Oh wow this is a really great breakdown of the song’s structure.
I don’t really know any music theory, but I know a bit about poetry, and I can implicitly piece together how it works and hear whether or not it scans. I could tell there was a lot of weird optionality in this song, where you can shove in extra mora or whole feet in lines or leave them out and it would still scan, but sometimes it wouldn’t. The song’s meter does some weird stuff I don’t really understand, which makes it both easy and hard to match (easy in that it offers a lot of flexibility for creativity, hard in that it’s complex and easy to get wrong if you don’t try singing it).
Apologies if I caused you any consternation. I saw the string and thought it’d be fun to take a stab at it. I only had a vague awareness of the actual song, took a quick listen and played out my lyrics in my head based on some readings I’ve been doing on the psychotop & AI. Unfortunately I didn’t realize there’s rigid structure to Hip-hop stuff. My background is more along the lines of psychedelia and I tend to see lyric structures more in line with a Grace Slick style where vocal lyrics can be playfully varied around the song structure. best—hopkins
To scan, the structure should be something like:
(2 syllable pickup) (3-4 syllable measure) (2-3 syllable measure) (2-3 syllable measure)
(optional 1-syllable pickup) (4 syllable measure [the last 2 being AI])
(1-2 syllable pickup) (3-4 syllable measure) (2-3 syllable beat) (2-3 syllable beat)
(optional 1-syllable pickup) (4 syllable measure [the last 2 being AI])
(1-2 syllable pickup) (2-4 syllable measure) (2-3 syllable beat) (2-3 syllable beat)
(optional 1-syllable pickup) (4 syllable measure [the last 2 being AI])
(optional 1 syllable pickup) (4 syllable measure [the last 2 being AI])
(1 syllable pickup) (4 syllable measure [the last 2 being AI])
(1 syllable pickup) (4 syllable measure [the last 2 being AI])
E.g.
(I was) (gonna) (go to work but) (then I got high)
(I) (just got a) (new promotion but) (I got high)
[no pickup] (Now I’m) (selling dope and) (I know why)
[no pickup] (’Cause I got high)
(Be)(cause I got high)
(Be)(cause I got high)
Oh wow this is a really great breakdown of the song’s structure.
I don’t really know any music theory, but I know a bit about poetry, and I can implicitly piece together how it works and hear whether or not it scans. I could tell there was a lot of weird optionality in this song, where you can shove in extra mora or whole feet in lines or leave them out and it would still scan, but sometimes it wouldn’t. The song’s meter does some weird stuff I don’t really understand, which makes it both easy and hard to match (easy in that it offers a lot of flexibility for creativity, hard in that it’s complex and easy to get wrong if you don’t try singing it).
Apologies if I caused you any consternation. I saw the string and thought it’d be fun to take a stab at it. I only had a vague awareness of the actual song, took a quick listen and played out my lyrics in my head based on some readings I’ve been doing on the psychotop & AI. Unfortunately I didn’t realize there’s rigid structure to Hip-hop stuff. My background is more along the lines of psychedelia and I tend to see lyric structures more in line with a Grace Slick style where vocal lyrics can be playfully varied around the song structure. best—hopkins
No worries!