(Tim) Gospel rappers/preachers like shai linne have their roots in slam poetry. From the "Poetry Slam" Wikipedia entry:
In a poetry slam, members of the audience are chosen by an M.C. or host to act as judges for the event. After each poet performs, each judge awards a score to that poem. ...Poetry slams can feature a broad range of voices, styles, cultural traditions, and approaches to writing and performance. Some poets are closely associated with the vocal delivery style found in hip-hop music.... One of the goals of a poetry slam is to challenge the authority of anyone who claims absolute authority over literary value. No poet is beyond critique, as everyone is dependent upon the goodwill of the audience. Since only the poets with the best cumulative scores advance to the final round of the night, the structure assures that the audience gets to choose from whom they will hear more poetry.... Bob Holman ...once called the movement "the democratization of verse."
Who's critical of slam poetry?
Academic responses to slam have varied. In an interview published in the Paris Review, literary critic Harold Bloom called the movement "the death of art." In response, poet and critic Victor D. Infante wrote...: [The death of art] is a big onus to place on anybody, but Bloom has always had a propensity for (reactionary) generalizations and burying his bigotries beneath 'aesthetics'...
Ah, yes; "burying his bigotries beneath 'aesthetics.' That's a big one in the world of the truly reformed...
I like to put it this way: "All an Englishman's prejudices are a matter of principle!" Hitting the table with your fist when you say "principle" brings clarity to the meaning.
Then, there's this:
In a 2005 interview, one of slam's best known poets Saul Williams praised the youth poetry slam movement, explaining: "[H]ip-hop filled a tremendous void for me and my friends growing up... The only thing that prevented all the young boys in the black community from turning into Michael Jackson, from all of us bleaching our skin, from all of us losing it, just losing it, was hip-hop. That was the only counter-existence in the mainstream media. That was essential, and in that same way I think poetry fills a very huge void today [among] youth."
Never liked hip-hop. Reading that paragraph just now changed my mind.
