Rap (1)

Is rap a foreign language?

In 2003, a court battle started over a copyright issue between the Ant’ill Mob label Confetti Records and the Heartless Crew’s label Warner UK, who had used some lyrics on a remix.
A three-judge panel heard arguments about what was taken from the original song and tried to rule on the case.
According to Judge Lewison the claim “led to the faintly surreal experience of three gentlemen in horsehair wigs examining the meaning of such phrases as ‘mish mish man’ and ‘shizzle my nizzle.'”
The judge admitted that, even after playing the record at half speed and referring to the Urban Dictionary, they were unable to decipher it: in order to be sure of the meaning they had even pondered the idea of inviting a drug dealer as an expert witness.

As a result, on 6 June 2003 he ruled that rap lyrics should be treated as a foreign language since he had no expert evidence as to what they meant.

Rapping is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates “rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular”
Some people think that rap stands for “Rhythm And Poetry”, but this opinion is not shared by many.

Image: William Hogarth (_{1697–1764) – The Court}

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Il rap è una lingua straniera?

Nel 2003 iniziò una battaglia legale per una questione di copyright per alcuni versi rap usati in un remix.
Un gruppo di tre giudici, dopo aver sentito le parti, cercò di decidere quanto era stato preso dalla canzone originale, arrivando (come disse il giudice Lewison) ” all’esperienza vagamente surreale di tre gentiluomini imparruccati intenti a esaminare il significato di frasi come ‘mish mish man’ e ‘shizzle my nizzle'”.
Il giudice ammise che, pur ascoltando il disco a metà della velocità e facendo riferimento all’Urban Dictionary, non fu possibile decifrarne il testo: per essere sicuri del significato avevano addirittura ponderato l’idea di invitare uno spacciatore come perito. .

Di conseguenza, il 6 giugno 2003 stabilì che i testi rap devono trattati come lingua straniera, non avendo avuto prove incontrovertibili sul loro significato