[On Hip-Hop, A Rhapsody (Full Text)] [Playlist]

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“Art,” to cite an explanation coined by Wyndham Lewis following Freud, “is a civilized substitute for magic” (qtd. in Elliott, 92). Rhapsody signifies that space where and when magic passes into art. It sublimates the hostility inherent in spells and curses, redirecting aggression into socially acceptable forms such as wit and humor. “Wit,” wrote Freud in Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, “permits us to make our enemy ridiculous through that which we could not utter loudly or consciously on account of existing hindrances” (qtd. in Elliott, 264). To which Eminem replies, “I’m like a head-trip to listen to, ‘cause I’m only giving you things you joke about with your friends inside your living room. The only difference is, I’ve got the balls to say it in front of y’all, and I don’t got to be false and sugar-coat it at all” (“The Real Slim Shady,” The Marshall Mathers LP).

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