Nothing more than a subjective conclusion

1. Humans have been making art since long before we had written language, complex agricultural systems, money, gunpowder, armadas, trains and any of the various technologies of the last few centuries. Why? On his latest album, For Whom the Beat Tolls, Canibus spits "I Don't care if I make history, I wanna be a part of INFINITY". This comes from a song called "Poet Laureate Infinity", "the third installment in Canibus' "Poet Laureate" series, "Poet Laureate Infinity". has 1,000 bars, in the form of five 200 bar verses, and is layered in such a way that "when you mix it and spread it throughout five channels, [you have the ability] to mix the track differently every time." ^[1] On April 8, 2007, the track was uploaded, by Canibus himself, to a website where the listener could mix the track differently on a digital mixing board. The website is now down, but the fansite Canibus-Central.com provided a backup." - Wikipedia.

Listen carefully to this selection from Poet Laureate II, which some of you have already heard, and read along with the lyrics. As you are listening, write down your answer the question (why do humans make art) on a piece of paper, we will use this later. These prompts may help you analyze the lyrics:

Listen (and look) for extremes: what ideas are extremely exaggerated? Where does Canibus use extreme contrast?

Who is the character in the first verse (before the beat changes) and what is the general theme of this verse? In the second verse, who is speaking and what is the relationship between this verse and the last one?

Do the verses have a straightforward message? Is there a message in the subtext? I have bolded lines that I feel are more open for interpretation or may lend themselves to multiple interpretations. In your own words try to write what you think these lines mean.

[James Dicky]
Uhh I dont understand how a writer could ever get writer's block, so called
My problem is having too much.. and being unable to get it down...

[Canibus] - Verse I
Yo, why is the ripper so ill?
That would be an unpardonable breach of confidence for me to reveal!
He said one day all eyes would be on me
when they look up in the sky and see the neon 'C'
Rhymes inscribed on a nickel disk encased
in glass with an ion beam for longevity
For more then 10 centuries, impressions and memories
the first time-machine inventor will mention me
Canibus was a visionary indeed
he believed light could travel in multiples of C
The organic supercomputer that solved the mysteries
of Klein-Kaluza with 2 blue metric rulers
Liked Cool J, but thought Stephen Jay Gould was cooler
and he never liked to propagate rumors
Smoked Canary Island cigars
liked American luxury cars and beautiful Asian broads
He had a strong mind, he used to philosophize
about rhymes while he was pruning his Bonsai
He claimed that he had written the greatest rhyme of all time
but he would never take it out his archives
He wrote 2 songs per day
and was constantly was 'experimenting' with his wordplay
In his youth he did a report on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey he got an F but he deserved an A
I followed his career from the first day
it seemed the lack of support contributed to his inert ways
I seen him put in 24 hour workdays
with deferred pay, undeterred by the word "shame"
Public humiliation was the worst pain
he was spinnin out of control like a class 5 hurricane
He said he wouldn't want another emcee to suffer the same
especially when there's NOTHIN' TO GAIN
He was the illest alive but nobody would face it
he spit till his tongue was too torched to taste, it
privately funded corporations carbon-dated his latest creations
to extract the information
They found it utterly amazing
they claimed the body of his work was the same thing as a priceless painting
Never mattered to him the art galleries hated him
cause Thomas Kinkade called, said he would take 10
Complete enigmas wrapped in puzzles encrypted in language with sound but without shape or signature
Kept files in his garage, on MS-DOS
in a fire-proof pod, we thought it was odd
Outside there was a shed with an Oppenheimer lock
he apparently kept more wax then Madame Tussaud's
We were in total awe, cause it blew our minds
so many rhymes that were intricately designed
He WAS Poet Laureate of his time
and if you don't mind, I'd like to share some of his rhymes

