Rhyme Theory (2022) | Hacker News Reader

Rhyme Theory (2022)

blog.chaselambda.com

55 pointsexp1orer8 comments

Cool work! Glad to see someone else finds the theory of slant rhymes fascinating. This is a pretty decent introductory article on the subject, but it's definitely missing a 'phonetic distance' measure to tie it all together. If you add one of those and you choose well, you can literally calculate 'how close' of a rhyme it is.

I also think that this could use an analysis of rebound phonetics in it as well -- often what feels good and easy to say is so because the 'release' of each phoneme is the same as the 'start' of the next phoneme. Especially once you start to go 'far' from the original phoneme in terms of where/how it is produced from the mouth, these sorts of considerations start to dominate how pleasant the flow is over strict rhyming and distance.

Rakim and Nas are another set of rappers with this genius-level lyrical/grammatical flow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M34OelgSlKI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI8A14Qcv68

It really seems like most of this lyrical talent exited rap by the early 2000s, not that I listen much anymore. There's some decent artists these days but it seems like the raw peak talent is gone because you don't need it anymore to make top dollar.

MF Doom ("probably your favorite rapper's favorite rapper") put out some of his best work in the 2000's and 2010's. It's still 90's style hip hop. Go give it a chance.

Mindboggling demonstrating of the sort of phonological rhyming described in the article, but also with an impeccable sense of rhythm in terms of where to place the rhyme.

"No herb in the record bin / Called before a random search for curbside checkin' in."

https://youtu.be/oTPXz6yc2HY?t=34

Couldn’t agree more. He also had a fun knack for subverting your expectations in his rhymes. “Great Day” contains my favorite example of this, which he later revisited in his verse on “Belize” with Black Thought.

Edit: Speaking of which, Black Thought still puts stuff out and is another extremely creative and versatile lyricist. For example I still revisit this freestyle quite frequently[0]

[0] https://youtu.be/prmQgSpV3fA

Lil Wayne, imo, is another of the all time greats when it comes to rhyme. See:

"Six Foot Seven Foot" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcRBUd_gJBg

"Sportcenter" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiOfOnTFA_M

I'm a lyrical spiritual miracle lyrical spiritual individual

I scream: Ice cream! And real eyes realize real lies.

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus

I know the scientific names of beings animalculous

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral

I am the very model of a modern Major-General

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