Virtuosity in Rap Music

MUS 691 - Analysis of Popular Music

Hip-hop is among the most recent additions to the cannon of popular music. Much like
early rock and roll, Hip-hop has created a severance between the conventional music styles of
previous and current generations, and provided a cultural body for its listeners to adopt and
identify with.1 Despite being cast as simple, low-brow music, I have found great virtuosity in
hip-hop music. I judge the quality of a rap artists music by more than the technical skill of their
delivery. A rap artist must work with a much narrower palate of tools when they create. Using
only the spoken voice, they much capture the attention and invoke the imagination of music
listeners. Their delivery and rhyme schemes are purely musical inventions, while their story arcs,
use of motif, and pervasiveness of metaphors place their concerns also within the literary realm.
When these two features are high quality and the artist can find the greatest platform for their art,
they can truly provide beautiful music. It is these three elements on which I wish to lend my
observations to the reader. With this paper, I will examine three recordings by three different
artists and evaluate the way different kinds of virtuosity are expounded by the performers.
At its core, Hip-hop music is text-centric. An artists words are delivered via rhymed
recitation, usually over pre-arranged, rhythmically regular musical accompaniment (referred to
as a beat).2 The beat is the primary musical composition of a rap song, and often consists of
electronically programmed samples of existing music. This is flexible, and occasionally live
instruments may also be overlaid onto recordings, and some hip-hop groups choose to use a full
1 Of particular relevance to this point is the distinction between the words Rap and Hip-hop. Rap is
the vocal technique ubiquitous of this music, while Hip-hop is the culture surrounding this music. Hiphop is often used to refer specifically to the music itself, and I will use it as thus in this paper, even when I
am not discussing cultural aspects.

2 Felicia M. Miyakawa . "Hip hop." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press,
accessed October 10, 2016,http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/A2224578.

band as support, with minimal prerecorded samples. The crux of the beat is a rhythmic
foundation and musical texture. Rap artist often look to other musicians to produce beats for
them to write to. The musicians are known as producers, though they are sometimes erroneously
referred to as DJs. A few rap artists also produce their own beats, but even these artists look to
others to provide musical content in the form of recorded samples. It is rare to find a producer
who creates his beats from scratch, the use of samples is almost the rule within the genre. In an
attempt to focus on the text-centric nature of rap music and to examine different artists approach
to the same material, this paper will examine three songs composed over the same beat.
Cast of Characters
MF DOOM is a rapper and producer based in New York City. Among his highly-regarded
catalogue is the ever-expanding collection of instrumental albums released under the Special
Herbs and Spices name. The three tracks examined in this paper were produced by him. The
beat Four Thieves Vinegar from 2003s Special Herbs and Spices Volume 4 has always been
particularly interesting to me.3 Though this beat was originally composed by his late brother, DJ
Subroc, DOOM has the creative role in its use with the three artists considered here. The beat
consists of three main melodic samples from Gino Vannellis 1984 hit Appaloosa. These
primary samples are over-driven guitar sounds, captured mere seconds at a time and looped so
they each create sustaining, undulating tones. Drum samples are drawn from the same source
material, and a synthesized keyboard and bass round out the featured ensemble. The total length
of the beat is 80 measures, and follows an expanded AABA style of form4. The beat is very
minimal, with sustained Eb octaves in the guitar and bass being almost unbroken throughout the
3 Track titles change as the beat is recorded over by an artist. For the sake of specificity, I will always

refer to each tracks unique recording. The other tracks that share the Four Thieves Vinegar beat are
"Rain Blood", "Bergamot + Sumac = Rain Blood Pt. 2", and
"Clipse of Doom"