[Canibus] - Verse II
Alone in my room, looking thru the 32X telescope zoom
adjusting the focus of the moon
One should not assume the philosophy of David Hume
is nothing more then a subjective conclusion
What is the maximum field rate application?
the run away glaciation surrounding the ocean basin
affects the population fluctuation
on a continuous basis but that's just the basics
The juxtaposition of Canibus' position
the precision of something no other has written
Way above and beyond what was intended
the unparalleled malleable enunciation of a sentence
You didn't go to college obviously
I can tell by your ungodly unintelligible terminology
A remarkable odyssey, the rhymes of modern speeds
when the brain orders the body not to breathe
Your competency is not up to speed, you not in my league
you couldn't possibly be hotter than me
Or oppositely at minus 25 degrees, you'd squeeze
but the condensation makes rifle barrels freeze
Allow me to speak figuratively, nigga please
my intellectual property's about the size of Greece
Your counselor advised you not to speak
my counselor advised me to keep rhymin "til they stopped the beat"
In the words of Joseph Heller, "I learned how to write better"
even though it sort of irked me
He said he didn't understand the process of the imagination
but he felt he was at its mercy
Which explains my point perfectly and certainly reinforces
the reason why nobody's probably ever heard of me
Couldn't understand what I mean by ill unless you try to translate what I print to film This is the line of will, the circle of time the cycle of eternity, the emergence of 1 mind
Academic phonetics render critics tongue-tied
Ive personified dry humor of cum-laude alumni
A wise man sees failure as progress
a fool divorces his knowledge and misses the logic
And loses his soul in the process
I obsess (or obsessed?) with nonsense with a caricature that has no content
My style is masterful, multi-lateral
I could battle a fool and be naturally cruel
Words of scorn are a disastrous tool
from an existentialist view, I'm a better rapper then you
Grab the mic and rip your physical fabric in 2
my attitude is fucked up but admirable Different methods interpreted into different forms from entirely different perceptions and seen from different norms
Not just spittin a poem there's much more involved
there's much more pieces of the puzzle for you to solve
48 orders of mechanical laws
and rays of creational cause, enhance the cadence of my bars
Maybe I am self-absorbed
but thats the effect, to find the cause you should ask my A&R
Today is what it is, but only because yesterday was what it was
permitting you heard of Beelzebub
A tale of demons and drugs, pissy drunk in the club
with the DJ doing the needle rub
Chances are you'll never see me son
yeah I know my names Canibus but I cant help you if you need a dub

2. What connection do you infer between the two quotes and his song? "Uhh I dont understand how a writer could ever get writer's block, so called
My problem is having too much.. and being unable to get it down..." and "Generally I take.. I go with the given..ya know with what comes to me .. over the celestial wireless ..whenever it comes, you're lucky when you get it.."

3. What does this passage mean to you? You may use these concepts to understand: the 4th dimension, Hue-Saturation-Brightness, non linear thinking, wave/particle continuum.

"color is vibration, vibration is sound
sound resonates through the mouth check it out
What I say vibrates no less than 9 ways
South, South East, West, South West, East
North, North East, North West
And the black and white images fade
to grey sound waves"

4. What ties this passage together? What themes run through it? You may find the information on the side helpful.









"My circularised 3rd Eye, sees all
Atlantis was surrounded by 4 sea walls
I read one-fourth of the Library of Alexandria
before it was burnt to the floor
I wish I could've learned more
about the shapes of the sacred geometry they used to draw
They were new millennium but Euclidean in form
ancient in many ways but not nearly as old
Carved from Egyptian gold molded in Assyria
with processed Beryllium by the quintillion











They cooked on symmetrical stoves
with my logo etched above the hole where they inserted the coal
And they barbecued birds to the bone
An' They burned incense in a Buckminster Fuller type dome
I talked to Mr. Fuller over the phone
and he said he had a contract to rebuild Rome
said he didn't want to do it alone
I told him I was busy writing poems
but I'd think about going
The process was slow, and the dough was low
but I took it as the perfect opportunity to grow
plus I never traveled that far from home
but I heard about the beauty of Cydonian snow
neon green grass, statues made from translucent glass
I'll be crazy to pass















4. In Magnum Inomminandum Canibus says "Suivre moi" which means follow me. Then he says "The mixtape comes out today, announce the date
The potato gets off his couch to wait
'Cause he knows something wicked his way comes
They can hear the sound of the war drum,
Canibus save them!
I can't save you, but you can save yourself
We can save each other, I just came to help"

How do these ideas relate?

5. What is the connection here " Spit the truth; tell the leadership to listen to the troops
The leadership bleeds blue, we bleed red
In the end the only thing we can agree on is death"

" The event you cant prevent no matter how much you spend
Your catalogue remains thin no matter how much you pen
I stand with my men, lookin' at the flag draped coffins again
Cryin', justifyin' what I did
There's no excuse cause nobody will ever know the truth
I will never get over the abuse - fuck you!..."

Why do you think Canibus arranged the song the way he did?

6. In Poet Laureate II Canibus says - "no one goes to the bookstore ever since the confluence or Mmoore's law" - (see the board) what is your reaction? How does this idea (and all of these ideas) relate to this class, and college in general?