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105-486: Albert Brown, an aspiring rapper and suburban kid who idolizes the gangsta rappers he sees on TV, decides to start a rap group with his friends, Euripides and Otis. Unfortunately, even though all three of them are talented, they have no connections and no image with which they can market themselves. In order to get their name heard and build up a reputation, they appeal to local crime kingpin and nightclub owner Gusto, along with his sidekick and henchman 40 Dog, to ask for

210-414: A cadential 4 chord . The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians says, "This cadence is a microcosm of the tonal system, and is the most direct means of establishing a pitch as tonic. It is virtually obligatory as the final structural cadence of a tonal work." Authentic cadences are generally classified as either perfect or imperfect . The phrase perfect cadence is sometimes used as

315-450: A modulation in which the IV chord becomes the I chord of the new tonic key and the I chord of the previous key is now a dominant chord in the modulated key. (Cf. §Half cadence above and Secondary dominant .) A minor plagal cadence, also known as a perfect plagal cadence, uses the minor iv instead of a major IV. With a very similar voice leading to a perfect cadence, the minor plagal cadence

420-465: A C ♯ in this context, and a cadential trill of a whole tone on the second to last note would then require a D ♯ /E ♭ , the upper leading-tone of D ♮ . Presumably, the debate was over whether to use D ♯ –C ♯ or D–C ♯ for the trill. Medieval and Renaissance cadences are based upon dyads rather than chords. The first theoretical mention of cadences comes from Guido of Arezzo 's description of

525-551: A Jamaican immigrant, started delivering simple raps at his parties, which some claim were inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting . However, Kool Herc himself denies this link (in the 1984 book Hip Hop ), saying, "Jamaican toasting? Naw, naw. No connection there. I couldn't play reggae in the Bronx. People wouldn't accept it. The inspiration for rap is James Brown and the album Hustler's Convention ". Herc also suggests he

630-463: A cappella , meaning without accompaniment of any sort. When a rap or hip-hop artist is creating a song, "track", or record, done primarily in a production studio, most frequently a producer provides the beat(s) for the MC to flow over. Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area between speech, prose, poetry, and singing . The word, which predates the musical form, originally meant "to lightly strike", and

735-424: A command". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives a date of 1541 for the first recorded use of the word with the meaning "to utter (esp. an oath) sharply, vigorously, or suddenly". Wentworth and Flexner 's Dictionary of American Slang gives the meaning "to speak to, recognize, or acknowledge acquaintance with someone", dated 1932, and a later meaning of "to converse, esp. in an open and frank manner". It

840-400: A falling fifth creating a cadence similar to the authentic cadence in tonal music. According to Carl Dahlhaus , "as late as the 13th century the half step was experienced as a problematic interval not easily understood, as the remainder between the perfect fourth and the ditone : In a melodic half step, listeners of the time perceived no tendency of the lower tone toward the upper, or

945-405: A familiar pattern of a pair of phrases, one ending with a half (imperfect) cadence and the other with an authentic cadence: The presto movement from Beethoven ’s String Quartet Op 130 follows the same pattern, but in a minor key: The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel ’s Messiah culminates powerfully with an iterated plagal cadence: Debussy ’s prelude ‘La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin’ contains

1050-487: A few weeks before the Sugarhill Gang in 1979. In another interview Curtis said: "There was rapping in the Bronx and the cats there had been doing it for a while...Fatback certainly didn't invent rap or anything. I was just interested in it and I guess years later we were the first to record it. At the time you could already see cats rapping everywhere in the streets and doing stuff." With the decline of disco in

1155-501: A few" as artists who exemplify this progression. Kool Moe Dee adds, "in 2002 Eminem created the song that got the first Oscar in Hip-Hop history [Lose Yourself] ... and I would have to say that his flow is the most dominant right now (2003)". There are many different styles of flow, with different terminology used by different people – stic.man of Dead Prez uses the following terms – Alternatively, music scholar Adam Krims uses

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1260-604: A jazz poet/musician, has been cited as an influence on rappers such as Chuck D and KRS-One . Scott-Heron himself was influenced by Melvin Van Peebles , whose first album was 1968's Brer Soul . Van Peebles describes his vocal style as "the old Southern style", which was influenced by singers he had heard growing up in South Chicago . Van Peebles also said that he was influenced by older forms of African-American music : "... people like Blind Lemon Jefferson and

1365-415: A mixed reception from critics. Los Angeles Times wrote that despite CB4 having been "one of the more adventurous of the recent African-American comedies, it still gets bogged down in those movie-movie formulas, those phony recipes for success." The New York Times ' Janet Maslin wrote that the film "promises sharper satire than it actually delivers. Pandering a shade too avidly to the real rap audience,

1470-479: A musical style for another decade. Rap was used to describe talking on records as early as 1970 on Isaac Hayes ' album ...To Be Continued with the track name "Monologue: Ike's Rap I". Hayes' "husky-voiced sexy spoken 'raps' became key components in his signature sound". Del the Funky Homosapien similarly states that rap was used to refer to talking in a stylistic manner in the early 1970s: "I

