Definitions Deconstructed

Rap Rhymn'

S. G. Lacey

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Definition:

A literary device, featured particularly in poetry, in which identical, or similar, concluding syllables in different words are repeated.  [REF]

 

Deconstruction:

Rhyming has been a fundamental element of communication for centuries.  Rhymes were originally used as a repetitive tool to help traveling mistrals remember the songs of yore.

 

Today’s breed of singing poets is a decidedly different breed.  However, their goal is often the same.   Tell their stories to the masses, with some entertainment built in. 

 

There’s a surprisingly similarity between literary poets and song writers.  In fact, many famous musicians, from Lou Reed, to Joni Mitchell, to Tupac Shakur, have tried their hand at poetic writing, with varying levels of success.

 

As a result, it’s valuable to look at different types of rhymes, through the lens of a musical style where creative license is mandatory.  Hip-hop artists.  Through the lyrics of these skilled wordsmiths, the complexity of the common rhyme is revealed.

 

Everyone can pair another common 3-letter word with “cat”, but more nuance is needed to parlay off “baccarat”. 

 

There are many keys to accomplish a great rap verse.  Lyrics.  Beat.  Composition.  Execution.  All these elements must come together in harmony, to create a perfectly curated track. 

 

One unappreciated factor which defines the best orators of each generation is enunciation.  The English language is a fluid, malleable, format, especially when used for musical prose.  Slurred words, an off cadence, or excessive autotune, can quickly muddle even the most well-crafted lyrics.    

 

The best part about the hip-hop genre is that it is based on passion, and personal experiences.  While many pop, country, and even rock, musicians, utilize ghost writers, most rappers pen their own lyrics, albeit with help on the music and promotion front.  These performers often take broad rhyming liberties, all while keeping the underlying meaning clear.

 

Below are some of the best examples of innovative rhymes in the hip-hop genre, as viewed through the scholarly context of formal definitions.

 

End (Perfect) = Rhyming of the final words of consecutive lines, with exactly paired words.

 

Ice Cube – It Was A Good Day (1992) @ 0:33  [REF]

 

“Just waking up in the morning, gotta thank God.

I don’t know, but today seems kinda odd.

No barking from the dogs, no smog,

And momma cooked a breakfast with no hog.”

 

This is one of the most historic opening salvos for any rap song ever written.  Ice Cube’s compelling sound, be it as part of N.W.A., or on his own, relies on two techniques.  The honest nature of his content, and the simplicity of his rhymes.  Throughout the entire song, 70% of the rhyming couples are both 5 letters or less.  Perfect rhymes are easy when they work, but executing a coherent story in such a humble format requires incredible skill.

 

Feminine = Rhyming words which contain two or more syllables that rhyme with each other.

 

Nicki Minaj – Monster (2010) @ 0:02  [REF]

 

“Yeah, I'm in that Tonka, color of Willy Wonka,

You could be the king, but watch the queen conquer.”

 

It’s only fitting to use Nicki Minaj to describe the feminine rhyming scheme; she’s never had any issues flaunting her sexuality throughout an illustrious career.  While Shakespeare would be incredibly confused reading these lyrics, this is still true poetry.  Many have argued that this is best rap performance, not just amongst the stacked cameo field in this song, but also of the entire year.  Nicki is all about performing, and this effort, in her catchy Jamaican accent, with all manner of clever voice inflections, ties seemingly random words and syllables into a cohesive work, accompanied by an overstimulating music video.

 

Masculine (Syllabic) = Rhyming based on a single stressed syllable in both words.

 

Lil Wayne – John (2011) @ 1:14  [REF]

 

“Prepared for the worst, but still praying for the best.

This game is a bitch, I got my hand up her dress.

The money don't sleep, so Weezy can't rest.

And AK47 is my fucking address.”

 

Lil Wayne’s wordplay skills are unrivaled, as are his overtly sexually lyrics.  Despite heavy use of background base in his songs, the lines come through loud and clear, especially when paired with Rick Ross, in this aggressive song.  Single syllabic rhyming relies on strong emphasis on the last portion of a word, even if the rest of the letters are completely unrelated.  In this crazy world, antonyms “worst” and “best” can rhyme, along with pretty much any other word containing a strong “S”.  One only needs to review the “reality check” line immediately preceding the referenced stanza, to realize the lyrical layers in this composition.  Lil Wayne loves puns.

 

Internal = Rhyming of two or more words within the same line.

 

Eminem – Loose Yourself (2002) @ 0:53  [REF]

 

“His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.

There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti.”

