To What Extent is Rapping considered poetry??

Just pondering this because I listen to a lot of Tupac and he said he started young writing poetry.

if you're a poet can u also be a rapper? if you're a rapper can you be a poet?

Cuz once Tupac blew up, he was the most influential rapper. So, does that mean he's also a very influencial poet?


I hope my questions make sense.

Hm, in my opinion rapping and poetry aren't the same things. The lyrics of rap may have a poetic influence, but you also have to keep up with the beat while rapping and develop some kind of "flow". Stand-Up poetry mostly does not (well Saul Williams is something else) have this.

I guess Bukowski would same something entirely different... but his poems are strange anyways

I agree that rap nowadays is very very different from poetry but when you look at the great poets like shakespeare and the first good rappers like tupac you notice that shakespeare's poetry has a beat only that the english department calls it meter and that tupac's raps weren't just mindless "songs" of sex drugs and alcohol that repeat the same thing over and over.

tupac was a very decent rapper. there are quite a few parts of poems in iambic pentameter that can rapped with ease although it may ruin the poem in some eyes.

that being said rappers like tupac can be considered influential in the"poetry" of their music. I think only a handful of supposed rappers nowadays can count themselves any good.

This post was edited by succulentdesire on Sep 24 2009 02:17pm

you guys have very good points. at first i looked it as though rap and poety were the same, without taking into consideration that rap has a beat.

I think music helps the rap flow. without music it would be rap.

i guess i just dont kno when a poet crosses over into being a musician.

i suppose so. I'm no poet or english major but those are just things I've noticed

Just because something rhymes doesn't make it poetry.

umm, ever heard of a poems meter? Iambic etc.
rapping is poetry;
"come live with me and be my love
and we will all the pleasures prove..."

this is one of shakespeares sonnets written in Iambic tetrameter (sing-songish). It gives the poem its "beat."
try saying this like it's not a song.
rappers are simply poets who sing everything


This post was edited by Brona121 on Sep 26 2009 08:24pm

i mentioned this

"notice that shakespeare's poetry has a beat only that the english department calls it meter "
nowadays I have to disagree that rappers are poets who sing everything. the first good rappers like tupac were but the modern day rapper is definitely not.

Real rappers, are called urban poets.
Should give you an idea.

yup but nowadays I haven't seen anyone worthy of the "real rapper" status