1575-518: A pause or emphasis on words in certain places.", and Aesop Rock says, "I have a system of maybe 10 little symbols that I use on paper that tell me to do something when I'm recording." Hip-hop scholars also make use of the same flow diagrams: the books How to Rap and How to Rap 2 use the diagrams to explain rap's triplets, flams, rests, rhyme schemes, runs of rhyme, and breaking rhyme patterns, among other techniques. Similar systems are used by PhD musicologists Adam Krims in his book Rap Music and

1680-427: A perfect fifth or down a perfect fourth. A rest in one voice may also be used as a weak interior cadence. The example below, Lassus's Qui vult venire post me , mm. 3–5, shows a rest in the third measure. In counterpoint , an evaded cadence is one where one of the voices in a suspension does not resolve as expected, and the voices together resolve to a consonance other than an octave or unison (a perfect fifth,

1785-415: A plagal cadence in its 2nd and 3rd bars : One of the most famous endings in all music is found in the concluding bars of Wagner ’s opera Tristan und Isolde , where the dissonant chord in the opening phrase of the opera is finally resolved "three enormous acts and five hours later" in the form of a minor plagal cadence: In Bach 's harmonization of the chorale ‘ Wachet auf ’, a phrase ending in

1890-465: A rapper to master, and a must for any MC. An MC with poor breath control cannot deliver difficult verses without making unintentional pauses. Raps are sometimes delivered with melody. West Coast rapper Egyptian Lover was the first notable MC to deliver "sing-raps". Popular rappers such as 50 Cent and Ja Rule add a slight melody to their otherwise purely percussive raps whereas some rappers such as Cee-Lo Green are able to harmonize their raps with

1995-412: A shift in the way MCs rhymed: "Up until Rakim, everybody who you heard rhyme, the last word in the sentence was the rhyming [word], the connection word. Then Rakim showed us that you could put rhymes within a rhyme ... now here comes Big Daddy Kane — instead of going three words, he's going multiple". How to Rap explains that "rhyme is often thought to be the most important factor in rap writing ... rhyme

2100-414: A significant role in expressing social and political issues, addressing topics such as racism, poverty, and political oppression. By the 21st century, rap had become a global phenomenon, influencing music, fashion, and culture worldwide. The English verb rap has various meanings; these include "to strike, especially with a quick, smart, or light blow", as well "to utter sharply or vigorously: to rap out

2205-509: A sixth, or a third). The Corelli cadence , or Corelli clash, named for its association with the violin music of the Corelli school , is a cadence characterized by a major and/or minor second clash between the tonic and the leading-tone or the tonic and supertonic . An example is shown below. Another "clash cadence", the English cadence , is a contrapuntal pattern particular to

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2310-471: A spot on the bill at his club. During their meeting, by complete coincidence, the police rush in and throw Gusto in jail. Gusto believes that the trio set him up, swearing revenge when he is released from prison. Taking advantage of the situation, Albert steals his criminal background and identity, renaming himself "MC Gusto" while Euripides and Otis take the names "Dead Mike" and "Stab Master Arson", respectively. Pretending to be newly released convicts, they form

2415-401: A striking resemblance to the evolution of jazz both stylistically and formally". Boxer Muhammad Ali anticipated elements of rap, often using rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in

2520-452: A synonym for authentic cadence but can also have a more precise meaning depending on the chord voicing . In a perfect authentic cadence (PAC), the chords are in root position – that is, the roots of both chords are in the bass – and the tonic is in the highest voice of the final chord. This is generally considered the strongest type of cadence and often found at structurally defining moments. Music theorist William Caplin writes that

2625-450: A well-known 16th-century lamentation shows a cadence that appears to imply the use of an upper leading-tone , a debate over which was documented in Rome c. 1540. The final three written notes in the upper voice are printed B–C–D, in which case the customary trill on the second to last note should be played using D and C. However, convention implied that the written C should be played as

2730-512: Is a primary ingredient of hip-hop music , and so commonly associated with the genre that it is sometimes called "rap music". Precursors to modern rap music include the West African griot tradition, certain vocal styles of blues and jazz , an African-American insult game called playing the dozens (see Battle rap and Diss ), and 1960s African-American poetry. Stemming from the hip-hop cultural movement , rap music originated in

2835-558: Is a strong resolution to the tonic. The Moravian cadence, which can be found in the works of Leoš Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů amongst others, is a form of plagal cadence in which the outer notes of the first chord each move inwards by a tone to the second. (IV → I ). An early suggestion of the Moravian cadence in classical music occurs in Antonín Dvořák ’s New World Symphony . Also known as an interrupted or false cadence,

2940-409: Is being said, e.g., lyrics ), "flow" ( rhythm , rhyme ), and "delivery" ( cadence , tone ). 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

