hit/What your eyes can't see." Muhammad Ali's rhymes, taunts, provocations and exclamations were larger-than-life persona. As he once said: "I outwit them and then A new book, Ali Rap: Muhammad Ali the First Heavyweight self-promotion, it sowed the seeds of hip-hop, which was born in "Before there was rap .
.. there was Ali Rap .
.. a topsy-turvy, jivey jargon that only Ali could create, but a language we could all understand," writes the book's editor and designer, George The book is not a continued analysis of this claim, but 300 pages of examples, illustrated by a quote roughly every page Lois, a renowned ad man and graphic designer, said recently he a "small, fat book - like a Bible or a Koran".
came on the radio. Lois suggested Ali was a rapper himself, to which the boxer responded: "I'm a double rapper. First I rap them with my mouth, then I rap them in the mouth.
" Presented chronologically, Ali Rap takes the reader from Ali's Kentucky childhood, through his historic fights against Sonny Liston, Joe Lewis and George Foreman - and finally to his current Even as a 40 kilogram 12-year-old, Ali - who as a teenager was his flow: "This guy is done. I'll stop him in one." Ali's life story is all told through Ali's own words, in hysterical Lois, who counts himself a friend of Ali's, famously designed fight in the Vietnam War, and modelled after the San The book's bold, catchy boast that Ali invented rap is certainly debatable.
Surely, hip-hop has more to gain by the association than Ali, who has always transcended all categorisation. Writing for ESPN, pop culture critic Chuck Klosterman pondered: "If true, this would mean that rap did not originate (as commonly songs about competitive horse racing and/or Rex Chapman." But there are more than a few rappers in Ali's corner, including Public Enemy's Chuck D, a well-respected elder statesman of an ESPN special on Ali's love of language, which also included Rakim, Ludacris, Doug E Fresh, Fab 5 Freddy, Jermaine Dupri and MC persona.
That's what hip-hop was able to do - to be an antenna for social reflection," Chuck D said in an interview. "He's one of the thank God - and also back up what he talked about." Ali often spoke out about racism, Vietnam and his religion of Islam - but it was usually in a purely self-expressionist, non-confrontational way.
He once said of race relations in America wrong, but something ain't right." Oddly enough, Ali infrequently seemed to use the boxing ring to let out his frustration - instead, his outlet was a steady stream of "Where do you think I would be if I didn't shout and holler?" he "I would be poor and down in Louisville washing windows, shining shoes or running an elevator and saying 'Yes suh' and 'No suh,' and knowing my place.
" Rap's connection to social injustice is more tenuous today, though. Hop is Dead, suggesting the music has lost its way. So even if Ali fathered hip-hop, he might not recognise his grandkids.
and tie into Muhammad Ali's persona and brilliance," says Chuck D. history, hip-hop and rap seemed to form its own sort of story - doing it in the first place." art of trash talking.
Though it was then a little-used tactic, "Most of it was done with such humour," says Lois, noting the to call him Muhammad, instead repeatedly calling him by his original name, Cassius Clay.
"But there's trash talk and there's trash talk. The guys who trash talk today, maybe Ali doing it gave them permission to be trash talkers, but I don't think it's his legacy.
" Ali was extremely conscious of his legacy - he was, after all, "the "You call my poetry horrible?" he said. "I bet my poetry gets Truly, a "baaad man".
News RSS