Aspects of the Music/Text Relationship in Rap

Abstract

Few scholars of rap music have analyzed rap as they would other forms of Western texted music, by examining the relationship of the music to the text. This article will suggest that this type of analysis of rap is possible, but will argue that since the music in rap is composed before the text is written, we must change our analytical focus to examine not how the music supports the text, but how the text supports the music. I will propose a new analytical method for rap, and use excerpts from A Tribe Called Quest, OutKast, and artists affiliated with them, to show how rappers incorporate rhythms, groupings, and motives from the underlying music into the rhythm of the lyrics.