Signifyin'

Signifyin' is the Black American art and tradition of
saying something twice: once on the surface and once
underneath through different rhetorical devices.

This archival website moves through six eras where
that practice evolved throughout time. From the griot traditions of West Africa, to the coded language of slave songs, the ecstatic logic of Black preaching, the Harlem Renaissance, and to the confrontational poetics of the
Black Arts Movement to the sample-based signifying
of Hip-Hop.