A Grammar Lesson from Kanye
Well, there’s no real “lesson,” actually, but for the grammar hounds out there, an interesting crisis arises from trying to retype a certain line of lyrics from the song “Dark Fantasy” off Kanye’s new album.
The line, which is majorly fucking clever, is “Too many Urkels on your team, that’s why you’re Winslow.”
If you don’t get it, he’s saying two things at once. One is the obvious—a taunt (too many losers on your team, that’s why your wins are low). The other is a knowing reference to the TV show Family Matters (too many Urkels on your team, that’s why you are like Winslow, as in Carl Winslow, Urkel’s next-door neighbor he pestered).
The issue comes with trying to write the line down (say, in a pro-Kanye, ‘I love this line’ tweet). Any which way, it looks wrong. If you write, “that’s why you’re Winslow” you’ve chosen to ignore the part of the joke about “your wins” being “low.”
Consequently, if you write, “that’s why your Winslow” it looks as though you’re one of those idiots that writes “your” for “you are,” i.e. “Your cool, man.” Ugh.
Others (like many of the sites that give rap lyrics) seem to have chosen “Wins-low” to remind people that it’s a double entendre, but that hyphen just looks wrong.
The only remaining option is, I guess, to write “that’s why your wins low” and assume/hope that someone reading it extrapolates the Family Matters reference (more likely if they read it aloud).
So, just sayin.