Design
The Wu-Tang Clan Might Appreciate These Hip-Hop Street Signs
Rappers like to call out street names; New York artist Jay Shells likes to put their lyrics up at the actual intersections they mention.
Many hip-hop artists show a fascination with place names rivaled by the cartographers of the Golden Age of Dutch/Flemish mapping.
In "Investigative Reports," for instance, you have GZA rhyming, "Get your pockets dug from all your Chemical Bank ends / Caught him at the red light on Putnam Avenue and Franklin." There's Big L's "Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous," which helpfully notes that "On 139 and Lenox Ave. there's a big park / And if you're soft, don't go through it when it gets dark." Mos Def once boasted, "I'm blacker than midnight on Broadway and Myrtle."