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If you’ve been alive recently you know that Kendrick Lamar just released his
much-anticipated “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City album.” Overall I really, really liked the album, the album of the year I think. However, this is not yet another GKMC review. Instead, I
want to take a look only at Kendrick’s rap, not the beats of his songs. When I
say rap, I mean the words and rhythms that Kendrick speaks, and how they
interact together.
It’s
my belief that, when discussing rap (which here refers to something completely
different from hip-hop), we can move the discussion beyond the “Drake sucks,
Eminem rules” kind. We can look at rappers and, by describing their musical and
rhythmic tendencies, group them into different categories. Ultimately, who is
good and who is bad will be left up to the listener, but I know what I prefer, and will offer my
value judgments based on what I believe to be the core, fundamental principles
underlying all good rap.
To
that end, just what are these different tendencies that we can describe? First,
what differentiates rap from so many other vocal and poetic genres: their
rhymes. It’s obvious that some rappers rhyme more (Eminem) and some rappers
rhyme less (Drake.) By counting the number of rhymes that a rapper uses per
bar, which is a musical duration of time just like a second, or an hour, we can
differentiate between various rappers. Furthermore, we can describe just how
these rappers use these rhymes. For instance, do they use more than one
syllable? (“To waking up my throat SCRATCHY / that’s how I spit it, NASTY”,
Nas, from the song “Don’t Get Carried Away”, where the capitalized words rhyme
together, and each is more than one syllable long.) Just one syllable long?
(“And when I leave I always come right back HERE / The young spitter that
everybody in rap FEAR”, Drake, Successful) Are the rhyme sounds always repeated
in the same order? (“Way past the MINIMUM, entering miLLENIUM” – Mos Def, RE:
DEFinition, where the vowel sounds of –“ih”, “uh”, and “uh” are in the same
order) Are they mixed up? (“His palms are sweaty / knees week, arms are heavy / there’s vomit on his sweater already” – Eminem, Lose Yourself, where the “ah” and “ee” vowel sounds
occur in different orders, as indicated by the bold and italics.)? Do they
occur in the same place in the musical bar, which is again, a duration of time?
To
understand this, we need to know what a bar is. Contrary to what you’ve heard,
reading music rhythm is not difficult. It works like this: every piece of music
has a time signature. It is expressed as one number over the other, but it is
not a fraction. The top number if how many beats there are to a bar, and the
bottom number is what note duration (again, a measurement of musical time) gets
the beat. For instance, in a time signature of 6/8, there are 6 8th
notes to a bar, and the 8th note gets the beat. In 3/2, there are 3
half notes to a bar, and the half-note gets the beat. Almost all rap is in 4/4.
This means that there are 4 quarter notes to a bar, and the quarter note gets
the bar. Thus, the bar, when represented on paper in notation, looks like this:
A
beat is another way we organize music. When we say a note gets the beat, it
means it is emphasized when it’s played. If you look at the picture, you’ll see
those 4 quarter note rests, the squiggly things. You’ll also notice that some
beats are marked strong, and some are marked weak. This is another way we
organize music. Within this 4/4 bar is where rappers place their words/notes.
Every rapper’s words can be represented in this bar with the correct note
values. And, in a 4/4 song, every musical bar is identical to the next one in
terms of this structure. Thus, we can compare whether a rapper keeps his rhymes
in the same place, or in different places.
Watch
this video as I listen to Kendrick’s “m.a.a.d. City” song to see how I count the beat.
You’ll
notice that all of my table taps are equally spaced out. When I tap slightly to the left, that means it is beat 1 and the beginning of the bar. I am counting the
beat. They are informed by where the bass kick (low drum sound) and snare sound
(high cracking drum sound) are. We can listen for where a rapper’s rhymes sound
in relation to these to see whether a rapper places his rhymes in the same
place in the bar, or in different places.
