Rapping 'Flow' Analysis

mixed_biscuits

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
Have there been any concerted attempts to analyze rap vocals in terms of rhythm?

I have found lots of stuff on subject matter but as yet no attempts to transcribe, in detail, the delivery of the lyrics (and their interaction with the beat).
 
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borderpolice

Well-known member
mixed_biscuits said:
Have there been any concerted attempts to analyze rap vocals in terms of rhythm?

I have found lots of stuff on subject matter but as yet no attempts to transcribe, in detail, the delivery of the lyrics (and their interaction with the beat).
Click to expand...

I doubt that you find much in this direction. There is no good understanding or even notation of rhythm that matches our understanding of harmony. the conventional classification into quavers, semiquavers and such is way too crude for the multitude of rhythmic events that goes on in rapping (or singing). Clearly, all good rapping is heavily syncopated and plays very nicely with the beat.

I'd be happy to hear that somebody has something in this direction though.
 
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adruu

This Is It
yeah this pretty much uncharted territory, but one that some m.c.'s used to "get" just by being fans or students. alot of this type of skill in meter, emphasis, whatever has really never been what drove the pop stuff, so its been ignored.
 
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28 Gun Nice Boy

Well-known member
I don't think that when you're talking about MCing you can look at rhythm in isolation from things like inflection and intonation. I'm ignorant of this type of thing in terms of any technical understanding but my instinct is that analysing this would be alot more complicated than analysing harmony / melody?
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
this fellow has done a pretty weighty musicological analysis of MCing with a lot of discussion of rhythmic "flow"...


adam krims said:
Thecomplexity referred to involves multiple rhymes in the same rhyme complex (i.e. sections with consistently rhyming words), internal rhymes, offbeat rhymes, multiple syncopations, and violations (i.e. overflows) of meter and metrical subdivisions of the beat.
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...etc. later, he uses grids that look something like drum maps in a sequencer to describe the rhythmic flows of various lyrical examples.

not sure how it is but i'll be giving it a go soon.
 
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shudder

Well-known member
using some krimsian stuff, Wayne&wax analyses some Black Thought flow in an article about hip hop after sampling, constructions of realness/authenticity, etc.
 
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nomadologist

Guest
couldn't someone rather easily map out a hip-hop song's lyrics in the meter of traditional poetry? i'm sure someone has to have done some of this...
 
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nomadologist

Guest
I think a lot of Biggie's stuff would work well--I really love "Dead Wrong" before Eminem comes in...
 
Q

qwerty south

no use for a witticism
Howard Goodall - How Music Works - Episode 2 - Rhythm:

Part 1 :
Part 2 :
Part 3 :
includes some analysis of Twista...
 
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