Back in 1989, David Foster Wallace was recovering from attempted suicide back at his parents house in Illinois. He called Mark, one of his closest friends who was working in Boston as a lawyer, to tell him the news – David was coming to Harvard to get a doctorate in philosophy. They have been roommates before, and decided to live together again.
Mark Costello is a published writer himself, his stories have been included in publications of The Best American Short Stories, and we wrote two novels – Bag Man and Big If. But at that time he was pursuing a career in law and wrote very little.
Signifying Rappers was born from their common interest in hip-hop, David’s idea to write about it and Mark’s endless support for his friend. It is full of humour, respect and affection for one another, and is structured as a conversation, with alternate chapters from David and Mark. Their interest in rap is genuine, and the analysis they give to Schoolly D is worth a doctorate itself. However, it is a view from the outside, and fans of rap would smell that from the first page. They look at rap as a phenomenon, rebellious and exclusive. It gives them hope – because even though it doesn’t reject the capitalistic values of pop music, it certainly laughs at them even when clearly benefiting from it. They put hip-hop on a pedestal that is mostly made up of their own beliefs, which is not undeserved for the genre, but surely isn’t conscious.
Still, that view from the outside is hopeful and somewhat visionary. The odes to self are given a shower of humour and appreciation for their unapologetic ambitions. Predictions were made and proved to be quite accurate: about the growing violence as the entertaining characteristic of hiphop putting artists in a PR corner where they would have to follow through with the rhymed threats.
As Mark says, if you are reading this in print, it’s already dated. I don’t care about that, I just wish it was written a few years later, because I can only imagine how great sections on 2pac, Biggie, Eminem, DMX and others would be.