Week 10: The Realness of Rhymes

Unfortunately, I had to rush through this week's readings, so I will have to spend a little more time with the readings after this post and tomorrow afternoon, but they are great so far!


I was really struck by the arguments in Book of Rhymes about commodification and lyrical content becoming more and more homogeneous because of rhyming stagnation, not big business. Although I feel like big business has a lot more of a causal impact on the lyrical content, I did appreciate the analysis or framework. If we accept that language constructs our reality, then the content of rap albums and personas of rappers will be determined, in some part, by the rhymes they use. And if the music industry has determined what the successful formula is for creating a hit rap song, they will more than likely recycle lyrical styles in order to replicate previous success. So I think they are more connected than Bradley lets on (also, I wonder how many artists actually write their own lyrics? It would be interesting for our class to look at authorship of lyrics...), but I think there is something to be said for listening to the similarities between popular music. As Bradley rightly points out, rhymes shape the direction of a rap song and they determine to an extent thematic choices and content. The rhyming words do determine a lot of how the lyrics "mean" as Thompson put it. I thought that the Lexus/Texas rhyme example was a persuasive way to demonstrate the homogenizing force that rhyme schemes can have on rap. I also thought that finding the rhyming path that is uniquely expressive example of Eminem's "public housing systems" / "victim of Munchhausen Syndrome" connected well with Thompson's point about the narrative voice being informed by lived experience. Eminem's multi rhymes are outside of the traditional rhyme scheme and in order to find those expressive elements, it is clear that he called upon his own reality. The imaginative capacities of rhymes to renegotiate meanings and call on lived reality to inform narrative structure explains perfectly why rap, unlike most other expressive forms, is defined by and must essentially include rhymes.

Also, the idea that a rhyme scheme can be coercive or distract from actually expressing what a rapper wants to present is interesting. After listening to many rappers, both famous and otherwise, any seasoned hip hop head cringes when a strange or awkward word finds its way to the end of a line because there was a need for a rhyme. This force rhyming that Bradley mentioned is unfortunate, but I think Bradley is also on target with saying that the rhyme scheme offers so much versatility and expressive potential for the wordsmith that rhyming has many more benefits for rap than costs.

Looking forward to Monday!