Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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back in the early 1900s, Simmons marketed rap to both African- American and white
ns said in an interview in Worth magazine in 1992.
Like the blues, rap has been criticized from within its own community for violent
imagery, crude language, and misogynistic lyrics. Like the blues, rap has lifted some
artists out of poverty and has given them major careers and legendary status. And, like
the blues, rap is an art form that accurately reports on the struggles, strategies, and
subterfuges in the ghetto, but with fortitude of heart and soul that touches people of all
races from Tuscaloosa to Tokyo.
Songs:
There are many rap-style performances in early blues songs, including:
- Champion Jack Dupree
- W.C. Handy
- Pinetop Smith
RID E R
A rider is a sexual partner, or a steady lover. Riding is probably the most common
metaphor for sexual intercourse in blues. Riding is also used metaphorically in the
Voodoo, or Vodou, religion to describe divine possession.
Riding as a euphemism for sexual intercourse was common in English for centuries,
according to Lexicon of Black English
-Black usage a strong
309
with approximately equal frequency t Both male and female singers sing
cock and lemon for examples of other sexual terms that shift genders in the blues.)
C.C. Rider, see what you have done
You made me love you now your man [woman] done come
e train can
also mean to use cocaine. The riding metaphor in the blues has kept up with technology,
When my baby go to bed, it shines like a morning star
When I crawl in the middle, it rides me like a Cadillac car
At Vodou ceremonies, the priest or priestess attempts to invoke spirit-gods called loa to
as
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