Need Rap/street slang in screenplay

Inarius · Mar 2, 2014

It's kinda embarrassing question. Along with my Sci-Fi story, I'm writing a screenplay about a rap singer. I don't live in US, and I don't know people from there, so nobody can help me with the Afro-american slang. And that's important. I know a few things of course, but there's a black character who talks much, so I need him to be like a real guy from the hood. Where can I get slang idioms or something like that? I wanna make it real.

maz · Mar 19, 2014

Birdman said:
Maz,

When did I render any opinions on Hip-Hop?

The operative word in this is not, "charts" ...or "Karaoke, ...or "significance". The operative word is, "LONGEVITY".

I noticed you quickly tossed inarius' rapper into the Hip-Hop category ...which I would fully expect you to do in an effort to salvage any credibility rap music supposedly has. Rap is Rap. Hip-Hop is Hip-Hop. You can't use one to salvage the other.

BTW: you can turn on your radio today and hear "Comfortably Numb" and it sounds like it could have been released yesterday. Same goes for "The Beatles", "U2", and many others. There are true "musicians" who have made music that has stood the test if time before these Rappers had their diapers sticking out of their pants.

Many bands have dead band members from old age ...yet they still crawl not the stage with whoever remains and play their tunes like the day they first came out. ...Do you seriously expect Eminem to crawl out on stage when he"s 70 years old and bust out a killer rendition of "Ass Like That?"

Inarius needs to write a screenplay for a movie that will be just as relevant twenty years from now as it is today.

-Birdman

P..S. My bet is (like most of them) Eminem will die well before age 70.

Now you're just splitting hairs. Rap and hip-hop are essentially the same thing for the purpose of the music (rap refers specifically to the vocal part of it, but you don't get many rap tracks that don't have hip-hop backing). And again, I disagree about longevity, with the caveat that most of the best hiphop is rooted in a time and place and as a reaction to a specific issue.

The music of Public Enemy, for example, is a chronicle of the disenfranchised lives of many young black men in the USA in the 1980s. Is it politically just as relevant today? There's certainly an argument to be had there. Is it musically just as relevant? Absolutely. I regularly put it on and am enjoy it just as much (and I wasn't even listening to them in the 1980s). And Chuck D is 53 and still spittin' rhymes on stage regularly, but is also a respected commentator on black issues.

Like all music, hiphop has its classics, its one-hit wonders, its giants of the genre. It is a whole culture, and it's small-minded to dismiss all rappers based on your views of Eminem wearing loose trousers. You don't have to like the music, but it's common decency at least to respect the artistry and talent involved.

JoshL · Mar 19, 2014

Okay, here's a great example. I do Celtic music. Most trad folk songs are at least 200 years old. One of the older songs I know is at least 500 years old. I've done it, I've heard tons of other bands do it, and I would put money on the fact that you haven't heard it (the song I'm thinking is "Twa' Corbies"...awesome song by the way). That song has stood the test of time in HUNDREDS of years not just decades. But turn on the radio and you won't hear it (unless this new version I'm doing becomes a crossover sensation! ...not holding my breath) Go to a club and you won't hear it. Go to a Celtic music festival or an Irish pub, and you will. Listen to a Celtic folk radio program or station and you will.

The same goes for rap (by the way, hip-hop is a genre of music that employs the technique of rap. Lots of non-hip-hop songs use it too...Blondie's "Rapture" is the obvious example, same era as U2, still gets radio play and played at 80s nights in clubs). If you don't hear classic tracks on the radio, you probably aren't listening to a station that plays a lot of rap. There are stations. There are clubs that spin old school as much as new. Just because you aren't seeing it (because you don't like it) doesn't mean it's not there. Just that you aren't interested in it. Which is absolutely fine.
And as for Eminem aging, well, the Rolling Stones still do pretty much exactly that, so who can say. And even if you don't like it, it's hard to listen to something like "Rap God" and not acknowledge that the dude has chops.

edit - er, yeah, pretty much what maz said.

Birdman · Mar 19, 2014

JoshL,

You used that entire big paragraph giving the history of a Celtic song that's maybe 400 years old ...and you won't hear it on the radio today.

That's fine!

So how successful will Inarius' screenplay be about a 15th century guy with a squeaky voice who cheats to try to pass himself off as a hardcore, mainstream Celtic artist?

Both of you are missing the point. You're advocating Inarius design a screenplay around a subculture to which the majority of his potential viewers may not like .... or even hate, for that matter.

