2 legit 2 quit

one thing i love about hip hop that some people can't stand is the tendency for rappers to constantly refer to themselves, their crew, their money, their women, rapping skills, etc. understandably it's a form of megalomania, materialism, misogyny.. but i think one unique thing it does is legitimize the emcee as someone to be heard and remembered. referring to someone or something in the third person establishes it as something that exists in general and can be seen and heard by other people. this is true even if a person refers to himself in the third person. and if he says his name enough times in a catchy enough song, people will remember him and associate him as an emcee.

i don't mean that a rapper who says he's the best rapper alive becomes the best rapper just because he says so. what that claim does though is establish a frame of reference in which this person can be observed. in that way it makes him legit. of course when other emcees drop his name, that makes him even more legit. in academia, a professor is deemed legit when other professors cite their research. but a guy's gotta start somewhere, right?

awhile ago, i was talking to my friend dan about the korean american community in atlanta. in my mind, there's nothing for a korean american to identify with in atlanta, no concrete movement to associate with. and it's not because korean american atliens don't have an identity. i just think they haven't solidified it, they haven't put it in words or a meeting or a movement. that's one reason why the arts are so important in creating an identity for a group of people, so that they can have a point of reference for who they are. and i don't mean a song that explicitly says what it means to be a korean american in atlanta. that would defeat the whole purpose of art, since it's the only thing that can be abstract enough for different people to identify with it. it'd have to have elements that korean americans can uniquely associate with, something that they can be proud of and have fun with.

think about what it means to be a black person in atlanta. you've got rappers name-dropping landmarks in atlanta - peachtree street, magic city, cafe intermezzo, 1tweezy, the velvet room, spelman, clark, morris brown, freaknik, the hawks, the falcons, etc... and it becomes circular. now rappers drop u.g.k., goodie mob, outkast, and now t.i. and jeezy as pioneers of atl hip hop. they've forged an identity from everyday life in atlanta by laying it down in words in a style that's distinctly southern. of course there's more to being black in atlanta, but the arts have definitely helped legitimize atlanta as the black capital of america (i just made that up..)

anyway i'm not sure what the point of all this is. this is pretty boring and all just a distraction from writing my thesis. maybe i should write a rap about crop insurance. i'll spit it for my committee when i defend my thesis.