In
2pac’s “Changes”, he raps, “I wake up every morning and I ASK myself / Is life
worth living, should I BLAST myself” You’ll notice that, if you tap like how I was before, the rhyme
“ask” with “blast” both land on beat 4, where the high drum sound is. This
means that 2pac has kept the rhyme in the same place in the bar.
Not
all rappers do this. In Lauryn Hill’s rap on the Fugees’ song “Ready Or Not”,
she places them in different places. (Lauryn’s amazing rap is often overlooked
because she was such a good singer, and people think of her as a singer first.)
For instance, if you count the beat evenly. She raps, “Bless YOU, if YOU
represent the FU / but I hex YOU with some witches BREW if YOU DOO DOO” The
first “you” is on beat 2, “fu” is on beat 4, and “brew” is on beat 3. This is
another way to classify rappers.
Another
way is whether their rhymes fall at the end of lines, which is basically a
sentence, or inside the line. When Young Buck raps, “I CAME in the GAME knowing
niggas go’n hate me”, the rhymes come before the end of the sentence, and so
are called internal rhymes. Again, not all rappers do this. Lil Wayne, on “Walk
In”, raps, “Don’t mean to SPOOK YOU / this is New Orleans, so my queens do VOO
DOO”, the rhymes are at the end of the sentences. These are called end rhymes.
There are even more ways to classify rhymes, such as mosaic rhymes (when
multiple syllables are rhymed but are made up of more than one word), but this
is enough for now.
One
final, excellent way to classify rappers is by the nature of where they place
their sentences in the bar. The sentences can either line up completely with
the bar, cross the bar line, or, as is usually the case, some mix between them.
For instance, in “Hypnotize”, Notorious raps, “Girls walk to us, want to do us
/ screw us/ who us / yeah, Poppa and Puff”, the slashes separate the different
sentences. You’ll notice that they are all pretty short, and fall inside the
4/4 bar if you look at the music, where sentences are indicated by the curved
lines called slurs. Or, they can line up with the bar. When Kanye raps,
“Somebody tell these niggas who Kanye West is”, you’ll notice that it falls
across those 4 beats of the bar, with the strong beats 1 and 3 on the bass
kicks and the weak beats on beats 2 and 4.
Now,
using these different systems – the nature of their rhymes (how many syllables,
inside or at the end of sentences, in the same order or mixed up, in different
places or the same in the bar) and the rhythmic placement of their sentences,
we can classify different rappers. As a quick summary of different rappers’
flows, you can say this:
1.
Eminem, while skilled with one-syllable or
multisyllabic rhymes in different places in the bar, largely favors complex
multisyllabic rhymes in the same order but in different places in the bar.
However, his command of all different techniques of rap is formidable, and
doesn’t really have any weaknesses. He is in a class alone, possibly with one
other rapper: Nas.
2.
Kanye West usually has one-syllable end rhymes
in sentences that usually fit completely by the bar. He relies on puns rather
than complex musical raps in order to make his rhymes interesting
3.
Nas is similar to Eminem, but favors less
rhymes, although this is done consciously; his rhyme skills are likewise in a
class of their own. His rap flows more, although this is not a judgment call at
all. Like Eminem, he uses sentences of varying length and structuring in order
to vary his rhymes.
4.
2pac’s flow is hard-hitting. He will fit many
rhymes in lines usually organized by the bar without any consideration for how
quickly they come; he goes 100% all the time. He couples this with amazing
storytelling abilities in order to be correctly considered one of the greatest
of all time.
5.
Lil Wayne, at his best, usually fits
multisyllable rhymes at the end of lines that equally fall within the bar or
not. However, he has a bad tendency of repeating certain words that make his
flow stop because he doesn’t rhyme. His flow is also very syncopated, meaning
he places a lot of notes between the beats of the 4/4 bar.
Thus, you can use this system to classify any kind of
rapper. I could go on forever like this, but these quick summaries are enough.
