A lot of great lines from Schoolboy Q’s Blank Face, which I reckon is one of the better albums of 2016 so far, don’t do anything particularly new, which is part of their strength. As is well observed and documented braggadocio / gangster rap goes over the same sort of subjects a lot, in terms of selling drugs, having bitches, murder, guns, etc. Because of this rap lyricism quickly developed towards finding the most inventive, varied and strangely beautiful ways to express the same concepts, which interestingly makes a lot of gangster rap and braggadocio lyricism fresh rather than repetitive because the writers are forced into a situation where they have to be innovative to stand out amongst the huge number of rappers who are going over the same subjects.

So a line like “This the type of shit that / make the MAC a classic” (Black THougHts) isn’t really going anywhere as a line, despite its brilliance. We’ve all been rapped to about situations that required guns and surviving using guns a thousand times, and we’ve heard about the MAC-10 so many times that it does have a sort of legendary status in rap- I’m reminded of Nas’ “N.Y. State of Mind”: “Picked the MAC up, told brothers, “Back up!” the MAC spit / Lead was hittin’ niggas, one ran – I made him backflip”.

But the line is great because it reemphasises the immortalisation of the gun in a way that’s good- the assonance between “MAC” and “Classic” is so satisfying, especially within the one-line-at-a-time flow that Q uses on the song- but one that we also haven’t heard before. In that way it’s a kind of defiantly immobile line, not just within the continuum of what Pitchfork might call “boilerplate gangster rap” (that must be their favourite term) but within an idea of using poetic skill to say something again, but this time in a different, perhaps better, way.

The same thing happens with the line “Creative Crippin” later in the song. It’s another semi-isolated phrase that demonstrates a complete understanding on Q’s part of how his lines are operating: it depends in part on the technique of alliteration, but “creative” is also an unusual word to put alongside gangster stuff, and “Crippin’” is a noun (Crip) being reworked as a verb, so it’s a perfect melding of writing technique and an entire description of gang activities. Alongside the melancholy beat and the self-conscious reflection of the song it comes as a kind of wistful celebration of the point at which art meets gangbanging. It’s not a part of those activities itself, because, as a rap, it’s always distanced, but it therefore has that same quality of being stuck on the same subjects while still pushing forward. Nothing has changed, but Q is stating that he still innovates in how he goes about selling drugs and murdering, so Q is flexing the act of “Crippin’” at the same time as flexing his rapping ability by being “creative” about the line itself.

Those same features of Q’s rapping come out in “Groovy Tony / Eddie Kane” too:

“Cause brain damage from my mechanics”

The “translation” of the line is “Killing/injuring people by shooting them in the head”, but Q changes both the expression of damage and the term for the gun, and then rhymes those terms as an emphasis on the replacements, which are the things that are new about the concept. When I first heard this line I thought it was “rain damage” which would’ve been extra amazing because to “rain bullets” is another word for shoot.

“Got that white girl for you / And she swimming in fire water”

This is a description of cooking crack that is so distanced from the actual activity in a bid to sound like a poetic description that it would be hard to know what he means unless you’re familiar with rap language. The “white girl/cocaine” flip is well known but “swimming in fire water” is a deliberately grand, almost mythological elevation of the act of cooking crack on which a whole lot of gang culture depends. It definitely falls into the “strangely beautiful” category.

“My cigar full of cabbage / came from the dirt to the carrots”

This one’s great because it shows that there’s enough rap synonyms for things to do a gardening themed line about smoking weed and making it from rags to riches. Comparing this line with “My cigar full of weed / came from rags to riches” shows how important synonyms, and density of synonyms, are to sound unique while sticking to recognised concepts.

There’s more to be said about this idea in another post, specifically why it’s so accepted as “good rap” for a rapper to say the same things in different ways, and why it’s so exciting to hear sometimes- that question would come down to an examination of community consensus. Battle rap would be something good to look at in comparison because on that stage there’s a double level of flex going on: What can I say I’ve done, and how artistically can I say it.

There’s also something to be said about the importance of the rapper himself and his voice and the beat, because, of course, these lyrics sound a lot better than they look on paper when you hear them as part of a song. For now though it’s easy to appreciate the specifics of these few lines, which were some of my favourites off of Blank Face.

Also isn’t it amazing on Eddie Kane when that choir type noise comes in under the beat? Gave me goosebumps.

Edit: Since I posted this it’s been pointed out to me that “fire water” might well refer to liquor as well as cooking crack, which chimes with the earlier line “got that brown round here” as “brown” could also mean hennessey.

Also that “Mac a classic” might be “the mack a classic” as in, the film “the mack”. While this is a strong reading because the rest of the lines are about prostitution, there’s no reason it wouldn’t also involve a reference to a gun.