Blue Nowhere

My first encounter with hip hop music started when my music editor asked me to review “Sweet/Sweat” by Nelly. I dont even recognize that name at that time. I remembered calling a friend in Semarang and asked her this stupid question:

“U ever heard the name Nelly, a rapper?”
She laughed. “Of course I did. I listened to his songs.”

My friend, who is fortunately a much-better-informed rap fan than me, then told me a little bit about Nelly. I just listened to the phone while thinking it must be very stupid for a reviewer of Nelly — I mean me– to ask such stupid question.

But I finished writing the review. And not a very bad review, I guess.

Then came another assignment. This time was Usher, the R&B one. And for the first time also, I give no phone calls. I managed finished writing it myself. And to be frank, I think my review of Usher was one of my best music reviews. It’s very informative, strong, and for the first time: personal.

I aint positioned myself as a cold-reviewer toward Usher. Instead my position was like a dedicated fan. Someone who loves his music, but at the same time also critical toward him. Not some ideological fan or idiots who bought his CD just because TV and the hip hop industry backed him.

It was also my first time to dig so deep into the world of R&B music. I read the history of R&B, its concept, its origin, its style, its differences with the (street) hip hop style, its prominent singers etc.

And just for information, R&B stands for “Rhythm and Blues”. It was the Billboard magazine who first introduced the term in 1940s.

Then this assignment came. A few days ago. The same music-editor gave me the new album of Aikon entitled “Konvicted”.

I only need half an hour to decide “Konvicted” was great album. Something worth buying. I enjoyed listening to the the rhymes of this Senegal-American R&B singer. My head shaked all the time while listening to his music. (and I believe some people in the office wondered why my head behaved like that!) hehehe..

No need to explain to them. I’m writing this piece of blog article while still listening to “The Rain”, one of the best three songs in that album (besides “Smack That and “I Wanna Love You”).

The rhythm was perfect, the rhyme was superb. No to mention the violin-instrument touch in “The Rain”, which makes it more beautiful to listen to. Marvelous! 4 of 5 stars to Konvicted!

Personally I love the rhyme concept in “The Rain”. Simple. Though a little bit repetitive, overall one can sense the feeling of sitting in the bus, next to the window pane, watching the street, while it was raining outside, then began to think how life has changed much…

..One’s got me insane
Cause I can’t stand the rain
It’s hitting my window pane
A little too much
And now I gotta let ya know
One’s got my face in a frown
Aye
Cause I can’t stand the sound
Of the thunder that’s crashing down..

You wont understand the beauty of those lines above unless you listen to the song yourself. But as for the rhyme, why dont you try to read it aloud, and then you’ll find the nice repetitive pattern of ‘n’ .. which makes it structurally coherent!

(I’ve been listening to “The Rain” 3 times as I’m writing this line)

Speaking of rhyme, I think that what makes hip hop and R&B songs are special, since if you listen to other type of music, you wont find the great attention to rhyme as in hip hop or R&B music.

But if you read poetry, I believe it wont be difficult to appreciate rhyme in hip hop, since rhyme is also another artistic device of poetry itself. An example is one of my favourite poems from W.B Yeats below, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death”

I know I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love

Feel the repetitive ‘o’ above?

Of course rhyme in hip hop is much more different from in poetry. Rhyme in hip hop doesnt employ the rigid structural convention as in romantic poetry of Yeats or in verses of Shakespeare.

I once happened to visit the site which discuss the use of rhyme in hip hop and find the examples below. (just cant stand smiling)

Britney Spears - sing me cheers, rickety stairs, bring me beers
George Bush - more mush, pork hooves, horse tush,
Pope Benedict the 16th - I scope derelicts who bring beef, I know heavyweights who fix teeth

That’s it. Enough this blogging-writing session. Got to do something else.