I'm just thinking about various rap songs where the artist says, "I reminisce." For example, in his poignant tribute "Dear Mama," Tupac Shakur —or 2Pac, if you prefer—says, in that unmistakable cadence: "I reminisce on the stress I caused, it was hell/Hugging on my mama from a jail cell."
There's something sideways about Tupac's delivery, like he's leaning against a wall or writing in cursive. He makes sad songs, angry songs, celebratory songs sound casual and intimate.
At the same time, a latent anger, frustration, cynicism, sadness and despair fuels those moments when Tupac stresses a word, spitting it out like a bad sunflower seed, lobbing it like a bomb. It makes Tupac's delivery as much as percussion instrument as well as a paradigm of rap vocals. There's no predicting when it will happen, which makes Tupac's spoken-word hypnotically random. In short, the late rapper regularly reaches a state Zen Buddhists, as well as rappers and rap fans, call "a state of flow."
And then, every once in a while, Tupac seems to awake from the bad, sad dream of his experience; from his pessimistic and at times sci-fi post apocalyptic view of the future; from his arguably self-destructive forays into the glamour of "thug life" and Machavellian power and his increasing paranoia. As time would tell, the latter state was justified. I read the very good biography "The Rose That Grew From Concrete" and that' where the above analysis comes from.
Throwing off the whole paradigm, we hear laughter in his voice, and see him flash an auditory smile. But I digress.
According to Google, other rap songs that employ the verb reminisce include: Pete Rock & CL Smooth - They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.) and 2Pac's Reminisce.
It seems like such an old-fashioned word, and certainly a smart, multi-syllabic one. It's the kind of word that makes a 6th grader take out a dictionary. Or do they just google that stuff now?
This leads me to wonder: What other elegant, antiquated and all-around fancy words are hidden among rhymes both loose and tight, slang, boasts and urban lingo. Perhaps, in the end, it is hip-hop that will save us from linguistic decline?
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