Personification in Hip Hop

Personification is a figure of speech in which human characteristics are given to nonhuman objects, abstractions, or creatures. When a writer uses personification, he or she provides things, ideas, or qualities with personalities.

The sun hid behind a cloud.

To say that the sun hid implies that the sun had a motive. Nonliving things do not have motives. Here is one way to paraphrase, or express the idea of the sentence, using literal language: A view of the sun was blocked by the cloud.

"I Used to Love H.E.R." from Resurrection [1994] by Common

[Chorus]

yes yes y'all and you don't stop

to the beat y'all and ya don't stop

yes, yes y'all and you don't stop

one, two y'all, and ya don't stop

yes, yes y'all and you don't stop

to the beat comm-sense'll be the sure shock

I met this girl, when I was 10 years old

And what I loved most, she had so much soul

She was old school, when I was just a shorty

Never knew throughout my life she would be there for me

on the regular, not a church girl, she was secular

Not about the money, no studs was mic checkin her

But I respected her, she hit me in the heart

A few New York niggaz, had did her in the park

But she was there for me, and I was there for her

Pull out a chair for her, turn on the air for her

and just cool out, cool out and listen to her

Sittin on bone, wishin that I could do her

Eventually if it was meant to be, then it would be

cuz' we related, physically and mentally

And she was fun then, I'd be geeked when she'd come around

Slim was fresh yo, when she was underground

Original, pure untampered and down sister

Boy I tell ya, I miss her

[Chorus]

yes yes y'all and you don't stop

to the beat y'all and ya don't stop

yes, yes y'all and you don't stop

one, two y'all, and ya don't stop

yes, yes y'all and you don't stop

comm-sense y'all and ya don't stop

yes, yes y'all and you don't stop

you act yo, we gotta be the sure shock

Now periodically I would see

ol' girl at the clubs, and at the house parties

She didn't have a body but she started gettin' thick quick

Did a couple of videos and became Afrocentric

Out goes the weave, in goes the braids beads medallions

She was on that tip about, stoppin the violence

About my people she was teachin me

But not preachin to me but speakin to me

in a method that was leisurely, so easily I approached

She dug my rap, that's how we got close

But then she broke to the West coast, and that was cool

Cause around the same time, I went away to school

And I'm a man of expandin', so why should I stand in her way?

She probably get her money in L.A.

And she did stud, she got big pub but what was foul

She said that the pro-black, was goin out of style

She said, "Afrocentricity, was of the past."

So she got into R&B hip-house bass and jazz

Now black music is black music and it's all good

I wasn't salty, she was with the boys in the hood

Cause that was good for her, she was becomin well rounded

I thought it was dope how she was on that freestyle shit

Just havin' fun, not worried about anyone

And you could tell, by how her titties hung

[Chorus]

yes yes y'all and you don't stop

to the beat y'all and ya don't stop

yes, yes y'all and you don't stop

one, two y'all, and ya don't stop

yes, yes y'all and you don't stop

to the beat comm gotta be the sure shock

I might've failed to mention that the chick was creative

But once the man got to her, he altered the native

Told her if she got an image and a gimmick

That she could make money, and she did it like a dummy

Now I see her in commercials, she's universal

She used to only swing it with the inner-city circle

Now she be in the burbs lookin' rock and dressin' hip

And on some dumb shit, when she comes to the city

Talkin about poppin GLOCKs, servin rocks, and hittin switches

Now she's a gangsta rollin with gangsta bitches

Always smokin blunts and gettin drunk

Tellin me sad stories, now she only fucks with the funk

Stressin how hardcore and real she is

She was really the realest, before she got into show-biz

I did her, not just to say that I did it

But I'm committed, but so many niggaz hit it

That she's just not the same lettin all these groupies do her

I see niggaz slammin her, and takin her to the sewer

But I'ma take her back hopin that the shit stop

Cause who I'm talkin bout y'all is hip-hop

"Can't Stop the Prophet," from The Sun Rises in the East [1994] by Jeru the Damaja

Guy 1: Oh yo look towards the darkness

Guy 2: Nah nah yo look towards the light

Guy 1: Yo what! Oh what the? Yo what is that?

Guy 2: It's a supernova

Guy 1: Nah nah man that's a black hole

Guy 2: Yo yo yo

Both : Yo it's it's it's . . .

I leap over lies in a single pound

[who are you?]

The black prophet

One day I got struck by knowledge of self

They gave me super scientifical powers

Now I, run through the ghetto

Battling my arch nemesis Mr. Ignorance

He's been trying to take me out since the days of my youth

He feared this day would come

I'm hot on his trail

But sometimes he slips away because he has an army

They always give me trouble

mainly Hatred, Jealousy and Envy they attack me

They think they got me

But I use my super science and I twist all three

I see sparks over that building

They're shooting at me

I dip, do a back flip

Then hit em in the heart with sharp skilled book marks

Ignorance hates when I drop it

But no matta what he do

He can't stop the prophet.

