Rap Is Poetry


Rap is a music genre that is appreciated by many people today. As a result, artists in the field make fortunes out of it. Whereas some musicians are more talented than others, many of them try to follow through a certain standard in writing their pieces. Due to the similarities between poetry and rap, most of these artists can be considered as poets.

To start with, for one to be a good poet, they have to come up with a combination of words to create rhythm. This is done by accenting some of the words and following them with unaccented ones. Further, an equal number of syllables are given in every line. Most of the rap artists have rhythm in their music since their pieces have to work in conjunction with a particular beat.

Secondly, there is an aspect of rhyming in both poetry and rap music. Most poets make sure that at least two words at the end of consecutive line rhyme. Rap artists on the other hand make a lot of variations in their music for it to rhyme. Some may prefer to end with rhyming words at the end of every line, or even decide to write rhyming words in one single line. The only challenge of rhyming in rap is that the beats in the music dictate how the placement of words will be.

Thirdly, poets and rap artists write their pieces with the aim of conveying a particular message. Each artist will have various contents that will evoke certain emotions amongst the audience. Further, just like in poetry, common metaphors in the society can be used to convey the message. Hence, the audience has to make their interpretations and conclusions.

Many scholars defined poetry as a spontaneous flow of powerful feelings ideas or feelings. This is the same case with rap genre of music. Additionally, poetry has changed over time so that the writers have freedom to write pieces with varied literary devices. Therefore, they may decide to have the same freedom that rap artists have, or follow through the traditional way of writing poetry.

The only reason why many people do not consider rap as poetry is because they prefer written language more than speech. A majority would want to follow through all the aspects of written language such as punctuation and fonts as portrayed in poetry. Therefore, some may consider rap as not serious especially when the message conveyed is profane. As a result, some people will point out that rap is incomplete poetry. However, in every other sense, rap is poetry. Needless to say, most rap artists can make good poets.