With Noises in the Blood and Cooper’s ongoing analysis of indigenous Caribbean cultural forms, the work of artists like Bennett, Marley, the dub poets, and the dance hall DJs have found an intelligent, determined custodian. For Cooper rescues the heretofore neglected folklore, proverbs, music, poetry, and songs that have followed in colonization’s wake. They are the vibrant, provocative products of a dynamic, new “New World” culture that is shaking up that of the “Old.”
Lyric?s of rap artist Mos Def,?Speech is my hammer, bang the world into shape.? Here Mos Def recognizes the power of the tools of collective memory and orality. ?What is gonna happen to hip-hop? I?ll tell you what?s gonna happen to hip-hop. What?s gonna happen to hip hop is what ever happens to us.? Mos Def continues, ?people talk about hip hop like it is some giant on the hillside, coming down to visit the people…. we are hip hop…next time you ask where is hip hop going …ask yourself how am I doing…where am I going.? With this verse Mos Def is describing how the art of rap reflects the lifestyles and struggle of day to day life. As in the poetic style of Lorna Goodison, who concerns herself with the business of daily living; ordinary lives grounded in human experience become high drama in her visionary world.
A master of artfully recollecting memory is Tupac Shakur. Profound lyricist, writer and actor who touched a rising generation of violence. Through his lyrics lived the voice of the young people in the ghetto dealing with poverty and injustice?s.
Can You See the Pride In the Panther
Can You See the Pride In the Panther
As he grows in splendor and grace
Topling obstacles placed in the way,
of the progression of his race.
Can You See the Pride In the Panther
as she nurtures her young all alone
The seed must grow regardless
of the fact that it is planted in stone.
Can You See the Pride In the Panthers
as they unify as one.
The flower blooms with brilliance,
and outshines the rays of the sun.
This poem manifests his responsibility to be the voice of the young black inner city male/female. He was born into poverty and hard times but through the strength of his upbringing and his mother?s ties with the Black Panther Party he lead a generation through the struggle for acceptance and understanding.
And Tomorrow
Today is filled with anger, fueled with hidden hate.
Scared of being outkast, afraid of common fate.
Today is built on tragedies which no one want’s to face.
Nightmares to humanity and morally disgraced.
Tonight is filled with Rage, violence in the air.
Children bred with ruthlessness cause no one at home cares.
Tonight I lay my head down but the pressure never stops,
knowing that my sanity content when I’m dropped.
But tomorrow I see change, a chance to build a new,
build on spirit intent of heart and ideas based on truth.
Tomorrow I wake with second wind and strong because of pride.
I know I fought with all my heart to keep the dream alive.
In this poem Tupac is the voice that shares to vulnerable and insecurities of the people of his generation.
In The Event of My Demise
In the event of my Demise
when my heart can beat no more
I Hope I Die For A Principle
or A Belief that I had Lived 4
I will die Before My Time
Because I feel the shadow’s Depth
so much I wanted 2 accomplish
before I reached my Death
I have come 2 grips with the possibility
and wiped the last tear from My eyes
I Loved All who were Positive
In the event of my Demise
Recollecting the events of his life, Tupac prophesied his death. Rather or not it was a principle or not is up to the reader. One might say yes, he did die for what he believed in and the lifestyle he lived. Another could say we lost a revolutionary due to foolishness of ?Thug Life?.
I have in the best of my ability delved into the topic of collective memory and how it is inter-twined with orality and literacy through the use of narratives, novels, music, history, and poetry.
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. Anchor Books, New York, 1959.
Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were. Basic Books, 1992
Carolyn Cooper, Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender, and ?Vulgar? Body of Jamaican Popular Culture. Duke University Press, 1995.
Paul Edwards, The Life of Olaudah Equiano. Longman Inc., New York, 1998.
Paul Edwards,Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery by Ottobah Cugoano. Dawson of Pall Mall, London, 1969.
Lorna Goodison, Selected Poems. University of Michigan Press, 1992.
Paul Buhle, C.L.R. James: The Artist as Revolutionary. Verso, London, 1988
George Lipsitz, Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture. University of Minnesota Press, 1990.
Appiah & Gates, Microsoft Encarta Africana 2000, Microsoft,1999
Jan Rogozinski, A Breif History of the Caribbean. Meridian Publishing, New York, 1992
Vincent Thompson, The Making of the African Diaspora in the Americas 1441-1900. Longman Inc., New York, 1987.
Tom Spencer-Walters, Orality, Literacy and the Fictive Imagination: African and Diasporan Literatures. Bedford Publishers, Inc., Troy Michigan, 1998
The Tupac Shakur Page, www.gwynjines.freeserve.co.uk/. , December 8, 1999, 3:330pm.
Bibliography
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. Anchor Books, New York, 1959.
Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were. Basic Books, 1992
Carolyn Cooper, Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender, and ?Vulgar? Body of Jamaican Popular Culture. Duke University Press, 1995.
Paul Edwards, The Life of Olaudah Equiano. Longman Inc., New York, 1998.
Paul Edwards,Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery by Ottobah Cugoano. Dawson of Pall Mall, London, 1969.
Lorna Goodison, Selected Poems. University of Michigan Press, 1992.
Paul Buhle, C.L.R. James: The Artist as Revolutionary. Verso, London, 1988
George Lipsitz, Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture. University of Minnesota Press, 1990.
Appiah & Gates, Microsoft Encarta Africana 2000, Microsoft,1999
Jan Rogozinski, A Breif History of the Caribbean. Meridian Publishing, New York, 1992
Vincent Thompson, The Making of the African Diaspora in the Americas 1441-1900. Longman Inc., New York, 1987.
Tom Spencer-Walters, Orality, Literacy and the Fictive Imagination: African and Diasporan Literatures. Bedford Publishers, Inc., Troy Michigan, 1998
The Tupac Shakur Page, www.gwynjines.freeserve.co.uk/. , December 8, 1999, 3:330pm.