This is a strange thread. There are some great hip hop artists but given the thousands of words and phrases Shakespeare gave to the English language there really is no comparison.
This is a strange thread. There are some great hip hop artists but given the thousands of words and phrases Shakespeare gave to the English language there really is no comparison.
Did you read this?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/20...n8H/story.html
Maybe this song about "Stupid Foreigners" had something to do with it...
Banning hip hop from is very specific. If they wanted to go after Western music, why wouldn't they ban pop music instead?
Doesn't the article re-enforce that this Playwright stood out from the crowd due to the vastness and quality of the body of work which was and probably still is unparalleled. Some words may words (and many more I suspect) were wrongly attributed to him but his ability to turn a phrase has stood the test of time.
No doubt each culture has an outstanding writers but this one stands the test on time.
Personally I can't abide his style but recognise that he is revered by a large number not a narrow niche.
If it were up to me obviously the bard would be replaced with the reading of pseudo- economics books. Out with the obscure Sub-Saharan African, East Asian or socially downtrodden writers and in with the factual writers.
It is odd that the school system focuses on reading and writing for pleasure when probably the majority of us read and write to understand and be understood.
Anyway must get back to reading a joyful story
The cynic within me thinks of Shakespeare as an Elizabethan Steven Spielberg but with a Steve Jobs ability to make it all about him.
He ran a great production company using the best talents London could offer churning out production after production.
Or perhaps the romantic image of a master wordsmith and it is all his own creativity shouldn't be challenged.
Disclaimer - I have no idea about this but it feels more likely that he ran a production company rather than just wrote words on a page. Very happy to be wrong
That doesn't sound terribly plausible, I have scanned other playwrights from that era and the standard of writing was abysmal. Shakespeare's plays are also too consistently layered to have been done by multiple writers.
When you use ghostwriters, you end up with blandly boring prose- think US pulp bestsellers, some of those are ghostwritten, with the big name author on the cover just providing the plot outline.
Eminem needs to be higher on that list. I'm sure he could reach the top with a freestyle if he wanted. He didn't release a song called "Rap God" for nothing...