Ay, what's up my well-read ballas? It’s 2015, Thug Notes is back,
and this week we gettin lonesome with "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.
It’s a balls-cold December night in the hood, where our narrator doin what all real gangstas do
when they tryna get their mind off a lost hunny-love – Crack open a book. Holla!
Playa bout to pass out when he hear a ruckus at the door and then he starts wiggin.
He check it – nothin. Then homeboy hear an even louder tappin and open his window,
when a raven flies his black ass in the crib and posts up like he owns the damn place.
Since he ain’t got nobody else to talk to, the narrator say,
"Bird, what’s yo name?” All da Raven gotta say is “Nevermore.”
Oh sh*t, this fool talks? Talk or not, the narrator don’t really give no fu**s.
There been other feathery bird bruthas up in his digs befo, and all just ended up leavin.
When da Raven hear that, he just say, "Nevermore."
The hell? Then our boy start thinkin,
“Maybe God tryna help me forget Lenore and get dem thoughts of her sweet lovin outta my dome.”
“Nevermore.” This muthafu**a. Then the narrator like,
“Okay. Real talk. Am I gonna get to chill wit my girl in heaven after I die?"
Don't say– "Nevermore." MUTHA FU**A! Get da hell outta here. Shoo!
But dat bird jus stonewallin him. So da narrator throws in the towel
and accepts errything is so damn jacked up dat he ain’t neva gonna be happy no mo.
Damn.
Dealin wit the death of a back-when biddy is sho as hell one depressing topic.
On the real, tho, dat’s just what what Poe was goin for.
In “The Philosophy of Composition,” Poe pretty much say the entire reason he wrote this poem
was to depress the sh*t outta people. Thanks, Poe. It worked.
He even break it down for us. So how can a brutha make somebody sad as hell?
Step 1: Talk bout death. But that ain’t enough a playa gotta make sho dat erryone can relate to dat pain.
And what’s da saddest thing a brotha can lose?
You got it, son. Some of dat ooooweeeee.
So BAM! Poe mix it all togetha and tell us his recipe for da most melancholy juice you can ever sip on –
the death of a beautiful woman.
Peep deez references playa play –
that raven can be referencin a couple of different mythological traditions.
In Norse Myth, Odin got two ravens rollin in his posse named Huginn and Muginn – Thought and Memory.
These little thuggies flew around and gave Odin the DL on what was goin down in da hood.
In "The Raven," the narrator’s bird hookin him up with some info too, just not the good kind.
Our boy havin to do his best to forget about Lenore,
but all dat punk-ass raven do is fill his head up with thoughts and memories of that hunny. Damn.
Now for my Greek homies, ravens were associated with prophecy and the god Apollo.
Maybe that’s why da raven is described as “ominous” –
cuz he's related to omens and hintin that some gnarly sh*t bout to go down.
Speakin of da future, Poe bitch-slappin us with the raven sayin “nevemore” ova and ova.
Thang is, our narrator start off sayin the exact opposite: “Forevermore.”
But by the end, he and that funky bird droppin da same beat, sayin dat his soul gonna be lifted “nevemore.”
To this thug, that's emphasizin the connection between the raven and da narrator.
they jus gonna sit they sad, lonely asses at home sayin da same thing over and over again.
Don’t think it’s a coincidence, too, that "nevermore" rhyme with "Lenore," yo.
See y’all next week, my well-read ballas. Sparky Sweets out. Peace.