I can’t say enough good things about Jay Shells’s Rap Lyrics signs project, in which the street artist puts up homemade street signs with location-specific rap lyrics. It already covers a lot of ground across the boroughs and there’s more to come. Some of the signs are low-hanging fruit (the hook from “Where I’m From” sits in front of the Marcy Projects), but Shells does a good job covering a broad swath of New York rap. It’s the work of a lifelong fan who understands that location-specific lines from Lil Fame, N.O.R.E. and the late Capital Steez all carry equal weight.While I love the visceral shock of the sign for Kool G. Rap’s street solidarity anthem “Tap the Bottle,” the most resonant sign for me is the one from Mos Def’s “Mathematics.” Broadway and Myrtle is a busy intersection and subway stop at the border of Bed-Stuy and Bushwick. In the 14 years since “Mathematics” came out, it’s gone from a good place to get robbed to where the loft party is. It’s still not a great place to be at all hours and it’s only in the last four years or so that you could, like, get brunch and do yoga there. But every time I find myself at that corner, I think about Mos Def and how the area has changed.These kinds of tributes don’t tend to be so informed. People like to like hip-hop. They like the way graffiti looks, they like the way breakdancers spin on their head and they are mystified at how records make funny sounds when you move them back and forth. What they don’t actually like is rap music. They think it’s amazing when you put 90’s rap lyrics in Peanuts cartoons, but less so when the jokes require actual knowledge of the music. They don’t listen to rap on the radio (because it’s on the radio) but they are quick to tell you that it’s not as good as it was in the 90’s. And I was relieved to see Jay Shells was out there putting Jim Jones lines up on Lenox and not, like putting a sign that said BROOKLYN in front of Biggie’s childhood home.I know I’m working with a straw man here, but as long as David Brooks’s ass has a job, I don’t really feel a need to do better. Fuck that dude.Skinny Friedman lives in New York. He's on Twitter - @skinny412
Advertisement