Conference Agenda

Sampling is, by now, a ubiquitous feature of our contemporary musical landscape. Of all the songs to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 throughout 2022, for example, nearly one in five sampled other music in some way (Tracklib 2022). Drawing on concepts established in the field of performance analysis, this paper explores the potential for sample-based beats in hip hop to function as a form of musical analysis. I argue that, just as with other analytic acts, sample-based beats are a) products of skilled and repeated close listening informed by expert knowledge (knowledge that is often also intuitive and/or embodied); and b) commentaries with the potential to shape how a body of music is heard and interpreted. In many respects, producers face methodological, aesthetic, and stylistic questions not unlike those encountered by performers, who, as Edward T. Cone (1968, 34) wrote, must always make “a choice: which of the relationships implicit in this piece are to be emphasized, to be made explicit?”

Focusing particularly on issues of meter and phrasing, my analyses consider issues such as: How do producers interpret a metrically ambiguous or multi-valent source? How do they recontextualize material from one meter into another? And, most importantly, how might attending to these choices inform—and transform—our interpretations of these source materials? Through close readings of songs by Usher (“Lil’ Freak,” 2010) and Nas (“I Can,” 2002), I demonstrate how sampling creates a living archive that documents the listening practices of an expert musical community.

Hip-hop artists 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G. were two of the most influential rappers of the 90s. Known for their unique lyrical styles, and of course, their intense rivalry, 2Pac and Biggie pushed the limits of lyrical and rhythmic expression. Focusing on their use of voice to indicate formal boundaries, this paper examines two critical elements of flow: phrase structure and vocal groove. By analyzing shifts in accentual patterns and syntactical groupings, I reveal how these artists establish temporality within the cyclic framework of hip-hop. Rooted in black culture and history, hip-hop is largely understood as a cyclic genre. This cyclicity is present on multiple structural levels. At the base level, emcees and producers sample beats that cycle repeatedly throughout a track, creating a rhythmic foundation. At the highest level, a hip-hop track typically alternates between rapped verses and a hook or chorus. But if the music is primarily cyclic, what claims can be made about formal development? Building upon research in groove-based music genres, I argue that dynamic tension can build up in hip-hop music through the concept of projection. When rhythms are not occurring where they are “supposed to be,” there is a pull towards the normative beat, which, when reached, is akin to resolving dissonance. Rappers can establish a normative flow, rhyme scheme, and pattern of accents in a verse, that when thwarted, may create tension. Thus, the cyclic nature of the track forms the base of an expressive canvas that rappers can modify and develop. In this paper, I will demonstrate that through vocal groove shifts and phrase structure modifications, 2Pac and Biggie signal formal boundaries, creating spaces that, while not primarily goal-directed, depict a temporal teleology.

This paper explores rhythm and vocal expression in hip hop music performed by women, examining the musical processes through which songs engage with unique subjectivities of race and gender. The study of metrical levels, interplay between sung melody and rapped flow, and use of digital samples illuminates musical practices women of hip hop mobilize in creating narratives of strength, power, and leadership.

Beginning with music by female MCs that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s including Queen Latifa and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC, I explore how artists leveraged rhythmic timing and articulation in flow to musically shape narratives that challenged the hypermasculinity of gangsta rap. The paper examines how rhetorical shifts in and out of swing metrical division shape formal trajectory in songs, highlighting difference in confronting social hierarchies. The study further establishes how songs by Mary J. Blige and Beyoncé incorporate techniques of the MC’s flow, merging traditions in Black gospel singing and rap to enact narratives of empowerment.

In examining music by Noname (Fatimah Warner) from her 2018 album, Room 25, I demonstrate how her distinctive free-flowing poetic rap delivery merges with gospel-infused singing, vocally traversing liminal boundaries of spoken words, rap, and song. Noname’s flow is often expressively distanced from the tactus and phrasing in the instruments, resulting in a layered multitemporal texture. I argue that an expressive subjectivity emerges in Noname’s songs as multitemporal layers converge, musically representing an internal processing of thought as it comes into focus.