3045-480: Is built on the scale degree ♯ [REDACTED] . Burgundian cadences became popular in Burgundian music . Note the parallel fourths between the upper voices. The rare plagal half cadence involves a I–IV progression. Like an authentic cadence (V–I), the plagal half cadence involves an ascending fourth (or, by inversion , a descending fifth). The plagal half cadence is a weak cadence, ordinarily at

3150-671: Is commonly referred to as the "Migos Flow" (a term that is contentious within the hip-hop community). Mitchell Ohriner in "Flow: The Rhythmic Voice in Rap Music" describes seven "groove classes" consisting of archetypal sixteen-step accent patterns generated by grouping notes in clusters of two and/or three. These groove classes are further distinguished from one another as "duple" and "nonduple". Groove classes without internal repetition can occur in any of sixteen rhythmic rotations, whereas groove classes with internal repetition have fewer meaningful rotations. The standard form of rap notation

3255-509: Is normally part of a tonic prolongation serving a variety of formal functions – not, however a cadential one. Most examples of plagal cadences given in textbooks actually represent a postcadential codetta function: that is, the IV–I progression follows an authentic cadence but does not itself create genuine cadential closure. The plagal cadence may be interpreted as I–V if the IV-I cadence is perceived as

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3360-478: Is now used to describe quick speech or repartee. The word has been used in the English language since the 16th century. In the 1960s the word became a slang term meaning "to converse" in African American vernacular , and very soon after that came to denote the musical style. The word "rap" is so closely associated with hip-hop music that many writers use the terms interchangeably. Rap music has played

3465-545: Is postponed to fall on a weak beat. A Picardy third (or Picardy cadence) is a harmonic device that originated in Western music in the Renaissance era. It refers to the use of a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section that is either modal or in a minor key. The example below shows a picardy third in the final chord, from J.S. Bach 's Jesu, meine Freude (Jesus, My Joy), mm. 12–13. This example from

3570-468: Is still the rhyme foundation all emcees are building on". Artists and critics often credit Rakim with creating the overall shift from the more simplistic old school flows to more complex flows near the beginning of hip hop's new school – Kool Moe Dee says, "any emcee that came after 1986 had to study Rakim just to know what to be able to do. Rakim, in 1986, gave us flow and that was the rhyme style from 1986 to 1994. From that point on, anybody emceeing

3675-411: Is the dissonant augmented octave (compound augmented unison ) produced by a false relation between the split seventh scale degree , as shown below in an excerpt from O sacrum convivium by Thomas Tallis . The courtesy accidental on the tenor's G ♮ is editorial. A Landini cadence (also known as a Landini sixth , Landini sixth cadence , or under-third cadence ) is a cadence that

3780-435: Is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution , especially in music of the 16th century onwards. A harmonic cadence is a progression of two or more chords that concludes a phrase , section , or piece of music . A rhythmic cadence is a characteristic rhythmic pattern that indicates the end of a phrase. A cadence can be labeled "weak" or "strong" depending on

3885-459: Is the flow diagram, where rappers line-up their lyrics underneath "beat numbers". Different rappers have slightly different forms of flow diagram that they use: Del the Funky Homosapien says, "I'm just writing out the rhythm of the flow, basically. Even if it's just slashes to represent the beats, that's enough to give me a visual path.", Vinnie Paz states, "I've created my own sort of writing technique, like little marks and asterisks to show like

3990-416: Is these meanings from which the musical form of rapping derives, and this definition may be from a shortening of repartee . A rapper refers to a performer who "raps". By the late 1960s, when Hubert G. Brown changed his name to H. Rap Brown , rap was a slang term referring to an oration or speech, such as was common among the "hip" crowd in the protest movements, but it did not come to be associated with

4095-534: Is what gives rap lyrics their musicality. Many of the rhythmic techniques used in rapping come from percussive techniques and many rappers compare themselves to percussionists . How to Rap 2 identifies all the rhythmic techniques used in rapping such as triplets , flams , 16th notes , 32nd notes , syncopation , extensive use of rests , and rhythmic techniques unique to rapping such as West Coast "lazy tails", coined by Shock G . Rapping has also been done in various time signatures , such as 3/4 time . Since

4200-536: The Amen cadence because of its frequent setting to the text "Amen" in hymns . William Caplin disputes the existence of plagal cadences in music of the classical era although they begin to appear in the nineteenth century: An examination of the classical repertory reveals that such a cadence rarely exists. ... Inasmuch as the progression IV–I cannot confirm a tonality (it lacks any leading-tone resolution), it cannot articulate formal closure .... Rather, this progression

4305-600: The 2000s , rapping has evolved into a style of rap that spills over the boundaries of the beat, closely resembling spoken English. Rappers like MF Doom and Eminem have exhibited this style, and since then, rapping has been difficult to notate. The American hip-hop group Crime Mob exhibited a new rap flow in songs such as " Knuck If You Buck ", heavily dependent on triplets. Rappers including Drake , Kanye West , Rick Ross , Young Jeezy and more have included this influence in their music. In 2014, an American hip-hop collective from Atlanta , Migos , popularized this flow, and

