What mapping music means….
Jay Shells “Rap Quotes” project. Photos by Aymann Ismail at AnimalNewYork.
To follow up on class yesterday, and to give you a better picture of some of what we’re going to be talking about, I’m including this link to a project that took place in New York City earlier this year that was done by the artist/designer Jay Shells. The project looks at rap lyrics and where they are situated in New York City. In the same way that people commemorate battles, the births of famous painters and other notable historical events, Shells marks out the landmarks and corners cited in the lyrics of 1990s rap. See the video for more info.
It’s a good example of how music is woven into the environments where we live and, for those of us not from New York, shapes how we perceive places before we arrive.
Could you imagine an equivalent project about Toronto?
I think this is SO neat! it’s definitely an original project and definitely calls to attention some of the ideas around how many lyrics go unheard in the sense that we may sing them or hear them but not really listen to them. ALOT of artists both past and present mention different places around the world in their music and it is a way for us to feel a sense of pride and almost like a bragging right creating nationalism within our own communities. I also think it could bring the artists closer to home when people realize that by them mentioning somewhere like Toronto, for example, in a way puts us on the map for those who didn’t even know Toronto existed or who have never been here themselves. Artists like Drake and Jay-Z hometown name drop all the time in their music in a sense of appreciation for where their roots are. I think it has a lot to do with respect, though I’m sure some will disagree.
In terms of this project taking place in Toronto, I definitely think it would be interesting and grab a lot of public and media attention, though I’m not sure there would be as many lyrics involving Toronto as there would be somewhere like NYC where this video took place as many more artists came out of New York for many reasons.