The song is essentially a spiritual exultation, wherein West discusses how Jesus walks” with all manner of people, from the sinner to the saint. Towards this end, the first conceptual verse of the song is told through the eyes of a drug dealer contemplating his relationship with God. It reportedly took over six months for West to draw inspiration for the second verse. West also uses the song to express his critical views on how the media seem to shy away from songs that address matters of faith, while embracing songs discussing violence, sex, and illegal drugs. He rhymes, “So here go my single, dog, radio needs this/They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus/That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes/But if I talk about God my record won’t get played, huh?” This is directly taken from West’s experiences when he was struggling to get signed onto a record label; many executives turned him down after he played a “Jesus Walks” demo for them.They reasoned that he did not conform to the stereotypes associated with mainstream hip-hop and therefore was not easily marketable. Many of his friends in the music industry also warned him that while the song was outstanding, it would never make it to radio.

The mindset of this rapper kind of goes in proportion with the poem “when rap spoke straight to god” because both authors show us a way of connection between religion and some tabuu topics that are rarely discussed, which are love, sex, drugs and where as they describe are touched and related with the black lives.

Part 1:

1. Read your passage aloud at least twice.
2. Annotate your paragraph. What literary elements do you see at play in the passage? What words or images don’t you understand? (Look up unfamiliar words or allusions in the OED or reputable dictionary.) Don’t just name the elements but explain them (for example, if you see a metaphor, don’t just say “metaphor” but explain what the comparison being made is).
3. Highlight words or phrases that you can’t quite explain or still have questions about.
4. Pass your passages and start again once time expires.

Part 2: Once all passages have been annotated,

1. Use the class’s annotations and observations about this passage to write a thesis about how this passage “works.” Use the template “In this passage, Dawson does _____ to show _____” as a guide. Write an additional few sentences explaining the evidence for your thesis from the passage.
2. Share your theses/sentences and discuss passages as a full group.

(Adapted from Danica Savonick’s Collaborative Close Reading guidelines.)

The audible artifact I chose to compare with Erica Dawson’s “When Rap Spoke Straight to God” is the song/poem by Hobo Johnson, called “Romeo and Juliet”. The reason I chose this artifact is because of the way both artists use real life books to show a perspective. In “When Rap Spoke Straight to God” she uses the perspective a woman blossoming into who she is with comparisons to the bible, whereas Hobo Johnson uses the story Romeo and Juliet with a modern twist from the perspective of someone who’s broken and questioning their choice to be committed because of their parents failed Romeo and Juliet story. Dawson and Johnson both use direct quotes from their choices of literature and music. Dawson using quotes from the bible or rap songs such as the quotes by Kool G Rap in his song, “Home Sweet Home” and Hobo using quotes from “Romeo and Juliet”  

Hobo Johnson uses the quote “But soft what light, thru yonder window breaks, it is the east, but Juliet just puked off the balcony.” Johnson uses the quote from the play to give imagery to the listener of Romeo creeping to watch Juliet but with the modern twist, Juliet isn’t the fair maiden like in the play. She’s puking off the balcony in a party.  

Johnson and Dawson used direct oppositions in their pieces of work as well. The Bible being about stories of death and love to talk about the holiness of God but using detailed scenes of sexual relations while using bible verses creates an opposition and a sense of irony to the poem. Johnson talks about the story of Romeo and Juliet but with them ending in divorce and having a child who witnesses and suffers from it.  

The song Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice is a composition beat he stole from Queen’s under pressure. Vanilla Ice took credit for using the same beat as his own not even asking Queen for permission but also being lazy and uninspired just like Bob Dylan. I relate this scenario to the reading of Bob Dylan we discussed in class because it’s an accurate situation since Bob Dylan was also known for stealing many songs from James Damiano and many other artists out there. Bob Dylan created songs of his own, one of them is “Go ‘way from my window Leave at your own chosen speed. “It Ain’t Me Babe” (1964). This song is a perfect example of how Bob Dylan took credit from this song. “Go away from my window, go away from my door.”—John Jacob Niles, “Go ‘Way from My Window” (1958). Vanilla Ice is the type of artist who takes the easy way out from his career putting in little effort and focusing more on making money off rip-offs rather than making people happy. Instead of creating an original composition he only stole someone else’s work and put lyrics of his own on it, thus claiming it to be his own song. Seeing Bob Dylan’s behavior carried over to Vanilla Ice like a contagious disease. Just because one person copies a song doesn’t mean you should too! Just like Bob Dylan’s case Vanilla Ice should not receive any sort of Nobel prize because of his plagiarism. Vanilla Ice is the kind of person who doesn’t deserve respect, recognition, or fame for his actions. Taking time to listen to the two songs back to back will give you a clear idea that they’re literally the same.

I wanted to say a little more about the sestina form, as it appears in When Rap Spoke Straight to God, which I glossed over in class.

The sestina is a complicated form that goes back to 12th century Troubadour poetry. The form consists of six stanzas of six lines each, with the addition of a three-line envoi. (Envoi is a poetics term for a short, concluding stanza.) The “end words” of the first stanza are repeated in a fixed order, with the concluding envoy including all of the end words.

