Here's my research proposal.
Orality theory may be described as the study of methodologies used to present information in a non-literate way. The focus of orality theory is on pre-literate cultures, that is, those people who have no suspicion of writing. But as Walter Ong points out early in his book Orality and Literacy, we are in the age of secondary orality. This is a new era – one shaped by and dependant on new technologies that are themselves dependant on literacy. Our understanding of contemporary forms of non-literary expressions can be furthered by studying them with the history of orality and literacy in mind.
The bards of ancient Greece and first millennia Europe served their culture in multidimensional ways. Not only were they poets, capable of spontaneously creating spoken works of art (more will be discussed about this later), they were living historians who conveyed a sense of cultural identity to their audiences. How might these figures be represented in modern day society, a society where our histories are kept on paper?
The bard is alive, and he is in the hip-hop clubs downtown.
Hip-hop as a contemporary art form has its roots both in literacy and orality. There is a suspected profound difference in pre-composed rap lyrics and what is known as freestyle. This paper attempts to define those differences that occur between lyrics composed within the realm of literacy and the lyrics which are delivered spontaneously, often in the form of a “battle”.
Much scholarly work has been done on the dynamics of hip-hop. Most of the available resources make no distinction between pre-composed and spontaneous deliverances of rap poetry. Yet this is the arena most of interest to the student of orality theory. Are freestylers working with a litany of pre-fabricated phrases? What role does repetition play in spontaneous oral delivery? How does the agonistic tone transfer to freestyle battling? What are the limitations of freestyle? How does the aid of writing change the structure of lyrics?
The answers to these questions and others will be evasive, as this focus has not been exclusively attended to in the current studies on hip-hop. One can infer certain conclusions from them, but ultimately a new path of research must be blazed. Studies on orality theory will be applied to all available information concerning the nature of rap composition. Expect the personal interview, both those conducted by the author and those conducted by the media to be a primary source of information in answering the question: how does orality theory apply to freestyle hip-hop?
).
What you were talking about Skwerl, "kiddish rhymes" or transcending them, is explained here in far more complexity:
