I was supposed to do this about a year ago actually, but I forgot/got lazy and decided not to do it. That being said, I've been on a ridiculous rap trip as of late---so I decided to make it now.

Now, for those of you who don't get with this is exactly allow me to explain: simply put, rap is a really complicated thing. People may think it's just a bushel of idiots playing Shakespeare and throwing a bunch of words together, but really that isn't close to being the case. There is a lot of different components, techniques, and the literary device that goes into writing even decent rhymes. That being said, the crux of this blog isn't to highlight how difficult MC'ing really is - it's mainly we be served a directory for a string of Hip-Hop reviews I plan to do in the future, whenever I'm up to it. In those reviews, I will be analyzing and such and I realize some of the people who felt sorry enough to read my ramblings, won't fully understand every type of rhyme/literary device I use to analyze the aforementioned rap.

That's where this blog comes in. In this blog, I will go over, the different types of rhymes, and literary techniques explaining their meaning and giving several examples so the point emphatically hits home. So without further ado, let us begin, shall we?

External Rhymes

The most common practice in rap in general. Everyone knows it, and has done it at least once in their lifetime. It rhymes that occur at the end of the rhyming line.

Excerpt is taken from Eric. B and Rakim's Ain't No Joke:

"I ain't no joke, I used to let the mic smoke

Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke"

It's relatively self-explanatory; the rhyme occurred at the end of the first and second metre in the couplet.

Internal Rhymes

Internal rhymes are rhymes that occur within a single line of a rap

Excerpt from Big L's Lifestyle of The Poor and Dangerous:

"The Big L was cold crazy

A top-notch crook snatchin pocket books from old ladies"

As you can see in the second line in the above couplet, the rhymes crook and books occur in the middle of that single line, ergo, the name internal rhyme.

An internal rhyme can also happen, between internal syllables in multiple lines:

Excerpt taken from Elzhi's Blue Widow:

"I'm honestly the best; anyone in your dynasty

Can test and get chewed like how piranhas eat the flesh"

As you can see, the best and test rhymes, in particular, came in-between multiple lines, making it qualify as noice internal rhyme

Perfect Rhymes

These are the most common form of rhymes used. It occurs when the stressed vowel sound of a word and subsequent sounds of the word are tantamount which each other

Excerpt taken from The Notorious B.I.G.Juicy:

Born sinner, the opposite of a winner

Remember when I used to eat sardines for dinner

Half Rhyme

Half-rhymes (or sometimes called imperfect rhymes, or slant rhymes) are defined by rhyming two words that have somewhat identical sounds but don't necessarily match up perfectly.

Excerpt taken from my personal book of rhymes:

"Rhetoric slicker than Satan, that wily old snake, that great

I guess that means I'll join 'em in that pit of the fire Lake"

Lake and Great share the same exact vowel sound, but the ending is strikingly different with one making the T sound and the other a K sound, respectively. So they almost rhyme, but don't do so in the textbook since like it's counterpart above----the perfect rhyme does.

Excerpt taken from Nas New York State of Mind

"And be prosperous, though we live dangerous

Cops could just arrest me, blaming us, we're held like hostages"

The words hostages and dangerous are similar sounding, but they don't rhyme, perfectly with each other

Assonance

Assonance is the repeated repetition of a vowel sound in close proximity to one another

Excerpt from Kendrick Lamar's good kid:

"Trapped inside your desire to fire bullets that stray

Track attire just tell you I'm tired and ran away"

Notice the repeated usage of the long 'I' sound in the lines above? That is exactly what assonance is.

And from the same track King Kendrick raps:

I should ask a choir "What do you require

To sing a song that acquires me to have faith?"

Same routine. The bolded vowels share the same sound, making them fit the assonance bill greatly.

Alliteration

Alliteration is one of my personal favorite literary device(you could prolly just tell by the name of this blog. :P). They just make everything sound so kewl and adds sonic beauty to a line. Alliteration is defined by the repetition of the same sound, or a letter at the beginning of a word, followed close by one another.

Excerpt taken from 2Pac's If I should Die 2night:

They say p**sy and paper is poetry, power and pistols

Plotting on murderin mother__ 'fore they get you

Picturing pitiful punk n__ copping pleas

As you can see, the repeated "P' sounds Mr Shakur employs in the above lines, adds a distinctive and straight up aesthetic phonetic sound through out the verse. It is honestly one of the greatest usages of the device I've ever witnessed in rap.

Consonance

Consonance occurs during the repetition of a consonant in rapid near-concurrent succession

Excerpt Excerpt from Kendrcik Lamar's good kid:

As the record spin I should pray

For the record, I recognize that I'm easily prey

In the above couplet, the the consonant re is repeated 3 times in close proximity with each other.

Excerpt taken from Lil Wayne's Glory (sorry for the terribad quality of the vid, but it's the only one I could find on YoutTbe. xD)

"I'm not a student, I'm not assumin' I'm not a human

You are not immune to this kind of music, you got 'em, Tunechi"

Weezy also utilizes the consonance cleverly in the above line with the repeated "mm" sound in rapid concession.

And yeah--that's my third time using K.Dot as an example here. The dudes a lyrical genius and there is really no other way of putting it.

Monosyllable

Monosyllable rhymes are probably the most simple type of rhymes and was used the most extensively during the early days of rap. Of course, they are very much still used often today, and is still the most common form of rhyming type, but far from exclusively.

Excerpt taken from Drake's---Show Me A Good Time

"What we doing right now, this our dream

Wu-Tang Clan, __ want that cream"

With the single syllable bold obviously matching with the bold.

Multisyllable rhyme

A multisyllable rhyme(or Compound/Pollyable rhyme) is a rhyme type that rhymes more than one syllable in a single sequence. These type of rhymes add a significant amount of complexity and dexterity to rapping, and makes it all the moor fun to catch as a listener.

Excerpt taken from my personal book of rhymes

"When the lyr-ic-ism revved high-ly, and the cyn-ic-ism ebbed light-ly"

1-Lyr/Cyn

2-Ic/Ic

3-Ism/Ism

4- Revved/Ebbed

5-High/Light

6-Ly/Ly

As you can see above, exactly 6 syllables are strung together concurrently in the rhyme shceme which is the text-book definition of multisyllable rhymes.

Or in another example:

Excerpt taken from Eminem's Infinite:

"My rhym-ing skills got you clim-bing hills "

1-Rhym/Climb

2- Ing/Ing

3- Skills/Hills

Again, Shady successfully strong together 3 syllables in his rhyme skills which makes this multisyllable rhyming at it's finest.

Whelp guys, that 's all I have for today. I hope the few that bothered reading of us this jazz enjoyed it as much as I like writing it. :)