sic freestyle provides an interesting point of reference to orality, in that its production involves techniques similar to those used by epic poets from pre-textual oral cultures. In Walter J. Ong's book Orality and Literacy, Ong details a study done b y linguistic scholar Milman Parry, and later extended by Lord, of the memorization and recitation of Homeric epics before the poems were committed to text. The question these studies attempted to answer was 'how could these long epics be memorzied without a text?'. Ong explains one of the answers found in the study: "With [the epic poet's] hexameterized vocabulary, he could fabricate correct met rical lines without end, so long as he was dealing with traditional materials." (Ong 58) Epic oral poets had massive stores of ready-made, metered lines, and e qually massive banks of cliches and adjectives used to extoll the virtues of the ir epic heroes. Since rap freestyles are improvisations, memorization and meter -fitting have little or no impact on the composition of the lyrics. What concer ns freestyle artists most is rhyming the last syllables of the verses. To maintain lyrica l rhythm and rhymed verse, rap artists have an infinite store of urban slang and cliches that can be used to fit their rhyme schemes. Use of this array of voca bulary applies to freestyle and written verse. while tryi ng not to break from their largely self-established rhythms Resembling the methods of oral p oets, rap music culture has established a vocabulary of slang and cultural refer ence that is specific to the rap community, and is utilized freely by those with in it for artistic expression, as well as everyday communication. Rapper Punisher, in a freestyle done at a fast pace, exhibits the use of this type of extended communal language: I'll make it last with the dough I got If not I'll blow your spot If not--Joey Crack please load the glock Let th...
