1 post tagged “hiphop”
Black guy with long braids and shades gets on the Metrorail Green Line train to Greenbelt yesterday at around 3:30. Appears to have a need to show off to the entire car full of passengers, his voice at a feverish pitch, quick and sharp, staccato, cutting through my reverie and my futile attempts to enjoy a leisurely read through my current book.
"Who needs a wife? Fuck a wife! I'm a bachelor for life! I'm a bachelor for life! (10 times over until I thought he'd never stop)."
Okay, okay, we get the point, I think.
And then, "I'm the reason you threw away our dildo..."
I wondered if this string of rhyme was a creation of his own or a song he had piping through the headphones.
I guess he tired of ranting or got off the train.
There was a sudden lightening of the mood.
When he was there, it was like everything else around me stopped as people shifted uncomfortably, sat out the interminable end of his tirade or glanced knowingly at one another, most of them annoyed and wanting silence or space for conversation.
I have nothing against rap or hip-hop. I used to listen to groups like Naughty By Nature all the time, over a decade ago before my musical tastes hit one of many areas of metamorphosis in my life. I'm not even offended by curse words, hardly notice them. Heck, I say them myself, a bit more than I should. But what seemed to bother me was that his voice, the vibrations, this negativity in the air, was almost palpable, as if it took charge of the air around me, the space in which I enjoyed a brief respite. His vocality took that away from me, shook me to the core.
I'm all for freedom of speech and diversity, but when you are squeezed together and having to coexist with others in a speeding tin can, an onslaught of words such as this seems to be suffocating, and the situation calls for some understanding of noise pollution.
Of course, I know it also calls for me, the newcomer, to develop more of that thick urbanite skin, that ability to shrug off what's antagonistic and be more aloof, unconcerned and just accept the way of my new life.
One person's art is another person's villainous verbosity.
Jen
