Need Rap/street slang in screenplay

[Inarius]

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.

 

[JoshL]

If you steal a prototype of unreleased technology, the company that created it could absolutely take legal action against you. As an aside, there really isn't an issue with using a cellphone to control the device...there's certainly precident in film (Dr. Horrible drives a van with a custom coded phone app) and in real music (there are guitar effects pedals that can be controlled live with phones or tablets.

Also, if you end up making it yourself, it might actually work out better as far as your original question. You can find local rappers and talk with them and get a feel for the slang and speech patterns. Attend some shows, find people online to talk to...if there's one thing that can be said about musicians, we like to talk about our music I don't know much about the Israeli hip-hop scene, but you could probably find a pretty good cast of people actually in the scene. And if you make some waves, sell the rights to remake it in the US, whoever buys it can get someone to localize it with american slang. Just a thought!

Digressing back to the music for a moment:

I'm not a fan of him either (I don't mind some of his earlier work), but in his defense, I believe he's speaking from his many alter-egos, poking fun at misogynists and other types of people, satirizing (American) culture and the absurdity and strangeness of society.

Yup. I've dismissed certain things I've had little knowledge of in the past. Hip-hop seems to be a common genre dismissed too often, unfortunately.

I have the exact opposite opinion. I think he's improved with age. I didn't follow him for years because I didn't care for the first couple records, but some of the stuff he's doing these days is astounding. You are spot on with the "character" thing. There is some brilliant hip-hop out there. My biggest pet peeve is people who say "I like all kinds of music except rap and country". Well, I like that too...and Tuvan throat-singing and abrasive electronic noise

But my favorite in the genre is still mc chris, because I'm a big nerd. His new album has 5 songs about Ghostbusters!

 

[Birdman]

My biggest pet peeve is people who say "I like all kinds of music except rap and country". Well, I like that too...and Tuvan throat-singing and abrasive electronic noise

I would be one of those people who you say "likes all kinds of music" ...but "doesn't like Country or Rap". Actually, your analysis of people like me is not correct.

It is NOT that I don't like these two types of music. It's that good quality MUSIC is not found in these areas as much as in others. Rap and Country are fairly limited venues of music. Country (and even Christian music) has come a long way, but the intellectuality of rap and country focuses mostly on base-level thinking.

And don't give me a bunch of crap about how Rappers are "deep thinkers" and forming their lyrics based on poignant appraisals of the contemporary social situation either. I think that stupid "lollipop" rap video that was posted in this thread clearly sums up the "intellectuality" of rap music.

...Drugs, ...parties ....street credit, ...pussy ....and "don't be disrespectin" are the foundational building blocks of rap music.

So when you are critical of people who don't like rap or country ...consider the fact that if these two venues had a little more to offer than their "face value" styles ...then maybe more people WOULD like them.

BTW: There are sveral country and rap songs I like. ALL of them tend to be more musical and creative in their design.

-Birdman

 

[Inarius]

About rappers. There's one rapper I think is very good. One of the best, if not THE best. He's not quite a rapper as you're used to think of rappers, and he sings (raps) in a rock band. It's Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park. What do you think?

Birdman, if you're talking about meanings in music, I can say that ALL music genres are limited here. Come on! What songs lyrics are about?
1) - Drugs, parties, pussy
2) - "Life is good"
3) - "Life is shit"
4) - "My girlfriend left me"
5) - "I love you, dying to see you"
6) - "I hate you! Die bitch!"
7) - "Don't miss your opportunities"
- Street life
9) - A random story

 

[Birdman]

Inarius,

I KNEW someone would post that. Yeah, sure, ...you'll find crap in every venue (even classical). Rap and Country are holding tanks for crap. They THRIVE off of crap! The "crap to quality" ratio is FAR GREATER on the crap side for country and rap than in other venues.

There are tons of worthless rock, pop and new age music out there. But if you put all of these bad song up against the ones that are good, the crap songs would be in the minority.

Rap and County only have a very small fraction of quality compared to the unending "I wanna lick you like a lollipop" crap.

-Birdman

P.S. Heavy Metal has a ton of "crap songs". I'm also not a big fan. However, there are some songs (anomalies) that have longevity and creativity.

 

[JoshL]

Can you really say that? How much have you really listened to? Just the stuff that you hear on the radio, or have you borrowed albums from friends (or hell, these days just pulled up artists on Pandora or Youtube)?

My statement about the "rap & country" people isn't meant to say that they SHOULD like rap & country. What I'm really saying is that there are far more diverse genres that they don't like, but they don't know about it. Quick, what are your favorite three Chinese Operas? Any Gamelon jams you're digging these days? How about your favorite Atmospheric Black Metal album (I'm really digging Year of No Light's "Ausserwelt"). And that's not even getting into the endless sub-sub-genres of electronic music.