entire track. Making interesting music using this beat is an exceptional challenge, as a single
hearing of the instrumental track will highlight. There is essentially no melodic character for the
artists to play off, and the rhythm, while driving and beautifully produced, is also monotonous.
Despite these challenges, this beat is successfully featured on three major record releases and can
be found in many amateur recordings across the internet.
MF Grimm is a rapper and comic book writer from Manhattan. He was a frequent collaborator of
MF DOOM, releasing two duo albums with him and featuring DOOMs production and verses
frequently on his own albums and on the albums of the Monsta Island Czars, a rap group
founded by Grimm. Before they would grow successful careers, the two also lived together. This
was during a particularly volatile time following the death of DOOMs brother and the
paralization of Grimm in an attempted murder. To pay for his extensive medical bills, Grimm
founded the record label Day by Day Entertainment the previously mentioned rap group
Monsta Island Czars, and also returned to drug dealing. This would ultimately be his downfall,
and in 2000 he was sentenced to life in prison for drug and conspiracy charges. After paying a
one day bail of $100,000 he recorded The Downfall of Ibliys: A Ghetto Opera. The first track
well examine is from this recording, though its author is a feature of the record, and not Grimm
himself. After studying law in prison Grimm was able to commute his sentence from life in
prison to three years and was released in 2003. His collaborative album with MF DOOM
Special Herbs + Spices Vol. 15 was released in 2004 and contains the track "Bergamot +
Sumac = Rain Blood Pt. 2".
4
A more literal rendering of this form would be AAABA with each section being 16 bars long

5
Not to be confused with the series of instrumental albums of the same
name, also produced by MF DOOM.
3

The previously mentioned album The Downfall of Ibliys: A Ghetto Opera features the talents
of rapper Megalon (also known as Tommy Gunn) on the track Rain Blood. There is not much
information available about this character. He is from New York, and collaborates with Grimm
and DOOM on some of their classic albums as features and as a member of the group Monsta
Island Czars. He has produced several solo records, but none for a major label. Of the three
rappers examined here, he represents the quintessential underground rapper architype.
The most well-renowned artists under examination here is the member of the Wu-Tang
Clan known as Ghostface Killah. He has had a successful solo career and partnership with the
best-known rap group to date. His 2006 album Fishscale is a concept album of the life of a
drug dealer. A familiar trope, here given new life by the stream of consciousness observations
and silly wit typical of Ghostfaces catalogue. From this album, the track Clipse of Doom
rounds out our collection of three tracks.
Virtuosity- New Considerations
Most classical musicians have a well-formed ideal of musical virtuosity. Images of
Paganini and Liszt spring to mind and ideas of technical fireworks primarily define these
performers and their status as virtuosi. Coming up with a clear definition of virtuosity for rap
artists creates some problems within this commonly held standard. To consider which artists are
the fastest and most technically perfect at delivering rhymed recitation may be interesting, but it
would provide a narrow view of a couple niche artists and their interpretation of their own
compositions. There exists no standard repertoire in rap music and hip-hop culture. Originality
rules, and copying another artist or having your verses/choruses ghost written is a career
threatening provocation. While it becomes more difficult to evaluate a rap artist without

comparing similar performances, it would widen our observations to consider the rapper as
composer, and then to judge his craft within these terms.
To do this, I came up with a set of parameters that fall under my consideration when I
listen to rap music.6 Above, I described three issues that contribute to my perceived success of a
rap song/artist. To summarize, these are: delivery, wordsmithery, and industriousness. Delivery is
the most surface-level area concern of the three. Beneath this category are elements like an
artists words per minute count, rhyme scheme, and style. When considering wordsmithery, I
look to quantize a unique word count, sophistication of vocabulary, thematic content, narrative
point of view, and song form. In opposition to delivery, wordsmithery is more difficult to
consider, as it lends itself toward a more literary consideration of the work rather than a musical
one. With this in mind, I will try to discuss lyrics as little as possible. This literary consideration
also draws our attention further from our common understanding of virtuosity. Industriousness is
the most in-concurrent parameter to consider in this regard. An artists ability to navigate the seas
of our current music industry is far removed from considerations of technical musical skill, but
this affluence demands a different skill altogether. This demand is partly tied to the nature of the
way rap music is produced. It is the rule that rappers work with producers to create content, so an
individuals ability to make contacts within the field and his choice of collaborators add to his
market success. Finally, how a rapper and his cooperative fit their works into a greater context in
each of their particular oeuvre is a further signifier of each artists industrious skill. I will
evaluate each track one at a time. For the sake of brevity, I will do an analysis of only the

