One of my guilty pleasures is rap music.  Some of you might find that surprising, but I am a fan of music with rhythm and I love a clever play on words. Yes, rap music has a bad reputation for being misogynistic and I’m not here to argue that.  Like all genres of music, not all rap music is the same.  Most rap music is clever word play set to clever rhythms.  

Eminem remains a favourite because he is a wizard with words and he tells a good story — most often his own story, but still.  Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ is the one song in particular that he is perhaps most famous for.  The song tells of his own struggle to break out of his fate and into rap stardom, but it is also an anthem to getting out of your own way.   Listen closely, there are words of wisdom there.

I was surprised by a mention of Eminem’s Lose Yourself lyrics in a book that spends much of its time in a dedication to the role art plays in contributing to the beauty of life.  The book is The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

Barbery waxes philosophical about Dutch masters, Vermeer, Claesz, Kalf; she raves about Mozart, Leo Tolstoy, and Kant.  And then surprisingly, she quotes Eminem’s Lose Yourself, juxtaposed with Dido’s lament from Henry Purcell’s opera, which admittedly, I had to google.  (I suppose that says something about my tastes, or my education; I recognize Lose Yourself by Eminem but opera lyrics pass me by.)

A few months back I attended a Men’s Health Breakfast.  I listened to a surgeon try to explain what it can be like to be a cancer surgeon and hold the fate of an eighteen year old youth in balance on the operating table.  On the drive to the hospital on the morning of the surgery, the Doctor listened to Lose Yourself.  His point was that he was being faced with a moment where life and death hung in the balance and he could not fail.  He had to lose himself in that moment.  Ego could not interfere, nor could fear.

The surgery was a success and the eighteen year old sent the Doctor a thank you card a year later with no signature, just a big scrawl saying ‘I’m still here.”

 Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity,

 To seize everything you ever wanted

 One moment

 Would you capture it or just let is slip?

There is wisdom everywhere, at the opera and in rap music.

If you are at all curious about the roots of rap music I recommend you watch the movie 8 Mile.  It’s a good story and the music is accessible even if you are not normally a rap fan.

Posted in the moment is this week’s episode of  Contentment is for Cows.

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