FW: Rap Lyrics (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

IMO. this is a controversy that has no end. Though I enjoy
rap/hip-hop, I come from a different school now known as _R&B/doo
wop_, but which, when it was new, had no name. In this style of
singing, the words - referred to as _the story_ - were also an
integral part of the context. Yet, they often couldn't be understood,
even though singers made every effort to enunciate as clearly as
possible, lest the story be lost.

In the song, Treat Her Right, by Roy "The Houston Flash" Head, he sings,

You got to treat her real [two syllables]

It took me about a quarter-century finally to hear _gentle_,
pronounced approx. as [dZ^~.?l], wherein [~] = nasalization. Totally
obvious, after the fact and within the context of the song, but a
complete mystery in black Los Angeles, at the time. Most Angelenos
heard something like "junkle." Yet, all the other words in the song
were perfectly clear, a fact that, ironically, made it even more
difficult to pull out the garble, there being no evidence with which
to go CSI on the song's ass. OTOH, had Head sung [dZI~l], any fool
would have understood "gentle," despite the presence of the
at-the-time-unknown-to-BE glo?al stop.

Roy's song was in cut time. But even a "slow drag" could be just as as
problematic. In the ca.1963 song, Last Night I Dreamed, The Fiestas
sing,

We'll be as [three syllables? melisma?]
As the birds in the trees

Though I have the 78, the Lp, the CD, and iTunes and have listened to
the various versions thousands of times through both headphones and
speakers, I have *never* been able to figure this one out. About a
month ago, I came across a post by a fellow aficionado of oldies who
provided the transcro,

We'll be as free _for our love_
As the birds in the trees

I'm buying it.

WRT to rap/hip-hop, as the commentary to the Slate articles makes
clear, there are rational arguments for contradictory interpretations
of a given word/line. Someone suggested that the thing to do is to ask
the singer(s). Yeah, that'll work, if the singer(s) was/were
stone-cold sober at the time. Even back in the day, it was
(stereo)typical for individuals and groups to show up on the set
fucked up.

What if the singer(s)-songwriter(s) has/have the words in hard copy?
Well, what if that *is* the case? Does that mean that what was written
was what was recorded? Of course not. And what if the producer(s)
decided that the release-candidate needed to be fisticated with,
before there was a golden master ready for release?

And time changes things. When I listen to to StL rap/hip-hop, I have
no way to relate to the fact that the corner of Kingshighway Boulevard
& Natural Bridge Road appears to be "where the mins hang out," as B.B.
King put it. In my day, that location was *far-Far-FAR* outside of the
colored comfort zone. I can't recall ever being at that spot for any
reason whatsoever. Apparently, the only thing that's still the same as
it was in 1950 is the pronunciation of the name of The Lou as [seInt
luIs], irrespective of race, creed, "an' so own 'n' so fo'th,"  as
_etc._ was/is? pronounced in Marshall.

Youneverknow.

--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

Once we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity,
or evil intent, we can uncumber ourselves of the impossible burden of
trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition
that we could be in error, without necessarily deeming ourselves
idiotic or unworthy.
–Kathryn Schulz



On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â FW: Rap Lyrics (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
>
>
> Interesting articles about the difficulty of transcribing Rap Lyrics in
> the new _Anthology of Rap_.
>
> http://www.slate.com/id/2272926/
>
>
> http://www.slate.com/id/2274223/
>
>
> NPR's "All Things Considered" interviewed one of editors, Adam Bradley:
>
> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131125923
>
>
> and then NPR's music blog followed up on the growing controversy about
> transcription errors:
>
> http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2010/11/12/131269570/why-the-errors-i
> n-the-anthology-of-rap-matter
>
>
>
>
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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