TRAE days

Letter to my ex

I’ve been reading a lot of rhymes and poetry from africanhiphop.com’s poets and from everyone’s favourite Birmingham boy: Sir Aihammed Delot; and I’ve been mighty impressed. And being that I love the art I finally convinced myself to come out of recess and put something together for old time’s sake. So what did I come up with? A poem…a letter to my ex. Bon appetite.

Dear Promise it’s been twenty four months since we ended our oneness/
Two years gone by and I’ve gotten over the fondness/
No finance, no romance a learnt fact, no contest/
Don’t feel love; don’t say yes I’ve learnt to be honest/
Thanks for the nice moments, forgive me for the pains/
Now I treat ladies right, like they’re part of my brain/
Thanks for the sex, although I was two minutes at best/
Now I’m mighty blessed and play safe when I caress/
What we had got me schooled, now I know who I’ll wife/
Freak in bed, lady in streets, we’re one yet we is twice/
It’s a shame you’re still fooled, don’t want a nine to five/
Having a man ain’t all you need; there’s gotta be more to this life/

“PUN”chlines

Before you read this forgive me if I end up sounding like a little boy who just discovered that silk is made from worms.

I’ve always known there was a figure of speech called pun. knew what it was and have been seeing it in write ups but just finally did the research and I’ve come to discover that what we Hip hop heads call punchlines are actually (at times) equivalent to puns in the comedy and writing circles.

a pun by definition is the use of words, usually humorous, based on (a) the several meanings of one word, (b) a similarity of meaning between words that are pronounced the same, or (c) the difference in meanings between two words pronounced the same and spelled somewhat similarly.

Example 1: without they fingers in my toilet, they’re feeling my shit
By Modenine in “elbowroom”.

The pun is on the double meaning of feeling my shit. If someone just defecated and you put your fingers in his toilet you’d touch his faeces. But also when heads say they’re feeling someone’s shit it means they really like the person’s flow.

Example 2: Got a bill in my mouth like I’m Hillary Rodham
By Ali in Nelly’s “grillz”.

The pun is on the double meaning of bill. Grills are expensive (thousands of dollars) dental jewelry. So if you’ve got grillz in your mouth you’ve got a bill (banknote) in your mouth. Also Hillary Rodham Clinton is wife of ex-US president Bill Clinton. And so for Hillary to have a bill in her mouth it means she has Bill’s dick in her mouth…blowjob! Bill Clinton was of course famous for getting those favours from Monica Lewinsky during his presidency.

But as I said earlier not all punchlines are pun. This is clearly not a pun…no double meaning, it’s straight forward but it’s one hell of a way to end your rap. A punchline per excellence:

And I’m not cocky I’m confident/so when you tell me I’m the best it’s a compliment/
By Jadakiss in Ja-Rule’s “New York”

Come to think of it there’s even a pun in the word punchline.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…

Related posts:

1. A letter to my younger self
2. Letter to Hot FM 98.3, Abuja
3. Ten children cannot play together for ten years