list goes on. With rap themes so often alluding to survival and individual prominence in urban life, rappers have, in a sense, become their own epic heroes. This theme applies so widely that the prolific rap artist often comes through as a prolific man in his lyrics.* P* In Black Noise, when Rose refers to specific rap lyrics, it is done most often to stress the importance of textuality, authorship, and technology in the music. "Rap lyrics are a critical part of a rapper's identity, strongly suggesting the importance of authorship and individuality in rap music." (Rose 95) Rose illustrates her point by using a dated L. L. Cool J song as her reference. In the lyrical excerpt the rapper's identity is repeated several times, with boas ting strung throughout the rhyme. The lyrics complement what Rose has to say about authorship and individuality in rap songs; but in today's hip-hop world, such extreme egocentricity and identity propulsion in lyrics has become increasingly looked down upon and disregarded. Artists have a stronger sense of working wi thin a community today, I believe, than they did three or four years ago. Indeed, rap artists often work to establish an identity through their lyrics, but te xtual authorship may not be as significant a motivation for this tendency as Ros e assumes. A characteristic of oral cultures and oral memory noted by Ong is the te ndency of these cultures to slough off obsolete or dated components of tradition , in order to "make room" for changing trends and information. As hip-hop cultu re moved from the 80's into the 90's, certain elements of the culture were pushe d aside and forgotten, while others were remembered and maintained. In rap's pa st ten years we've seen Afrocentrism come and go, gangster rap reach its apex, R un D. M. C.'s Adidas make way for Smif n Wessun's Timberlands, and KRS One's 198 5 "9mm" updated by the Beatnuts 1993 "Reign of the Tec." But little from the pa st ever completely el...
