I'm a big fan of Lil Wayne.
If you don't know who Lil Wayne is, get on your YouTube game
when you go home.
I just want to say a little bit why I chose this form
to write about Lil Wayne.
Lil Wayne is one of a new generation of rappers
who likes to rhyme a word or phrase with itself,
but with a slightly different change in emphasis or meaning,
which, of course, has precedence in the Ghazal form,
the old Persian form.
So I'm using that form to talk about Wayne.
It's called "Contradiction."
The epigraph is from Walt Whitman.
"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then, I contradict myself.
I am large.
I contain multitudes."
"America don't want too many layered niggas.
America scared of another player nigga.
You show America how Katrina played a nigga.
You rock and roll vicious, but still stay a nigga.
You rep blood ties like you they mayor nigga.
You spit grimy flows like you ain't afraid of niggas.
Work for your bling like a John Henry nigga.
They don't know you're dark or how you heavy, nigga.
Can't tell you how you got your pennies, nigga.
Tupac incarnate, you contain many niggas.
Show mad love, but take on any nigga.
Stay lifted and tight you rhyme with any nigga.
How we gonna front on an inventive nigga?
Wayne you are America, you contain many niggas."
[APPLAUSE]