I do believe there is no such thing as a bad genre (bad songs/artists? absolutely). I also believe that for any given person, there is a song in almost any genre that they would like. Maybe even albums or artists. Whether they want to take the time to explore the genre is up to them, and I absolutely understand most people not wanting to bother. And the great thing about music is there's room enough in the world for ALL of it. Even crunkcore...I just can't seem to swing with that.

But, and this is the most important thing, there's a difference between quality and taste. You can recognize something is done with skill without actually liking it. Furthermore, you can recognize that something is pretty bad, and still love it. Saying "this thing sucks" does not provoke the same discourse as "I dislike this thing" or even better "I like this other thing better" One can lead to "why do you like it?" which is a better conversation than "you are stupid for liking something I don't" Just my perspective on it, from someone that obviously likes to talk/think/study/make music a LOT

Anyway, derailing. Inarius, I think some of Mike Shinoda's stuff is pretty awesome. Of all the bands that do the rap/metal thing, I think I like them the best (Korn eventually got better, but man I hated their first one when it came out).

 

[Inarius]

I won't talk about Country, because I don't listen to it, but I don't agree with you that most of rap is crap. Again, a song is NOT ONLY the lyrics. A song can have a good meaning, but can sound crap. On the other hand, it can sound good, but it's lyrics can be crap. There was time I was judging songs by words, too. Now, I like songs for how good they sound, not for how strong they lyrics are.

For example, listen to Fort Minor songs. They are not 100% rap, but that will do. Their words sit well on the beat. And the rhyme is good. 50 cent and Usher songs, too. Now listen to Busta Rhymes or Lil Wayne. Looks like in most of their songs they don't sing rap, they talk rap. Many Eminem songs unfortunately do that too, but if you look at his popular ones, you see that the words follow the beat, not go separately.

 

[maz]

Can you really say that? How much have you really listened to? Just the stuff that you hear on the radio, or have you borrowed albums from friends (or hell, these days just pulled up artists on Pandora or Youtube)?

My statement about the "rap & country" people isn't meant to say that they SHOULD like rap & country. What I'm really saying is that there are far more diverse genres that they don't like, but they don't know about it. Quick, what are your favorite three Chinese Operas? Any Gamelon jams you're digging these days? How about your favorite Atmospheric Black Metal album (I'm really digging Year of No Light's "Ausserwelt"). And that's not even getting into the endless sub-sub-genres of electronic music.

I do believe there is no such thing as a bad genre (bad songs/artists? absolutely). I also believe that for any given person, there is a song in almost any genre that they would like. Maybe even albums or artists. Whether they want to take the time to explore the genre is up to them, and I absolutely understand most people not wanting to bother. And the great thing about music is there's room enough in the world for ALL of it. Even crunkcore...I just can't seem to swing with that.

But, and this is the most important thing, there's a difference between quality and taste. You can recognize something is done with skill without actually liking it. Furthermore, you can recognize that something is pretty bad, and still love it. Saying "this thing sucks" does not provoke the same discourse as "I dislike this thing" or even better "I like this other thing better" One can lead to "why do you like it?" which is a better conversation than "you are stupid for liking something I don't" Just my perspective on it, from someone that obviously likes to talk/think/study/make music a LOT

Anyway, derailing. Inarius, I think some of Mike Shinoda's stuff is pretty awesome. Of all the bands that do the rap/metal thing, I think I like them the best (Korn eventually got better, but man I hated their first one when it came out).

Nothing to add to this masterful response to Birdman's post, other than to ask if the beaked one is consistently getting confused between the word 'venue' and the word 'genre'? It's the only explanation I can think of for the consistent misuse of the former.

 

[ChimpPhobiaFilms]

I have the exact opposite opinion. I think he's improved with age. I didn't follow him for years because I didn't care for the first couple records, but some of the stuff he's doing these days is astounding. You are spot on with the "character" thing. There is some brilliant hip-hop out there. My biggest pet peeve is people who say "I like all kinds of music except rap and country". Well, I like that too...and Tuvan throat-singing and abrasive electronic noise

I've always been partial to his earlier work (the Marshall Mathers LP and Slim Shady LP are fantastic records in my opinion). But I do like some of his newer work. The production on his newest album is amazing though. Some great songs.

 

[Birdman]

Nothing to add to this masterful response to Birdman's post, other than to ask if the beaked one is consistently getting confused between the word 'venue' and the word 'genre'? It's the only explanation I can think of for the consistent misuse of the former.

Haa! Yeah, I fucked up. I meant "Genre" (like I've used a million times before in these threads regarding types of movies). Although where a rap concert takes place is called a venue.

