milo on shuffle: sanssouci palace (4 years later)

On the final song of Budding Ornithologists are Weary of Tired Analogies, Rory Ferreira’s final album under the rap moniker of Milo, he says goodbye to the moniker that has built his fame and reputation. In a searing 2 minutes and 55 seconds Milo deconstructs himself as an artist and person alongside the fanbase that has arisen around him. The final verses consider the two concepts in unison, as he says goodbye (for now) and asks the listener to say goodbye with him. It is a difficult and ...

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“Now we more fucked up with a Mayor named Giuliani” - Hip-Hop and Rudy Giuliani

Between 1993-2001 Rudy Giuliani served under two terms as a Republican Mayor of New York City. Giuliani, the first Republican Mayor of NYC since 1965, would win the 1993 election by a little over 50,000 votes, campaigning on a platform centred on an oppressive crackdown on crime. Manhattan, The Bronx and Brooklyn voted in favour of the Democratic candidate David Dinkins, but Giuliani’s crushing victories in Queens and Staten Island, ultimately secured him the victory. Staten Island - the borough ...

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Tupac Shakur; not simply an icon for the West

At his tragic death Tupac Shakur was the ultimate status symbol of West Coast music: the smooth flows, the laid-back g-funk production, the riotous political anger, the gangster posturing, the effortless swagger – he was the walking embodiment of West Coast rap. In the decades passing since his death Tupac has slowly transcended hip-hop regionalism, helped especially by the pacification of the coastal wars and the collapse of Death Row Records, and become a martyr figure for hip-hop as an entire ...

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A Look Back At: Ghostface Killah - Sour Soul

As a solo artist Ghostface has two certified classics in Ironman and Supreme Clientele, and fans will hotly debate Fishscale. On the most electrifying track on Fishscale, ‘The Champ’, the intro skit taunts Starks, “He’s hungry. You ain’t been hungry since Supreme Clientele.” What followed was 4 minutes of boasts, knowledge and punchlines for the strongest lyrical performance from Starks since Supreme Clientele. He channeled the stream-of-consciousness playful mess that made Supreme Clientele ...

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George Puttenham’s Rhetorical Devices for the Hip-Hop Generation: A 16th Century Fusion Manuscript

“Now if our presupposall be true that the Poet is of all other the most auncient Orator, as he that by good & pleasant perswasions first reduced the wilde and beastly people into publicke societies and civilitie of life, insinuating vnto them, vnder fictions with sweete and coloured speeches, many wholesome lessons and doctrines, then no doubt there is nothing so fitte for him, as to be furnished with all the figures that be Rhetoricall, and such as do most beautifie language with eloquence ...

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