Musically Inside Haroun

Aaite all you music lovers out there. Haroun and the Sea of Stories has so many great lines in it that takes me back to times past, and takes me to places I will see in the future.  But one of my favorite songs ever has been quoted in this book, and though the line is a popular line and this low or highbrow story is no exception to the cliche one liners I hope some of you might have picked up on the line on page 70.  If not then venture to the end of this blog and you'll see the line, but first watch the video and see if you hear poetics, it not only is throughout this entire song but it's the last line of the song. (p.s. the lyrics are there too, so for all you readers :-) get your read on and jam out to the classic stylings of one of the greatest trio groups every to grace the Earth, The Fugees: Vocab.

Vocab

Yo, this is the Fugees
Refugees
About to take you on a journey
Into the dimensions of The Booga Basement
The Basement, word
Uhh

Hey yo, one two three! The crew is called Re-Fu-Ge-ee-es
An if yu come fa tes the rap stylee
Stop the violence and just bring it on, wiiild

Hey yo I, feel kind of melancholy people think they really know me
I keep a wrap about me while I'm driving daddy's Audi
I pay the toll fighting for my own soul
Cause the bourgeoise type of mental sucks like a flat comb
But I be baitin the rebel base to bass distort the EQ
The devil's wishin they could send me back to Mogadishu
Cause I've been wild since I was a juvenile
Afro-centric profile, back when righteous rap was your style
Now kids are whylin so I ask the bad black
Boogie bandit, what's the damage, gimme the estimate then
pray tell me when's the revolution will begin?
I turn on my TV I check out Farrakhan on CNN see
I'm like the phantom that's flying like the bird do
And things you never heard plus I come from the suburbs
Word to God, I heard you're acting kind of hard
And you got your skin scarred when they was shootin on the boulevard

(You got the vocab) I got the vocab
(Underground got the vocab) You know we got the vocab
(All my peeps got the vocab) Yeah, we got the vocab
[Lauryn] Aiyyo Praz, grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab

Then cast off from here to Mexico
You see my four-five-six a-be my Celo
And when I rest my head is on a pillow
Be-ba-dee-be, be-dee-be, be-dee-be-bo
You see the skills I manifest is very tho-rough
And if you don't believe me ask Freres Ja-cques
Mmmm, Freres Jacques, Freres Jacques
A dorme vous? A dorme vous?
WATCH OUT NOW! When I choose to speak
I'm forming the cipher fly East to the Five Percenter
Knowledge is born, to all beginners
Cast the first stone, if you feel you ain't a sinner, ahh
Say o-ur father, who art in heaven
Forgive the foolish rapper for he not know how Fugee be steppin
Correct and, stopped and kept in, nuff respect to the
DJ, that be selectin, the type of record ahhh

(You got the vocab) I got the vocab
(The click's got the vocab) You know they got vocab
(Brooklyn got the vocab) We got the vocab
[Lauryn] Aiyyo Clef grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab

Check it out, here we go
Back in Eighty-TREE, no one wanted to be NAPPY
I turn on my TV, it's a dreadlock for FREE
Kill the gimmick
It's nonsense, it's no sense or value
a rapper, disaster, nobody ever told me that
"Roxanne, you don't got to work for money no more!!"... and...
Back in the days I used to listen to Kool G Rap
Way back when before guns became gats and
Run-D.M.C. used to ask Mary was she buggin?
I loved P.E., they kept me concious of what I was saying
Afrika Bambaata, Poor Righteous Teacher
Got within myself so it made me a Five Percenter
Say La-Di-Da-Di, UHH! we like to party but
my jam was BDP, with My Philosophy
Say Grandmaster Flash, MC Melle Mel
Then LL Cool J came with Rock the Bells!
See I'm the one for the crew, like a Jew is a Jew
Like Apollo got the moon, like the men who got the blue
Like the Fu got the Manchu, Chaka got the Zulu
Hawaii got the Honolulu
I got the rap lieu, so skippedy-de-bop-bop you don't stop
You do the rock-rock from hip-hop through be-bop
from be-bop to bee-bee

(You got the vocab) I got the vocab
(Boogie Down got the vocab) You know they got the vocab
(Black people got the vocab) Word, we got the vocab
[Lauryn] Aiyyo peeps, grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab

(You got the vocab) Yeahh, we got the vocab
(Queens got the vocab) You know y'all got the vocab
(Uptown got the vocab) Yeahh, they got the vocab
[Lauryn] Aiyyo, bros grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab

(DC got the vocab) Word, y'all got the vocab
(Virginia got the vocab) Aiyy, I know y'all got the vocab
(Oakland got the vocab) Word, they got the vocab
[Lauryn] Aiyyo, sisters grab the mic and show you got the gift of gab

"Haroun sat astride Butt the Hoopoe and started at the bottle in his hand.  Just one sip, and he could regain for his father the lost Gift of the Gab!" --Rushdie (pg. 70).

Everyone has it, we have to look for that gab that is a gift to all of us.  I don't know what it is but every time I hear the line "gift of gab" I have to think of the deepest, darkest, inner workings of our minds and the lines that come out with effortless ease.  We pass over lines in books that we think means nothing to us, but another reads the same line and finds an endless wealth of knowledge and connections.  There is nothing more than a book that can connect to your soul, and reference the things most near and dear to your soul.  Though writers are not aware of the connections to the millions of readers they have, they know that connections lye much deeper than the individual.  It is a blend of spirit and soul, and I for sure have connected with this book not only for the line that reminds me of heartfelt meaningful music, but for the multiple connections that I have skipped over but others have connected with. Connect not only with your relationship to this book, but connect to the relationship that others are having with this book. 

ooo la la la, music is all we need to connect us to another de-mention and another high or lowbrow genera that we have yet to discover and experience.  

~L.