroughthe evocativepowerof Art, and transform their
sufferingintoconstructivepoliticalaction.Black Art,then,mustof necessity,
be functionaland relevantto thelivesand dailystruggles of Black people.Yet
it mustbe Art,fortheheroicWord-Magician of thisnewera insistson products
thatare withintheboundariesof formalliterary expression.

It shouldbe notedin passing,however,thatthe contemporary rediscovery

and legitimizingof theBlack CulturalHeritageis notnew in thiscentury.Nor
is thepoliticalproteststanceof theBlackwriter.PoetslikeClaude McKay and
CounteeCullen,of theHarlemRenaissanceMovementof theTwenties,wove
boththemesof protestand beauty-in-Blackness intotheirworks.Butthecurrent
Black ArtRevivaldiffers fromthatof the Renaissancein two majorrespects.
First,today'sBlackartistis notcontentto be simplya writer,soundinghis pro-
testonlythrough his art.He sees himselfas a Black man first,
and thusas an

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Twentieth Literature
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active participantin the strugglefor Black Liberation. Second, rejecting the

elitist tendencies of the Renaissance literati,the new Black writer is making
Herculean effortsto create a literaturethatwill reach and reflectcommon Black
folks. The objective is to prevent today's Cultural Consciousness Movement
frombecoming like that of the Harlem Renaissance, which, according to Lang-
ston Hughes, ordinaryHarlemites had not even heard of, and if they had, "it
hadn't raised theirwages any."'

The grass roots, lacking the Black Bourgeoisie's white middle class aspira-
tions, have been the bearers and sustainersof Black culture throughthe cen-
turies.In representingthe masses, the new Art will be expressiveof the unique-
ness of Afro-Americanculture. Hence the quest among Black Arts writersfor
a stylerooted in this cultural sensibility,a stylethat is emergingas an identifi-
able Black Aesthetic.Nowhere is thisAestheticmore strikinglyrevealed than in
the language of the New Black Poetry,for in creatingthis new linguisticform,
the poets are not only tappingthe reservoirof the Black Cultural Universe but
doing so in the Black Idiom, (which is what makes much of this poetrydifficult
reading for whites, and also lends credence to the frequent claim of Black
writersthat the criticsof Black literatureshould be Black). Within the limita-
tionsof writtenform,today's poets are attemptingto capture the flavorof Black
American speech-its rhythmsand sounds, both its dialect and style. Through
their artisticefforts,the poets seem to be saying: if the message is new, the
medium must be new also. (Other genres of Black Arts Literaturethat reflect
attemptsto synthesizemedium and message are, for instance,John Oliver Kil-
lens' recentnovel,Cotillion,3renderedin what Killens labels "Afro-Americanese,"
and the plays of Ed Bullins, especially the published version of his Duplex.
However, poetrycontinues to be the dominant literaryexpression of the New
Black Writers,for reasons which should become apparent shortly.)

The necessityfor this new poetic medium can be best explained withinthe
contextof the interrelationship betweenlanguage and cultural values, especially
as it relates to the experience of Afro-Americans.It is a well-foundedconcept
of linguisticanthropologythat language is a key to understandingculture. The
idiomatic structureand nuances of a language can give us insight into the
thoughtpatternsand value structureof anotherculture. For instance,in linguist
Benjamin Whorf'sstudyof the North American Hopi Indians,5he demonstrated
the correlationbetween the non-European Hopi language and the concomitant
non-European way the Hopi perceivesthe world and subsequentlyorganizes his
culture. On a psychological level, language is intricatelybound up with the
individual'ssense of identityand group consciousness. In the historyof man's
inhumanityto man, it is clearly understandablewhy the conqueror forces his
victimsto learn his language, for there is truthto the axiom: as you speak, so
you think.Certainlythisprinciplehas been operative in the historyof colonized
people where the colonizer's language and cultureoccupy a positionsuperiorto
thatof the colonized, even among the oppressed persons themselves.(The fact

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 Powerofthe Rap

thatAmericawas once a colonyof Englandgoes a longwaytowardsexplaining

whyBritishEnglishstillcommandssuch greatprestigein thiscountry-despite
thereal communicationbarrierit poses formostAmericans.)

Blackpsychiatrist FrantzFanonhas brilliantly

analyzedthecolonizedAfrican
mind,explaining itstragically withtheEuropeanculturethat
sickidentification
oppressedit.The denigration of theAfrican'snativelanguagewas a basic mani-
festationof the culturalrejectionof Africaby bothEuropeansand Africans.
Speakingof the"Negroand language"6in theFrenchWestIndies,Fanon char-
acterizedthesituation thus:

Everydialectis a wayof thinking...And thefactthatthenewly

returned[i.e., fromEuropeanschools]Negroadoptsa language
fromthatof the groupintowhichhe was bornis evi-
different
denceof a dislocation,
a separation...