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4410-425: The acronym 's expansion may be considered evidence for its ubiquity: the full term "Master of Ceremonies" is very rarely used in the hip-hop scene. This confusion prompted the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest to include this statement in the liner notes to their 1993 album Midnight Marauders : Cadence (music) In Western musical theory , a cadence (from Latin cadentia  'a falling')

4515-470: The griots of West Africans were delivering stories rhythmically , over drums and sparse instrumentation. Such resemblances have been noted by many modern artists, modern day "griots", spoken word artists, mainstream news sources, and academics. Rap lyrics and music are part of the "Black rhetorical continuum", continuing past traditions of expanding upon them through "creative use of language and rhetorical styles and strategies". Blues , rooted in

4620-415: The occursus in his Micrologus , where he uses the term to mean where the two lines of a two-part polyphonic phrase end in a unison . A clausula or clausula vera ("true close") is a dyadic or intervallic, rather than chordal or harmonic , cadence. In a clausula vera, two voices approach an octave or unison through stepwise motion in contrary motion . In three voices, the third voice often adds

4725-597: The work songs and spirituals of slavery , was first played by black Americans around the time of the Emancipation Proclamation . This way of preaching, unique to African-Americans, called the Black sermonic tradition influenced singers and musicians such as 1940s African-American gospel group The Jubalaires . The Jubalaire's songs "The Preacher and the Bear" (1941) and "Noah" (1946) are precursors to

4830-500: The '90s. Music scholar Adam Krims says, "the flow of MCs is one of the profoundest changes that separates out new-sounding from older-sounding music ... it is widely recognized and remarked that rhythmic styles of many commercially successful MCs since roughly the beginning of the 1990s have progressively become faster and more 'complex'". He cites "members of the Wu-Tang Clan , Nas , AZ , Big Pun , and Ras Kass , just to name

4935-513: The 1970s. An editor of the newspaper, The Fayetteville Observer interviewed Bill Curtis of the disco-funk music group the Fatback Band in 2020. Curtis noted that when he moved to the Bronx in the 1970s he heard people rapping over scratched records throughout the neighborhoods and radio DJs were rapping before the genre was released on retail recordings. The Fatback Band released the first rap recording, " King Tim III (Personality Jock) ",

5040-529: The 2010s as "rap", the source came from Manhattan. Pete DJ Jones said the first person he heard rap was DJ Hollywood , a Harlem (not Bronx) native who was the house DJ at the Apollo Theater . Kurtis Blow also said the first person he heard rhyme was DJ Hollywood. In a 2014 interview, Hollywood said: "I used to like the way Frankie Crocker would ride a track, but he wasn't syncopated to the track though. I liked [WWRL DJ] Hank Spann too, but he wasn't on

5145-518: The African-American community were items like schoolyard chants and taunts, clapping games , jump-rope rhymes , some with unwritten folk histories going back hundreds of years across many nationalities. Sometimes these items contain racially offensive lyrics. In his narration between the tracks on George Russell 's 1958 jazz album New York, N.Y. , the singer Jon Hendricks recorded something close to modern rap, since it all rhymed and

5250-444: The African-American community—"to discuss or debate informally." The early rapping of hip-hop developed out of DJ and master of ceremonies ' announcements made over the microphone at parties, and later into more complex raps. Grandmaster Caz stated: "The microphone was just used for making announcements, like when the next party was gonna be, or people's moms would come to the party looking for them, and you have to announce it on

5355-421: The Bronx , New York City , in the early 1970s and became part of popular music later that decade. Rapping developed from the announcements made over the microphone at parties by DJs and MCs , evolving into more complex lyrical performances. Rap is usually delivered over a beat , typically provided by a DJ , turntablist , or beatboxer when performing live. Much less commonly a rapper can decide to perform

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5460-485: The Bronx hip hop set that until then was composed of DJing and b-boying (or beatboxing ), with traditional "shout out" style rapping. The style that Hollywood created and his partner introduced to the hip hop set quickly became the standard. Before that time, most MC rhymes, based on radio DJs, consisted of short patters that were disconnected thematically; they were separate unto themselves. But by using song lyrics, Hollywood gave his rhyme an inherent flow and theme. This

5565-452: The Funky Homosapien , Tech N9ne , People Under the Stairs , Twista , B-Real , Mr Lif , 2Mex , and Cage . MCs stay on beat by stressing syllables in time to the four beats of the musical backdrop. Poetry scholar Derek Attridge describes how this works in his book Poetic Rhythm – "rap lyrics are written to be performed to an accompaniment that emphasizes the metrical structure of

