If "heavy metal" was the Anglo-American contribution to low culture, then "rap" was the African-American donation. And if "metal" ...came from the garage where Junior had been sent with his guitar and extension cord, then rap came from the street where young blacks played the only instruments they could afford--the mouth organ and the foot drum. Rap is performed in street clothes; metal in elaborate costumes of leather and fringe. In metal, the volume carries the aggression; in rap it is the words. Both are rife with adolescent misogyny, homophobia, and threats of violence. They are rude, bawdy, boastful, with a kind of "in your face" aggression (called "attitude") characteristic of insecure masculinity. Both musical forms were unique, however, in that they produced platinum records with little radio exposure. They found their audience on MTV.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Drake he's in his hammock till the great Armadas come, (Capten, art tha sleepin' there below?)... Slung atween the round shot listenin' for the drum, An' dreamin' arl the time o' Plymouth Hoe.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Through light-obliterating garden foliage what magic drum? Down limb and breast or down that glimmering belly move his mouth ...and sinewy tongue. What from the forest came? What beast has licked its young?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Although I mean it, and project the meaning As hard as I can into its brushed-metal surface,... It cannot, in this deteriorating climate, pick up Where I leave off.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As I sit looking out of a window of the building I wish I did not have to write the instructional manual on the uses... of a new metal. I look down into the street and see people, each walking with an inner peace, And envy them--they are so far away from me! Not one of them has to worry about getting out this manual on scheduleLESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He can't even get to the office without undergoing the agon...ies of the damned, but give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire and twenty or thirty billion dollars and, vroom! there he is, up on a rock a quarter of a million miles up in the sky.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I don't know how long it has been since my ear has been free from the roll of a drum. It is the music I sleep by, and I love it....... I shall remain here while anyone remains, and do whatever comes to my hand. I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We call ourselves a free nation, and yet we let ourselves be told what cabs we can and can't take by a man at a hotel door, simply... because he has a drum major's uniform on.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »