Braggadocio (rap) on:
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When
When rapping
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
, MCs use braggadocio to boast
Boasting or bragging is speaking with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one's achievements, possessions, or abilities.
Boasting occurs when someone feels a sense of satisfaction or when someone feels that whatever occurred proves thei ...
—to speak about themselves with great pride. Braggadocio may include subjects such as physicality, fighting ability, financial riches,
sexual prowess, or "coolness". Often heavily used in battle rap
Battle rap (also known as rap battling)Edwards, Paul, 2009, p. 25. is a type of rapping performed between two or more performers that incorporates boasts, insults and wordplay. Battle rap is often performed or freestyled spontaneously in live ...
, braggadocio lyrics can range from just saying, "I'm the best MC ever," to using elaborate phraseology and wit.
Early years
Competition from theold-school hip hop
Old-school hip hop (also spelled old skool) is the earliest commercially recorded hip hop music and original style of the genre. It typically refers to the music created around 1979 to 1983, as well as any hip hop that does not adhere to contem ...
ethic partially explains why braggadocio is used in rap—"my shit is better than yours and that's the bottom line," said MC Esoteric
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...
. Gangsta rap
Gangsta rap or gangster rap, initially called reality rap, emerged in the mid- to late 1980s as a controversial hip-hop subgenre whose lyrics assert the culture and values typical of American street gangs and street hustlers. Many gangsta rappe ...
helped develop the idea of a "larger-than-life" persona, sometimes to a comedic extreme; however, reading braggadocio literally and seeing it as integral to rap may suppress vulnerability, i.e. an artist's ability to connect emotionally. Braggadocio may also reflect young black men's relief with being given an audience—rapper Murs
Murs may refer to:
People
* Marc Athanase Parfait Œillet des Murs (1804-1878), French ornithologist
* Olly Murs (born 1984), English singer-songwriter
* Murs (rapper) (born 1978), American rapper
Places
* Murs, Indre, France
* Murs, Vaucluse, ...
said, "when you get the microphone, you want to pump yourself up."
Self-aggrandizement
Unlike other bragging by young men about sex, wealth, and physical strength, the subject of rap's braggadocio can also be self-referential—talking about the rapper's artistic or poetic ability. Paul Edwards's book ''How to Rap
''How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC'' is a book on hip hop music and rapping by Paul Edwards. It is compiled from interviews with 104 notable rappers who provide insights into how they write and perform their lyrics.Edwards, Paul, ...
'' explains a short but complex example of braggadocio: Calling himself Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, then saying "no Omega" (the last letter), Rakim is suggesting that his flow could last forever—that he starts without ever stopping.
The term did not originate as a rap term; its origins are much older. The term originated in the late 16th century and denotes a boaster. It is from Braggadocchio, the name of a braggart in Spenser's ''The Faerie Queene
''The Faerie Queene'' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 sta ...
''. It is a composite of the word brag or braggart, and the Italian suffix -occio, denoting something large of its kind.
Frequently cited items
Financial items cited include #supercar
A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...
s as different Lamborghini
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. () is an Italian brand and manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi.
Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–1993) ...
models, SVR, and so on
# Fashion design
Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and plac ...
s
# purses such as Birkin bag
The Birkin bag (or simply Birkin) is a kind of tote bag introduced in 1984 by the French luxury goods maker Hermès. Birkin bags are handmade from leather and are named after the English-French actress and singer Jane Birkin.
The bag quickly b ...
s
# Luxury goods
In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to n ...
; for example, watches such a Richard Mille
Richard Mille is a Swiss luxury watch company founded in 2001 by Dominique Guenat and Richard Mille, and based in Les Breuleux, Switzerland. The brand specialises in ultra-high-end luxury watches.
Company history Introduction
After studying m ...
# Liquor such as Hennessy
Jas Hennessy & Co., commonly known simply as Hennessy (), is a French producer of cognac, which has its headquarters in Cognac, France.
It is one of the "big four" cognac houses, along with Martell, Courvoisier, and Rémy Martin, who together ma ...
Some rappers cite the brands that they endorsed and collaborated on. Travis Scott cites ''Cactus Jack'' sometimes.
See also
* Bling-bling *Bugatti (song)
"Bugatti" is a song by American rapper Ace Hood featuring fellow American rappers Future and Rick Ross. Written alongside producers Mike WiLL Made It and J-Bo, it was released on January 29, 2013, as the lead single from the former's fourth stu ...
References
;Bibliography * * * Rapping {{hiphop-stub