Inarius is sitting on a gold mine ...and rap ain't it, I'm sorry!

-Birdman

JoshL · Mar 19, 2014

No, I get that you think his situation is more marketable and a better story to tell. But here's the thing: that's not the story he wants to tell. I'm not telling him to write anything (and I think he does have a pretty good idea here, depending on what he wants to say with the piece).

He's saying he wants to play guitar and you're saying he should play piano instead. No one is saying piano isn't valid, but that's not the point. He should tell the story he wants to tell...hell, that's how punk (and hip-hop for that matter) started.

Birdman · Mar 19, 2014

JoshL said:
He's saying he wants to play guitar and you're saying he should play piano instead. No one is saying piano isn't valid, but that's not the point. He should tell the story he wants to tell...hell, that's how punk (and hip-hop for that matter) started.

Actually , I'm not telling him to choose piano over guitar. I'm telling him to sing with his heart and not his mouth.

You get ONE LIFETIME to make your mark. Which effect would you rather have on this world before you die? Something that brings about peace in the world ...or something about a cheating rapper?

- Birdman

maz · Mar 19, 2014

Birdman said:
JoshL,

You used that entire big paragraph giving the history of a Celtic song that's maybe 400 years old ...and you won't hear it on the radio today.

That's fine!

So how successful will Inarius' screenplay be about a 15th century guy with a squeaky voice who cheats to try to pass himself off as a hardcore, mainstream Celtic artist?

Both of you are missing the point. You're advocating Inarius design a screenplay around a subculture to which the majority of his potential viewers may not like .... or even hate, for that matter.

Inarius is sitting on a gold mine ...and rap ain't it, I'm sorry!

-Birdman

No, we're both arguing against your dismissive attitude to hiphop music as a topic worthy of consideration. Also, your apparent belief that 'the radio' doesn't have any method of changing channel to, say, a hiphop station, a black music station or an Irish folk music station.

Incidentally, I think a screenplay about a 15th century guy struggling to achieve what he wants to would be as interesting as any other, if the story is good and the characters are relatable. The struggle is the point, the musical/historical setting is just that: a setting. And audiences love period drama. It all comes down to story.

Also, it's a bit prejudiced to think just because someone lives in a geopolitically sensitive part of the world, that all they should be interested in are the miserable depressing day-to-day realities of life. Movies are an escape, hiphop is an escape. Inarius can write about whatever he wants, and I would guess that the segment of what I assume is his target demographic who have at least a passing interest in hiphop is large enough to justify writing the script. If the story is what he's passionate about, then good for him.

EDIT: er, yeah, pretty much what JoshL said

Birdman · Mar 19, 2014

Maz,

Look, I can be all mambly pambly with Inarius and placate his affinity to rap music artists. ...but that's not what I believe he should be focusing on. He wants honest opinions and that's exactly what I'm giving him.

Nobody is "forcing" him to write a screenplay on a "sensitive area of the world and the miserable day-to-day life " found within. I'm just SUGGESTING that he set his sights a little higher than a cheating rapper.

Inarius has a geographic advantage over what 99.9% of the rest of the screenplay writing world doesn't have. Are you suggesting that he shouldn't even CONSIDER the opportunities found within his current situation?

As far as battling over the merits of rap music, you and I could have at it all day long and still not change each other's mind. As far as Inarius' screenplay goes ...I think he's missing a golden opportunity very few people have for writing a screenplay. Shit, every high school kid in America would probably LOVE to write a movie about a rapper (or any musician). However, have any of them point out Israel on a map and you'll see them dumbfoundedly scratching their heads.

If Inarius wants to have quirky fun with a rap movie ...more power to him. If he wants to make history and maybe change the world ...then he needs to exploit where he is right now.

-Birdman

Inarius · Mar 19, 2014

maz said:
It's not the fact that it's flawed that's the problem... it's the fact that it depends on the iPhone for no reason other than just to make the plot work. I'm not a big fan of stupid computing (and there's plenty of it in Hollywood movies), so this bothers me, but it wouldn't bother millions of other people, I'm sure

A reason? Come on! Look at today's kids! They're all in their iPhones. So if you ask a kid, where he wants to operate something from, guess what he's gonna say?... That's right! They gonna say, - "I want an App to iPhone to control it from there". Easy, comfortable, and within a hand's reach.

maz said:
Is there a reason why the device itself can't have an unreliable power source?

