I couldnt think of anywhere else for this thread, but mod, feel free to move it. The only other thought was the lounge. Is Eminem a poet? If you read any of his song lyrics, you can hear the clear rhyme and poetic self inside of him, but would you classify him as a poet? For example, here is one of his quotes : 'Homie, I'll be nicer to women when Aquaman drowns and the human torch starts swimming.' (Thanks to 'Patrick94' for correcting this.) This is clearly poetic/creative, but would you really class him as a poet or just a lyric writer?
There's no doubt Eminem shows flashes of creative genius in the sense that he's a master at manipulating the sounds of words, and creating a sentence structure that fits with the rhythm of the song. I wouldn't go as far to say he's a poet, though. Peppered in with all his stuff there's lots of Fuck this and fuck that, and shit, and callin women bitches etc, (which suits the genre, I suppose) However if you listen to as much Eminem as I have done, you'll come to realise that he isn't really all that original. His themes repeat themselves endlessly, and he has quite a few conventional words that routinely rhyme with other specific words. If you want to listen to a great rapper, I'd recommend Immortal Technique
I think the line between poetry and lyrics is very thin, and genres such as rap really do blur it a lot. I'd say it's perfectly legitimate to classify Eminem as a poet. Also, as a jackass.
If you want to hear his best wordplay, listen to his first album, Infinite. Btw the line is 'Homie, I'll be nicer to women when Aquaman drowns and the human torch starts swimming.'
since i'm both, i feel qualified to answer this... a poet writes poetry [poems] a lyricist writes song lyrics [not poems] some, like myself, can do and be both... but when i'm writing lyrics, i don't claim it's poetry and when i'm writing poems, i know they're not lyrics...
I do think that lyrics are a form of poetry (their own form, since the music is an integral part). Whether he's a good poet or not is another question, and one that I'll abstain from commenting on.
There's been some debate about whether rap should be considered poetry or not. Some scholars believe it is, while others point out that the combination of music, voice, etc., affect it in a way that reading the lyrics and listening to the music will never be the same, which is probably true. For Eminem, many of his songs have poetic qualities to them. To me that makes him a poet.
How would you class Bob Dylan? Check out lyrics like 'Every Grain of Sand'. If they weren't set to music, they would be poetry.
I prefer Immortal Technique as well, in terms of comparing rap to poetry. Technically speaking, lyrics and rap are both poetry, just variant forms, obviously. Has anyone heard of the English poet... I think his first name is John, his second name I am sure is Skelton. He wrote a poem called Philip Sparrow in a format that he created called Skeltonics. If anyone has time on their hands, google that, and you can see that his poetry can be put to rhythm very easily, and can be said or sung like rap. I'm using Skelton as an example just because I read him recently and the thought about rap sprung in my head. My point is, certain poetry, if not all, can be turned into song lyrics or rap lyrics. In my opinion at least.
Is there even a difference between poetry and lyrics? Poetry doesn't HAVE to rhyme, or have a certain syllable scheme. Neither do lyrics. Many do, many don't, but it's a free area that's up to the writer.
Well (most) rappers are poets just they put their poems to music and SINGGG!!! Every song has a meaning (probably NOT Friday by Rebecca Black... ) and if you listen carefully you can tell what it is. If you listen to "Bliss 'n' Eso" he has a REALLY strong meaning behind his songs. I classify rappers as poets but thats just me.
I fully agree with this. It bugs me when someone rushes out and yells that something can't be art because it has lots of swearing in it, or because they think it's offensive. All music lyrics are poetry.
Leonard Cohen has made exactly the same distinction. But without the author's word on the subject (according to Barthes, even with the author's word!) how can we tell?
evelon... yes, there are lyricists like dylan, whose work is very poetic... and rod mckuen, a poet of note, was also a singer and songwriter, whose classic lines of 'if you go away'/'ne me quitte-pas' blend poetry and song lyrics [in english or french] so beautifully it hurts!...
I think some lyrics can be very poetic so it's hard to define and that lyrics are a form of poetry. So yes, I'd say Eminem, amongst other music artists, is a poet.
Depends on what you call poetry. Two lyricists come to mind in the form of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Their lyrics can be a poetic trip through their world. (e.g.) A Thousand Kisses Deep http://youtu.be/91OQaPQILZk
To my mind there's no difference - you can add music to a poem to make it a song (The Raven by Omnia comes to mind) or remove music from a song to create a poem. In fairness though, this is my opinion - this is something you have to make your own mind up on. All art (including music and poetry) is subjective and anyone who tells you it's an absolute is an idiot.
I actually prefer Dylan's words without the music. Particularly without his singing! (Sorry if you're a fan).
That seems strange to me, because the distinctive feature of Skeltonics is that they abandon rhythm but keep rhyme (as opposed to blank verse which abandons rhyme and keeps rhythm). I would have thought that would have made it harder to fit to a beat.
