If William Faulkner were a rapper, who would he be? (Or, if you prefer, if Lil Wayne were a writer, who would he be?)
Flavorwire matches famous rappers with their 20th-century literary doppelgangers with surprisingly apt comparisons:
Ja Rule = Jay McInerney
In the 1980s, McInerney was a fresh-faced up-and-comer whose novel Bright Lights, Big City had just taken the New York literary world by storm. Similarly, Ja Rule exerted an iron-fisted rule over the radio waves in the late 1990s and early 2000s. McInerney and Ja Rule both celebrated cocaine culture and had an arsenal of flashy new-fangled tricks up their sleeve to impress their audience. And now, when you mention either of their names, everyone groans.
Read on to find out why Notorious B.I.G = Ernest Hemingway, Tupac Shakur = F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Wu-Tang Clan = The Beat Poets, and more.
Eminem = Steven King
Both Eminem and King have published a prolific amount of work, often focusing on violence and the negative side of human nature. Both have been ridiculed by their peers and media critics for some of their less moving, pandering pieces. But when you separate the wheat from the chaff, you find some truly amazing stuff (but there is a lot of chaff…).