WEBVTT

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I'm a big fan of Lil Wayne.

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If you don't know who Lil Wayne
is, get on your YouTube game

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when you go home.

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I just want to say a little
bit why I chose this form

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to write about Lil Wayne.

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Lil Wayne is one of a
new generation of rappers

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who likes to rhyme a word
or phrase with itself,

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but with a slightly different
change in emphasis or meaning,

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which, of course, has
precedence in the Ghazal form,

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the old Persian form.

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So I'm using that form
to talk about Wayne.

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It's called "Contradiction."

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The epigraph is
from Walt Whitman.

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"Do I contradict myself?

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Very well then, I
contradict myself.

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I am large.

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I contain multitudes."

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"America don't want too
many layered niggas.

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America scared of
another player nigga.

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You show America how
Katrina played a nigga.

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You rock and roll vicious,
but still stay a nigga.

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You rep blood ties like
you they mayor nigga.

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You spit grimy flows like
you ain't afraid of niggas.

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Work for your bling
like a John Henry nigga.

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They don't know you're dark
or how you heavy, nigga.

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Can't tell you how you
got your pennies, nigga.

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Tupac incarnate, you
contain many niggas.

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Show mad love, but
take on any nigga.

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Stay lifted and tight
you rhyme with any nigga.

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How we gonna front on
an inventive nigga?

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Wayne you are America,
you contain many niggas."

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[APPLAUSE]

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