My third blog will be a comparison between the poetry written during the Black Arts Movement and the hip-hop/rap lyrics written during the Hip-Hop Revolution. I am comparing Amiri Barak's Ka'ba with the lyrics of Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A.

Ka'Ba

"A closed window looks down
on a dirty courtyard, and Black people
call across or scream across or walk across
defying physics in the stream of their will.

Our world is full of sound
Our world is more lovely than anyone's
tho we suffer, and kill each other
and sometimes fail to walk the air.

We are beautiful people
With African imaginations
full of masks and dances and swelling chants
with African eyes, and noses, and arms
tho we sprawl in gray chains in a place
full of winters, when what we want is sun.

We have been captured,
and we labor to make our getaway, into
the ancient image; into a new

Correspondence with ourselves
and our Black family. We need magic
now we need the spells, to raise up
return, destroy,and create. What will be

the sacred word?

Straight Outta Compton

You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge

Verse One: Ice Cube

Straight outta Compton crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube
From the gang called N****z With Attitudes
When I'm called off I got a sawed off
Squeeze the trigger and bodies are hauled off
You too boy if ya fuck with me
The police are gonna hafta come and get me
Off yo ass that's how I'm goin out
For the punk motherfuckers that's showin out
N****z start to mumble, they wanna rumble
Mix em and cook em in a pot like gumbo
Goin off on a motherfucker like that
with a gat that's pointed at yo ass
So give it up smooth
Ain't no tellin when I'm down for a jack move
Here's a murder rap to keep yo dancin
with a crime record like Charles Manson
AK-47 is the tool
Don't make me act the motherfuckin fool
Me you can go toe to toe, no maybe
I'm knockin n****z out tha box, daily
yo weekly, monthly and yearly
until them dumb motherfuckers see clearly
that I'm down with the capital C-P-T
Boy you can't fuck with me
So when I'm in your neighborhood, you better duck
Coz Ice Cube is crazy as fuck
As I leave, believe I'm stompin
but when I come back, boy, I'm comin straight outta Compton

Chorus:

[City of Compton, City of Compton]

[Eazy E] Yo Ren
[MC Ren] Whassup?
[Eazy E] Tell em where you from!

Verse Two: MC Ren

Straight outta Compton, another crazy ass n***a
More punks I smoke, yo, my rep gets bigger
I'm a bad motherfucker and you know this
But the pussy ass n****z don't show this
But I don't give a fuck, I'ma make my snaps
If not from the records, from jackin the crops
Just like burglary, the definition is 'jackin'
And when illegally armed it's called 'packin'
Shoot a motherfucker in a minute
I find a good piece o' pussy, I go up in it
So if you're at a show in the front row
I'm a call you a bitch or dirty-ass ho
You'll probably get mad like a bitch is supposed to
But that shows me, slut, you're composed to
a crazy muthafucker from tha street
Attitude legit cause I'm tearin up shit
MC Ren controls the automatic
For any dumb muthafucker that starts static
Not the right hand cause I'm the hand itself
every time I pull a AK off the shelf
The security is maximum and that's a law
R-E-N spells Ren but I'm raw
See, coz I'm the motherfuckin villain
The definition is clear, you're the witness of a killin
that's takin place without a clue
And once you're on the scope, your ass is through
Look, you might take it as a trip
but a n***a like Ren is on a gangsta tip
Straight outta Compton...

Chorus:

[City of Compton, City of Compton]

[Dr. Dre] Eazy is his name and the boy is comin...

Verse Three: Eazy-E

...straight outta Compton
is a brotha that'll smother yo' mother
and make ya sister think I love her
Dangerous motherfucker raises hell
And if I ever get caught I make bail
See, I don't give a fuck, that's the problem
I see a motherfuckin cop I don't dodge him
But I'm smart, lay low, creep a while
And when I see a punk pass, I smile
To me it's kinda funny, the attitude showin a n***a drivin
but don't know where the fuck he's going, just rollin
lookin for the one they call Eazy
But here's a flash, they never seize me
Ruthless! Never seen like a shadow in the dark
except when I unload, see I'll get over the hesitation
and hear the scream of the one who got the last penetration
Give a little gust of wind and I'm jettin
But leave a memory no one'll be forgettin
So what about the bitch who got shot? Fuck her!
You think I give a damn about a bitch? I ain't a sucker!
This is the autobiography of the E, and if you ever fuck with me
You'll get taken by a stupid dope brotha who will smother
word to the motherfucker, straight outta Compton

Chorus:

[City of Compton, City of Compton]

[Damn that shit was dope!]

On the surface these two works seem very different but I feel the meaning in each has similarities and also shows different opinions on the idea of African-Americans in the USA dealing with racism. Baraka, a known advocater for the rights of African-Americans, describes a very haunting visual in the first stanza of Ka'ba of black people screaming but no one hearing and trying so hard to cross the courtyard that they are defying science. The rest of Barak's poem focuses on the beautiful things about the African race, like their imaginations, but how they have been oppressed and captured. The N.W.A. describe numerous violent actions that will happen if they are crossed by anyone and what could happen to cops trying to arrest them. All of which involve either physical violence or guns.

I feel that Straight Outta Compton is a poem in response to the lack of progression of racism in America, from the time of Baraka to the N.W.A. I could be going in the complete wrong direction but it seems that people living in Compton during the eighties were not taught to change the situation they were given, but to simply survive. I see the biggest reason for this lack of progression being that the tools weren't available and no one knew how and also the police in the area were not exactly helpful in trying to change anything.

So Baraka exposed the problem (racism) in the 1960's explaining that negative attitudes that needed to change, the N.W.A. exposed the problem(racism within the police and other areas) in the 1980's but instead of exploring possible solutions, they exposed what they had to do to survive with this problem.

Let us hope that one day that all of these problems will be a thing of the past.