Rhyme Revolution

Throughout the decades Hip Hop and Rhyme has evolved into one of the most popular music genres today. The evolution of this genre rooted from some basic underground patterns which usually followed the classic abab or abcb pattern. The genre of Hip Hop and Rhyme which later transformed into ‘Rap’ is greatly influenced by poetry and its use of many types of poetic tools such as scansion, rhyme and tone.

One the many rappers who was influenced by these poetic tools was Biggie Smalls who “manipulated the stresses or accentuation of words, thereby changing the scansion to create consistent patterns end rhyme or internal rhyme scheme” (Morris 225). Biggie Smalls focus on scansion helped relate his rapping form back to Spanish speaking poets who put an emphasis on “legitimate rhyme”

Busta Rhymes was also another earlier influential rapper who used tone to develop slant rhyme and create more rapid fluidity in his raps. Busta Rhymes advanced his use of tone in order to convey different styles of Hip Hop. “While Busta doesn’t speak exclusively this way, he does use subtle Caribbean- based inflections combined with African-Americanisms and his own new sounds of hip-hop”. (Morris 225). Therefore, Hip Hop and rhyme is greatly influenced by poetry.

Citations

Morris, Tracie. “Hip-Hop Rhyme Formations: Open Your Ears.” An Exaltation on Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Edited by Annie Finch and Katherine Varnes. U of Michigan P, 2002, pp. 217–222.