I've always lip-synched along to songs played silently in my imagination. Lyrics can keep you company that way, no matter where you are. It started with Bruce Springsteen's epics echoing across my mind during longer walks home. At some point, Steve Malkmus' four winding verses from Pavement's masterpiece Watery, Domestic EP were recited like a mantra. Later, it seemed that 90% of my mute mutterings were written by NaS and other emcees. With hip-hop I'd become sensitive to repeated incantations that didn't in any way reflect my own experience. It wasn't just that. Some lyrics are just trite, some violent or disagreeable to the point where I wished neither to vocalize nor internalize them.
With NaS though, I ran into trouble. Here were some of the most masterful flows and displays of lyrical prowess committed to beats. Even if I couldn't own these words, the rhythm with which they were written energized me. And so these 'Flips' were birthed. Some have been posted here, including one based strictly on AZ's legendary first verse from "Life's a Bitch (and then You Die)". The conception for NaS' verse and development of this entire flip-to-a-more-positive-tip only came this year when our first son was born. Recently I posted the piece, "Life is Rich (and Love is Why)" on my "big kid culture" blog boobuddha.
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