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