In showingwhythe"Negroadoptssucha position... withrespectto European

languages,"Fanon argued:

It is because he wantsto emphasizethe rupturethathas now

occurred.He is incarnating a new typeof man thathe imposes
on his associatesand his family.And so his old mothercan no
longerunderstand himwhenhe talksto her abouthis duds,the
family'scrummy joint,thedump... all of it, of course,tricked
out withthe appropriate accent....

In theAmericancontext,thenegativeattitudetowardBlack speech-shared
by Blacksand whitesalike-is buta variationon thissame theme.Historically,
Black Englishwas the usage patternof Uncle Remus and Uncle Tom. Con-
temporaneously, it is thedialectheavilyconcentrated in America'surbanBlack
ghettos.Consistently, it has been labelled "poor English."Yet it is a speech
patternwhich adheres to and
systematic regularizedgrammatical rules (hence
"pattern").More importantly, it continuesto be thelanguageof the Group,the
Folk, theBlack massesto whomtheNew Poets have committed theirtalents.
RevitalizingtheBlackCulturalSensibility dictatesthattheold pejorativeasso-
ciationsbe replacedwithnew positiveones. And so, like the AntillesNegro,
who "goes home fromFranceexpressing himselfin the dialectif he wantsto
makeitplainthatnothing has changed,";AmericanBlackpoetsare articulating
thenewconsciousness in thelingoof theFolk. For thepeople'slingois thepoet's
lingotoo. No longeris theBlackwriterto be set apartfromhis ghettobrethren
by usingthe "standard"dialect (knownas "talkinproper,"or "tryinto talk
white"in the Black community.)The fatherof the Black Arts Movement,
ImamuAmiriBaraka (LeRoi Jones),atteststo thepoliticaland culturaloneness
triggeredby Black English:

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Twentieth Literature
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I heard an old Negro streetsinger last week, Reverend Pearly

Brown,singing,'God don't never change!' This is a precise thing
he is singing.He does not mean 'God does not ever change!' He
means 'God don't never change!' The differenceis in the final
human reference... the form of passage throughthe world. A
man who is rich and famouswho sings,'God don't never change,'
is confirminghis hegemonyand good fortune..,.or merelycall-
ing the bank. A blind hopeless black American is saying some-
thingvery different.Being told to 'speak proper,' meaning that
you become fluentwiththe jargon of power, is also a part of not
'speaking proper.' That is, the culture which desperatelyunder-
stands that it does not 'speak proper,' or is not fluentwith the
termsof social strength,also understandssomewhere that its de-
sire to gain such fluencyis done at a terrifying risk. The bour-
geois Negro accepts such risk as profit.But does close-ter (in
the contextof 'jes a close-ter,walk wi-thee') mean the same thing
as closer? Close-ter,in the termof its user is, believe me, exact.
It means a qualityof existence,of actual physicaldispositionper-
haps.. . in its manifestationas a tone and rhythmby which
people live, most oftenin responseto common modes of thought
best enforcedby some factorof environmentalemotionthat is ex-
act and specific.Even the pictureit summonsis different, and cer-
tainlythe 'Thee' that is used to connect the implied 'Me' with, is
different.The God of the damned cannot know the God of the
damner,that is, cannot know he is God. As no Blues person can
reallybelieve emotionallyin Pascal's God, or Wittgenstein'sques-
tion, 'Can the concept of God exist in a perfectly,logical lan-
guage?' Answer: 'God don't never change.'s

Equally significantin the poets' use of the Black Idiom is theirkeen aware-
ness of the highlyoral nature of Black culture.To get the writtenword to the
Black non-reading,stillessentiallypre-literate
community,the New Black Writer,
must,as Don Lee says,

... move into the small volume direction... small black works
that can be put into the back pockets and purses, volumes that
can be convenientlyread duringthe 15 minute coffee break or
duringthe lunch hour... we as black poets and writersare aware
of the fact thatthe masses (and I do not use the word lightlyfor
I am part of the masses) of black people do not read books.9

In these "small volumes" the poets have capitalized on the fact that though
Black folksdon't read, theyhighlyvalue verbal skillsexpressed orally. Emphasis
is on the abilityto rap, and Black cultureabounds with verbal rituals and rhe-
torical devices throughwhich this oral linquisticcompetence can be expressed.

