Yeah! Okay! What?

Lil Jon is an awful rapper, however, “Lil Jon is an awful rapper” is a conceptually brilliant premise for a musical career.

Lil Jon enjoying some “#tEaTimE Bitchhhhh!!”

(source)

By “awful”, I not only mean his lyrics glorify alcohol and drug abuse, which is perhaps his most common criticism, but also that he’s an unsophisticated lyricist. Even at his most eloquent, it’s still hard to justify even talking about him on a poetry blog. His rhymes don’t quite work most of the time, his meter is forced, and he laces every line with profanities.

Observe in his piece entitled “Get Outta Yo Mind,” with the lyrics written below.

“Get Outta Yo Mind” 

I'm a semi truck, no f**king brakes
Outta control like a bull out da gate
Get crunk, I'd get the f**k out the way
We get bananas like a room full of apes
I done lost it, you flossin'
I’m over here with my n****s in the mosh pit
Throwing elbows, stomping shell toes
Is that n***a dead? Who the f**k knows
Shake them dreads like a m***********g rasta
Go dumb like a m***********g monsta
You an imposter, you're drinking water
We're drinking patron and chasing it with vodka

Keep in mind that this is Lil Jon at his most eloquent. Most of Lil Jon’s “rapping” involves him wearing ludicrous amounts of jewelry, standing next to other, better rappers, while yelling “What?” and “Okay” and “Yeah!” and periodically encouraging listeners to drink more and/or dance harder.

This is a curious phenomenon. Lil Jon climbed to rap fame by being loud, abrasive, and ostentatious and having little or no talent. Or so you might believe. You might say, “I could totally do Lil Jon’s job”, and you totally could, but the simple fact is you didn’t.

  So while Lil Jon might be lyrically deficient, I believe that conceptually, Lil Jon is brilliant. Imagine painters like Pollock with his splatter paint or Joan Miro with his childish doodles. You could paint like either of them, but you haven’t. It didn’t occur to you to actually do it, just as standing in front of a bunch of twerking women while wearing rhinestone sunglasses and shouting “Skeet!” didn’t occur to you either.

Picture taken from We Go to the Gallery by Miriam Elia

(source)

Which is to say nothing of creativity. Pollock and Miro worked for decades honing their techniques in the process of forging their signature styles. Likewise, Lil Jon worked for years and years in the established and respected position of a hip-hop hype man until he forged his public identity.

As writers, it is useful to be reminded periodically that brilliance is not about coming up with a brilliant idea and executing it flawlessly. Brilliance is about embracing and celebrating who you are, with all your flaws, and owning that identity. Brilliance is about taking what anybody could do, and making it yours through process of doing it. And for that reason, “Turn Down For What” (lyrics below) is a work of brilliance.

 “Turn Down For What” 

Five to now 

Another round of shots  

Turn down for what 

Turn down for what 

Turn down for what 

Turn down for what 

Turn down for what