Why should it? Do headphones have a power source itself? No.
Think of the headphones for a second. How do they work? You plug them into something, and they transfer you the sound. What are headphones when they're not plugged into any phone or iPad or etc..? Nothing! A piece of junk. So they depend on other device. And that other device depends on battery (or electricity)...

The same is this device. It is nothing when it's not operated by a program/App

Birdman said:
Inarius,

I was also concerned over the role the iPhone plays in your movie. If a producer had your script in hand this very moment, you're looking at minimum of two full years before it would be released. You don't know what changes could happen in cell phone technology in that time.
Do it to where ten years from now it would still be a viable solution.

Why do you think it can't be 10 or 20 or 30 years from now? What do you think the world will look like after 10 years? You think the world's gonna have flying cars and spaceships able to fly with the speed of light?

I think a device that allows to alter ones voice so easily won't be invented in less than 10 years.
BTW, if the problem in today's iPhones, it can be iPhone 999s, or Galaxy 999... I don't know and that's not relevant

Birdman said:
We'll, C'mon now, ...let's be fair to Inarius. The general perception of "Rappers" is that they are bad ass, street wise bad guys that'll steal your woman and pop a cap in your ass if you get in their way. Just because a couple out there break the mold doesn't change the general perception.

That's a stereotype. They do come from bad hoods, they talk like bad guys, but they don't have to do all the above. Most of real "bad ass" people usually respect other people, and don't take something that doesn't belong to them.

Birdman said:
"could" have his character find a way to use his "childish voice" as an effective tool in creating good rap music as a way to resolve the entire movie.

That's what happens in my movie. At the end, the protagonist destroys the device in front of the crowd and raps in his childish voice.

Birdman said:
Personally, though, rap music is a weak venue in my opinion. You have songs in just about every other venue that have stood the test of time. Rap tunes are good for maybe two years at the most and then they"re forgotten forever. I can only think of a few rap songs that have obtained any longevity ("Ice, Ice Baby", "Can't Touch This", "Baby's Got Back").

You're wrong here. People still love TuPac. Many people love Eminem's old songs.

mad_hatter said:
As a plot device, I don’t think the guy having a childish voice, so lowering it to sound more hip-hop, works. Maybe as a comedic element, but not as a dramatic one.

There are no worldwide famous rappers with childish voice. Lil Wayne sounds like a a crack addicted chipmunk? Ok, but that's not childish, and that's what makes him unique.

Childish voice shows one as a... child! Do you realize how it sounds, when a child talks about serious mature things? It sounds like a 10 year old boy who drinks alcohol and smokes weed who tries to teach you how to live... and needs to be slapped by his Daddy. My point is, that voice MUST fit the words.

Birdman said:
To clarify, I'm not saying Inarius' rapper finds a way to lower his voice and sound "bad ass" to resolve the conflict. What I am saying (based on your examples) is that Inarius' rapper can learn to ACCEPT his childish sounding voice ..and find a way to make cool rap music with his strange voice.

That's exactly what he learns at the end! But yeah, he learns it the hard way. That's what all movies about - learning things the hard way!

Birdman said:
Have an Israeli child and a Palestinian child be childhood friends in the midst of all the conflict going on over there. Have them grow up and find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. Have them grow up to be arch enemies! Then find a way for them to look past all of the insanity, become friends again and bring about peace.

Show the fucking world how Inarius would solve this Middle East problem with your keyboard!

There are so many stories and movies about Israeli and Palestinian kids, about friendship, humanity and all that stuff. They are not in English, however, but on Arabic and Hebrew.

Birdman said:
P..S. My bet is (like most of them) Eminem will die well before age 70.

Why do you think so? Look at him, he's 40+ and he looks like he's less than 30. Rich people usually live longer, because they don't kill themselves on hated jobs.

maz · Mar 19, 2014

Inarius said:
A reason? Come on! Look at today's kids! They're all in their iPhones. So if you ask a kid, where he wants to operate something from, guess what he's gonna say?... That's right! They gonna say, - "I want an App to iPhone to control it from there". Easy, comfortable, and within a hand's reach.

Why should it? Do headphones have a power source itself? No.
Think of the headphones for a second. How do they work? You plug them into something, and they transfer you the sound. What are headphones when they're not plugged any phone or iPad or etc..? Nothing! A piece of junk. So they depend on other device. And that other device depends on battery (or electricity)...

