Rhymes in the Flow Rhymes in the Flow How Rappers Flip the Beat Macklin Smith and Aurko Joshi University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor Copyright © 2020 by Macklin Smith and Aurko Joshi All rights reserved Tis book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by the University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid- free paper First published June 2020 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Smith, Macklin, 1944– author. | Joshi, Aurko, 1993– author. Title: Rhymes in the fow : how rappers fip the beat / Macklin Smith and Aurko Joshi. Description: Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifers: LCCN 2020004449 (print) | LCCN 2020004450 (ebook) | ISBN 9780472073894 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780472053896 (paperback) | ISBN 9780472124046 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Rhyme. | Rap (Music)—History and criticism. | Musical meter and rhythm. | Performance poetry—History and criticism. | Poetics. Classifcation: LCC PN1059.R5 S66 2020 (print) | LCC PN1059.R5 (ebook) | DDC 808.1—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004449 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004450 Contents Preface vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Hot Vinyl 16 Beat 42 Rhythm 57 Rhyme 82 Modes and Genres 109 Verses, Songs, and Albums 152 Style 176 Appendix 1: Flow Variants 205 Appendix 2: Variants by the Years 207 Root Terminology for Rap Poetics 213 Notes 221 Discography 275 Index 283 Digital materials related to this title can be found on the Fulcrum platform via the following citable URL: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9450148 Preface We are two nerds with a passion for rap music, a retired professor and a former undergraduate student from the University of Michigan. In his frst term, Aurko came to Macklin’s ofce looking for insights about how poetic rhythms and meanings interacted. He walked in carrying a King Lear paperback defaced with scansion marks, and he’d just been listening to Nas’s Illmatic out in the hall. We immediately realized that we shared similar questions about sounds and beats— especially in rap music. We’ve been col- laborating ever since, examining rap lines, exploring the dynamics of style, and every now and then texting battle verses back and forth. We are staunch hip hop proponents, recognizing it both as a sophis- ticated forum for the systematically suppressed and as music to party to. Macklin was for years the only University of Michigan teacher who included rap in his Intro to Poetry sections. Some colleagues challenged this: “Do you really think it qualifes as poetry?” He would reply, “Yes, it’s always metrical and has amazing rhymes, but it’s performance poetry, not literature. It can be as intricate as Sir Gawain, as biting as Shakespeare, and a lot more fun than Byron.” We both know that, and we’ve been studying rap rhythms for the last six years, but we are nevertheless hip hop outsiders. Macklin’s white. A some- time poet and an expert in medieval four-beat poetics, he’s been listening and engaging with rap since “Rapper’s Delight.” Aurko’s brown, a millennial immigrant who grew up the United Kingdom and Michigan, who caught the hip hop bug when he came stateside. Neither of us has lived in an urban black ghetto. We enjoy and admire hip hop because we like its beats, its fows, and its messages—h ow they play of against each other. We conceived this book as a thorough exposition of rap poetics, as a kind of explanation for its global appeal and relevance. We also wanted to give credit where viii • Preface credit is due. Our analyses and insights suggest that rap, so often disparaged as monotonous and silly or crude, is far more complex and complicated, far more versatile, far more nuanced, and far more important than has been widely realized. If others agree, then our book will have helped the cause of critical justice. Acknowledgments I, I’m, me, and mine are spoken several hundred times on N. W. A.’s Straight Outta Compton, an album- length brag from ’88. But the vinyl’s sold in a cardboard sleeve crowded with fne- print thank- yous, acknowledging all that I, I’m, and mine owe cops, rappers, God, the Dodgers and 256 named others. Def— and debt—b e not proud We, too, owe. — Mark Costello and David Foster Wallace, Signifying Rappers We, too, owe. Tis book honors and engages with forty years of rap music, ranging from Te Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” to Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN., each song belonging to a community whose members form an endless list of artists, listeners, fans, and intellectuals whose infuence has extended far beyond popular culture and into theaters like politics and fash- ion. Much of our work—b e it the formulation of our framework, the analysis of our data, the support to follow our intuition, or the historical context we needed—w ould not be possible without this community. Many insights came from undergraduate and graduate students in Macklin’s classes at the University of Michigan, as well as from friends with special musical talents, from family, from the freestylers in Ypsi, and from commentators on Genius. And while we owe our primary debt to the community, we mustn’t neglect those who gave us skills, support, and, most of all, their time. With- out astute, meticulous commentaries on our early drafts from Tessa Brown, Michael Schoenfeldt, Gil Scott Chapman, and David Manley; without the analytical savvy of Shashank Joshi (Aurko’s father), Richard Price, Kevin Just, Bopeng Li, and Nandi Tawani; without musical and aesthetic consultations with Amy and Rebecca Smith (Macklin’s daughters), Dexter Kaufmann, Yuma Uesaka, and MC M. T. Z.; and without the encouragement of Adam