5670-524: The Phrygian cadence often concluded a slow movement immediately followed by a faster one. A Lydian cadence is similar to the Phrygian half cadence, involving iv –V in the minor. The difference is that in the Lydian cadence, the whole iv is raised by a half step . In other words, the Phrygian half cadence begins with the first chord built on scale degree [REDACTED] , while the Lydian half cadence

5775-581: The Poetics of Identity and Kyle Adams in his academic work on flow. Because rap revolves around a strong 4/4 beat, with certain syllables said in time to the beat, all the notational systems have a similar structure: they all have the same 4 beat numbers at the top of the diagram, so that syllables can be written in-line with the beat numbers. This allows devices such as rests, "lazy tails", flams, and other rhythmic techniques to be shown, as well as illustrating where different rhyming words fall in relation to

5880-555: The authentic or perfect cadence. It features the blue seventh against the dominant chord , which in the key of C would be B ♭ and G– B ♮ –D. Popular with English composers of the High Renaissance and Restoration periods in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English cadence is described as sounding archaic or old-fashioned. It was first given its name in the 20th century. The hallmark of this device

5985-405: The beat. The Midwestern group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony was one of the first groups to achieve nationwide recognition for using the fast-paced, melodic and harmonic raps that are also practiced by Do or Die , another Midwestern group. Another rapper that harmonized his rhymes was Nate Dogg , a rapper part of the group 213. Rakim experimented not only with following the beat, but also with complementing

6090-534: The book How to Rap breaks flow down into rhyme, rhyme schemes , and rhythm (also known as cadence ). 'Flow' is also sometimes used to refer to elements of the delivery ( pitch , timbre , volume ) as well, though often a distinction is made between the flow and the delivery. Staying on the beat is central to rap's flow – many MCs note the importance of staying on-beat in How to Rap including Sean Price , Mighty Casey, Zion I , Vinnie Paz , Fredro Starr , Del

6195-408: The book How to Rap , where diagrams are used to show how the lyrics line up with the beat – "stressing a syllable on each of the four beats gives the lyrics the same underlying rhythmic pulse as the music and keeps them in rhythm ... other syllables in the song may still be stressed, but the ones that fall in time with the four beats of a bar are the only ones that need to be emphasized in order to keep

6300-655: The context; for example, it can be used to refer to the last few notes of a particular phrase, or to just the final chord of that phrase, or to types of chord progressions that are suitable for phrase endings in general. Cadences are strong indicators of the tonic or central pitch of a passage or piece. The musicologist Edward Lowinsky proposed that the cadence was the "cradle of tonality ". Cadences are divided into four main types, according to their harmonic progression: authentic (typically perfect authentic or imperfect authentic ), half , plagal , and deceptive . Typically, phrases end on authentic or half cadences, and

6405-476: The crowd'. Some use this word interchangeably with the term rapper , while for others the term denotes a superior level of skill and connection to the wider culture. MC can often be used as a term of distinction; referring to an artist with good performance skills. As Kool G Rap notes, "masters of ceremony, where the word 'M.C.' comes from, means just keeping the party alive" [sic] . Many people in hip hop including DJ Premier and KRS-One feel that James Brown

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6510-403: The deceptive cadence is a cadence from V to any chord other than the tonic (I), usually the submediant (VI). This is the most important irregular resolution , most commonly V –vi (or V – ♭ VI) in major or V –VI in minor. This is considered a weak cadence because of the "hanging" (suspended) feeling it invokes. At the beginning of the final movement of Gustav Mahler 's 9th Symphony ,

6615-435: The early 1980s rap became a new form of expression. Rap arose from musical experimentation with rhyming, rhythmic speech. Rap was a departure from disco. Sherley Anne Williams refers to the development of rap as "anti-Disco" in style and means of reproduction. The early productions of Rap after Disco sought a more simplified manner of producing the tracks they were to sing over. Williams explains how Rap composers and DJ's opposed

6720-410: The ending of an antecedent phrase, after which a consequent phrase commences. One example of this use is in " Auld Lang Syne ". But in one very unusual occurrence – the end of the exposition of the first movement of Brahms ' Clarinet Trio, Op. 114 —it is used to complete not just a musical phrase but an entire section of a movement. A plagal cadence is a cadence from IV to I. It is also known as

6825-569: The field hollers. I was also influenced by spoken word song styles from Germany that I encountered when I lived in France." During the mid-20th century, the musical culture of the Caribbean was constantly influenced by the concurrent changes in American music . As early as 1956, deejays were toasting over dubbed Jamaican beats. It was called "rap", expanding the word's earlier meaning in

6930-402: The film sometimes tries to use the same sexist, mean-spirited ethos it makes fun of." The movie currently holds a rating of 52% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 27 reviews. The film ranked No. 1 at the box office in its opening weekend, with sales totaling $ 6,116,000 across 1,205 theaters. At the end of its domestic run it had grossed a total of $ 17,953,778. Chris Rock stated that

7035-401: The film's budget was $ 6 million. Rap Rapping (also rhyming , flowing , spitting , emceeing , or MCing ) 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" (what

7140-400: The following terms – MCs use many different rhyming techniques, including complex rhyme schemes, as Adam Krims points out – "the complexity ... involves multiple rhymes in the same rhyme complex (i.e. section with consistently rhyming words), internal rhymes , [and] offbeat rhymes". There is also widespread use of multisyllabic rhymes . It has been noted that rap's use of rhyme is some of

7245-423: The genre of rap music. The Jubalaires and other African-American singing groups during the blues, jazz, and gospel era are examples of the origins and development of rap music. Grammy-winning blues musician/historian Elijah Wald and others have argued that the blues were being rapped as early as the 1920s. Wald went so far as to call hip hop "the living blues". A notable recorded example of rapping in blues

7350-576: The group arise over one member's gold-digging groupie girlfriend, Sissy, and the strain of the charade takes its toll on Albert's family life and relationship with his wholesome girlfriend, Daliha. To compound this, the real Gusto escapes from prison and exacts his revenge by making Albert take part in a record store robbery, exposing his face to the CCTV cameras, and then taking the tape as a tool for blackmail so he can profit from Albert's success. CB4 breaks up, with Dead Mike becoming an Afrocentric rapper. At

7455-656: The half cadence is considered a weak cadence that calls for continuation. Several types of half cadences are described below. A Phrygian half cadence is a half cadence iv –V in minor, so named because the semitonal motion in the bass (sixth degree to fifth degree) resembles the half-step heard in the ii–I of the 15th-century cadence in the Phrygian mode . Due to its being a survival from modal Renaissance harmony this cadence gives an archaic sound, especially when preceded by v (v–iv –V). A characteristic gesture in Baroque music ,

7560-424: The hardcore gangsta rap group CB4 (Cell Block 4) and successfully sign with Trustus Jones, a local music mogul. CB4 quickly becomes the hottest band on the charts with controversial hits like "Sweat from My Balls" and "Straight Outta LoCash," and their rise to fame is documented by an aspiring director and his cameraman. However, an ambitious politician seeks to shut them down for obscenity charges, tensions between

7665-440: The heavily orchestrated and ritzy multi-tracks of Disco for "break beats" which were created from compiling different records from numerous genres and did not require the equipment from professional recording studios . Professional studios were not necessary therefore opening the production of rap to the youth who as Williams explains felt "locked out" because of the capital needed to produce Disco records. More directly related to

7770-405: The impression of finality it gives. While cadences are usually classified by specific chord or melodic progressions, the use of such progressions does not necessarily constitute a cadence—there must be a sense of closure, as at the end of a phrase. Harmonic rhythm plays an important part in determining where a cadence occurs. The word "cadence" sometimes slightly shifts its meaning depending on

7875-559: The late 1970s, the term emcee, MC or M.C., derived from " master of ceremonies ", became an alternative title for a rapper, and for their role within hip-hop music and culture. An MC uses rhyming verses, pre-written or ad lib (' freestyled '), to introduce the DJ with whom they work, to keep the crowd entertained or to glorify themselves. As hip hop progressed, the title MC acquired backronyms such as 'mike chanter' 'microphone controller', 'microphone checker', 'music commentator', and one who 'moves

7980-470: The less stable first inversion chord. To achieve this, a root position V usually changes to a V 2 right before resolution, thereby "evading" the root-position I chord that would usually follow a root-position V. (See also inverted cadence below.) A half cadence (also called an imperfect cadence or semicadence ) is any cadence ending on V, whether preceded by II (V of V), ii, vi, IV, or I—or any other chord. Because it sounds incomplete or suspended,

8085-455: The listener hears a string of many deceptive cadences progressing from V to IV . One of the most striking uses of this cadence is in the A-minor section at the end of the exposition in the first movement of Brahms ' Third Symphony . The music progresses to an implied E minor dominant (B ) with a rapid chromatic scale upwards but suddenly sidesteps to C major. The same device is used again in

8190-423: The lyrics in time with the music". In rap terminology, 16-bars is the amount of time that rappers are generally given to perform a guest verse on another artist's song; one bar is typically equal to four beats of music. Old school flows were relatively basic and used only few syllables per bar, simple rhythmic patterns, and basic rhyming techniques and rhyme schemes. Melle Mel is cited as an MC who epitomizes

8295-440: The mic. Different DJs started embellishing what they were saying. I would make an announcement this way, and somebody would hear that and they add a little bit to it. I'd hear it again and take it a little step further 'til it turned from lines to sentences to paragraphs to verses to rhymes." One of the first rappers at the beginning of the hip hop period, at the end of the 1970s, was also hip hop's first DJ , DJ Kool Herc . Herc,

8400-501: The military ( United States Navy ). It was within the lyrics of a rap song called " This Wall " that Hammer first identified himself as M.C. Hammer and later marketed it on his debut album Feel My Power . The term MC has also been used in the genre of grime music to refer to a rapid style of rapping. Grime artist JME released an album titled Grime MC in 2019 which peaked at 29 on the UK Albums Chart . Uncertainty over