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 Powerofthe Rap

I am accountinghere for a traditionin the Black Experience in which verbal

performancebecomes both a means of establishing one's reputation and a
teaching/socializingforce. Black talk is never simple cocktail chit-chat,but a
functionaldynamic that is simultaneouslya mechanism for learning about life
and the world and a vehicle for achieving group recognition.Even in what ap-
pears to be only casual conversation,whoever speaks is aware that his person-
ality is on exhibit and his status at stake. He must have some knowledge to
contributeto the group, and his contributionmust be presented in a dazzling,
entertainingmanner. Black speakers are greatlyflamboyant,flashy and exag-
gerative;Black raps are highlystylized,dramatic and spectacular; speakers and
raps are conveyorsof information.But Black communicativeperformanceis a
two-waystreet,and so the "audience" becomes both observers and participants
in the speech event. With its responses,the listenerscan influencethe direction
of a given rap and at the same time acknowledge (or withhold) theirapproval,
dependingon the linguisticskill of the speaker. No preacher can succeed if he's
not a good talker. One of the culture heroes of the barbershop, poolhall, or
streetcorner is bound to be the cat who captures everybody'sattentionwith
dashingdisplaysof verbal ingenuity.H. Rap Brown was dubbed "Rap" because
of his rappingability,and the continuingsuccess of Chicago's Rev. Jesse Jack-
son is due in large measure to his abilityto "win friendsand influencepeople"
withhis rap. I mean like in the church or on a streetcorner, a Brotheris only
as bad as his rap bees.

I move now to a considerationof the specificrhetoricaldevices and linguistic

patternsinherentin Black verbal styleand the artistryinvolved in the poets' use
of thisvehicle forthe conveyanceof Black Consciousness. Most of my examples
will come fromDon Lee, the dynamicyoung writer,who, of all the new Black
poets, has most effectively
capitalized on the Black Idiom for maximum power
and poetic effect.

LinguisticFeatures in the New Black Poetry

From a strictlylinguisticview, Black speech can be characterizedin termsof
lexicon (vocabulary), syntax (grammar),and phonology (pronunciation). With-
out delving into the technical controversyover whetherthese patternsare de-
rived from a West African or an Anglo-Saxon language base,10 we can apply
the term"Black English" on the grounds of statisticalvaliditysince the dialect
is used by an overwhelminglygreaterpercentageof Blacks than whites.

The phonological items employed representthe poets' attemptsto spell ac-

cording to Black America's pronunciation.Due to the vagaries of the English
spellingsystem,this is a difficulttask and the poets here meet with uneven suc-
cess. It makes sense for Ernie Mkalimoto to title his poem "Energy for a New
Thang,"" since Black folk say thang,not thing.Similarly,Don Lee1 will write

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Twentieth Literature
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mo for more and befo for before because characteristicallyBlacks delete inter-
vocalic and finalr's. Sonia Sanchez13rendersthe loss of participialendingswith
such formsas hitten,tryin,etc. Even some ratherextremeinstances come off
all right,as in Baraka's attemptto capture Black America's pronunciationof
head with haid.'4 However, such substitutionsas it for you, wd. and cd. for
would and could, respectively,and yr. for your (as in yr. head-why not yo
head?) do not fitany Black scheme of things,and often such alterationsdo
nothingmore than make for difficultreading. Nonetheless. we should be ap-
prised of what the poets are tryingto do and can certainlyapplaud their suc-
cesses in oral performance,for here is where the full range of Black intonation
patterns,tonal qualities and other aspects of Black phonology in the poetry
springto life.

Syntax is much more easily renderedorthographicallythan phonology, and

in their employmentof grammaticalusage, the poets are quite successful in
reproducingthe dialect. They reveal a fineand accurate artisticear for the sys-
tematicfeaturesof Black English syntaxand thus skillfullyenhance the conver-
sational flavorof the poetry.The most pronounced and distinctivefeature of
Black English syntax (also the most often cited in the current literatureon
Black speech), is the use of be as finiteverb. Characteristicallybe (also bees
and bes) indicatesa repeatedstate of affairs(i.e., durativeaspect). Be is omit-
ted when the statementapplies only to the presentor when it has the effectof
communicatingan all-timetruth(i.e., no habitual occurrenceis conveyed.) For
example, thecoffeebe cold means the coffeeis repeatedly,daily, cold; the coffee
cold means the coffeeis cold now. Some examples fromLee: "u bes hittenthe
man hard all day long"'5 and "why she be doing the thingsshe don't do."'" Due
to its obvious differencefrom"whiteEnglish," then,be is a favoriteof the poets,
oftenemployedto the pointof overuse,and occasionally not in strictconformity
with the rules for its application. For example, Sonia Sanchez' "we bes the cul-
ture bearers,"" for we the culturebearers-i.e., as a simple statementof an all-
time fact.