Besides, I have more in-depth analysis of these rappers, including a nas post and an Eminem post. But I originally started this article as a
way to describe Kendrick’s flow on “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City.”, so let’s get
there.
I
will be making summarizing remarks about Kendrick’s flow in general on the
album, but examining more in-depth the 2 songs that seem designed to showcase
Kendrick’s sick rap skills. These are “Backseat Freestyle” and “M.A.A.D. City”.
First,
“Backseat Freestyle.” Kendrick starts with a 4-bar hook instead of a verse. He
fits sentences organized completely by the bar, starting at the bar’s start and
ending at the bars end, and fits short yet multisyllabic rhymes at the end of
them. This is pretty standard for a hook; it makes it easy to remember and rap along
to. Take a look at the sheet music to see this:
In the first verse, though, Kendrick gets to why the hype
was so crazy for him and this album. He starts off by pacing his rhymes: he
doesn’t drop them all at once, because to come on so strong means any effect of
a climax that should come at the end of the song (as all good musical pieces
do) would be very weakened. So he starts off slow, rhyming “amazing” with
“matrix.” However, he immediately jumps in: “My MIND is living on cloud NINE
and this NINE is never on VACATION”, where vacation rhymes with “matrix” in the
preceding line. So, using the organizing principles described above, we can say
the following: Kendrick here uses mostly few-syllables internal and external rhymes
in different rhythmic positions in relatively long sentences that are largely
organized by the bar line. This is a very good general remark to make about
Kendrick’s flow in general, but of course it is much more detailed than that.
Next,
Kendrick gets to another hallmark of his style. Often, he fits a number of
syllables other than 4 to a beat. Just as the bar is divided into 4 beats, each
beat can be divided into 4 16th notes (called quadruplets), which is
what happens in 4/4 music. However, that is not to say you can’t divide it in
other ways, such as by fitting 5 sixteenth notes (“quintuplets”) or 6 sixteenth
notes (“sextuplets”). This means that more notes are being fitted in the same
amount of musical space, the beat, so they sound faster. As you can see from
the sheet music here:
On the “And I pray”, he fits 3 sixteenth notes (“triplets”)
where usually only 2 goes, such as for the words “lobby”, which are on 2
sixteenth notes. He does this again later on in the bar when he repeats “and I
pray.” This is what that bracketed 3 means above the notes. Throughout the rest
of the bar, Kendrick continues all of these tendencies we just described, such
as accenting interesting words in the sentence (like “up”, or the “-ping” of
“popping”), and using internal and end multisyllable rhymes. The same can be
said for the 2nd verse, but here the sentences largely follow the
bar line. The third verse is the most interesting, though, so we will skip
there.
Here,
Kendrick changes the end of the hook to make it transition flawlessly into the
3rd verse. We call this “elision” in music, where the end of one
phrase is joined to the start of the next one. Notice here how Kendrick ups the
musical tension by increasing the speed of his rhythms: you can see the
triplets with the three above them, as well as 32nd notes (the word “mother” in
the phrase “motherfucking Hit Boy beat” – the more lines, called beams, there
are above a notehead means the shorter the note value is. The 16th
notes have 2 beams, such as on the word “options”; the 32nd notes
have 3 above them, which you can see here)
Here in the 3rd verse Kdot also increases the
rate at which sentences come. We’ve been calling them “sentences”, but that
isn’t really correct, because fragments (sentences with a noun but no verb) are
also structural units unto themselves. For instance, when he says “Bee-otch”
again and again, we hear those as separate from each other. You can see here:
That there are six fragments in a 2 bar space. This increase
in their pace raises the musical tension, a very good idea to do at the end of
a song. He again elides the phrase by changing the rhyme “go play” during the 2nd
“Bee-otches” to rhyme with “OJ” instead of repeating “go play again.” This
makes the whole verse very tightly knit and connected. And,
like any good music-maker – producer, composer, whoever – he brings the tension
down at the end of the song to resolve it. He shortens his multisyllabic rhymes
to single-syllable ones, and increases the length of his sentences while making
them fall within the bar.