 

Internal rhymes are deceptively simple, but require crafty writing.  Pairing your physical condition with your dinner, in just 2 concise lines, is a real skill.  This verse is the start to one of the best rap songs of the 2000’s, regardless of the baggage that comes with any Slim Shady appearance.  Eminem has always been at his best when he speaks from the heart, be it talking about his love interests, his children, or his Detroit upbringing, as highlighted in the movie “8 Mile”. 

 

Identical = Rhyming by simply using the same word twice.

 

Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre – Nuthin’ But A G-Thang (1992) @ 0:56  [REF]

 

“One, two, three and to the four,

Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre is at the door.

Ready to make an entrance, so back on up,

'Cause you know we're 'bout to rip shit up.”

 

Rappers are not typically known for modesty.  In the first 4 lines of this early 90’s classic, Dre and Dogg make their collaborative introduction to the audience, and the world.  While identical rhyming seems easy, just repeating the same word over and over gets boring.  However, there’s nothing boring about this piece, with the two rappers each delivering one of the paired lines.  Identical rhyming abounds in this song’s lyrics, using repetition of “man” and “down”, plus the iconic chorus.  “Like this and like that and like this.”  Two of the era’s most iconic rappers, coming together in unison, verbally.

 

Macaronic = Rhyming words from different languages.

 

Notorious B.I.G. – Hypnotize (2000) @ 2:20  [REF]

 

“Escargot, my car go, one sixty, swiftly.”

 

It’s feasible to populate this entire list of rhyming schemes just by scanning the lyrics of a few of Biggie Smalls songs.  In this single, 7-word line, he rhymes French and English, plus incorporates internal, near, feminine, and masculine rhymes.  This lone line is just a small sampling of the lyrical gold laid down by Biggie and his crew during an unfortunately truncated career.

 

Rich = Rhyming two different words that happen to sound the same, but are spelled differently, with different meanings.

 

Fabolous – Can’t Let You Go (2003) @ 2:21  [REF]

 

“She won’t care if I’m a platinum rapper,

If she catch me with an empty magnum wrapper.”

 

Research had to go a little a bit afield from well-known rappers to find this type of rhyme.  Sometimes artists have an amazing way with words, able to translate complex topics into a few simple lines.  In this case, Fabolous acknowledges the risks of infidelity using a homonym that has likely never been paired in a poem, either before, or since, this 2003 classic.  There’s no shortage of other rhyming prowess in this song, executed in a style characteristic of Akon, Cam’Ron, and others of this hip-hop genre. 

 

Scarce = Rhyming with a word that has very few other rhyming opportunities.

 

Kanye West – Run This Town (2010) @ 4:08  [REF]

 

“And I'm beasting, off the Riesling,

And my nigga just made it out the precinct.”

 

Despite the odd, dystopian, music video, this song combines three incredibly talented R&B artists.  Rhianna does an excellent job on the chorus, with two of raps all-time greats contributing deft verses.  These two referenced lines are part of an epic section thrown down by Kanye West.  This was Jay-Z’s song, but Kanye stole the show.  In this single segment he cleanly rhymes with “passports”, “Volvos”, “Rav-4”, and of course, “G-string”.  But “precinct” is the real tour de force of the flow, paired with a fairly obscure white wine, plus an internal rhyme thrown in for good measure.  Just reading the lyrics as text doesn’t do justice to Kanye’s ability to connect seemingly unrelated words with a sooth cadence and flow.

 

Assonance = Rhyming repeated vowel sounds that are close to each other.

 

Missy Elliot – Work It (2002) @ 0:34 [REF]

 

“I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it.

Ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gniht ym tup I.”

 

What is this gobbledygook of letters.  Pig Latin?  A disturbed scrabble board?  No, it’s just the previous line of Missy Elliot’s chorus written in reverse.  And sung in reverse.  When you completely make up an entire string of text, some creativity needs to be used to generate rhymes.  In this instance, Missy uses repeated single vowel and constant sounds, mainly “I”, “U”, and “T”, to seamlessly integrate utter nonsense, not just once, but into the refrain, which is repeated 8 times during song.  This is a testament to how rap rhyming is as much about execution as the actual lyrics.

 

Dactyl (Anapaest) = Rhyming using a stressed syllable, followed by two unstressed syllables, or the opposite cadence.

 

The Sugarhill Gang – Rapper’s Delight (1980) @ 0:35  [REF]

 

“I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie,

To the hip hip hop-a you don't stop the rock,

It to the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie

To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.”

 

While somewhat of a technical stretch, it’s important to acknowledge the rhyme format, and the song composition, both of which represent the pinnacle of execution.  There’s a reason Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey is written in dactyl prose.  And there’s a reason this Sugarhill Gang piece, composed over 40 years ago, is often sighted as the best rap track ever.  Stressed and unstressed syllabic emphasis abounds throughout this marathon ballad, adding too, and defining, the flow of this classic song.  Kick off the classic bass line, then start improving. 