The lexical itemsin the New Black Poetry are those generallylabelled Afro-
American slang-words like cool, hip, up-tight,dig, etc.-ordinary termswith
two levels of meaning.This attributionof double meaningsto common English
words has its origin in the use of a coded language among slaves. Lacking a
really differentlanguage in which to camouflage their feelings and thoughts
from the slave master-now the Man-Black folks simply took the Anglo-
Saxon vocabulary and made it work for them by imposingupon English words
a Black semantic slant. On the Black English level, "stealing away to Jesus"
really indicated stealing away from the slave master, and today every Black
person knows that your "main nigger" is your best friend.While many terms
from the Black Lexicon now enjoy mainstreamcurrency,there are still some

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 PoweroftheRap

expressionswhich remaininsulatedin Black America because theyare so firmly

rooted in the Black Experience and cannot properlybe understood outside of
the contextof that Experience ("doo-rag" and "pimp" discussed below are two
such examples). These terms,along with those borrowed by and popularized in
whiteAmerica, have become the conceptual tools of the New Black Poets.

Artistically,the use of Black lexical items gives the poets greaterpowers of

metaphoricalcondensationwithina political-culturalframeworkthat theiraudi-
ence is hip to. Consider, for example, Don Lee's descriptionof Malcolm X as
being from a "long line of super-cools, doo-rag lovers, and revolutionary
pimps.""' Super-cools and pimps, livingoutside the bounds of the white man's
law and customs,are culture heroes,dashing,flamboyantmen, who don't work
and manage to surviveby theircunning,wits,and unfortunately, exploitationof
other (usually Black) people. A pimp lives offthe earningsof Black prostitutes;
a super-coolis a hustlerwho may have a varietyof games, i.e., devious schemes
for obtainingwhat he wants,as confidence("con") game. Doo-rag refersto the
scarves Black men wear around their heads to hold their pressed (artificially
straightenedand curled) hair in place. This process is commonlyreferredto as
a "do." (I am talkingabout a time Pre-Naturalswhen such coiffuredhair was
believed to enhance the beauty and sex appeal of Black men.) What Lee is
alluding to, of course, is Malcolm X's early life as a criminal,dope pusher,and
pimp. However the fact thatLee calls him a "revolutionary"pimp suggeststhat
the leadership and Black political consciousness Malcolm later exhibited lay
withinhim all the time. By extension,Lee is also implyingthat the same revolu-
tionarypotentiallies in otherBlack pimps. With thisphrasingthen,the poet has
used a cultural image and message familiarto his (Black) audience and with a
greatstrokeof brevityhas allowed a line to reveal a complete story. (Such, of
course, is the way any good poet operates; what is unique here is the effective
execution of the operation in a Black way.)

StylisticFeatures in theNew Black Poetry

As the preceding discussion of Afro-Americanlexicon suggested, it is in
style,ratherthan language per se, that the cultural distinctivenessof the Black
Idiom can be located. That is to say that it is not so much the words them-
selves (which are, afterall, English), but the way in which the words are used-
the way in which the various patternsof Black communicationcombine with
Black verbal rituals to produce a stylethat reflectsthe collective sensibilityof
Afro-Americans.There is a Black style of speaking/rapping,quite apart from
patternsof dialect, and while, as I said earlier,debate ensues over the linguistic

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Twentieth Literature
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originsof Black speech, thereis generalconsensus that the stylisticpatternsare

the sole propertyof Black folks. It is in style,ratherthan in strictdialect usage,
that the power of the rap is made most manifest,and while not all the New
Black Poets liberallyuse the dialect, theydo heavily exploit Black verbal style,
makingthis the unifyingfocal point in the formof the New Black Poetry.

The styleof the Black Idiom consistsof a Sacred and a Secular component,
with both dimensions sharing certain rhetorical commonalities. Elsewhere I
have delineated Sacred and Secular stylesin greaterdetail.'9 Sufficeit here to
say thatwhile the Secular styleis the primarydomain of the streetcorner rap-
per, and the Sacred that of the preacher,no sharp dichotomyexists. The Black
preacher'srap and Black churchserviceabound in secularismsand thereis very
often a sacred quality surroundingthe verbal rituals of the Secular style. (The
Sacred-Secular continuumin Black cultureis exhibitedmost strikinglyin Black
music where Gospel and Blues are often indistinguishable--onlyby diggingon
the lyricscan you tell). The stylisticfeaturesin the New Black Poetry are: the
Dozens; the Toast; Call-Response; Signification;RhythmicPattern. The first
two exist in the Secular Traditiononly.The last three appear in both the Sacred
and Secular Traditions,but for reasons too complicated to go into here (the
decline of religionin contemporarytimesbeing a prime one), the poets rely on
secular variationsof these three devices.

