The Art of Metaphor: A History of Visual Storytelling & GenAI
A ‘metaphor’ is a figure of speech that is used to make a comparison, but in a different way from a ‘simile’ that uses ‘like’ or ‘as’. Instead, it makes the description of an object look as if it was literally true. That is, a metaphor is an implied comparison. Sometimes, artists use metaphors and similes to express something they have lived or experienced. These figures of speech say a lot of things about lives that have been lived. It is the artist’s/author’s personal emotional account of an event.
When I was a teenager I was an avid reader. I loved fiction and poetry and one of my favorite books was Jean Toomer’s Cane, a 20th century collection of vignettes revolving around the origins and experiences of Black Americans. Since 2022, I’ve explored some of Jean Toomer’s poetry using prompts in MidJourney. Metaphors and similes work well in prompts. Take, for example, Toomer’s “Her Lips Are Copper Wire”:
whisper of yellow globes
gleaming on lamp-posts that sway
I also loved rap music. “Paid in Full” by DJ Eric B. and rapper Rakim was one of the first albums I purchased as a teen. Rappers frequently use metaphors and similes to create vivid imagery, convey complex ideas, and add layers of meaning to their verses, enhancing the overall impact and artistry of the music. Rakim’s use of metaphors and similes in his lyrics had similar impact on me as Toomer’s Cane.
The central metaphor:
I was a fiend before I became a teen / I melted microphones instead of cones of ice cream…
This metaphor compares Rakim’s passion for rapping to an addiction. He’s not literally a fiend, but he’s saying that his need for the microphone is like a junkie’s need for a fix — intense and all-consuming. The mic becomes a symbol of addiction.
Another strong metaphor:
The microphone is my toy and the beat is my therapist
Here, he’s saying that music is more than just a career — it’s therapeutic, it’s emotional, it’s his outlet. He doesn’t say “rapping helps me” directly — he uses the metaphor to deepen the meaning. I facilitated my first teacher workshop in 1996 when I was working in East Harlem, NYC. I introduced the concept of metaphors in rap music to high school English teachers. I used the lyrics from “Microphone Fiend” as one of my case studies.
Other rappers who, in my opinion, are at the level of Rakim include Tupac Shakur and Kendrick Lamar. The latter’s recent album GNX includes a song the repurposes Tupac’s “Made Ni**as” and Kendrick’s rap performance has a similar flow as the late rapper. His song titled “Gloria” is a great example of metaphor. In this song, Kendrick employs metaphors to explore different themes. He refers to his pen as “Gloria,” symbolizing his writing instrument as a source of glory and creative power.
This ‘Gloria’ metaphor highlights the significance of his art in his personal and professional life. The name “Gloria” itself, meaning “glory” in Spanish, also carries religious connotations, which aligns with Kendrick’s frequent use of spiritual themes to represent his quest for enlightenment and redemption. In many ways, Rakim laid the groundwork for Tupac and Kendrick, as well as many other rappers. I recently created the top and following images of them using the lastest MidJourney upgrade.
These themes resonate with some of Jean Toomer’s writings, especially “Karintha,” a poetic short story (or prose poem), where he uses rich metaphorical language to explore themes of Black womanhood, sexuality, innocence, and societal decay. The metaphors often draw from nature and the Southern landscape, which serve as symbols for Karintha’s beauty and the complex way society treats her.
Toomer constantly compares main character Karintha to natural elements — sunsets, smoke, the seasons:
Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon.
- Metaphor: Her skin isn’t literally dusk — Toomer uses the twilight to suggest a kind of mystery, depth, and beauty that’s also fleeting.
- It also signals the end of day, subtly hinting at the loss of innocence or the end of a childhood unprotected.
“The smoke is around her now.”
- Smoke represents destruction and transformation, but it’s also ethereal and hard to grasp — just like how the community views and consumes Karintha’s image without truly seeing her.
Toomer wasn’t just telling a story about one girl — he used Karintha as a metaphor for how Black women are romanticized, sexualized, and exploited, in the early 20th-century South. And through poetic, layered metaphors drawn from nature (earth, sky, and fire), he blurred the line between body and landscape — personal and political. Visualizing these inspirations using generative AI or GenAI is a ongoing experiment. Another example of GenAI + rap lyrics is TextFX, an application created for rappers, writers, and wordsmiths. I’ve written about this online, text-based app previously. Also, we ran a couple of teacher trainings that included using ideas from TextFX in AI image generator prompts.
Note: In the past few days MidJourney updated it’s tool to version #7, so I will be revisiting some of the earlier prompts, including a few inserted in this article. There is clearly a difference between the output from the two versions (6 and 7) but the clarity and, in the case of the rapper portraits, the resemblance to the subjects is much improved.
Roxanne Shante often used metaphors that liken rap battles to war, combat or even boxing:
- “I’m the queen of the castle, better recognize the throne” — equates her dominance in rap to royal rule.
- She frequently frames herself as a warrior or soldier, suggesting that battling in rap is a life-or-death situation, and she always wins.
- “My rhymes are like jabs, quick with the punch” — her verses are metaphorically described as physical attacks.
By framing an issue in a new light, metaphors can prompt people to rethink their opinions or assumptions, leading to deeper understandings. Roxanne Shante’s use of metaphors in her rap lyrics helped to flip the script in a male-dominated industry. Now, we can explore the use of these metaphors in text-2-image prompts, as a way to visualize content.