With their rapping, and their tapping
Rap-tap-tap to wake our napping
In the restless dream of error
Hear the weird the spirit brings
Spirit rapping, a way of communicating with spirits through knocks, was very silly and very hip in the Victorian Era. On the list of “easy ghost sounds to fake” I’d imagine knocking was right up at the top. Nonetheless, it was quite the popular pastime – enough that the fad got a song with the excellent line “hear the weird the spirit brings” (weird is actually spelled “wierd” in the sheet music – pretty weird indeed). You can look up the song and hear renditions of it. Alternatively, you can assume I already did that and decided it wasn’t worth posting.
Spirit rapping was debunked after a few years. Over a century later, rapping would come back in a totally new (and utterly unrelated) form. But spirit rapping?
I mean, c’mon – Zombies? Afterlife? Skeletons? If that’s not spirit rapping, what is?!
To be fair, they don’t really discuss the afterlife in the song. But that video!
My favorite spirit rapping? Aesop Rock’s Jumping Coffin (with a video that a very different vibe for similar idea)
The song itself works as an invitation for spirit rapping:
Some try to combat any kind of odd force tryna make contact, nah
Let it in, let it in
Let it in, let it in
Some try to stonewall any kind of woo-woo tryna make a phone call, nah
Let it in, let it in
Let it in, let it in
*A post about rapping and the dead – and not a single mummy joke. You are welcome.
**When else am I going to get a chance to share a picture of Meechy Darko and me?
Death Becomes You 