Hip Hop and Majesterial Kingly Power from the Indus Valley

Okay, so it may be a stretch, but I recently stumbled upon a compelling parallel between some of the central currents of Hip Hop expression and the way that Pre-modern Kings represented and projected their power through Sanskrit inscriptions in Ancient India. Can we consider these kings as royal members of a [distant] legacy of Hip Hop. Assuredly, there is no express connection; these cultural productions inhabit very different worlds and are clearly asynchronous. That said, their formal features speak to a possible deep structure in human imagination that appears to peep its head with incredible variegation throughout human history. In fact, the parallel goes beyond consonant linguistic practices and bespeaks an even more fascinating connection: a commonality in the emergence of transcultural socio-linguistic spheres [Sanskrit Cosmopolis and Global Nation of Hip Hop].

There is one comparative discontinuity that must be admitted at the outset: Kings project power, in often domineering ways, that not so much challenge a status quo, but rather establish it. A part of the prowess of Hip Hop is its ability to become a tool of social and political resistance, often exerting resistance on behalf of the disenfranchised strata of society. Nevertheless, diabolical Rappers and Ancient Sovereigns have more likenesses than one would expect.

In India, political power became poetically consolidated and inscribed in Sanskrit, the refined and perfected language of the Gods, as a strategy to immortalize the glory and fame of numerous Kings and celebrate their world-conquest. This trans-regional practice of memorializing regal exploits in archetypal and idealized literary tropes reveals more about a shared political and prestigious courtly practice than the historical details and personalities of any given King. It as if the particular, concrete details and circumstances are seen as binding the glorious poetic expansion and eternal suspension in the ethereal realm of a perfect language. Similarly, Hip Hop lyrics are often presented in a competitive and self-empowering discourse as a continuous stream of hyperbolic metaphors that mirror the shared styles of Hip Hop linguistics and given modes of expression; isolating the MC who utilizes these Hip Hop modes, the shared poetic register magnifies the fame and luster of a given artist, while their historical personality is poetically rendered anonymous, or at least thematically re-narrated with dramatic embellishments that tend towards the fictive.

When you see this formalized bravado within the aesthetic logic of each art form it becomes more than mere braggadocio. The subject of praise is no longer as compelling as the deployment and ingenuitive manipulation of figures of speech in constructing a fresh, ideal self.

Projection and performance: Be it 8th century stone engravings, street corner performances or Social Media, when it comes to literary hype and reflecting our Greatness in clever ways, some things never change....

742 A.D. Inscription about Lord Vikramāditya II:

Directly after his consecration as emperor over the entire world -- a self-choice marriage of Lakṣmī, goddess of royal power -- he was infused with energy and made up his mind to destroy the Pallava, his natural enemies... [from these enemies] he acquired musical instruments, the battle standards; superior elephants, rutting, full grown, renowned; a treasure of rubies whose rays could destroy the darkness; and a treasure of gold it took many men to carry... and he planted the victory pillar of his fame, brilliant as the autumn moon

Nas is Like, Artist: Nas, Album: "I am..."

As far as rap go, it's only natural, I explain
My plateau, and also, what defines my name
First it was Nasty, but times have changed
Ask me now, I'm the artist, but hardcore, my science for pain
I spent time in the game, kept my mind on fame

"Nas is like.."  Earth Wind & Fire, rims and tires
Bulletproof glass, inside is the realest driver
Planets in orbit, line em up with the stars
Tarot cards, you can see the pharaoh Nas
"Nas is like.."  Iron Mike, messiah type
Before the Christ, after the death
The last one left, let my cash invest in stock
Came a along way from blastin, techs on blocks
Went from Seiko to Rolex, ownin acres
From the projects with no chips, to large cake dough
from dimes to siete zeros

Following the implication of this unlikely juxtaposition, Hip Hop is a "language of the Gods" in its own right, affording an artistic agent Prestige through the special power of its expressive linguistic style. In both of these examples, it is not just the parallel themes of fame, riches, glory that are striking, but the deployment of unique sets of literary standards that enable the projection and instantiation of a King / MC as an unparalleled archetype of Success. It is almost as if the individual who is promoted (or self-promoting) disappears into the ideal representation -- yet the way their fame and power is fashioned by shared metaphors germane to their respective literary genre simultaneously refigures their independence, or shall we say Sovereignty. The masterful play between the generalized-ideal and particularized poetic iterations in Sanskrit political inscriptions and Hip Hop lyricism creates a fabulous imaginiarium and also teaches us about human expression when it comes to our own ideal-self-projection through the cipher of a shared, value-laden structure: the literary register we inhabit.