...For the Kids.

This is one of the most amazing and heartwarming videos I've seen in quite a while.

You know, I've heard my share of complaints from older folks about their inability to understand hip hop lyrics. Many say the words are too indistinguishable or that they move too fast for them to decipher what's been said. For me, this video beautifully illustrates a core aspect of rap performance that is much more important than lyrical comprehension. Rap lyrics are the textual conduit for the rapper's percussive and melodic aesthetic. In fact, I would argue that what an emcee says in a verse is rarely as important as how s/he musically shapes the verse into something pleasing and exciting for the listener.

"It's not enough to know which notes to play, you have to understand why they need to be played." George Carlin commenting on the blues

This brilliant kid has already made this discovery (as kids will do if we simply leave them to their explorations). As soon as he reaches the age of adding lyrical content to his already sophisticated sense of musical awareness (and if he keeps rapping), he's going to be an absolutely magnificent emcee.

peace.

The Rhymes of Our Lives

I still can't understand half of what these cats are saying, and it doesn't matter.

There was a girl in my neighborhood named Tonya who had the uncanny ability to hear, understand, and memorize Bone Thugs-n-Harmony lyrics. It was downright spooky, because no one in the neighborhood could come close. It was almost as if we were witnessing someone decode some kind of encryption or linguistic algorithm. I found it particularly frustration because I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out what these cats were saying.

Listening to it now, I think I've discovered a bit of why Bone Thugs were so indecipherable. The traditional aesthetic of rap performance relies heavily on dynamic syllabic emphasis. Emcees have historically invested lots of performance energy into playing certain words and syllables for a given effect. However, Bone Thugs moved away from that tradition into a style that dissipated the energy of each word and/or syllable, giving them all almost equal weight or importance while keeping stressed words sparse. Thus, they created a vocal sound that became much more about the melodic and syncopative qualities of the lyrics rather than the intellectual ones. When this song was came out, no one had ever heard anything like it.

Enjoy.

peace.