My Poetry Is Better Than Your Lyricism:
Comparing Titles in the Verbal Arts
By: Ccep
dews_ccep@yahoo.com
Back in the day, DJs spun records, emcees kept the crowd excited, singers sang songs, and rappers spit rhymes over a dope beat. Everyone was placed into the categories that fit a certain style and purpose and if one didn’t exist, an individual was considered the first of its kind. Nowadays, verbal artists place themselves in whatever category they feel like adopting and many of these titles are used interchangeably, much to the confusion of the audience.
The purpose of the DJ, or “disc jockey”, was to spin records and keep the party moving. This definition still applies, though the records have been replaced by CDs and more recently iPods, which are used by self-proclaimed “MP3Js.” Over time, DJ’s branched out from clubs, concerts and parties to radio and television where they are now considered VJs or “visual jockeys.” DJ Jazzy Jeff rolled his talent into production, while others such as DJ Manny Fresh took up writing and performing as well.
Back when Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were known as Flash and the Three Emcees, one emcee named Keith Cowboy kept the crowd energized by moving around the stage and asking the audience to respond to his shouts--a popular technique known as “call and response.” Over the years, the hype man has lost the title of “emcee” to a single artist who either performs and keeps the crowd engaged on his own or brings anywhere from 2 to 15 of his title-less friends on stage with him.
Presently, hip-hop/rap artists are also called emcees. Rappers such as Common and Jay-Z rhythmically speak words over a beat or without one. The most exalted rapper is able to free-style or create rhymes on the spot without having to write them down. Lil’ Wayne is notorious for entering a studio and basically free-styling his whole album.
“Nowadays, verbal artists place themselves in whatever category they feel like adopting and many of these titles are used interchangeably.”
However, some hip-hop/rap artists are often described as lyricists, though a lyricist is generally any person who writes the words to a song. In the same sense, a songwriter creates the lyrics and/or the melody to a song. Therefore, producer/songwriter Bryan Michael Cox can also be considered a lyricist, as can actor/emcee/hip-hop/rap artist Andre 3000. (Are you confused yet?)
Songwriters create music for other artists to perform, such as singer Lena Horne who used her vocal skills as a means of expression. It is a singer’s duty to use range, tempo and projection to bring a songwriter’s creation to life.
Artists like Marvin Gaye and Marsha Ambrosius of Floetry straddle the fence as singer-songwriters. These talented individuals not only have the gifted ability to sing but also write their own lyrics and in some instances, their own music. Singer-songwriter Ne-Yo writes for himself as well as other artists including Beyoncé, Mario and Rihanna.
…it doesn’t really matter what title we choose to identify ourselves by. We are all artists who seek simply to impact the world through our craft.
I personally believe that any song lyric or rap is poetry. Poets such as Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka view the world around them and record their observations in verse for others to read. Poetry is filled with imagery, metaphors and similes that speak to a literate audience. Poets use punctuation, line spacing and other techniques to convey emotions and flow to a reader.
Spoken word artists have taken poetry a step further by incorporating performance with prose. Most spoken word pieces are written with an audience in mind and the artist focuses more on stage presentation than page presentation. Though spoken word artists are usually poets or lyricists, most poets and lyricists are not spoken word artists. Spoken word is often performed without music, though some artists are accompanied by a background melody such as Natalie Stewart, former “floacist” of Floetry.
I love performing as much as I do writing, so I consider myself a spoken word artist. However, my writing portfolio contains more than performance poetry, so I introduce myself as a writer. Most often I simply say that I am an artist because I don’t limit myself to one artistic genre. It doesn’t really matter what title we choose to identify ourselves by. We are all artists who seek simply to impact the world through our craft.