The Dozens
This is a verbal game played by talkingdisparaginglyabout someone's mother.
The game can extend,by analogy,to include other relativesand even ancestors
(although, like Langston Hughes' JesseB. Semple, most Black folksdon't "play
the Dozens that far back."20). The objective is to betterone's opponent with
more caustic and usually more humorousinsults.Played for fun or viciousness
-and it can be either-the Dozens is a competitiveoral test of linguisticinge-
nuity and verbal fluencyin which the winner, determinedby the audience's
responses,becomes a culture hero.

Lee uses the Dozens to speak satiricallyof the nonsensical attemptsof Blacks
to "outBlack" one another:

into the sixties

a word was born ...... BLACK
& withblack came poets
& fromthe poet's ball pointscame:
black doubleblack purpleblackblueblack beenblack was
black daybeforeyesterday blackerthanultrablacksuper
black blackblack yellowblackniggerblackblackwhi-te-man
blackerthanyoueverbes1/4 black unblack coldblack clear
black my momma's blackerthanyourmomma...... .21

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 PoweroftheRap

In his short"tribute"to George Wallace, he again uses thisritualto greateffect:

wallace forpresident
his momma forvice-president

was scribbled
on the men's room wall
on
over
the toilet

where
it's
supposed to be.22

Maya Angelou (of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings fame) plays not the
Dozens, but the "Thirteens,"23with separate but stylisticallyparallel versions
denouncing the untogethaactions of both Blacks and whites.

THE THIRTEENS (BLACK) THE THIRTEENS (WHITE)

Your Momma took to shouting
Your Poppa's gone to war,
Your sister'sin the streets
Your brother'sin the bar,
The thirteens.RightOn.
Your Momma kissed the chauffeur,
Your Poppa balled the cook,
Your sisterdid the dirty,
in the middle of the book,
The thirteens.RightOn.

And you, you make me sorry Your money thinksyou're something

You out here by yourself, But if I'd learned to curse,
I'd call you somethingdirty, I'd tell you what your name is
But therejust ain't nothingleft, But therejust ain't nothingworse
cept than
The thirteens.RightOn. The thirteens.Right On.

The Toast
The Toast is a narrativetale, complete with rhymedlines and poetic imagery
-gutsy and sexual. The hero is usually a fearless, defiantBlack man (what
Black folks approvinglycall a "bad nigguh"), who overcomes seeminglyinsur-
mountableodds. Like Stag-O-Lee who was so bad even white folks feared him
and only God was able to kill him-even then it took "3,412 angels 14 days,
11 hours, and 32 minutesto carry the giant death thunderboltto the Lord."'2
The hero mightbe symbolizedin animal form,like the SignifyingMonkey, who,
thoughthe underdog, outdoes the big, bad Lion (symbolizingthe white man).

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Black prisonpoet EtheridgeKnight"toasts"two such bad nigguhs.One is

theBlackprisonerHard Rock who "was 'knownnotto takeno shit/From no-
body,' and he had the scars to prove it."25 I mean Hard Rock was so bad he "had
once bit/Ascrewon thethumband poisonedhimwithsyphilitic spit."Knight's
othersuper-badunderdogis Shine,theprotagonist in theold Black folkToast
"Shineand the Sinkingof the Titanic."In his poeticizedand effectively
con-
densedversion,Knightgivesformalliterary expression to Shine'sheroicdeeds
withsuchlinesas:

And,yeah,brothers,
whilewhite/america singsabouttheunsink
able mollybrown
(who was hustling thetitanic
whenitwentdown)
I singto theeof Shine
thestokerwhowas hip
enoughto fleethefuckingship
and letthewhitefolksdrown
withscreamson theirlips
yeah,I singof Shine
and howthemillionaire bankerstoodon thedeck
andpulledfromhispocketa milliondollarcheck
sayingShineShinesave poorme
and I'll giveyouall themoneya blackboyneeds-
howShinelookedat themoneyand thenat thesea
and saidjumpin muthafucka and swimlikeme-2"

