redman at one point was the best rapper in the world

[hojo415]

 

[phatphuck]

gota dap u for the detailed breakdown

and word redman had a great run. whut? was my favourite of his albums but dare iz a darkside grew on me over the years

 

[Capitol]

The most basic and almost essential aspect to lyricism in Hip Hop is Multiple Syllable Rhyming (Multis for short). In my opinion, it's one of the sole reasons why Hip Hop is undoubtedly the most lyrically complex and advanced genre of music.

We all know what rhyming is. From the age of 2, the majority of us were raised on Cat In The Hat, Green Eggs & Ham, and many other children's books that involve rhyming. Hip Hop is the ONLY genre of music that extend the definition of rhyming beyond just "Words sharing a common suffix".

When asked to rhyme, people will usually name off the most basic, elementary one-syllable words they can think of. Words like Bat, Hat, Cat, Gat, Mat, Pat, Sat, Rat, etc.. That's real cute if you're in Kindergarten or writing a corny Hallmark card to your grandmother on her birthday. Multiple syllable rhyming is rhyming a combination of words with another combination of words rather than just rhyming one word with another.

Some examples might give you a better idea of what I'm talking about. Let's start with something simple

Syllable 1 || Syllable 2
-----------------------------
Blue || Chip
New || Whip
True || Crip
Blew || Clips

This is as basic as it can get, it's only 2 syllables per rhyme. Blue rhymes with new, true and blew. Chip rhymes with whip, crip and clips.

I don't advocate gangster rap and I'm not a crip...but I'll use these in an example

I'm a true crip - I blew clips....into his brain and walked away with a new whip and a bluechip...my crew is equipped...

Notice on the last part, "Crew is equipped" I started with the first rhyme (Blue, true, new, blew and now Crew) and ended with "Quipped" which also rhymes with crip, chip, clips and whip. The difference is there's 2 extra syllables "Is e..." which don't rhyme with anything...but if you put the proper emphasis on the word "Crew" it's obvious that you're rhyming off of the first syllable. It doesn't always have to be a perfect rhyme since you're not REQUIRED to do anything but rhyme the last word...so you have the freedom to mess around and do what sounds right.

Usually, 2 syllable rhymes aren't gonna get you a whole lot of respect, so let's kick it up to 3 syllables. Remember that a syllable is how many sounds a word makes. For example the word "Syllable" is 3 syllables long.

Syll-A-Bull 1-2-3...

and just for one other example, the word "Recycling"

Re-Sigh-Cull-Ing....some people might say Re-Sigh-Cling

so based on the way you talk it could be 4 syllables or 3 syllables..moving on

Syllable 1 || Syllable 2 || Syllable 3
--------------------
We || On || Dro
Ne || On || Glow
Phe || Nom || Flow
Be || Gone || Ho

If you're really paying attention, you might've noticed the odd one out. It wasn't the 4th rhyme, "Gone" rhymes perfectly with "On" which is the 2nd syllable of each rhyme except for the 3rd. The word Phenom ends with "Om" instead of "On" which is a slant rhyme. Usually, slant rhyming is okay in the music world, and it's definitely common in all genres of music. Slant rhyming allows you to tell a story without compromising how real the things you're saying...sound.

For example, one of the most CORNY and overused rhymes in love poems (and I'll admit I used it myself when I was like 12 years old) is something like:

I'm in love...
You're like an angel from the Heaven's above...

Stop and ask yourself: When have you EVER at ANY point in your life said the words "Heavens Above" out loud and in Public? Unless you're the pope or something, the answer is probably "Never". You needed a word to rhyme with "Love" so you thought of the word "Above" and forced a rhyme by using a lame sentence that you'd be stupid to use in a day to day conversation. If you were to combine Multis -AND- perfect rhyming, nothing you ever said would make sense. So get rid of the perfect rhyming, it's old and out of style. Focus on syllables and the vowel sounds they give off. Let's see some examples of multis used by bigger name rappers:


You know I
thug em, fukk em, love-em-leave-em
Cause I don't fukk-in-need-em
Take em out the hood, keep em lookin good
But I don't fukk-in-feed-em
First time they fuss-I'm-bree-zin
Talkin bout, "What's-the-rea-sons?"
I'm a pimp in every sense of the word, bytch
Better trust-than-be-lieve-em
In the cut-where-I-keep-em
-- Jay Z: Big Pimpin

he starts out with 4 syllables then adds a 5th syllable at the end on "Trust than believe em" and follows with another 5 syllable "Cut where I keep em". It doesn't have to rhyme perfectly in order for the multi to be executed properly. When you listen to the song, it still sounds like the entire phrase rhymes even if the word "Where" doesnt rhyme with the word "Than" (in the last 2 rhymes)


Naw better yet a veteran a hall-of-fame
I got that medicine, I'm better than all-the-names
Ay its Cash Money Records man a lawless-gang
Put some water on the track, Fresh for all-his-frame
Wear a helmet when you bang it man and guard-ya-brain
Cuz the flow is spasmatic what they call-in-sane
-- Lil Wayne: Go DJ

He also had some internal rhyming with better yet, veteran, medicine, and better than but I'll talk about that in a bit.

one more example...I'm trying to put out a variation of different style rappers. A lot of people might hate Wayne and Love Jay Z...a lot of people might hate Jay Z and love wayne...If you hate them both then I gotta come up with another example...That covers East and South...Let's go to the West. I'm not a huge Tupac fan (I prefer biggie if anything) but there's no denying his lyricism.