However,
the song “M.A.A.D. City” is really where Kendrick puts it down, and the song
that contains the best verse on the album.
Again,
he starts with a symmetrical 4 bar hook with short rhymes at the end of
sentences that follow the bar line, which is kind of what a hook is supposed to
be. He follows this same basic flow scheme for the start of his 1st
verse: low tension with sentences following the bar lines with short end
rhymes. He starts to increase the rhymes and their complexity around bar 13
Where he has multisyllabic internal rhymes to increase the
tension – “WARRIORS and CONANS / hope euPHORIA can SLOW DANCE with soCIETY the
DRIVER’S SEAT”, where the capitalized words or syllables all rhyme. He keeps the sentence length and
organization largely the same, however; this shows a rapper in full control of
all facets in his flow. And, like any good music-maker, he will of course vary
this later while playing on the expectations he has set up in the listener.
Starting with “That was back when I was NINE / Joey packed the NINE / Pakistan
on every porch is FINE”, you’ll notice that the length of his sentences are
greatly decreased, while the rate at which they come is greatly increased. His
internal rhymes, meanwhile, have continued. This reaches a critical level in
the phrases, “Picking up the FUCKING PUMP / PICKING off you SUCkers, / SUCK a
DICK or DIE or SUCKer PUNCH…” “Dick” and “die” are capitalized there not
because they rhyme, but because they are alliterated, which I believe also
stands out naturally in the listener’s ear. A similar thing happens with,
“Ain’t no PEACE TREATY just PIEces, BGs up to PREAPPROVE”. Kendrick then
continues to set up thematically his 3rd and final verse, which
we’ll get to soon enough.
In
verse 2, after the beat flips, what do we find but our old friends the
sixteenth note triplet from “Backseat Freestyle”, on the word “Cause I was.” If
you aren’t understanding the sheet music, just listen for how Kendrick’s words
speed up on those words. That’s basically what the music notation is
describing. The same thing happens on the words “My mama’s pad.” Kendrick
continues to have comparatively long sentences with single-syllable rhymes both
inside and at the end of sentences in different places inside the bar – again,
a very good way to summarize his flow, not that he’s one-dimensional, as we’ve
seen.
A
great moment also comes at “I was straight TWEAKING / the next WEEKEND / we
broke EVEN”, where Kendrick changes where an entire rhythmic phrase falls
inside the bar. I won’t go too in-depth into it, because it’s kind of complex
musically and more of a subject for another article, but it’s like this: look at
the notes on “straight tweaking”, “next weekend”, and “broke even.” You’ll
notice that, for each syllable in those 3 phrases of 3 syllables each, the
first syllable gets an eighth note (one beam), followed by 2 syllables, both on
16th notes (2 beams.) We can say that a rhythmic phrase is repeated
in the form of an eighth note followed by 2 16th notes for each
respective phrase. What makes this so amazing is that Kendrick moves where the
rhythmic phrase starts and ends over those 3 phrases. The first version of this
rhythmic phrase falls right on the beat; “next weekend” starts on the 2nd
sixteenth note of the beat, and “broke even” starts on the 3rd
sixteenth note of the beat. This is called “metrical transference.” In any
event, just compare those syllables graphically and you’ll see that, even
though they sound the same, they aren’t in the same place on the paper.
Finally,
“Kendrick AKA Compton’s Human sacrifice” is probably the best line on the
album. You’re a young kid, and you are your city’s HUMAN SACRIFICE? Damn dude.
That’s some heavy shit.
But
the third verse is why we’re here.