The Toast-Tellernarratesin first-personand embellishesthe tale according

to his ownverbalwhims;henceno twoversionsare everalike,noteven when
relatedby thesame person.Told in epic fashion,the movement of the Toast
proceedsepisodicallywith the overridingthemebeing the omnipotenceof
Black folksas symbolizedin the lone figureof the Black hero. Full of brag-
gadocio,he is alwaystalkinbouthow bad he bees,and his boastingconsumes
a goodportionof theToast'scontent.This aspectof theToast is givena refresh-
ing and innovativepoetictwistin NikkiGiovanni's"Ego Tripping":27

I was bornin thecongo

I walkedto thefertile
crescentand built
thesphinx
I designeda pyramidso toughthata star
thatonlyglowseveryone hundredyearsfalls
intothecentergivingdivineperfectlight
I am bad

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 Powerofthe Rap

I sowed diamonds in my back yard

My bowels deliveruranium
the filingsfrommy fingernailsare
semi-preciousjewels
On a tripnorth
I caught a cold and blew
My nose givingoil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errorsare correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
the earth as I went
The hair frommy head thinnedand gold was laid
across threecontinents

I am so perfectso divine so etherealso surreal

I cannot be comprehended
except by my permission
I mean... I . . . can fly
like a bird in the sky...

Call-Response

Call-Response is a basic ritual in the Black Idiom. It is what one hears in

Black churcheswhere the preacher'srap is punctuatedby A men's, Tell it Reb's,
Yes, Lord's, etc. It is what Richard Wrightdescribes in the opening scene of
"Big Boy Leaves Home"28 and again in the streetcorner scene in Black Boy.29
It is a patternin which the speaker'ssolo voice alternatesor is intermingled
with
the audience's response. This can take the formof a back-and-forthbanter be-
tween the rapper and various membersof the audience in which, for instance,
theywill raise points to see how skillfullyhe deals with them. Or the audience
will spur the speaker on to greaterheightsof verbal accomplishmentby their
expressionsof approval, such as laughter,or with phrases like "Oh, you mean,
nigger,""Get back, baby," or "Get down man," etc. When the New Black Poet
performs,responses such as these and frequentTeach Brother'smay interrupt
him, but he is not unsettledby this; ratherhe thriveson audience involvement.
Of course the poetry on the printed page obviously cannot reflectthe Call-
Response Pattern,but in a reading,the poet demonstrateshis awareness of this
ritual and its essential functionas a patternof Black communication.He wants
to, indeed needs to know that his audience is moved by his rap and gauges its
power by the degree and extentof theirvocal responses.

Signification
This is a ritualized insult,a verbal put down, in which the speaker needles
(i.e., signifies) his audience or some memberof the audience eitherto initiate
verbal "war" or to make a point hit home. Also synonymouswith the Black
term,Capping, effectiveSignificationis characterizedby exploitationof the un-
expected and quick verbal surprises.Like the Dozens, Significationis accepted

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Twentieth Literature
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withina game contextwith both opponent and audience expectingthe speaker

to launch this offensiveto achieve his desired effect.Many of Don Lee's titles
are excellent examples of Signification,e.g.: "Nigerian Unity/orlittle niggers
killinglittleniggers";"Reflectionson a Lost Love (for my brotherswho think
they are lovers and my sisterswho are the real-lovers)"; "A Poem for Negro
intellectuals(if therebes such a thing)"; "A Message All Blackpeople Can Dig
(+ a fewNegroes too)""30; "On Seeing Diana go Madddddd (on the veryspecial
occasion of the death of her two dogs-Tiffany & Li'l Bit-when she cried her
eyelashes off).":"

Lee's "But he was cool or: he even stopped for green lights"32is one of the
best poetic uses of this device. Here he employs the Significationof the title
as a unifyingimage throughoutthe poem. Using the metaphorof cool ironically,
Lee proceeds to castigate the typical self-styledBlack revolutionary,caught up
in rhetoricand appearance; all talk and no action. "Super-cool" thinks he is
"ultra-hip"; yet he is doing nothing constructiveto aid the cause of Black
Liberationbeyond "greetingu in Swahili, saying good-byin Yoruba, and wear-
ing a double natural that wd. put the sistersto shame." (I mean, like, can you
dig a cat being so cool that he even stops for GREEN lights?) Lee gets excel-
lent poetic and political milage out of the color imageryin the poem, juxta-
posing green-coolwith red-hot.To be Black is not to be calm, cool, and col-
lected. To be Black is to be angrily aware of, heated, and moved by Black
oppression."To be black is to be very-hot."

