by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: February 26, 2012   Last Updated: February 27, 2012

Rap music is a combination of music sampling and free form poetry that, despite being widely denigrated by the "mainstream", has turned into a multibillion dollar business. Money talks and denigration walks. The New York Times creates a problem with this definition of rap:

"the world of rap music, where artists in sagging pants write irreverent lyrics." 

Adam Bradley and Andrew Du Bois do a much better job when they talk about rap. As the editors of the Yale Anthology of Rap, they describe a vital poetic tradition that is based on beats and rhymes, and they acknowledge that rap has gained a wide reach.

Rap is an African American art form that has a global reach, and rap producers are savvy businessmen and women. But in a strange new twist, silicon valley venture capitalist Ben Horowitz actually takes lessons from rap and uses those lessons to teach others. He has found a way to apply lessons that he has learned from rap music to the business of tech, an here is an example:

Horowitz's background in rap is not new. He was introduced to the art form while he was a student at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California and was one of the few White players on the school's football team.

"Ben's Blog" is where he publishes lessons that are based on a quote from a rap or related song. A rap quote and a song player are provided at the beginning of the lesson, then Horowitz goes on with it.

A lesson about "The Future of Networking" for example, begins with a quote from the Prince Song "The Future". 

I’ve seen the future and it will be

I’ve seen the future and it works

—Prince, The Future

Horowitz's first paragraph of his lesson is this:

"Major technology platforms tend to last about 25 to 30 years. This gives them time to gather sufficient developer momentum, enable a set of transformational ideas, build those ideas, and form a large industry around it. The platforms then sustain for an additional 5-10 years due to inertia and lock-in. Finally, when the shortcomings of the old platform become too much to bear — ­as with the Mainframe, Hierarchical Databases, and more recently the PC — a new platform emerges to take the old platform’s place and bring the future forward."

Horowitz maintains that he appreciates the emotional connection to concepts that rap provides. The dry facts are one thing, but there is a real need to pay attention to our feelings about a matter.

He has managed to get beyond the shallow impressions

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>