"Layin like a gay model... - Ghostface Killah"

Getting my students to spend time on developing the characters in their stories is like pulling teeth. Some of them simply lack the ability to write descriptively while others don't see the value in it. What I tell them is that it is the characters that pull us into stories and movies. Good writers use description that allows the reader to love, hate, envy characters. We can envision them. Movies however have the benefit of the viewer being able to see the clothing, gestures, and disposition of the actors while prose does not have that benefit.

While there are many great story tellers in Hip-Hop music, one of the greatest is Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang Clan. One of the things that separates him from the others is his intense dedication to character development in his writing.

This is exemplified on a song titled "Malcolm" from his second solo album Supreme Clientele. Ghost not only spends time describing individuals, but damn near uses the entire first verse exclusively for it.

"I'm booby trapped by the capitalist/tryna subsist..

...sometimes happiness is hot grits and catfish...or a bowl of cookie crisp..." The Rza as Bobby Digital

I got a text from my man the other day that simply read, "It's a Black Rob morning". While I don't ever remember us having a long convo about Rob, but I knew EXACTLY what he meant.

Some rappers voices, deliveries, lyrics, songs, are like comfort food. Warm apple pie, mash potatoes, and mac and cheese.

Here are a few other rappers that evoke that feeling for me...

Black Rob



G-Dep



Too Short
"...I was only 14 when I first ..."




Scarface
"...I wanna die but it aint for me/I try to talk to my dad but my old man ignores me..."



Rakim
"Planet Earth..."



Buckshot
"Check the dialect from the diaphragm my man"

Sin, all depends, on what you believing in, faith is what you make it...

that's the hardest shit since MC Ren..." Andre 3000

I'm not too sure if posting links to other blogger's posts is kosher or not but I feel I have to. The folks over at the t.r.o.y blog have put together a little something for one of the all time under appreciated MCs'

"MC Ren controlls the automatic, for any dumb motherf--r, that wants static..." - MC Ren of N.W.A.

BTW, Dre and Big Boi really went in on this track...