I see no changes all I see is racist-faces
misplaced hate makes disgrace-to-races
We under I wonder what it takes-to-make-this
one better place, let's erase-the-wasted
-- Tupac: Changes

I minimized my obsession, never made-the-confession
Even evaded-her-presence at our graduation-procession
It was a situation I later-regretted...
Wondering what I could've said and would it have swept here away-if-I-said-it?
-- Tonedeff: Porcelain


What's crazy is how commonly used multis are in Hip Hop, yet no other genre of music really picks up on it. I can't tell you who originated them, but I've been told Kool G Rap was the first to use it excessively and convert it into a style. I've also read a Rakim interview where he makes claims of splitting up rhymes on paper, which was the inspiration behind the charts I used to explain them. Either way, multis were a big deal in the mid 90's and early 2000's but it's 2010 now and most rappers are -expected- to know this. It's time to add something new to seperate you from the pack.


before I end this chapter, I figured I'd just add a small chart of vowel sounds, there are a few more than those listed:

Short A - Pronounced Aa, Words Such As Apple, Flask, Rap, All Use This Sound.
Long A - Pronounced Ay, Words Such As Cake, Rape And Place All Use This Sound.
Short E - Pronounced Eh, Words Such As Bet, Check, Left All Use This Sound.
Long E - Pronounced EE, Words Such As Cheat, Creap, Beat, Sleep All Use This Sound.
Short I - Pronounced Ih, Words Such As It, Give, And Lift All Use This Sound.
Long I - Pronounced Eye, Words Such As Ice, Bite, And Write All use This Sound.
Short O - Pronounced Ah, Words Such As Drop, Pac, And Lost All Use This Sound.
Long O - Pronounced Oh, Words Such As Blow, Close, And Clothes All use This Sound.
Short U - Pronounced Uh, Words Such As Cuz, Bust, And Rush All Use This Sound.
Long U - Pronounced Ooh, Words Such As Choose, Glue, And Boot All Use This Sound.

Those Of Course, Are Only The Basic Vowel Sounds, Anyone Who's Thinking About "Y" Thats Falls In The Long Or Short I Sounds, But There Are More Based On The Consonants That Follow Or Lead The Original Vowel.

For Example:
Blow Uses The Long O Sound, However - A Word Like Plow Uses An Unlisted Sound. All There Is To It Is Knowing What Words Fall In Which Category When Using Multis, For Instance, Sound, Out, And House All Used The Same Sound As Plow.


Something Helpful To Know Is that words such as And, To, The, and It are actually very flexible pending on how much you articulate the word when you're rapping, and there are a LOT of words that can be switched to pronounce the short i sound, the short i sound never has to be perfect, simply because it gets said quick enough to be unnoticed. Heres my final example of a longer multi. This is the song that gets stuck in my head whenever I talk about multis:

Baby girl....You know my situation
And sometimes I know you get impatient
But you don't put on show's to get ovations
Take it to court and go through litagations

also

We been creepin and sneakin
Just to keep it from leakin
We so deep in our freakin
That we don't sleep on the weekend

notice that the words "And", "From" "Our" and "On" do not in ANY way shape or form, rhyme. It still works though. Fabolous never places emphasis on the words, so when he puts emphasis on the first part of the multi and the last part of the multi, and keeps it all the same syllable count, it comes together and sounds right.

This nikka done dropped first page of his rhyme bible in here

 

[still not a player]

...Actually I kinda agree with this...

 

[infamous003]

Redman is one of my favorite rappers (I actually bought the piece of shyt that was "Malpractice" ) and he is a little underrated because yes, son got busy on the mic. But at no point in my life has Redman ever been the best rapper in the world. He was probably a top-10 for sure,and you could argue a top-five. But #1 ? fukk is wrong with you?

 

[bigrodthe1]

SHUT THE fukk UP YOYOMA

 

[King Karim]

100% agree

 

[SumBlackguyz]

 

[OnlyInCalifornia]

Wait is that really yoyoma?

Yessir!

Posting style is the same, trolling is exactly the same, and he showed up when yoyoma 'left' I broke it down in detail in another thread. Im 100% sure its him.

Not to mention he pretends like he doesn't see my posts or when people quote me calling him yoyoma because he wants to continue to troll with this screen name.

 

[macadomusic]