Every few months I look to see what the kids are listening to just to stay up on trends and learn what the ghetto is trying to express. The biggest rage has been this whole chicken noodle soup nonsense which is just a covert analogy for pissing on someone in the shower. Real talk.
Another popular song is from an artist named JIBBS. Like one of those pop songs produced by WILL.I.AM this rap song has been marketed by geniuses. It’s so bad that you have to talk about it with someone just to confirm that monkeys haven’t taken over your radio. Actually, monkeys are performing, but the T.I.’s still get the checks from Corporate America.
This is when we try to do something on the level of Hip-Hop scholarship in quantifying our contempt for this song. Less our comments section befall the scorn of internets monkey music stanleys. It’s a pretty simple formula anyhoo, keep in mind that I dropped out of high school.
1) First, what we need to do is review the lyrics to the song(s).
2) Do a total word count on the songs (word being a highly subjective term when Hip-Hop lyrics are concerned).
3) Scan the songs for the number of polysyllabic words, since these are the most complex to form into rhyme verse.
Whether you want to admit it or not, real good rap music can renegotiate any language like a piece of clay. That means that within Hip-Hop the English language is deconstructed and reassembled, sometimes with a regional dialect. If you love Hip-Hop then you are already familiar with the twang of southern rappers, the nasal sound of west coast artists and so on. My point for all of this is to show you that there is dope rap music that represents the zenith of the art. And there is bolshevik.
I wondered which song I would use to compare and contrast the JIBBS ‘Chain Hang Low’ with. I didn’t want to use anything from BIG DADDY KANE or RAKIM because that would be like watching KOBE aka Rape Boy score 85 points against the Raptors. Get it? Raptors?!? Yeah, I don’t get it either.
I just then remembered watching KEITH MURRAY open the stage for EPMD a couple of weeks ago. Dude ripped through the audience with his vocal dexterity and lyrical gymnastics. Yep, KEITH MURRAY would be the perfect dude to use as an experiment since he is one of the few rappers that can put the word ‘experiment‘ in a verse.
Hold up! Hold up! We not even gonna use that song for this little test. Although the early numbers have the total word count at 557 and the complex (polysyllabic) word count at almost fifty. Those are some RAKIM quotients. Don’t front, dudes from L.I. can flow on some Harvard level shit. Here’s the breakdowns…
JIBBS – ‘Chain Hang Low’
word count = 732 (unusually high for snap music content)
polysyllabic words = 6 (‘platinum’ repeated three times)KEITH MURRAY – ‘The Rhyme’
word count = 520
polysyllabic words = 22 (‘metaphor’ appears twice)
Less that 1% of the JIBBS song contains a complex word, and y’all wonder why Black babies can’t read?
Fascinating formula. However, Keith Murray also makes up words like Beautifullest.
D, you should also menion how Jibbs’ song is a recycled minstrel favorite, My ears hang low…these young cats nowadays
Idea/thing (either prevalent theme or halfway interesting reference) count from these two songs… “Chain” has seven by my count — jewelry, cars, “owning” blocks, gang banging, shitting yourself, mutants, and cranes.
No time for a count on “Rhyme” but anyone paying attention has reason to open a dictionary, an encyclopedia and books on history, biology, physiology, chemistry… not that it’s a cause/effect deal, but at least there’s the expression and assumption of intelligence.
So talk about droppin’ science and how things change.
Yo the funny thing is I could use this formula at my job. Dallas Penn helping out the kids. Kinda sad how the polysyllabic word usage spiked in the 90’s and has since taken a sharp dip.
for what it’s worth…i called the local hip-hop/cRAP station and asked that the “chain” song be dropped from the spin cycle…they keep playing it…so i just don’t listen anymore…lately i’ve been listening to Prince -For You circa 1978 amd classic soul like Teddy Pendergrass-Love TKO, Turn off the Lights,Close the Door…Al Green and Bob Marley: Natty Dread…maybe it’s me, but I just can’t listen to the same 6 or 7 “tunes” every time I turn on the radio! today’s urban radio is what it is…but boy do I miss 1580 K-DAY (l.a. station in the late ’70’s early ’80’s) and KJLH (Steive Wonder used to own it! (Kindess, Joy, Love & Happiness…KJLH, Compton,we are you! the song used to go, and KACE!
like mtv-video killed the radio star and Clear Channel and all the rest killed urban radio, i guess….
Quay, Quay….I would never listen to radio in Philly if it weren’t for WDAS.
Classic Soul and Smooth R&B. I am so tired of Urban Radio at the moment.
I have to flashback and listen to old school stuff. You know, when people could actually sing and play instruments.
JIbbs is hot Garbage. Period.
I miss the old Keith Murray, he just isnt the same since his extended vacation. Hopefully, after the reunion show, Parish, E-Dub, DAS EFX, Keith Murray, Redman, Jamal and even K-solo(sike!) will get back in the studio and give us another classic album….
“Don’t front, dudes from L.I. can flow on some Harvard level shit. Here’s the breakdowns…”
Gospel…
DP!
The pics are up….
http://biochemicalslang.blogspot.com/2006/11/biochemical-slang-is-hip-hop.html
dallas: update 1: posted incredible bongo band’s BONGO ROCK.
blogger is effed up, tryin to post the keith murray pic….
I have a dream…..
Hit Squad vs Wutang Clan tour.
Also featuring Onyx and M.O.P
Kool Pics ViK.
Dallas the corduroy Fisherman hat is choice.
“Less that 1% of the JIBBS song contains a complex word, and y’all wonder why Black babies can’t read?”
OMGOMG, you are a genius. We see things eye to eye. This is why I don’t let my baby listen to rap music with the slightest connection to the city of Atlanta. I also have to cover her ears when we go to the ghetto mall because you know that fool Jibbs went platinum on fucking ring tone sales.
Enigma = classic in my estimation
damn dallas…you gonna get me fired with this shit here
^man listen, ask Rafi from Oh Word about how we used to run almost porn here.
nice hat