Unit 7
Activity 2
Rap, poetry and politics
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The New York Times
The Atlanta-based rapper Mulatto collects scraps of language on her iPhone, words and phrases that come to her suddenly, or that she's picked up while performing online during the pandemic. Not surprisingly, one of the words that has come to mind during the past year is “pandemic”.
Listen to Latto perform and you understand what she heard in that word. On the XXL freestyle, she raps “pandemic” fluidly over a lazy instrumental, so the word sounds like urgent speech. On “Youngest N Richest,” she raps it more deliberately atop a frenetic track fretted with a tense violin sample. “Pandemic” becomes “PAN-demic,” the stress displaced from its natural position. In reaccenting the word, Latto charges it with her Southern drawl. She puts Atlanta on it. She also does the very thing that makes rappers poets: She works the language. “Rap is definitely poetry,” Latto tells me. “We just do it on top of a beat.”
Many poets would agree with her. Nonetheless, a line of demarcation persists between rap and poetry, born of outmoded assumptions about both forms: that poetry only exists on the page and rap only lives in the music, that poetry is refined and rap is raw, that poetry is art and rap is entertainment. […]
But just try rapping to a beat. It requires the orchestration of lungs and vocal folds, teeth and tongue – not to mention rhythm and invention. […]
“You listen to the flow first, and then you catch the lyrics,” Latto says. She often starts writing by mumbling sounds, which she'll record on her phone, capturing the cadence in nonsense syllables. Later, she'll go back and fit words to the beats, but she starts with rhythm because she knows that her audience will, too. “After they get over the flow and actually listen to what I'm saying, they're like, ‘Oh, wow!'”
Listen to Latto perform and you understand what she heard in that word. On the XXL freestyle, she raps “pandemic” fluidly over a lazy instrumental, so the word sounds like urgent speech. On “Youngest N Richest,” she raps it more deliberately atop a frenetic track fretted with a tense violin sample. “Pandemic” becomes “PAN-demic,” the stress displaced from its natural position. In reaccenting the word, Latto charges it with her Southern drawl. She puts Atlanta on it. She also does the very thing that makes rappers poets: She works the language. “Rap is definitely poetry,” Latto tells me. “We just do it on top of a beat.”
Many poets would agree with her. Nonetheless, a line of demarcation persists between rap and poetry, born of outmoded assumptions about both forms: that poetry only exists on the page and rap only lives in the music, that poetry is refined and rap is raw, that poetry is art and rap is entertainment. […]
But just try rapping to a beat. It requires the orchestration of lungs and vocal folds, teeth and tongue – not to mention rhythm and invention. […]
“You listen to the flow first, and then you catch the lyrics,” Latto says. She often starts writing by mumbling sounds, which she'll record on her phone, capturing the cadence in nonsense syllables. Later, she'll go back and fit words to the beats, but she starts with rhythm because she knows that her audience will, too. “After they get over the flow and actually listen to what I'm saying, they're like, ‘Oh, wow!'”
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Latto performs in Kings Cross, 2025.
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Path A
B1
1-A
How does Latto play with the pronunciation of words?
2-A
How does Latto start writing her songs? Why?
3-A
Pick out quotes from the text showing the link between rap and poetry.
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Path B
B1+
1-B
Identify the assumptions people have about rap and poetry. What contrasts are made?
2-B
Explain how Latto transforms the word “pandemic” through accentuation. What effect does this have?
3-B
Analyze the process Latto follows when writing. How does rhythm influence her lyrics?
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Let's talk this out!
4
Sum up the connections made between rap and poetry in the text.
5
Do you think rappers should be considered poets? Why or why not?
6
Can playing with language be a form of power? How?
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Politics vs. poetry debate
Half the class defends the idea that rap is poetry, the other half argues it is protest. Each team presents arguments before an open discussion.Une erreur sur la page ? Une idée à proposer ?
Nos manuels sont collaboratifs, n'hésitez pas à nous en faire part.
j'ai une idée !
Oups, une coquille
