In poetry, a couplet is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there is a grammatical pause at the end of a line of verse. In a run-on (open) couplet, the meaning of the first line continues to the second.
Poetry, also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, a prosaic ostensible meaning. A poem is a literary composition, written by a poet, using this principle.
A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines.
Rapping is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and [commonly] street vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The components of rap include "content", "flow", and "delivery". Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that it is usually performed off-time to musical accompaniment. It also differs from singing, which varies in pitch and does not always include words. Because they do not rely on pitch inflection, some rap artists may play with timbre or other vocal qualities. Rap is a primary ingredient of hip hop music, and so commonly associated with that genre that it is sometimes called "rap music".
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic effect in the final position of lines within poems or songs. More broadly, a rhyme may also variously refer to other types of similar sounds near the ends of two or more words. Furthermore, the word rhyme has come to be sometimes used as a shorthand term for any brief poem, such as a nursery rhyme or Balliol rhyme.
Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, as a "librettist". The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of expression. Rappers can also create lyrics that are meant to be spoken rhythmically rather than sung.
Japanese hip hop is hip hop music from Japan. It is said to have begun when Hiroshi Fujiwara returned to Japan and started playing hip hop records in the early 1980s. Japanese hip hop tends to be most directly influenced by old school hip hop, taking from the era's catchy beats, dance culture and overall fun and carefree nature and incorporating it into their music. As a result, hip hop stands as one of the most commercially viable mainstream music genres in Japan and the line between it and pop music is frequently blurred.
Consonance is a stylistic literary device identified by the repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighboring words whose vowel sounds are different. Consonance may be regarded as the counterpart to the vowel-sound repetition known as assonance.
Jazz rap is a fusion of jazz and hip hop music, as well as an alternative hip hop subgenre, that developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. AllMusic writes that the genre "was an attempt to fuse African-American music of the past with a newly dominant form of the present, paying tribute to and reinvigorating the former while expanding the horizons of the latter." The rhythm was rooted in hip hop over which were placed repetitive phrases of jazz instrumentation: trumpet, double bass, etc. Groups involved in the formation of jazz rap included A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, De La Soul, Gang Starr, The Roots, Jungle Brothers, and Dream Warriors.
Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of recitation and word play, such as the performer's live intonation and voice inflection. Spoken word is a "catchall" term that includes any kind of poetry recited aloud, including poetry readings, poetry slams, jazz poetry, pianologues, musical readings, and hip hop music, and can include comedy routines and prose monologues. Unlike written poetry, the poetic text takes its quality less from the visual aesthetics on a page, but depends more on phonaesthetics, or the aesthetics of sound.
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
Chain rhyme is a rhyme scheme that links together stanzas by carrying a rhyme over from one stanza to the next.
In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse, or between internal phrases across multiple lines. By contrast, rhyme between line endings is known as end rhyme.
Oral poetry is a form of poetry that is composed and transmitted without the aid of writing. The complex relationships between written and spoken literature in some societies can make this definition hard to maintain.
In rapping and poetry, multisyllabic rhymes are rhymes that contain two or more syllables An example is as follows:
I've got a bad taste / It gives me mad haste.
Perfect rhyme — also called full rhyme, exact rhyme, or true rhyme — is a form of rhyme between two words or phrases, satisfying the following conditions:
Professor Lyrical is a Hip hop artist from Lowell, Massachusetts. He is also a university professor who was employed full-time for several years at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been covered extensively by local and national media for his music and math ability, as well as his unique "side-hustle" as an actual professor reflected in his moniker. He is now an associate professor of mathematics at the University of the District of Columbia where he also serves as a Director of Faculty Development and lives in the DC area. He appeared on Washington, DC, News4 at 5 (NBC) on April 22, 2019, in an interview that documented how he used music and Hip Hop to reach students more effectively in the math courses he teaches. In September 2017, he won the "Pitch and Flow" rap battle at the Kennedy Center, hosted by MC Lyte and DJ Dee Nice, where dope rappers were paired with socially conscious entrepreneurs pitching their company stories through the rap performances. He is known as a "clean and conscious rapper," however some of his earlier songs contained occasional profanity and touched on violent issues, which he is now known to speak out against, with the occasional exception of when competing in battle rap. He raps as "Pro" in the rap duo "ProQuo" with Jay "Quokane" Cruz and the duo also host a live-stream program called "The ProQuo Show" primarily through their social media sites. Their debut album, "Instant Brotherhood" was released in the summer of 2020 via Dime/Freedom Corner Brand/Sony Orchard. Professor Lyrical's 2005 album iNFiNiTi won for album of the year in the 2006 M.I.C. Hip Hop awards in Boston.
Chopper is a hip hop music subgenre that originated in the Midwestern United States and features fast-paced rhyming or rapping. Those that rap in the style are known as choppers, and rapping in the style is sometimes referred to as chopping. The style is one of the major forms of Midwest hip hop, though by the early 2000s, it had spread to other parts of the United States including California and New York City, and it has spread around the world since.
Adam Bradley is an American literary critic, professor, and a writer on popular culture. He is the author or editor of six books. Bradley has written extensively on song lyrics as well as on the literature and legacy of the American novelist Ralph Ellison. His commentary has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and in numerous other publications. He is a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles where he directs the Laboratory for Race & Popular Culture.
Terry Lewis, also known by his stage name Kid Lucky, was an American beatrhymer, beatboxer, singer-songwriter, teacher, and activist born in New York City. He coined the term "beatrhyming", which he defines as "rapping, singing or performing spoken word while beatboxing simultaneously".
