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Fotos: P. Woods/The Legendary Cyphers; Paolo Silva/unsplash.comSpotlight 9/2019 TRAVELMaking your own music
Union Square on a warm evening is an
open-air circus, a cacophony of voices
and sounds. You drift through the drone
of Hare Krishna worshippers, move past a
boom box blaring next to a group of street
dancers, hear the slap of double-Dutch
rope skippers, and sidle by the competi-
tive chess players, who somehow concen-
trate through it all.
It’s harder to hear what’s happening in-
side the tight circle of bodies near an en-
trance to the subway. The circle is about
three or four people deep, and you can tell
there’s something good at its center from
the cheer that goes up at regular intervals
among the onlookers. If you get closer,
you can hear a thumping bass beat and
voice dancing along to it, fitting words
into the cadence of the rhythm: “I’m in
a real cool mood / you can catch me at
Whole Foods / doin’ these dudes dirty /
every day about 9:30...”
In the inner circle, a group of young
men and women are freestyling: rap-
ping on top of the beat playing on a small
speaker and making up the words as
they go along. Each person takes a turn,
rhyming a few bars before handing over
to another rapper. This is the Legendary
Cyphers, who are here every Friday night
from 8 p.m. to midnight from May to No-
vember, celebrating a global art form that
was born right here in New York: “...Listen,
sometimes we mess up / but when you
spit your rhymes / get your chest up...”
If you’ve never seen this before, it’s
like magic. The more experienced MCs,as they’re called, spit out complicated
rhyme schemes on any subject that oc-
curs to them without hesitation. And
their rhymes are filled with references
to everything from that day’s headlines
to Marvel superhero comics to ancient
Greek mythology, and everything in be-
tween, often delivered with a clever pun
for the punchline. When someone comes
up with a particularly clever triple enten-
dre, the crowd roars and applauds: “...You
know I ain’t writin’ a speech / they should
give me a check / for stompin’ out racism
with some Nikes on my feet...”
Rap was invented on another summer
night, back in 1973, all the way uptown
in the Bronx, when the now-legendary
Coke La Rock started rhyming over a
beat at a house party. Soon, every block
party in the Bronx had an “MC” spitting
rhymes. But even as rap grew to become
a global, multi million-dollar business, it
was always renewed and improved in “cy-
phers,” small circles where amateur MCs
gathered to show off their skills.
The Legendary Cyphers started out as
a group of dedicated rappers who want-
ed to keep that tradition alive in the city
where it all began. The art form has be-
come much more complex since the early
days, but this is still the real thing, as close
to the beating heart of hip-hop as you can
get. The rules are simple. Don’t rap over
another MC — that’ll get shouts of “one
mic!” even though there’s no actual mi-
crophone involved. Address the crowd,
not the camera (the Legendary Cyphers
film every session). And no battle rappingbar [bA:r]
, hier: Takt
blare [ble&r]
, plärren
boom box
[(bu:m bA:ks] ifml.
, Ghettoblaster
cheer [tSI&r]
, Beifall, Jubel
dedicated [(dedIkeItEd]
, engagiert, passioniert
double-Dutch rope
skipper
[)dVb&l )dVtS (roUp
)skIp&r] N. Am.
, Seilspringer(in)
drone [droUn]
, Summen, Brummen
dude [du:d] N. Am. ifml.
, Kumpel, Kerl
mess up [mes (Vp] ifml.
, herumbasteln,
vermasselnpun [pVn]
, Wortspiel
punchline [(pVntSlaIn]
, Pointe, Höhepunkt
roar [rO:r]
, brüllen, tosen
sidle [(saId&l]
, sich durchschlängeln
slap [slÄp]
, Schlagen
spit [spIt]
, ausspucken
stomp [stA:mp]
, stampfen
thumping [(TVmpIN]
, hämmernd
triple entendre
[)trIp&l A:n(A:ndrE]
, Dreideutigkeit
worshipper [(w§:SEp&r]
, Anhänger(in)Help keep hip-hop alive with the Legendary Cyphers at Union Square