James Franco - "Song of Myself": Why Walt Whitman Was the Original Kanye West lyrics

Whitman had no shame in promoting his own work, either within the work or in anonymous reviews, but his methods are different in each form. “Song of Myself” can be seen as one long promotion of Whitman's new poetic work; it is an extended advertisement for the kind of writer he was and the kind of audience he was aiming for. Unlike the self-promotion in the anonymous articles, the self-promotion in the poem justifies itself by inclusion of the audience in the poet's lauding of himself: I celebrate myself, And what I a**ume you shall a**ume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you . . . (“Song of Myself”) This is akin to today's rappers whose lyrics entail claims of a superior style and being better than all the other MCs. Proclamations of genius are not uncommon; Kanye West, said recently on a talk show, "For me to say I wasn't a genius, I would just be lying to you and to myself." The claims for greatness of style and lyrics become part of the work, thus in a self-reflexive way, part if not all of the substance of the lyrics are about the superiority of their very style and the lyrics themselves. Whitman tempers his claims of superiority within “Song of Myself” by simultaneously pumping up his persona and dissolving it into the people: he is the rapper with the barbaric yawp that isn't afraid to contradict himself and shrink to the material below the readers' boot soles. But, despite the proclamations of humility, the overall universally inclusive spirit, and the predominantly outward focus in “Song of Myself,” the poet remains at the center of the piece. The poem “Song of Myself” defines its poet by repeatedly declaring at length, in catalogues and clusters of subjects, what the poet is made of, what he believes in, how he carries himself and the kinds of people that he relates to. Like a rapper whose lyrics describe who he is, what he's interested in and his own superiority, “Song of myself” is a poem of self-promotion. In contemporary rap there are generic expectations of flaunting of achievement and wealth, recounting of humble beginnings that lead through struggle to success, and also competition. Whitman does not call out any of his poetic competitors within his poems, and thus Whitman's nineteenth century hip-hop is possibly less beligerent than his twentieth and twenty-first century counterparts, but his radical break from traditional poetic style and his promotion of that style is tantamount to a challenge to all poetic competitors.