Settle a dispute . . .

[Narz]

I used to sing that song full blast.

But that song isn't rap, it's like a disco ballad that was cashing in on the electro house flavored EDM nascence.

Yeah you're right he never really raps in it. I only just remember the feels.

My old roommate/boss used to wake me up with that when it wasn't trending, good times, kinda (who likes getting woken up really)

 

[Angst]

Yeah, with most pop, I would reverse and say the lyrics are inane and one listens for the music (including the singing of the voice).

With rap, it's the opposite. The lyrics matter most and the music plays a subservient role.

A singing voice can be saying "Hey Nonny Nonny" and it can be worth listening to. A speaking voice has to be saying something worth listening to to make it worth listening to.

to most people, lyrics are very central to the music. they don't make the music subservient, but they're integral to making good vocals for the most part. there's not really an order of priority between the two. and it's both true in rap and singing. for most people.

personally, i don't have that position anywhere. i listen to the OP without paying attention to the lyrics. i know this because i like it and i don't listen to the lyrics, i just don't process them. it just sounds good.

 

[Narz]

to most people, lyrics are very central to the music. they don't make the music subservient, but they're integral to making good vocals for the most part. there's not really an order of priority between the two. and it's both true in rap and singing. for most people.

personally, i don't have that position anywhere. i listen to the OP without paying attention to the lyrics. i know this because i like it and i don't listen to the lyrics, i just don't process them. it just sounds good.

I should've mentioned this argument earlier but I listen to foreign hiphop all the time, I have no idea what these guys are saying (any Sweedes here?) but I still enjoy the beat & vocals, in some ways it's less distracting to not understand the lyrics when you just want to be in the zone, I'm very analytical so it helps turn off that part of my brain (of course I appreciate good lyrics too)

I think people thinking rap is only about the words is why producers have gotten so lazy with the actual music part of things

 

[Lexicus]

With rap, it's the opposite. The lyrics matter most and the music plays a subservient role.

This statement has to be qualified. What I like in rap is not so much what's said but how it's said. A lot of rap lyrics (including in great songs by great rappers) are fairly inane in subject matter: how good the rapper is, how much money they have, how good at they are at performing their chosen traditional gender role, particularly in a sexual context (e.g. "Pussy Talk" by City Girls, or "I Get Around" by Tupac).

Some listeners focus on the quality of rhyming, some focus on lyrical subject matter, and some (like me) focus on the cadence of the lyrics and how it interacts with the cadence of the beat ("flow"). To me a good flow can make up for a multitude of other sins. But not every hip-hop fan is the same. Probably the largest number of hip-hop fans judge songs based on how suitable the beat is for dancing, something that doesn't matter to me at all because I don't enjoy dancing.

 

[Gori the Grey]

some (like me) focus on the cadence of the lyrics and how it interacts with the cadence of the beat ("flow")

My next post in the Objective/Subjective thread is going to deal with exactly this, b/c KL takes so much different an approach than does J Cole (in the snippets I'm examining), and KL's can only be brought out by these considerations.