Random thoughts about flow

[ImmortalTech]

hmm best flows...

I agree AZ on lifes a Bitch was dope as hell
but also i think Bizzy Bone (ie "Twin Towers" & "Sit Back Relax")
Black Thought from the Roots is also dope
andd Big Pun (ie Twinz & Capital Punishment)
Akir and Big L got great flow too .. & this spanish rapper i think his name is Mr Sancho

... i guess those are the ones that really stand out to me right away

 

[Preach]

someone once used an example to describe to me what they thought flow was and i instantly fell in love with the metaphor used. the instrumental a rapper raps to and the acapella that he ends up getting when he's done recording his vocals are supposed to dance together. imagine watching two people dance, a guy and a chick. if they don't get along well, the dance might look artificial. reasons why the guy and girl (i'm still using the metaphor so i'm still talking about the instrumental and acapella) don't get along can be many, but the fact that the two get along is very important for the dance to look good, for you to feel the heat and whatever. i think dancing has a close connection to flow because flow is about rythm and as is dance.

i dunno, these arent really my words but they sound good.

 

[Chronic]

Its not the fact that he puts "2 many" syllables in2 a line, its cuz he enunciates them all 4 u. Itd be easy to make his flow sound smoother by fuckin up the pronounciation a bit; but he wants everything heard so he speaks every word clearly. It's far from "struggling to stay on beat."

If in order to make it 'smoother' you have to fuck up your pronounciation then didn't you write too many syllables to fit into one line?
Had he written an appropriate amount he wouldn't need to do anything but just rap it.

 

[Preach]

donny rizzo's flow on the first verse of the el riz freestyle blows me away. my dance thesis really applies here, i couldn't stop moving my body.

 

[Bigg Limn]

If in order to make it 'smoother' you have to fuck up your pronounciation then didn't you write too many syllables to fit into one line?
Had he written an appropriate amount he wouldn't need to do anything but just rap it.

How is it too many syllables? Its what he wanted to say...I'd say its an "appropriate amount"

 

[TCD]

imo Talib does try to fit more syllabus than are needed to have a nice flow. Too many syllabus make him sound unintentionally off beat.

Fab does have a nice flow but he never changes it and he sounds like someone woke him up in the middle of the night and put a gun to his head and forced him to rap.

I wouldn't say Pac had one of the best flows. Someone that no-one has mentioned is Ludacris. I believe his flow is great. Big,Common,Rakim, and Nas also have nice flows.

 

[ARon]

That 'Jazz' sound you're referring to is him struggling to stay on beat and trying to fit in too many syllables in one line. He can't write to the beat.
A good flow usually begins on paper.

But he does stay on beat, but I said Jazz cus he might hit on an in between note like Jazz. It just comes to liking his flow or not, I think his is pretty good, unorthodox.

 

[Chronic]

How is it too many syllables? Its what he wanted to say...I'd say its an "appropriate amount"

A bar is dictated by the beat. It's a certain portion of the beat (I don't know the terminology). That portion takes time. He doesn't have enough time to say all the words he wrote down so he has to speed up his flow in an unrhythmic manner. If pre-written, you write to the beat in order to make it flow. It seems as if Talib just writes the shit down and then tries to fit in the beat.
Being on beat isn't just dependent on the last word of a bar.

Listen to Bun-B on "Murder", he's just about perfectly on beat throughout that song. Then compare it to a Talib record.

 

[ARon]

^You dont think it is done purposely?

 

[Chronic]

^You dont think it is done purposely?

Nope, not at all.
If it was done purposely there'd be some kind of coherence in it. And I don't mean coherently speeding up at random intervals.
He just doesn't ride beats well. His lyrics used to save him but now that he's doing the shit he's doing he's butt.

 

[roaches]

I think Kweli does do it on purpose now. But, I mean, compare the way he does it to, say, the first verse on this song:

s47.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=11C0DTE7GY3LZ2PWO88MK9995C

Kweli, by comparison is robotic, awkward. His rhythm is pretty forced and he's pretty subservient to the beat. He's the stereotypical white guy trying to get on a bubble butt his first time at the club.