8505-402: The most advanced in all forms of poetry – music scholar Adam Bradley notes, "rap rhymes so much and with such variety that it is now the largest and richest contemporary archive of rhymed words. It has done more than any other art form in recent history to expand rhyme's formal range and expressive possibilities". In the book How to Rap , Masta Ace explains how Rakim and Big Daddy Kane caused

8610-402: The music. To successfully deliver a rap, a rapper must also develop vocal presence, enunciation , and breath control . Vocal presence is the distinctiveness of a rapper's voice on record. Enunciation is essential to a flowing rap; some rappers choose also to exaggerate it for comic and artistic effect. Breath control, taking in air without interrupting one's delivery, is an important skill for

8715-399: The old school flow – Kool Moe Dee says, "from 1970 to 1978 we rhymed one way [then] Melle Mel, in 1978, gave us the new cadence we would use from 1978 to 1986". He's the first emcee to explode in a new rhyme cadence, and change the way every emcee rhymed forever. Rakim, The Notorious B.I.G. , and Eminem have flipped the flow, but Melle Mel's downbeat on the two, four, kick to snare cadence

8820-587: The one. Guys back then weren't concerned with being musical. I wanted to flow with the record". And in 1975, he ushered in what became known as the "hip hop" style by rhyming syncopated to the beat of an existing record uninterruptedly for nearly a minute. He adapted the lyrics of Isaac Hayes ' "Good Love 6-9969" and rhymed it to the breakdown part of "Love Is the Message". His partner Kevin Smith, better known as Lovebug Starski , took this new style and introduced it to

8925-408: The past, the terms masculine and feminine were sometimes used to describe rhythmically "strong" or "weak" cadences, but these terms have not been generally used since at least the mid-1980s. Susan McClary has written extensively on the gendered terminology of music and music theory in her book Feminine Endings. The example below shows a metrically unaccented cadence (IV–V–I). The final chord

9030-407: The perfect and imperfect cadence, or only to the perfect cadence, or it may apply to cadences of all types. To distinguish them from this form, the other, more common forms of cadences listed above are known as radical cadences . Cadences can also be classified by their rhythmic position: Metrically accented cadences are considered stronger and are generally of greater structural significance. In

9135-410: The perfect authentic cadence "achieves complete harmonic and melodic closure." There are three types of imperfect authentic cadences (IAC): An evaded cadence moves from a dominant seventh third inversion chord (V 2 ) to a first inversion tonic chord (I ). Because the seventh of the dominant chord must fall stepwise to the third of the tonic chord, it forces the cadence to resolve to

9240-558: The police can arrest him and send him to prison for life. Albert accepts that he is not a gangsta and makes a comeback under his own name. He persuades Mike and Stab Master Arson to reform the group, and they embark on a highly successful reunion tour. A soundtrack containing hip hop music was released on March 2, 1993, by MCA Records . It peaked at #41 on the Billboard 200 and #13 on the Top R&;B/Hip-Hop Albums . The movie had

9345-533: The recapitulation; this time the sidestep is—as one would expect—to F major, the tonic key of the whole Symphony. The interrupted cadence is also frequently used in popular music. For example, the Pink Floyd song " Bring the Boys Back Home " ends with such a cadence (at approximately 0:45–50). An inverted cadence (also called a medial cadence ) inverts the last chord. It may be restricted only to

9450-410: The same time" and Allmusic writes, "rhymers like PE 's Chuck D , Big Daddy Kane , KRS-One , and Rakim basically invented the complex wordplay and lyrical kung-fu of later hip-hop". The golden age is considered to have ended around 1993–94, marking the end of rap lyricism's most innovative period. "Flow" is defined as "the rhythms and rhymes" of a hip-hop song's lyrics and how they interact –

9555-483: The same time, Stab Master Arson establishes himself as a successful DJ, leaving Albert to wallow in self-pity and his growing addiction to drugs. One day, he gets a call from Mike that Trustus is dead, having choked to death in terror while eating when Gusto pointed a gun at him in a restaurant. Fed up with Gusto taking everything he has, Albert decides to set up a sting operation to nab the gangster by having Sissy seduce him and then trading places with her to entrap Gusto so

9660-501: The song's melody with his own voice, making his flow sound like that of an instrument (a saxophone in particular). The ability to rap quickly and clearly is sometimes regarded as an important sign of skill. In certain hip-hop subgenres such as chopped and screwed , slow-paced rapping is often considered optimal. The current record for fastest rapper is held by Spanish rapper Domingo Edjang Moreno, known by his alias Chojin, who rapped 921 syllables in one minute on December 23, 2008. In

