One of the defining characteristics of hip-hop music is the use of allusion. On his song “Dumb It Down,” Lupe Fiasco rhymes, “I’m brainless, which means I’m headless, like Ichabod Crane is…” In Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, schoolmaster Ichabod Crane never actually loses his head. That honor lies with the Headless Horseman. … Continue reading Literary Allusion Runs Deep Through the History of Hip-Hop