As
I said before, just because a 4/4 bar divides its beats into 4 16th
notes normally doesn’t mean you have to. Before, with those triplets, Kendrick
split them into 3. Here, however, he does something very complex. Now, dividing
6 by 4 is relatively easy: 1.5. That means that every triplet sixteenth note we
saw before is 2/3 of a quadruplet (divided into 4) sixteenth note. To count
this, a performer would count 3 while counting 2, which is just like it sounds:
it isn’t that hard, relative to what we’re about to find. If you look at the
music
You’ll notice that the number “5” is above the notes. This
means that Kendrick is fitting 5 sixteenth notes where in 4/4 there are usually
only 4 sixteenth notes. This means that he divides 5 by 4, which is 1.25. Now,
what are you going to do to perform this? Count by 1.25? “1.25, 2.5, 3.75, 5!”
Not happening. That means it’s hard to perform this. However, Kendrick does it
incredibly well, while fitting in some sextuplet sixteenth notes for good
measure. The rhythm, thus, is here just crazy: just try to rap along! It’s
impossible. These are very complex rhythms, WHILE telling a compelling poetic
story, WHILE rapping skillfully (internal single-syllable rhymes in different
rhythmic positions in sentences of all types of length and organization.) That
means a rapper is at the top of his game. Let’s look more in depth.
If
you listen to this verse, you’ll notice that the length between his different
phrases vary greatly, and are pauses we wouldn’t have in speaking in real life:
“If I told you I killed a nigga at 16…would you believe me?...or see me to
be…innocent Kendrick…you seen in the streets…with a basketball”, where the
periods represent rather noticeable pauses. How did he even come up with
these rhythms? In all my listening
and transcriptions, I’ve only ever seen Andre 3000 (on the song “Aquemini”) and
Eminem (on “What’s the Difference”) approach the complexity of these rhythms,
and those two are likewise amazing rappers.
Listen
to this verse then and listen for those pauses. Listen to how the speed and
lengths of the pauses and how fast he says the words are first quick, then
slow, then a little slower, then quicker then ever. He’s continually
manipulating these rhythms. Then, in terms of rhymes and sentences, he uses
mostly single-syllable internal rhymes in different places in the bar with
longer sentences organized by the bar. Like I said, this is the best verse on
the album, and firmly establishes Kendrick as a force to be reckoned with.
How
could we more generally categorize Kendrick though? Are there any similar
rappers? For my money, and not just for his similar LA connections, I’d compare
Kendrick to 2pac. Both have musical skills, contrary to anyone who says 2pac is
famous only because he died young. If I had to make a call, I’d say Kdot is
better musically. However, they both just have a knack
for storytelling. 2pac’s got “Changes”, “Brenda’s Got A Baby”, “Dear Mama”,
“Life Goes On,” “Unconditional Love”, and more where he just puts his heart
completely in his music. Not only is he skilled musically, but he feels what
he’s saying, which can’t be said for all artists. It’s the same way with
Kendrick. His song “Section 80”, “Sing About Me, I’m Dying Of Thirst”, “The Art
Of Peer Pressure”, and others all deal with topics that other rappers just
aren’t brave or courageous enough to deal with. To say you’re uncomfortable
with killing in rap that’s paradoxically also gangsta is largely taboo. Just
like 2pac, he broaches subjects in stories that put you in the first person
that break new ground for the emotional narratives available to popular (not
pop) rap music.
If you liked this analysis, check out my other ones! If you click to the top left of the navigation drop-down menu bar at the top of this page, you can find them under the "Rap Analysis" Transcriptions. The Jean Grae one describes what I call the “rhyme barrier”, while the one on
Eminem's Business introduces rap phrases. For how I listen to rap music, check
out my Eminem Drop The Bomb On Em. If rap production is more your thing,
check out one of my two Dr. Dre analyses. For a deeper introduction to the
basic concepts introduced here, such as multisyllabic rhymes and how to measure
them, check out my Nas analysis.
You can find the full sheet music for the 2 songs below. Thanks for reading! And if you liked it, PLEASE tell your friends about it, post it somewhere, facebook rap forums, or something, and let me know! I'm trying to make this into some kind of job for me, write a book or something, so thanks.