Let's continue the saga, mad, mad drama

I met this chick, she said she knew where Ignorance was at

I said where, she said downtown

He had babies having babies

And young niggas selling crack

I think the bitch is lying it's a set up

I can smell it, but Ignorance is running ramped

Aight baby show me the exact spot

Meet me at quick and skimo on the 3 on the dot

So I hops up on the A-train, I'm being followed

My seventh sense senses danger

I turn around, it's Anger and he brought a mob along

It's the same old song

Despair and Animosity got broke with the swiftness

I don't know what they think this is

I feel a sharp pain in my neck

Now I can't see on my hand

They hit me with the dart filled with the pork chops sim

I tried to hold on but before long I dropped

When I awoke I was locked in the barber's shop

Trapped in the barber's chair

Oh no, they're going to try and cut my hair

But that can't stop the prophet

[Yo prophet,

Ignorance is tired of you following him around

We about to put end in out right now.

Anamosity, Despair

Get him]

A few minutes passed by I hear a buzzin noise

It was that chick with some of Ignorance's boys

She said prophet we got you beat

By the way I'm Ignorance's wife, Deceit

But enough talk now for your hair cut

When the clippers touched my hair, they blew the fuck up

After the explosion there was no one left

Cause I know them mob poison hair touch of death

My vision's still kinda blurry, but I see a clue

Ignorance is at the library

I hurry, with lightning speed like the flash

He's at the big one, on Grand, Army Plaz

When I get inside the doors shut and the lights go off

Damn another trap

I hear a hissing sound I smell a funny smell

I gasp, I can't breath

Ignorance is laughing at me

Waiting on my down fall,

But he can't stop the prophet

[Well Prophet

It seems like you're in a bit of a jam

I hope you can unstick yourself, Oh

And what you did to my wife

It was nothing, I have others

hahahahahaha....]

[The Saga Continues]

"Stray Bullet" from Stress [1994] by Organized Konfusion

Let the trigger finger put the pressure to the mechanism

Which gives a response, for the automatic

Clip to release projectiles in single

File forcing me to ignite then travel

Through the barrel, headed for the light

At the end of a tunnel, with no specific target in sight

Slow the flow like H2O water

Visualize, the scene of a homicide, a slaughter

No remorse for the course I take when you pull it

The result's a stray bullet

Niggaz who knew hit the ground runnin and stay down

Except for the kids who played on the playground

Cause for some little girl she'll never see

More than six years of life, tri-fl-ing

When she fell from the seesaw

But umm wait, my course isn't over

Fled out of the other side of her head towards

A red, Range Rover, then I ricochet

Fast past a brother's ass, oh damn, what that nigga say

Aww fuck it, next target's Margaret’s face

And I struck it

Now it's a flood of blood in circumference to her face

And an abundance of brains all over the street

Shame how we had to meet

Dashin, buckin, greet by fuckin family

They follow behind me in a orderly fashion

Bashin through flesh I'm wild

Crashin through the doors of projects hallways

To deflect off of the tile

I'm coming for you little girl

Once inside I shatter your world

Swirl, no more dreams no hopes when I spray

You better pray, to the pope or the Vatican

Before I go rat-tat-a-tat again

I'm mad again brother somebody's mother will be sad again

But, whose blue skies will turn grey

From the attack, of the MAC-11, I'm a stray, bullet

[nobody seen shit, nobody heard it -- 4x]

Great balls of fire, I'm traveling at higher speeds

To proceed to penetrate flesh, hitting the splint

After splitting the chest of a Queens fiend

Age of pagers shredded to pieces from the GLOCK-9

And it's hollow tips, it releases the polices

In back of the ambulance

Blood loss as I shift across your chest

Arrest, rupture, I mess up ya, slasher

Shall I bust ya liver, faster, blood pours

Now it's up to the master, boom, as I crash open the doors

Thank me for spraying the operating room

The body still consumes me, doc had to remove me

Mmm lord, why do they use me?

I'm takin individual for keeps hobbes

So peep the cops, in the ghetto bustin shots for props

And when I hit, shit

Soon you forgets-me-not

Cops tried to explain to his pops what I done

I flip up the hollow tipper and I'm not the one

And as a human I'm the surprising one

Prince Po I flow the ripper, either way

You never, ever know how I'm coming

Metamorphasizing, rising in turbulence

Condensed into a bullet, pull it, now I'm making moves

With no sympathizing, uhh, so take a hit nigga, sprint

Onto the scenario, I'm at a party with oh

A lot of honies parlay and the DJ's playin the fudge pudge flow

Five niggaz come up in the club for a rub

[yo oh peep it, oh shit oh duck (oh shit!, oh shit!)

Another hit, another struck

Here comes Mr. Stray Bullet

Five, the tip, getting my jollies from the screams of the ripped

In your chest, then I flip

Money starts to shiver then I give a delivery of burns

Bruises fake shoes is your renaissance

No response your moms is out cold

Figure I'm bigger takin your heart nigga at twenty years old

Stray bullet