6
I dont consider my list to be comprehensive, it represents my own
evaluations of this music and thusly is without-a-doubt subjective and
slightly biased as a measuring device.
5

parameters I deem most relevant to discussion. Those specific parameters are: word count, rhyme
scheme, unique word count, sophistication, narrative point of view, and song form.
First up for consideration is "Bergamot + Sumac = Rain Blood Pt. 2". While not the
earliest track to feature this beat, Grimm provides a very straight forward take on the beat. A
slower recitation yields a low word count of 487. In spite of this low word count, Grimm boasts
the greatest percentage of >7 letter words. Grimms rhythmic delivery is very consistent on this
track, with choruses and verses revolving around singular one-measure motifs that evolve.
Comparing the rhythm of the verse and beats percussion reveals few jarring syncopations. This
creates a sense of coherence and rhythmic pocket for all the verses. In opposition to this, the
chorus embraces metric dissonance in the form of off-beat rhythms. Aside from subtleties in
lyrical content, and an overdubbing of the vocal line, the rhythmic changes are the only
delineations between the verses and the choruses, as the beat continues beneath with its usual
stasis. During his verses, Grimms delivery is sometimes awkward. Syllabic emphasis is strewn
unusually across beats. I dont consider this to be poor writing on his behalf, though he has so
many other examples of flawless, energetic delivery. On other tracks, Grimm frequently subverts
rhythmic delivery to his lyrical content, emphasizing a speech-like rhythm. I hypothesize that he
took an opposing approach on this beat, subverting its monotonous drone of the beat to his singsong delivery. The song form explored by Grimm isnt too adventurous. The most interesting
moment is during the final verse, as the beat makes its singular change to the Dbm chord, and
after eight bars the chorus returns and the track ends. The lyrical structure of the piece is such:
verse - chorus - verse - chorus - bridge7 - chorus. This is a common way to structure lyrics of any
popular music genre, but is interesting in this context as it is juxtaposed over the unusual
7
The bridge is a verse rhythm over new melodic material.

AAABA beat structure of Four Thieves Vinegar. The narrative points of view explored are
few, as Grimm mostly raps from his own perspective. The second person makes an appearance as
an accusatory subject, and the third person appears fleetingly, though the subject is obviously the
narrator himself.
Ghostaface Killahs 2006s album Fishscale includes a rendering of Four Thieves Vinegar
titled Clipse of Doom. On this track, Ghostface Killah embraces a much faster rhythmic
delivery, with a total word count clocking in at 652. Ghostface has the highest unique word count
of the three rappers, with 354 of his 652 words being one-of-a-kind. Ghostfaces delivery is often
made up of dense 16th note lines that tie across measures and emphasize the second and fourth
sixteenth notes within groupings. Ghostface opts for a more rhythmically stable chorus, an
opposition to Grimms embrace of metric dissonance, and his example further simplifies
Grimms verse-chorus delineation. The verse - chorus relationship in this song is strengthened by
an edit to the beat made by the producer- cut from Ghostfaces Four Thieves Vinegar is the
eight-bar change to Dbm, a choice that was made to align the beat with his simplified lyrical
structure of intro - verse - chorus - verse - chorus -verse. It should come as no surprise that the
narrative POV explored here is primarily from the first person. This is in line with the concept of
the album, which is from the perspective of a gangster drug dealer named Tony Starks (a play on
Ghostfaces own alias Ironman)
My final example comes from MF Grimms 2002 album The Downfall of Ibliys: A
Ghetto Opera. The track Rain Blood is the first recording of the Four Thieves Vinegar beat,
proceeding even its inclusion in DOOMs Special Herbs and Spices volumes. The track
features Megalon8, whose rhyming is the most rhythmically diverse and aggressively delivered
8
As he is credited on the album. He announces himself via the alias Tommy Gunn halfway through the
track.

