NYT- "A Def Ear to the Rules of Grammar"

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Everbody seems to be on the rap world's case these days. And for what? Trivial things like lyrics that glorify violence, misogyny and racism? Or the propensity of some rappers to aerate one another with hot lead?
The people who should really be hip-hopping mad are grammarians.
Yet for the most part they stand on the sidelines, raising no audible objections to Lil' Kim's wayward apostrophe or 50 Cent's hostility to plurals or the spelling horrors committed by the likes of Supreem Da Regulata, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg and Capone-N-Noreaga. Where, you have to ask yourself, is the outrage?
A fair question, said Patricia T. O'Conner, the author of books on grammar, including "Woe Is I."

"It's bad enough that the content is so offensive to so many people," Ms. O'Conner said. "It offends all kinds of sensibilities, including those of grammarians." link

Clueless articles about hip-hop aren't exactly rare, but this one is rather spectacular.

― TayBridgeCatastrophe (TayBridge), Saturday, 12 March 2005 00:28 (twenty years ago)

Still more hip-hop fun at the times today, and vaguely less clueless: Guns and Poses

"Yet while both Hudson Street shootings point to the importance of the music in hip-hop culture, they also point to the glibness of that violence. After all, when dozens of pistol shots at relatively close range lead to one minor wound, it would seem that the gunmen really don't have their heart in it. Besides, how bad can the blood be when 50 Cent and the Game are kissing each other on the cheek at a charity event a week later?"

For whatever reason, this cracked me up while driving today, causing my passengers to ask me what was so funny.

― brilliant young and angsty (thatguy), Saturday, 12 March 2005 00:38 (twenty years ago)

you read the newspaper while driving?

― cutty (mcutt), Saturday, 12 March 2005 00:39 (twenty years ago)

"Heiruspecs takes the pre-recorded staleness out of rap"
- New York Times, Oct 3, 2004

(that was on the top of a press release that just came in the mail!)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 12 March 2005 00:42 (twenty years ago)

I was parked.

― brilliant young and angsty (thatguy), Saturday, 12 March 2005 00:45 (twenty years ago)

Does anyone remember the article that the Times ran a year or so ago about Hunts Point (a neighborhood in the South Bronx), in the Metro section? Instead of writing anything penetrative or investigative about the tough, life-or-death issues in the area, it was all about some lady's lame grammatical quest to get the signs changed from "Hunts Point" to "Hunt's Point." Good grief.

― geeta (geeta), Saturday, 12 March 2005 00:48 (twenty years ago)

actually i think i'm kinda feeling her on that

― Lukas (lukas), Saturday, 12 March 2005 00:50 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, bad grammar is annoying. Not every article about hip hop has to be an aesthetic treatise on the intricacies of the form.

It's not even in the music section.

― mrjosh (mrjosh), Saturday, 12 March 2005 02:39 (twenty years ago)

hahaha wtf? that's such an onion article.

― sleep (sleep), Saturday, 12 March 2005 02:45 (twenty years ago)

Is that the same article that called them Mr. Cent and Mr. Game?

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Saturday, 12 March 2005 03:14 (twenty years ago)

Yeah. Oh Clyde.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 12 March 2005 04:58 (twenty years ago)

I think it's safe to assume the "Mr. Cent" and "Mr. Game" thing is tongue-in-cheek. Actually, I think the whole article's tongue-in-cheek. Don't hate the Haberman.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 12 March 2005 05:04 (twenty years ago)

But it's not cute; it's annoying. Plus it distracts the reader's attention from the opinions of the authorities he cites, which tend to minimize the significance of standardization.

― youn, Saturday, 12 March 2005 05:16 (twenty years ago)

Yeah...I dunno. I assumed he was making fun of the NYT there, with the "Mr." stuff -- more an inside joke for NYT readers (and his readers in particular, who you have to keep in mind are probably mostly not the same as Kelefa Sanneh's readers, even if they're in the same paper). But I could be wrong.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 12 March 2005 08:18 (twenty years ago)

(I just mostly like Clyde Haberman. He does a good job being the sort of lightly amusing old-school local columnist. He's as folksy as the NYT gets.)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 12 March 2005 08:20 (twenty years ago)

yeah, I like the use of Mr./Ms. in the NYT and I like what I think you mean by folksy.

― youn, Saturday, 12 March 2005 08:50 (twenty years ago)

hahaha, like english is some paragon among languages for its unparalleled elegance in spelling.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Saturday, 12 March 2005 08:55 (twenty years ago)

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