I Wish Poetry Was Like Rap

“I know some rappers using big words to make they similes curve, my simplest shit be more pivotal” - KENDRICK LAMAR

I don't really think Kendrick Lamar has ever been wrong. This guy was the first rapper to win a Pulitzer Prize. Someone like Shakespeare or Robert Frost is qualified to win such a distinguished award, but this man came from the streets of Compton and wrote some of the most layered and unique music I have ever heard, and actually UNDERSTAND. The fact that I can recognize his lyrics, put them into perspective, and sometimes relate to them is what makes his work so good. 

Normally, the most renowned and complex poetry ends up wining the Pulitzer, but Kendrick's rapping is a form of poetry that qualifies. Listening to any of his album's, especially the UNTITLED UNMASTERED, you will hear some crazy stuff. It could be him dissing a stereotype or problem; him speaking about his life growing up, or his first time hanging out with a girl, or him just cussing you out for not caring about your life style. The thing is that he was  able to socially conscious with and actually spread something progressive that hit so many people right in the chest, just like poetry. He would make bars with anything that came to his mind, making analogies with money, trees, your girlfriend and put it together so you will always know what he is trying to say. Some might say it's vulgar, it's inappropriate, it isn't poetry, yet this poets themselves choose to layer their work so much that I am supposed to understand your love for a woman from you rhyming about the boogeyman. Poetry is all about understanding, and it is quite easy to understand Kendrick Lamar songs. His rapping is still indirect, but not to the point where it's just absurd.

I have thought of poetry with many feeling. There has been hate, surprise, confusion, and love, but seeing situations like Kendrick make me more curious about it, and want to learn about it some more because I don't want to just hate on it like most of us do. If there is another layer in this weird language, I want to uncover it, maybe there will be an artist like Kendrick I could find.