Meditation #5499 or "It's about the quality of your expression" -Amiri Baraka

I believe that art imitates life, that it is a representation of the an environment, that my message is my interpretation of ideas that are shared by others. Art testifies to a time, a people and a way of life. Let's take for example the argument that the rapper is not a poet. One could argue that both poetry and hip hop culture are so diverse in their subject matter and methods of delivery, that it is impossible to make a blanket statement such as this. Or that rappers who make songs that degrade women and glamorize crime culture are simply imitating the life they know. Or that the art form in fact fuels the fire, and that a change in the subject matter could change the environment.

Amiri Baraka says "it's about the quality of your expression"; that saying something with the purpose of saying something is art. Rappers out for fame and fortune are not artists, they are vehicle for exploitation. Tupac was a poet.

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