Pynchon & rap

[jbor]

> Shock value and linking
> them theoretically via abstruse PoMo considerations aside, the
> content of most rap music seems so thin, commercially oriented, and
> derivative to me that it seems a stretch to read it in the same ball
> park with a writer like Pynchon; nor does P seem to have taken it up
> as a subject in his writing the way he has been inspired to write
> about jazz, popular music of earlier periods, classical music, and
> rock and roll.

I would imagine that the free form jazz of McClintic Sphere (and those
actual artists upon whom the character is based: Coleman, Monk, Parker &c)
is also very much a precursor of contemporary rap music. Otto pointed to the
section in _M&D_ which seems to speak to various contemporary musical
styles, "South Philadelphia Ballad-singers" amongst those. (pp. 261-265)
That's surely a direct reference to modern rap music, isn't it?

best