Shad @ the Pyramid

So on Friday night Julia and I, among others, went to see Shad as part of Jazz Fest. I first fell in love with rap when I worked at Camp Assiniboia, and we would listen to Jay-Z and Danger Mouse in the staff office. I felt so bad-ass doing that, and it certainly was quite the jump from the Backstreet Boys. Although my love for Jay-Z has never died, I have both expanded and honed my tastes (can you do both of those at once, or do they contradict each other?), and now my love of rap has much more to do with awesome wordplay and wit than the angry feelings that I once embraced. As an English teacher, watching Shad rap was almost life-changing. One of my favourite devices to teach and use within poetry is Allusion, and his mastery of allusion was overwhelming. While listening to most music may be about feelings and maybe even physiological responses (especially as I'm singing along so blissfully to Neko Case), listening to good rap makes me want to be able to press pause, rewind a bit, and hear those words again, just to make sure I really caught it all. Unfortunately, while people sing bad music (Nickelback, country music, etc.) so slowly - yet less deliberately than in rap, I think - so you have to hear every awkward lyric, rap lyrics fly past you at an impossible speed. The allusions then exist not only to show one's ability to make connections and be witty, but also as a call out to the audience, saying, "Here's something you can recognize," and we all cheer. And cheer we definitely did! My ears were ringing as I fell asleep.