I’m working on assembling many of the hip hop-related things on the blog into a book of some sort, incorporating essays, lesson plans, autobiography, pedagogy, and lots more. Here’s an idea for a lesson plan based on this post from a few years back.
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Macklemore’s text message to Kendrick Lamar is an example of a personal (or private) communication made public. The text was sent only to Lamar, but by posting it on Instagram, Macklemore allowed all of us to eavesdrop on his feelings.
• Do you think Macklemore would have written a different message if he intended to keep it private? Put another way, do you think that Macklemore wrote his message to Lamar differently, knowing that he was going to post it for the world to see?
• Would the impression be different if Lamar had shared a screenshot of the message that Macklemore sent him?
There is a long tradition in literature of publishing letters between people. While the art of letter writing may be in decline, having been replaced with text messages, video calling, and social media, we still seek to connect with others in writing. While many collections of letters are documentary (they are actual letters written between people), there is also a long tradition of writing works of literature—both fiction and non-fiction—in the form of letters. In some cases, the story consists of a single letter from one person to another. In other cases, the story might unfold as letters are exchanged between two or more people. This kind of writing—where a story is told through letters—is often called epistolary writing.
Some famous examples of epistolary writing are James Baldwin’s collection The Fire Next Time and, more recently, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me. In both cases, the authors write letters to young men in their family—Baldwin to his nephew; Coates to his son—about social injustices that the black community is experiencing at the time. In doing so, the authors are trying to pass on to the next generation important information about how to survive in a world that historically has caused them harm. Given the prominence of both writers and the similarities between their letters, it would hard to miss the influence that Baldwin had on Coates: just as each author is passing information to a younger man in the family, so, too, is Coates passing on Baldwin’s craft and ideas to a new generation of readers.
• What do you think the significance is that each author addressed the letters to younger men in their family (not their wives, or grandfathers, or daughters, or some hypothetical person)?
Rap music has its share of epistolary songs. Among the best known are Tupac’s “Dear Mama” and Eminem’s “Stan.” Tupac’s song is an apology to his mother, Afeni Shakur (if you don’t know who she is, look her up!). The young Tupac was a troublemaker and often fought with his mother, but is now old enough to recognize that she was doing as best as she knew how, especially in the absence of a father figure. He looks back over their life together, proud that he is now in a position to help her out, and realizes that he has a lot of good memories of their time together as well. In Eminem’s “Stan,” each verse consists of a letter sent by an obsessed fan—Stan—to his hero, Slim Shady (one of Eminem’s personae). As each subsequent letter goes unanswered, the one that follows is increasingly desperate and threatening. In the last verse, Slim finally writes back only to realize that he was too late.
Other examples of epistolary rap songs include Common’s “The Light”; “Dear Theodisia” from Hamilton; “Letter to the King” by The Game; and “Letter to the Trap” by Yo Gotti and Mike WILL Made-It.
Write a letter to someone—living or dead, real or imaginary—about a current social issue (racism, anti-transgender sentiment, homelessness) or current event. Your letter should be at least a page long and have a salutation, introduction, body, and closing. If you prefer, you could write your letter in the form of two sixteen-bar verses. Here are some prompts to help you plan your writing.
1. To whom are you writing the letter? Are they older or younger than you? Why did you choose this person?
2. What issue or event are you going to write about?
a. Why is this important to you?
b. What are some facts about this issue or event?
c. What are your opinions about this issue or event?
d. What do you want the recipient of your letter to know and/or do about this issue?
3. If you knew the letter would be private, what if anything would you do differently?