Victor Piñeiro

I love finding a passage in Shakespeare or Moby Dick that I’ve heard before in a hip hop song.  What better proof that all ideas are recycled, translated for the current generation?

Dr. Dre?  Quoting Melville.  Eminem?  Quoting Chuang Tzu and Shakespeare.  

Here are a few of my favorite philosophical ideas, written and spat by our greatest authors and our greatest MCs.  

1. Ahab and Dr. Dre

“Come, Ahab’s compliments to ye; come and see if ye can swerve me. Swerve me? Ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves!” – Moby Dick

“You tryin to check my homey, you better check yo self Cause when you diss Dre you diss yourself.” – Dr. Dre

2. Chuang Tzu and Eminem

“The real, the divine, the existential, is to be attained by losing yourself completely in it. Even the effort to attain it becomes a barrier – then you cannot lose yourself.  Even the effort to lose yourself becomes a barrier.” – Chuang Tzu

 

“You better lose yourself in the music, the moment. You own it, you better never let it go.” – Eminem

3. Richard III and Eminem

And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

- Richard III, Shakespeare

“I am Whatever you say I am If I wasn’t, then why would I say I am.”  - Eminem

[Context: Richard III is explaining how everyone calls him a villain because he's deformed.  And like Eminem echoed, he is what everyone says he is.]

4. Shakespeare and Wu-Tang

“Thou visible God!
That solder’st close impossibilities,
And maest them kiss!  Thou speak’st with every tongue,
To every purpose!  O thou touch of hearts!
Yes, money speaks with every tongue.”
- Timon of Athens, Shakespeare

“Cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M.  Get the money.  Dolla dolla bill yo.” – Method Man

Anyone else catch any hip hop lyrics mirrored in classics?

[I wrote this originally for Popten.]