of all my examples. His total word count is 920. The difference of his word count to the next
highest (Ghostfaces 652) is more than 50% the total word count of MF Grimm (487). Though he
also boasts the highest percentage of <4 letter words, he does not sacrifice a high unique word
count. He manages 392 unique words in his performance. This is the highest of any rapper
feature in this discussion. Very often, Megalons delivery obscures his poetic meter and pushes
his lines ahead of the beat only to realign himself upon the downbeat of the next measure. His
lyric structure embraces the expanded AABA form of Four Thieves Vinegar, though not by its
direct use in his own songwriting form. The most glaring difference between this track and the
previous is a lack of choruses. Megalons lyrics come in a steady stream of Verses. In the
vacancy of a chorus, Megalon creates interest by rhythmically exciting the simple texture of the
beat. This tactic is far removed from the imposition of a reoccurring melody, lyric or rhythm
upon the static Four Thieves Vinegar beat. Megalon repeats and embellishes his verse upon the
eight-bar change to Dbm which occurs a little more than halfway through the beat. In doing so,
an AA verse structure is imposed over the beats expanded AABA form so that the A verse
corresponds the AAA section of the beat, and the A section corresponds the BA section of the
beat. The most interesting aspect of Megalons performance is his narrative voice, which changes
freely between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person in a non-linear stream of consciousness.
Of the three takes on this beat, I find Megalons to be the most effective, and MF Grimms to be
the least. I appreciate Grimms ability to impose a such a well-crafted and conventional song
form upon a difficult and undefined beat. His use of a breakout chorus detracts from the drone of
the beat, but I feel his lyrical delivery suffers as a result.9 Often, Grimm must strain to line up
9

Christopher Doll. Rockin Out: Expressive Modulation in Verse-Chorus Form. Music Theory Online
17/3 (2011).

syllables within his rhythmic motif. This causes awkward syllabic emphasis in many places in
the verse. Though this does make his eventual return to the chorus more pleasurable, it sounds
like he is trying too hard to make his music work. His lyrical delivery is disrupted by the versechorus form he imposes upon himself. Its impossible to say if this is the result of his attempt to
mediate the drone of the beat, or if this is just a poor example of his writing. There are far more
tracks by Grimm that display his ability to create fluid lines, so it pains me to cite him here as
least effective. Megalons division of the beat via his lyrical form draws attention to the crucial
points in the beats development, while his style of delivery excites the overall musical texture.
This, coupled with his unusual style of narration makes his performance the most unique and
interesting.
The ideal of Industriousness as a parameter of virtuosity may be off-putting, and in this
concluding paragraph I wish to illuminate the matter further. Let me begin by saying that my
parameters may apply to all genre of music. And industriousness is included in my
considerations as our modern music industry places a unique challenge on artists hoping to
succeed. Musicians of antiquity relied primarily on their musical skill for recognition, but as
evidenced by our current popular music scene, the virtuoso performer is no longer highly valued
as a musical resource. Because of the current state of music technology and distribution, a
musician that makes their way into a recording studio has just crossed the greatest bridge on their
way to having their music recognized by a wider audience. Furthermore, amateur musicians may
take advantage of studio musicians and producers whose job is to make them sound as good as
possible. So, in the end, the actual musicianship of an individual matters little. Their connections
and reputation bring them to the platform they need in order to succeed. Applying this point of
view to the underprivileged classes of society yields a scenario where it is even more difficult for

these young artists to gain access to the people and technology they need to make a commercial
product. The self-professed rags-to-riches story of many rappers is to be considered here. And an
especially disparate set of circumstances must be overcome by these people who often have little
resources to buy their way towards success or even buy their way towards musical training, as
many modern classical musicians do. So, although these parameters, including industriousness,
may be applied to all genre as a way of gauging success, industriousness is most pertinent when
applied to rap music, whose practitioners often come from challenging circumstances.

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Bibliography

Felicia M. Miyakawa . "Hip hop." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford
University Press, accessed October 10,

2016,http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/A2224578.
Christopher Doll. Rockin Out: Expressive Modulation in Verse-Chorus Form. Music
Theory Online 17/3 (2011).

John Covach. Form in Rock Music: A Primer. In Engaging Music: Essays in Musical
Analysis, ed. Deborah Stein. 65-76. 2005.

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