On the musical side:

Look, I know you all are going to (or feel the need to) "protect" certain GENRES of music. To do so allows you to recollect yourselves as true "connoisseurs" of music with eclectic and colorfully diverse taste. The truth is that there are good tunes to be found in all genres of music. ...But some far more than others. If you were to lump all forms of music into one big bowl and mix it all up, you would have a fair percentage of good music, a HUGE percentage of mediocre music ...and a fair percentage of really bad music. There would be a tiny percentage of exceptional tunes ...and a small percentage of extremely bad songs.

What you have to ask yourself is, "Which type of musical style yields the largest percentage of bad music?"

Rap, by it's own design, is a very simplistic style of music. A basic, simple beat along with many monotone words in poetic form. It gravitates towards a minimalistic approach to creating a song. So whatever the "words" are defines that style of music far more than other "genres". The Pink Floyd song, "Atom Heart Mother" is a combination of rock, psychedelia, orchestra and opera all in one big 23-minute-long butt-numming opus of a tune ...and zero lyrics in the song.

On the flip side, the Barenaked Ladies hit, "One Week" is jam packed with words to the point that you would have to be an auctioneer to sing the damned thing.



...So when I hear over and over and over again how some rapper is singing about "disrespectin" or wanting to "lick you like a lollipop", and having the "words" be the foundation for the entire song ...it doesn't take much for me to figure out what GENRE a large percentage of crappy music comes from.


-The Beaked One

 

[maz]

Haa! Yeah, I fucked up. I meant "Genre" (like I've used a million times before in these threads regarding types of movies). Although where a rap concert takes place is called a venue.

On the musical side:

Look, I know you all are going to (or feel the need to) "protect" certain GENRES of music. To do so allows you to recollect yourselves as true "connoisseurs" of music with eclectic and colorfully diverse taste. The truth is that there are good tunes to be found in all genres of music. ...But some far more than others. If you were to lump all forms of music into one big bowl and mix it all up, you would have a fair percentage of good music, a HUGE percentage of mediocre music ...and a fair percentage of really bad music. There would be a tiny percentage of exceptional tunes ...and a small percentage of extremely bad songs.

What you have to ask yourself is, "Which type of musical style yields the largest percentage of bad music?"

Rap, by it's own design, is a very simplistic style of music. A basic, simple beat along with many monotone words in poetic form. It gravitates towards a minimalistic approach to creating a song. So whatever the "words" are defines that style of music far more than other "genres". "Atom Heart Mother" is a combination of rock, psychedelia, orchestra and opera all in one big 23-minute-long butt-numming opus of a tune ...and zero lyrics in the song.

On the flip side, the Barenaked Ladies hit, "One Week" is jam packed with words to the point that you would have to be an auctioneer to sing the damned thing.



...So when I hear over and over and over again how some rapper is singing about "disrespectin" or wanting to "lick you like a lollipop", and having the "words" be the foundation for the entire song ...it doesn't take much for me to figure out what GENRE a large percentage of crappy music comes from.


-The Beaked One

I'm not even a particularly big hip-hop fan, but I can appreciate the talent and musicality involved in constructing and arranging a track out of beats, samples etc. In any form of music there is tons of forgettable crap, but I don't accept that any genre has more of that than any other. The fact that more of the crap hip-hop is in the public eye has no bearing on this (popularity does not equate with quality, which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your standpoint). I love the Beatles, and am not a particular hip-hop fan, but there are plenty of hip-hop songs I'd rather listen to than Octopus's Garden.

As JoshL said, there are no bad genres, just bad artists/songs.

 

[Birdman]

Pink Floyd had a rap song ...from way back in 1979

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS_FCbQ-okM

This is what you get when three quality artists get together for a common cause.

Pink Floyd - Music
Gerald Scarfe - Animation
Alan Parker - Director

-Birdman

 

[Inarius]

Birdman, I didn't see any rap here

 

[Inarius]

If you steal a prototype of unreleased technology, the company that created it could absolutely take legal action against you.

What I actually mean, is if you steal a prototype, and you get exposed. Can you be arrested at the very moment you get exposed?

Example:

Bob comes with two cops to John, who gets out of his flying car.

                        BOB
            This guy has stolen me flying
            car prototype. Here, I've got 
            proofs!

Bob shows the flying car corporation registration number to the cops.

                        A COP
            John, you're under arrest for 
            stealing a prototype of a product.

 

[maz]

What I actually mean, is if you steal a prototype, and you get exposed. Can you be arrested at the very moment you get exposed?

Example:

Bob comes with two cops to John, who gets out of his flying car.

                        BOB
            This guy has stolen me flying
            car prototype. Here, I've got 
            proofs!

Bob shows the flying car corporation registration number to the cops.

                        A COP
            John, you're under arrest for 
            stealing a prototype of a product.

If someone steals a prototype of a device of which there is only one in existence, and the person from whom it is stolen reports it to the police, the thief can have no reasonable alibi. I guess the only way round that plot hole is if the developer (or whoever) has a pressing reason not to contact the police in the first place.

