Rap Adaptation

When text becomes flow.

I am not throwing away my shot!
I am not throwing away my shot!
Hey yo, I’m just like my country
I’m young, scrappy and hungry
And I’m not throwing away my shot!
I’m ‘a get a scholarship to King’s College
I prob’ly shouldn’t brag, but dag, I amaze and astonish
The problem is I got a lot of brains but no polish
I gotta holler just to be heard
With every word, I drop knowledge!
I’m a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal
Tryin’ to reach my goal. My power of speech: unimpeachable
Only nineteen but my mind is older
These New York City streets get colder, I shoulder
Ev’ry burden, ev’ry disadvantage
I have learned to manage, I don’t have a gun to brandish
I walk these streets famished
The plan is to fan this spark into a flame
But damn, it’s getting dark, so let me spell out the name…

“Hip-hop” and “rap” are often used interchangeably, but hip-hop is more of a subculture, while the term rap is more focused on the music and lyrics themselves. With an approach to rhyme that’s somewhat freeform and sometimes dense, rap can bring passion and urgent rhythm to a wide range of subject matters. Hamilton, quoted above, is one well-known example. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s lyrics channel that larger hip-hop culture, tying America’s cultural past together to its present.

The form of rap can also do justice to fiction. Looking for examples, I found this underrated performance of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Carlos Aguirre, AKA Infinite, with a violinist and cellist.

I have a little experience with rap adaptation, if lyrics rendered in print can be called “rap.” Towards the end of my comics series Guilded Age, we re-imagined several key conflicts between its characters as rap battles, because I loved the video series Epic Rap Battles of History and wanted to try something in that vein.

Here’s a before-and-after, in which Frigg and Rachel have reached a crisis. Rachel has been Frigg’s disciple in many areas of life, but when it comes to the power they share, Rachel understands far more than Frigg does. Since the bullheaded Frigg doesn’t respond to patient instruction, Rachel’s had to resort to…other methods.

So, the big question: is it possible to translate a classic poem into rap? Or if not translate, at least adapt?

In the next installment, I’ll at least give it a go…and highlight the efforts of a couple others who have tried it.