 

Slant (Near) (Imperfect) (Oblique) = Rhyming seemingly unconnected words, which often share just a single vowel or consonant sound.

 

Kendrick Lamar – Humble (2017) @ 1:45 [REF]

 

“I'm so fucking sick and tired of the Photoshop,

Show me something natural, like afro on Richard Pryor.

Show me something natural, like ass with some stretch marks.

Still will take you down, right on your mamma's couch, in polo socks.”

 

You likely perceive that the ending words in this quartet of lines seemingly have no rhyming scheme.  But you would be sorely mistake.  At least in the imaginative mind of Kendrick Lamar.  Often using repetition, and cadence, his presentation extends beyond pure vocals, to the entire performance; just check out the absurd linked music video if you’re skeptical.  Any words can be rhymed with enough creativity, even if the selected couplets only share a single letter. 

 

Eye = Rhyming words that look the same, but are actually pronounced differently.

 

Grandmaster Flash – The Message (1982) @ 3:58  [REF]

 

“They pushed that girl in front of the train,

Took her to the doctor, sewed the arm on again.”

 

A classic song, with loads of excellent stanzas.  While the morbid, obscure, pair of lines referenced above represent an eye rhyme, which is very rare in rap songs, one needs only to look at the chorus of this song, to realize how far ahead of their time these lyrics are.  With wretched, slant, internal, and masculine schemes, this entire piece is undoubtably a work of gilded poetry.   Listening to the full 7 minutes completes the literary journey.  “It’s like a jungle.  Sometimes it makes me wonder.”

 

Head (Consonance) (Alliteration) = Rhyming scheme using repeated consonants at the beginning of consecutive words.

 

Big Pun – Twinz (1998) @ 1:03  [REF]

 

“Dead in the middle of Little Italy, little did we know,

That we riddled some middlemen, who didn't do diddly.”

 

You may need to read, or listen, to this line a few times to fathom the full brilliance.  This verse is half riddle, half rap, wholly brilliant.  Far beyond standard alliteration, Big Pun uses repeated letters, paired words, and linked phrases, in this incredibly profound wordplay.  Amusingly, this piece stemmed from a rap-off with Fat Joe, his collaborative partner in this song, who conceded defeat in the battle, after hearing this line from his clearly superior adversary.

 

Wreched (Light) = Rhyming pattern using a stressed and unstressed syllable to link seemingly unconnected words.

 

Lizzo – Truth Hurts (2019) @ 2:25  [REF]

 

“Fresh photos with the bomb lighting,

New man on the Minnesota Vikings.”

 

There’s a lot to like about this line specifically, and Lizzo in general.  Unique, creative, different, are all adjectives which come to mind.  A wretched rhyme is a form of slant rhyming which relies on a single, stressed, syllable.  In this case, the technique links two relatively disjointed words into a single, smooth, storyline.  Plus, any song that can incorporate both online glam shots, and a professional football team, into the lyrics, earns bonus points.

 

There’s one final influential artist, debatably the best of all time, for whom a thorough rap poetry discussion would not be complete without inclusion.

 

Tupac Shakur – Unconditional Love (1996) @ 1:51  [REF]

 

“Driven by my ambitions, desire higher positions.

So, I proceed to make Gs, eternally in my mission,

Is to be more than just a rap musician.

The elevation of today’s generation,

If I could make ’em listen.”

 

The sentiment expressed in this verse, which includes over half of the rhyming schemes previously discussed, demonstrates how clearly a simple song can influence people, and how powerful poetic rhyming can be in achieving this mission.  This song was written by 2Pac in 1996, for his Death Row label partner M. C. Hammer.  The only version Shakur ever recorded in his own voice, as a test demo before passing the track off, was published posthumously in 1999.

 

One final item of note is to look at how rap rhyming has changed over time.  Fortunately, leveraging some excellent work by the team at RapAnalysis.com, we can see that the percentage of multisyllabic words used in hip-hop has been steadily increasing.  This suggests improved writing sophistication within the rap space, utilizing deeper, more complex, rhymes.  Or maybe, just increased ease of access to an online thesaurus. [REF]

 

“Next time you tune in,

To a bomb rap tune, then,

Check out the rhymes,

Which are increasingly sublime.”

 

DJ Lacepuff out.

 

Details:

• Detailed explanation of the various types of written rhymes with examples.  [REF]

• A curated list of over 100 famous rap lyrics, with multiple verses and background details, provided for a wide range of artists.  [REF]

• History of songwriters turned poets.  [REF]

• Word searchable database of all songs of the web, with broad scope of results.  [REF]