 

[sfoster]

Yes if there was a cop and steve jobs said arrest this dude, he stole our prototype.. the dude would get arrested. Would he be convicted is another story.

 

[Inarius]

I guess the only way round that plot hole is if the developer (or whoever) has a pressing reason not to contact the police in the first place.

Exactly. The device wasn't developed for rapping in the first place. It has some different purposes. It was actually made by two people, and each one had different motives. The first one wanted recognition for creating the device, the other one wanted to keep the device in secret, to have advantage over other people.

The first one wanted to expose the protagonist's cheating and get the credits he deserves for creating the device. The other one wanted to make it silently - to kill the protagonist and take the device by force.

 

[Birdman]

If someone steals a prototype of a device of which there is only one in existence, and the person from whom it is stolen reports it to the police, the thief can have no reasonable alibi. I guess the only way round that plot hole is if the developer (or whoever) has a pressing reason not to contact the police in the first place.

Yes if there was a cop and steve jobs said arrest this dude, he stole our prototype.. the dude would get arrested. Would he be convicted is another story.

If he was still alive, Steve Jobs wouldn't have the power to say to the police, "Hey, man, that guy stole my prototype. Arrest him!" ...nor would anyone else have any "special police power". ...Doesn't work that way.

What if the other guy said, "No, Steve Jobs stole the prototype from me and I just took it back!"

Do not confuse a civil action (tort) with a criminal action. Let's say Jobs says Gates stole his prototype and Gates say Jobs stole his prototype. Nobody goes to jail ...they go to court! In a civil action, the judge decides who has the most merit and will award the prototype back to (hopefully) the correct owner. If "malicious intent" is determined, then there can be punitive action brought against the other party to which "damages" can be assessed. In that case, the person losing the case may be required to surrender the prototype and a large sum of cash (along with paying the other party's legal fees). Damages can be assessed if the person who stole the device compromised the value of it and it can be proven in court.

If you work in a fast food restaurant and a video camera records you stealing a cash register, yeah, you'll probably be arrested. However, when you have a situation where proprietary information or technology has changed hands between to active parties connected to the technology's creation ...these types of situations end up in CIVIL court.

Lastly,

You can sue someone and win big! The problem is, if the person you are suing doesn't have any money, nothing can be collected from them. Have the person who stole the prototype be flat-ass broke and there is no reason to sue him.

-Birdman

 

[maz]

Just to clarify, Birdman, are you suggesting that theft (physical theft of an item with permanent intent to deprive) is not a criminal matter? I'm guessing that's not your intention, but as you made the point in response to my post I can only assume you are.

 

[Birdman]

Just to clarify, Birdman, are you suggesting that theft (physical theft of an item with permanent intent to deprive) is not a criminal matter? I'm guessing that's not your intention, but as you made the point in response to my post I can only assume you are.

My point was exactly what I wrote (which is not what you are saying I wrote).

You can't go grab a police man officer have them arrest someone just because you say they took intellectual property from your company. The police do NOT work for you! They follow their state's revised codes and statutes. You must prove in CIVIL COURT that the intellectual property is yours to get it back. If you can also prove that it was blatant material theft, then the police can choose to prosecute based on a District Attorney's decision.

Let's say I am a technology contractor and I develop a "voice device" for a company. The company and I have a contractual dispute. I terminate my contract and take my device with me. The company in question feels that the device belongs to them. I feel it belongs to me based on the terms of our contract.

Who is guilty, Maz? ...You don't know, do you?

So are you saying the CEO can have me arrested just because he THINKS he is right? Can I have the CEO arrested because I FEEL he didn't fulfill the contract?

It's called CIVIL court, buddy!

-Birdman

 

[FantasySciFi]

Exactly. The device wasn't developed for rapping in the first place. It has some different purposes. It was actually made by two people, and each one had different motives. The first one wanted recognition for creating the device, the other one wanted to keep the device in secret, to have advantage over other people.

The first one wanted to expose the protagonist's cheating and get the credits he deserves for creating the device. The other one wanted to make it silently - to kill the protagonist and take the device by force.

What doesn't follow for me is if BOTH were involved in the creation, then both have the blueprints. I can understand if only ONE prototype existed. Seems to me, if the antagonist faked a fire that "destroyed" the prototype and back-up blueprints, it may convince the protagonist that they need to start from scratch. Of course, the antagonist now has the prototype and secretly begins using it to his/her advantage under an assumed identity. As the protagonist begins to suspect and discover the duplicity, the stakes are now higher for the antagonist leading to thoughts of murder.

For me, the issue that creates your dilemma is that they each have equal footing in terms of the device. Somehow you need to shift that balance believably to favor the antagonist. Just my thoughts.