Dawson’s sestinas in Rap Spoke Straight to God follow an irregular order of end words. If you map out the six end words (swing, trump, skies, this, “K,” new) in the sestina beginning on page 11 (with the line, “For some, it don’t mean a thing without the swing . . .”), you’ll find this pattern:

1 2 3 4 5 6

6 1 2 3 4 5

5 6 1 2 3 4

4 5 6 1 2 3

3 4 5 6 1 2

2 3 4 5 6 1

(5 6) (1 3) (2 4)

This is just another way that Dawson works within “traditional” poetic forms, yet also audaciously remixes them.

For more on the sestina form, check out this page: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/sestina

The song that I will be choosing from my playlist is “Blame it on me” by Post Malone. When I first heard this song, it was in a car with a group of friends. Usually when you are in that type of scenario, everybody in the car is talking, having a laugh, or you know, a good time. But this song playing in the car, it hit me as I was going through a dark time in that current state. Now in my head, I’m somewhere else, filtering all my surroundings, and the noises except this one song. This guy, Post Malone, is singing, and I’m listening to the lyrics as I think about all those times I took blame in myself for the things that occurred in my life. It made me think about the people in my life who were supposed to be close to me, but instead made me feel like crap. Then this song made me realize that I shouldn’t take blame for those things all because certain people don’t like to admit their faults, and instead, like to put the blame on others like you. That those people aren’t going to care about putting you in that spot to bring you down when they don’t have sympathy towards you in doing so. They’d rather watch you suffer and that its up to a person like you to either take the blame even though you aren’t to be blamed, or the better option, which is to be the bigger person and realize enough to point out whose really in the wrong. At the end of the day, it’s you who you should be looking out for, and letting others treat you bad isn’t the right step for having respect towards yourself. Knowing that if what you did is your fault, then it’s wise to accept that, but when its not your fault, then you have no reason to accept the blame.

The song “Blk Girl Soldier” by Jamila Woods is all about celebrating the strength of black women by combining historical icons with the black women that are currently fighting injustice. Her music is about peace, justice, and equality. Erica Dawson, in her poem “When Rap Spoke Straight to God”, talks about what it means to be a black woman in a “country that is ruled by institutions of whiteness” (Publishers Weekly, 2018). She writes about the struggles and hardships that black bodies are constantly having to dealt with, and the everyday violence inflicted on them – emotional and physical – that characterizes what is called white supremacy. From the poet’s perspective, even though their history brings them scars, it is certainly a strong reminder of how they were/are able to overcome the brutality of oppression and still have hope and capacity to reach the light. Both the song and the poem relate to each other in the way that they protest about a country that fails to reckon with its past, but at the same time, celebrate the best of black culture without forgetting or ignoring its history – after all, both are simply trying to communicate the light at the end of the tunnel.

I chose the song “Peculiar Mathematics” by Yasiin Gaye. Amerigo Gazaway is an emcee/dj who’s become known for his sampling. He created an album combining the music of Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) and Marvin Gaye, creating the artist Yasiin Gaye. Many times, samples of old favorites or lost gems give a new song the appeal they need to sell. The familiar samples allow the audience to hear a song they might not otherwise listen to. This album, however, combines two artists whose music stands solidly in it’s own right, and creates a new way to enjoy both. “Peculiar Mathematics” is one of my favorite songs on the album. It also happens to directly correlate to topics we’ve discussed in class, including Erica Dawson’s book, “When Rap Spoke Straight to God.”

One of our first class discussions centered on creative copyright. Artists have always “borrowed” form other artists, be it influence or outright theft. The act has garnered both support and opposition. I think this album is a positive example of creative license. The pairing of these two artists is very complimentary, both politically minded artists from different eras, who also just make catchy/good music. The politics of it all is why I chose this song in particular. Mos Def makes many references to how the system is stacked against black Americans, and the class system in general. Marvin Gaye’s fun music behind Mos Def’s harsh analysis makes the song for me. Erica Dawson does a similar juxtaposition in her book. She uses Bible references with her own work to turn her story all at once empowering and vulnerable. It doesn’t seem like the Bible would lend to this, at least for me, but she seems to marry it in a way that works as well as this collab. Both tackle the systems set up against them, whether it be the color of their skin, or for Erica, her sex.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTsJYQNyAS8

Understanding a poem always requires multiple readings. Let’s practice!

We’ll read a few passages from Erica Dawson’s When Rap Spoke Straight to God three times each. Each time, you’ll approach the poem slightly differently.

• The first time, just listen to the poem.
• The second time, choose one line of the poem and “annotate” it with a short question or comment.
• The third time, the class will “explode”—meaning, you’ll share aloud what you wrote after the line has been spoken.

We’ll then follow up with some questions:

1. What did you hear during the explosion?
2. What surprised you?
3. What didn’t you understand?
4. What patterns did you notice?
5. Which lines drew your attention and why?