The same is this device. It is nothing when it's not operated by a program/App

Having an app to control a device is one thing. That's fine, and is quite common. You can get an app to control your heating and lighting at home these days. But the app is just a piece of client software to interface with the device itself, where the technology actually resides. Losing battery power on the iPhone interface doesn't mean the lights go out at home.

I guess what you're saying is that the device in the throat takes the guy's voice, sends it to the iPhone app for processing (which, by the way, means the device must have an independent power source, unless the guy has wires running out of his mouth), and then returns the signal, deepened, to the unit itself so that it doesn't sound like the rapper is (literally) rapping out of his backside. In that scenario it would make sense (assuming a sufficiently futuristic technology... if you tried to do something like that today, there would be too much lag).

I still don't like the idea, but at least I can sort of see the technological setup you have going on. I look forward to seeing the movie

Inarius · Mar 19, 2014

maz said:
Having an app to control a device is one thing. That's fine, and is quite common. You can get an app to control your heating and lighting at home these days. But the app is just a piece of client software to interface with the device itself, where the technology actually resides. Losing battery power on the iPhone interface doesn't mean the lights go out at home.

I guess what you're saying is that the device in the throat takes the guy's voice, sends it to the iPhone app for processing (which, by the way, means the device must have an independent power source, unless the guy has wires running out of his mouth), and then returns the signal, deepened, to the unit itself so that it doesn't sound like the rapper is (literally) rapping out of his backside. In that scenario it would make sense (assuming a sufficiently futuristic technology... if you tried to do something like that today, there would be too much lag).

I'll take headphones again as an example. You plug them into your iPhone and listen to music. The battery runs out, so you don't listen to music anymore. The headphones are nothing now. But, if you find another phone or whatever else, you can listen to music again.

The device is the same. It doesn't require wires - it's wireless. It's connected to the iPhone. When the iPhone runs out of battery, it simply stops sending data. You must find another phone with the same application installed to be able to benefit from this gadget.

Headphones don't need any power source. Why would this kind of gadget need one?

Birdman · Mar 19, 2014

Here ya go, Inarius,

iPHONE JUICE PACK

...Now your rapper fella can't rap away for twice as long as before.

-Birdman

Dreadylocks · Mar 19, 2014

I'm late to the party and overall I think the best advice has been said: maybe you shouldn't be writing a story about an urban american dude when you are a russian dude living in Israel. I bet there's a ton of great stories that you can write about that you are familiar with.

Sure, plenty of professional writers can research and write about things that aren't their 'home turf' (and in fact the arguments for and against this go back as far as Plato) but, imho, it's really best as a beginner to stick with what you know.

That being said, if you do write a film about somewhere besides the US, just make sure it's in English.

I also thought I'd take a stab at this dialog. Disclaimer: I'm white and not as young as I used to be. But I grew up in white-minority neighborhoods and schools and can slip into talking this way myself in certain situations. Obviously every person's turn of phrase is going to be different, but this is one way that could come across as authentic.

Code:

		             CURTIS
                You forget that it’s a business!
                Producers and record companies 
                wanna see you feed their wallets. 
                If they ain’t see you can do that, 
                you’re out.

"In this business it's all about the dollar signs. You got 'em, or you out."

Code:

			     CURTIS
		Man, I know whatcha saying’, but 
		you beat your head against a wall!
		Even Jessica takes hard your
		obsession with it.

"I hear that, but you beatin' yo head 'gainst a wall. And your girl Jessica be tripping 'bout it."

Inarius · Mar 19, 2014

Birdman said:
Here ya go, Inarius,

iPHONE JUICE PACK

...Now your rapper fella can't rap away for twice as long as before.

-Birdman

Suppose that even with that App it allows him to rap for 3-4 hours, because that gadget eats really much battery.

Dreadylocks said:
I'm late to the party and overall I think the best advice has been said: maybe you shouldn't be writing a story about an urban american dude when you are a russian dude living in Israel. I bet there's a ton of great stories that you can write about that you are familiar with.

I'll think about that. The story I'm writing can fit in Israel very well. But not in Russia, because Russian Rap is such a trash, that its industry can accept anything.

Birdman · Mar 19, 2014

Inarius said:
Suppose that even with that App it allows him to rap for 3-4 hours, because that gadget eats really much battery. .

..If your character was a rock-n-roller, that battery would be drained in less than 5 minutes. :lol:

-Birdman

Alcove Audio · Mar 19, 2014

I only got about halfway through all the posts, but I'll post some thoughts on what I have read so far...

