Posted on 12/29/2008 3:18:10 PM PST by nickcarraway
Professor Ferenc Szasz argued that so-called rap battles, where two or more performers trade elaborate insults, derive from the ancient Caledonian art of "flyting".
According to the theory, Scottish slave owners took the tradition with them to the United States, where it was adopted and developed by slaves, emerging many years later as rap.
Professor Szasz is convinced there is a clear link between this tradition for settling scores in Scotland and rap battles, which were famously portrayed in Eminem's 2002 movie 8 Mile.
He said: "The Scots have a lengthy tradition of flyting - intense verbal jousting, often laced with vulgarity, that is similar to the dozens that one finds among contemporary inner-city African-American youth.
"Both cultures accord high marks to satire. The skilled use of satire takes this verbal jousting to its ultimate level - one step short of a fist fight."
The academic, who specialises in American and Scottish culture at the University of New Mexico, made the link in a new study examining the historical context of Robert Burn's work.
The most famous surviving example of flyting comes from a 16th-century piece in which two rival poets hurl increasingly obscene rhyming insults at one another before the Court of King James IV.
Titled the Flyting Of Dunbar And Kennedy, it has been described by academics as "just over 500 lines of filth".
Professor Szasz cites an American civil war poem, printed in the New York Vanity Fair magazine on November 9, 1861, as the first recorded example of the battles being used in the United States.
Professor Willie Ruff, of Yale University, agreed that Scottish slave owners had a profound impact on the development of African American music traditions.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Striaght outta Glasgow, aye.
Striaght = Straight
[1rudeboy rushes off to place the title on his Amazon wish list]
Aye. Strawberry, Strawberry is the village wench . . . .
Aye lad, yo whaddup 50 Shilling?
Next, I should read some Bonnie Bobby Burns aloud with a heavy backbeat in the background.
That is some funny shite, yo.
Including pirates. Yo ho ho and all that.
They forgot the grill work, ebony ho’s, guns and pants at half mast!
Here's a link...
The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie
Amusement ping.
"just over 500 lines of filth"
I thought, that sounds like rap.
Fitty Pence.
This is a SNL/Mad TV skit waiting to happen.
Fitty pence - I’m pure gonnae chib ye!
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Thanks nickcarraway. The 'pipes make the sounds that inspired da blues. "...the dour Scots are the men that God made mad, for all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad." |
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Snuupin O’Doggie?
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