After dropping off the elder princess a song came on the radio, Ludacris’ 44 bars. That got me thinking about the theme in rap to make songs that are all about bars as a display of physical dominance; or lyrical dominance. The concept is something like 4 beats in music make a bar and the song is bar after bar of pure rap. The song is pure in the sense there is no hook or chorus, the music takes a backseat to lyrics. One of my favorite songs is Jadakiss’ 40 bars of terror and a more recent take is Redman’s 80 barz, both artists are hall of famers. This type of song is not commercially successful, that’s why I suggest it’s about establishing dominance. A successful song in the industry follows a formula. A simple example looks like all songs being 3-4 minutes long with a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and then maybe a slight variation on the chorus again. There was an executive that would speak to classes explaining the business side of the art, he’s passed now and I can’t find his name. The point is executives that risk millions on new art, don’t want it to be very new, they want another hit. The artists, or in this case rappers, especially male rappers want to see where their skills measure against another artist irrespective of industry intentions. The way they do that is rhyme after rhyme, there’s physical endurance to do that 40 bars straight. Then a master of the craft would find a whole song of ABAB rhyme scheme boring. Making patterns more complicated, like with piano, begins to use math. Taking 4 bars with 4 beats gives an opportunity for at least 16 rhymes, maybe the first bar and the fourth bar use ABAB to mirror each other. Inside the pattern can be a new pattern which opens up to infinite possibilities.
Chris' Morning Pages 