RhythmicPattern
Here I referto the Black Idiom's emphasison rhymeand sound. The speaker's
voice tone assumes a sonorous, musical quality.The sound of what he is saying
is often more importantthan sense, in any sheer semantic way, hence there is
a good deal of repetitionand rhymingfor effect.The idea is to mesmerize his
audience with the magical sounds of his message. It is this device that links
Black verbal stylewith Black musical style.In using it, the poets are capturing
not only the flavorof the Black Idiom, but approximatingthe sound and soul of
Black music,which is believed to be the most importantdynamic of Black Cul-
tural Reality. Lyrics or phrases from Black music are interspersedwithin the
poetry,to be sung when the poem is read aloud, as in Lee's title poem, "Don't
Cry, Scream (for JohnColtrane/froma black poet/ in a basement apt. crying
dry tears of 'youain't gone.').."3 At the end of the followingstanza, Lee sings
the Ray Charles/Temptations'version of "yesterday"for full effect:

swungon a faggotwho politely

scratchedhis ass in my presence.
he smiled brokenteethstained from
his over-usedtongue,fisted-face.
teethdropped in tune withray
charlessinging"yesterday."

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 Powerofthe Rap

In addition, the marginalia of this poem contains such instructionsas: "sing

loud & high with feeling" and "sing loud & high with feeling lettingyr/voice
break."

In a similarlyeffectivefashion, Baraka draws upon James Brown's firsthit

recording,"Please, Please, Please." The poem is "The Nation Is Like Our-
selves."34 In it, Baraka pleads for the returnof middle-class Blacks back to the
community fold. Having employed the entreaty "please" in several stanzas
("please mister liberated nigger," "please mr ethnic meditations professor,"
"doctor nigger,please," etc.), Baraka concludes with:

yes the sweet lost nigger

you are our nation sick ass assimilado
please come back
like james brown say
please please please

Black poetic raps, like theirsecular counterpartsin the Black Oral Tradition,
achieve a fluidityand flowingnessdue to this Rhythmic Pattern. The poets'
breathless,unpunctuated,rap-rap-rap-rap-rap-rap bombards the audience with
words, workinga kind of hypnoticBlack magic on their souls, and hittingthe
mind and heart in fresh,unexpected ways like good poetrydoes. Lee's "Poem
to Complement Other Poems,"35combining musical effectsand repetition,ex-
cellentlyexemplifiesthe totalityof this RhythmicPattern.ExhortingBlack folks
to enterinto a new state of consciousness,the Poet details the typesof changes
required and the necessityfor change. Each statementbegins and/or ends with
the word change. Some examples:

change. fromthe last drop to the first,maxwellhousedid. change.

change.
Colored is somethingwrittenon southernouthouses. change.
greyhounddid, i mean theygot restrooms on buses. change.
change, stop being an instantyes machine. change.

The poem continueslike this for several lines, building to the climax of the last
stanza, where the word change is repeated 23 times in near succession. With
the finallines of repetition,Lee plays offon the phonological similaritybetween
change and chain and gives us somethingreminiscentof Aretha Franklin sing-
ing about the "chains of love." (It's obvious, of course, what kind of "chains"
Lee is singingabout.)

realenemychange your enemychange your change

change change your enemy change change
change change your change change change.

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Twentieth Literature
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By this point, the audience is completely,nearly mysticallyengrossed in the

evocative call of the poem and prepared for its message, contained in the hard-
hittingimpactof the concludingline: "change your mind nigger."

Traditionally,poetrywas recitedand/or sung such thatits creator was a kind

of performingbard. Couple this with Black Culture's emphasis on orality,
music, and verbal performance.It then becomes clear why the poetic genre
strikesat the heart of the Black Cultural Sensibility,and also why it is only
throughoral deliverythat the audience can fullyappreciate the artisticimport
and meaning of the New Black Poetry. The linguistic/stylistic machineryof
this Poetryis firmlylocated in the Black Oral Tradition,and the Black Poet of
today is forginga new art formsteeped in the uniqueness of Black Expressive
Style. When used skillfully,by, for example, a Don Lee, who is able to syn-
thesize the emotional and the cerebral, this Style becomes an excellent poetic
strategyto deliver a political message and to move Black folks to constructive
political action. This, then, is the "Power of the Rap."
Harvard University

IshmaelReed,who says:
11IborrowthistermfromBlack fictionist,
SometimesI feelthattheconditionof theAfro-American writerin this
country is so strangethatone has togo to thesupernatural foran analogy.
Manipulation of thewordhas alwaysbeenrelatedin themindto manipu-
lationof nature.One uttersa fewwordsand stonesroll aside, thedead
are raisedand the riverbeds emptiedof theircontent.
The Afro-American artistis similarto theNecromancer(a wordwhose
etymology is revealingin itself!).He is a conjurorwho worksJuJuupon
his oppressors;a witchdoctorwho freeshis fellowvictimsfromthe
psychicattacklaunchedby demonsof theouterand innerworld.
See hisIntroduction to 19 Necromancers FromNow (New York: Doubleday,Anchor
Edition,1970).