Your idea of using an iPhone app as a cheat is quite ridiculous. It would be painfully obvious that his rap voice has nothing to do with his speaking voice. Rappers earn "street cred" (or whatever it is called these days) by actually rapping live, everything from rapping with a boom box (or "musician") on the street to open mic nights to competitions. What is he going to do, hold the iPhone in front of the mic when he raps live? He would be lambasted, and rightly so.

There are hundreds of different rap styles. Brooklyn style is different than Bronx style - and they both are in the five boroughs of NYC. Philly (Philadelphia, PA) style is a style all it's own. LA (Los Angeles) is the origins of "Gangsta" rap, but now there are different Gangsta styles from most urban areas.

Now, I actually was that white producer in his mid-40's; I was the head engineer at a recording studio in the Bronx where 90+% of our clients were rappers. They were required to check their weapons at the door. They smoked so much weed it was like a dense fog, and they drank gallons of malt liquor (Colt 45, etc.). It took me a while to catch on to the slang; it was almost a foreign language. Everyone had a good laugh when I started using some of their slang, then it was BAU. However, I never used the word "Nigger' even though I heard it hundreds of times every day. (In just one 4:30 minute song it was used 47 times - I counted.)

There are lots of plug-ins and audio suite softwares that can be used to modify/alter a voice. There are simple pitch change plug-ins, and there are some decent formant plug-ins as well. I've used voice formant to turn a bunch of guys into little kids, and turn a light voice into Darth Vader. I can also make bad singers and rappers sound great by comping (taking multiple performances and using just the best parts), tight editing, speed adjustments (slow the track down when recording the vox, then speed the vox back up for the original track so the rap at lightning speed), tighten up loose harmonies, etc. with Vocalign, and, of course, do pitch correction with AutoTune.

Having seen it - and done it - for real, your "rapper" can be a studio construct who simply cannot pull it off live. And that's a career killer; you do not make any money off of your albums, you make money by touring your albums.

You should do a lot more directed research into the culture and also into the realities of the recording industry.

ChimpPhobiaFilms · Mar 19, 2014

Inarius, what if your main character has only done albums, and when he finally has to perform live, either he can't hide the voice alteration mechanism or it stops working midway through the performance?

Birdman · Mar 19, 2014

Alcove Audio,

I don't think Inarius' iPhone emits the sound of the singer. I think it just activates the "voice module" in the rapper's throat. In other words, When the rapper with the childish voice sings, as long as he has his iPhone nearby, the words that come out of his mouth are tough and raw ...like a hardcore rapper's voice.

The iPhone merely contains the app.

-Birdman

P.S. which begs the question ...can't a laptop computer do the same thing?

Birdman · Mar 19, 2014

ChimpPhobiaFilms said:
Inarius, what if your main character has only done albums, and when he finally has to perform live, either he can't hide the voice alteration mechanism or it stops working midway through the performance?

There's already someone like that. His name is "Steve Miller".

maz · Mar 19, 2014

Inarius said:
I'll take headphones again as an example. You plug them into your iPhone and listen to music. The battery runs out, so you don't listen to music anymore. The headphones are nothing now. But, if you find another phone or whatever else, you can listen to music again.

The device is the same. It doesn't require wires - it's wireless. It's connected to the iPhone. When the iPhone runs out of battery, it simply stops sending data. You must find another phone with the same application installed to be able to benefit from this gadget.

Headphones don't need any power source. Why would this kind of gadget need one?

Find me some wireless headphones that don't require a power source. Please, I'm not even being funny. I'm genuinely serious, I've been waiting for them to arrive for years.

Doing anything wirelessly requires power. Bluetooth, wi-fi, WWAN... whatever. They all require a power source. It's just the way it is. Now you could get around this by saying that technology has advanced so far that the device is able to gather power wirelessly from 'the cloud' or whatever. But then, Apple being Apple, the iPhone's own charging technology would also be able to do that.

I'm genuinely puzzled why you don't just take the simple, rational approach, which is to give the (prototype, for use in the lab only perhaps) device a finite power source, regardless of whether the app is running on an iPhone or a laptop or whatever. There are no holes to be picked in that. I can only guess you're hoping for a product placement payment from Apple

maz · Mar 19, 2014

Alcove Audio said:
Having seen it - and done it - for real, your "rapper" can be a studio construct who simply cannot pull it off live. And that's a career killer; you do not make any money off of your albums, you make money by touring your albums.

You should do a lot more directed research into the culture and also into the realities of the recording industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKw5RP5dX3Q