WILF: ‘Book of Rhymes - The Poetics of Hip Hop’ by Adam Bradley

The Leading, Language and Literature Podcast

In this episode, I’m explaining What I Learnt From: Adam Bradley’s ‘Book of Rhymes - The Poetics of Hip Hop’. This is the second episode that sees me go through my annotations and notes for a book that explores an area of English teaching or leadership. This time, it is the first part of the eye-opening and eminently readable ‘Book of Rhymes’ by Adam Bradley. As a teacher of the IB’s DP Language and Literature course, one of the texts I cover is the 2017 album DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar. Having struggled to find reliable and accessible work written about the art of hip hop as a genre, I was elated to find this book as useful and applicable as it was

Expect to hear:

1. How hip hop is more faithful to traditional poetry than free verse poetry is

2. Where rhythm comes from in hip hop

3. The different types and functions of rhyme in the genre

4. And finally, the ways in which wordplay cross over from more traditional literature into this medium

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Links:

Adam Bradley’s Book of Rhymes - The Poetics of Hip Hop