A lot of deaf people are into hip-hop. There's heavy bass, there's words that can be signed. And it only makes sense that there are now rappers -- numerous rappers -- who can't hear much of anything.
A lot of deaf people are into hip-hop. It makes sense -- there's heavy bass, there's words that can be signed. And it only makes sense that there are now rappers -- numerous rappers -- who can't hear much of anything.
To get this out of the way -- deaf is the preferred nomenclature. I thought it was hearing impaired, but that shit is played out. We're back to deaf.
You might have seen that video this summer -- Holly Maniatty unseated Lydia Callis as America's favourite sign language interpreter when she was enlisted by Bonaroo to sign for acts like Wu-Tang and Killer Mike. It's virality was really just the tip of the ASL's online hip-hop iceberg.
Sean Forbes had deaf rap's first hit with \"I'm Deaf.\"
He's a multi-instrumentalist who produces his own tracks but raps because, according to him, \"you don't want to hear me sing.\" Not all of his songs are about being deaf, but it does make for the best wordplay.
When Forbes tours, he brings his own vibrating dancefloor, which sounds like a pretty fun time. And in addition to his own music, he co-founded the Deaf Professional Arts Network, or D-PAN, who make music videos for deaf audiences.
Then there's Signmark, a Finnish rapper signed to Warner Brothers in Europe. He deals almost exclusively with deaf culture and history -- and he just signs his rhymes, while a hearing counterpart vocalizes them.
And he almost represented Finland in the 2009 Eurovision contest! Almost.
Prinz-D has dissed both Forbes and Signmark -- the former for sounding deaf, the later for using a hearing person to actual rap for him. Prinz-D claims to be the first deaf rapper. And his shit does bang.
Born Darius McCall, Prinz was recently the subject of an extensive feature in SPIN -- link in the description -- where he stressed his goal of crossing over for a hearing audience. Which is kind of the final hill to climb -- and one the deaf community itself has mixed feelings about.
So there's deaf as a medical condition, and Deaf as a culture -- and rappers like Prinz-D aren't immune from criticism that they're trying to \"act hearing\" -- a pretty familiar refrain when someone from a marginalized group seems to be seeking mainstream cultural acceptance. But we have deaf athletes and Oscar winners -- so why not deaf rappers?
What do you think - are deaf rappers abandoning their community by emulating top 40 sounds and themes, or do you even give a shit if someone can't hear that well? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to subscribe for more This Exists every week. Stay Def.