2LangstonHughes,The Big Sea (New York: Hill and Wang, 1940), p. 228.
3JohnOliver Killens, The Cotillion or One Good Btll is Half the Herd, (New York:
TridentPress,1971).

4Ed Bullins, The Duplex: A Black Love Fable in Four Movements, (New York:
WilliamMorrow,1971).

5BenjaminWhorf,Language,Thoughtand Reality,ed., JohnB. Carrol (Cambridge:

M.I.T. press,1956).
6FrantzFanon,"The Negro and Language,"Black Skin,WhiteMasks, (New York:
GrovePress,1967), pp. 17-40.

lIbid.

S8mamuAmiriBaraka (LeRoi Jones),"ExpressiveLanguage,"Home (New York:

WilliamMorrow& Co., 1966), pp. 171-2.

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 Powerofthe Rap

9Don L. Lee, "DirectionsforBlack Writers,"The Black Scholar (December,1969),

pp. 53-57.

10oOn see RavenI. McDavid, "Historical,Regional,and Social Vari-

thiscontroversy,
ation,"Journalof EnglishLinguistics,
I (March, 1967). (Also his earlier"The Rela-
tionshipof the Speech of AmericanNegroes to the Speech of Whites,"American
Speech XXVI (Feb., 1951), and J. L. Dillard, Black English (New York: Random
House, 1972).

"1ErnieMkalimoto,"Energyfor a New Thang,"New Black Poetry,ed. Clarence

Major (New York: International
Publishers,1969), p. 90.

12Seeespeciallythe poems in Lee's Black Pride and ThinkBlack (Detroit: Broad-

sidePress,1968).

13SeeespeciallySanchez'We a Badd DDD people, (Detroit:BroadsidePress,1970).

'4FromBaraka's "W.W." in New Black Poetry, p. 78.

Screw,"Don't Cry,Scream (Detroit: Broadside

15DonL. Lee, "The Revolutionary
Press,1969), p. 57.
'6Don L. Lee, "Blackman/anunfinished history,"We Walk the Way of the New
World(Detroit: BroadsidePress,1970), p. 22.
'7Sonia Sanchez,"Queensof theUniverse,"The Black Scholar,(January-February,
1970), pp. 30-4.

18Don L. Lee, "MalcolmSpoke/wholistened,"Don't Cry,Scream,p. 33.

"WhiteEnglishin Blackface,or Who Do I Be?"
19Seemyforthcoming

20LangstonHughes,"Feet Live theirOwn Life," The Best of Simple (New York:

Hill and Wang,1961), p. 3.

21DonL. Lee, "GwendolynBrooks,"Don't Cry,Scream,pp. 22-3.

22Lee,"Froma BlackPerspective,"
ibid.,p. 34.

23Maya Angelou, "The Thirteens,"JustGive Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie,

(New York: RandomHouse, 1971), pp. 46-7.

Lester,"Stagolee,"Black Folktales,(New York: GrovePress,1969), p. 129.

24Julius

25Etheridge Knight,"Hard Rock Returnsto prisonFrom theHospitalfortheCrim-

inal Insane,"Poems FromPrison,(Detroit: BroadsidePress,1968), pp. 11-2.

26Knight,"I Sing of Shine," The Black Poets (New York: Bantam, 1971), pp. 209-10.

z2Nikki Giovanni, "Ego Tripping," Re: Creation, (Detroit: Broadside Press, 1970),
pp. 37-8.

28Richard Wright, "Big Boy Leaves Home," Uncle Tom's Children (New York:
Harperand Row,perennialedition,1936), pp. 17-23.

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Black Boy (New York: Harper and Row, perennialedition,1937), pp.

2.Wright,
88-92.

30Thesepoemscan be foundin his Don't Cry,Scream.

31Thispoemis in We Walk theWayof theNew World.

3"FromDon't Cry,Scream,pp. 24-5.

33Ibid.,pp. 27-31.
34Baraka,"The NationIs Like Ourselves,"It's Naiion Time (Chicago: ThirdWorld
Press,1970), pp. 7-11.
"3FromDon't Cry,Scream,pp. 36-8.

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