9765-480: The terms plagal and deceptive refer to motion that avoids or follows a phrase-ending cadence. Each cadence can be described using the Roman numeral system of naming chords . An authentic cadence is a cadence from the dominant chord (V) to the root chord (I). During the dominant chord, a seventh above the dominant may be added to create a dominant seventh chord (V ); the dominant chord may also be preceded by

9870-444: The upper toward the lower. The second tone was not the 'goal' of the first. Instead, musicians avoided the half step in clausulas because, to their ears, it lacked clarity as an interval. Beginning in the 13th century, cadences begin to require motion in one voice by half step and the other a whole step in contrary motion. A plagal cadence was found occasionally as an interior cadence, with the lower voice in two-part writing moving up

9975-399: The verse". He says rap lyrics are made up of, "lines with four stressed beats, separated by other syllables that may vary in number and may include other stressed syllables. The strong beat of the accompaniment coincides with the stressed beats of the verse, and the rapper organizes the rhythms of the intervening syllables to provide variety and surprise". The same technique is also noted in

10080-468: The word". Kool Moe Dee states that Biggie introduced a newer flow which "dominated from 1994 to 2002", and also says that Method Man was "one of the emcees from the early to mid-'90s that ushered in the era of flow ... Rakim invented it, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, and Kool G Rap expanded it, but Biggie and Method Man made flow the single most important aspect of an emcee's game". He also cites Craig Mack as an artist who contributed to developing flow in

10185-453: Was born in '72 ... back then what rapping meant, basically, was you trying to convey something—you're trying to convince somebody. That's what rapping is, it's in the way you talk." Rap is sometimes said to be an acronym for ' R hythm A nd P oetry', though this is not the origin of the word and so may be a backronym . Similarities to rapping can be observed in West African chanting folk traditions. Centuries before hip-hop music existed,

10290-708: Was delivered in a hip, rhythm-conscious manner. Art forms such as spoken word jazz poetry and comedy records had an influence on the first rappers. Coke La Rock , often credited as hip-hop's first MC cites the Last Poets among his influences, as well as comedians such as Wild Man Steve and Richard Pryor . Comedian Rudy Ray Moore released under the counter albums in the 1960s and 1970s such as This Pussy Belongs to Me (1970), which contained "raunchy, sexually explicit rhymes that often had to do with pimps, prostitutes, players, and hustlers", and which later led to him being called "The Godfather of Rap". Gil Scott-Heron ,

10395-400: Was forced to focus on their flow". Kool Moe Dee explains that before Rakim, the term 'flow' was not widely used – "Rakim is basically the inventor of flow. We were not even using the word flow until Rakim came along. It was called rhyming, it was called cadence, but it wasn't called flow. Rakim created flow!" He adds that while Rakim upgraded and popularized the focus on flow, "he didn't invent

10500-481: Was not on lyrical technique, but simply on good times", one notable exception being Melle Mel , who set the way for future rappers through his socio-political content and creative wordplay. Golden age hip hop (the mid-1980s to early '90s) was the time period where hip-hop lyricism went through its most drastic transformation – writer William Jelani Cobb says "in these golden years, a critical mass of mic prodigies were literally creating themselves and their art form at

10605-541: Was quickly noticed, and the style spread. By the end of the 1970s, artists such as Kurtis Blow and the Sugarhill Gang were starting to receive radio airplay and make an impact far outside of New York City, on a national scale. Blondie 's 1981 single, " Rapture ", was one of the first songs featuring rap to top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Old school rap (1979–84) was "easily identified by its relatively simple raps" according to AllMusic , "the emphasis

10710-436: Was the 1950 song "Gotta Let You Go" by Joe Hill Louis . Jazz , which developed from the blues and other African-American and European musical traditions and originated around the beginning of the 20th century, has also influenced hip hop and has been cited as a precursor of hip hop. Not just jazz music and lyrics but also jazz poetry . According to John Sobol, the jazz musician and poet who wrote Digitopia Blues , rap "bears

10815-481: Was the first MC. James Brown had the lyrics, moves, and soul that greatly influenced a lot of rappers in hip hop, and arguably even started the first MC rhyme. For some rappers, there was a distinction to the term, such as for MC Hammer who acquired the nickname "MC" for being a "Master of Ceremonies" which he used when he began performing at various clubs while on the road with the Oakland As and eventually in

10920-456: Was too young while in Jamaica to get into sound system parties: "I couldn't get in. Couldn't get in. I was ten, eleven years old," and that while in Jamaica, he was listening to James Brown: "I was listening to American music in Jamaica and my favorite artist was James Brown. That's who inspired me. A lot of the records I played were by James Brown." However, in terms of what was identified in

11025-478: Was used extensively in the 14th and early 15th century. It is named after Francesco Landini , a composer who used them profusely. Similar to a clausula vera, it includes an escape tone in the upper voice, which briefly narrows the interval to a perfect fifth before the octave. The classical and romantic periods of musical history provide many examples of the way the different cadences are used in context. Mozart ’s Romanze from his Piano Concerto No. 20 follows

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