Wednesday, April 27, 2005
muted nouns
People, I've noticed, forget the simple joys of enunciation. Like, how important it is to be understood by those outside your studio speakers. Hip-hop is one of the few forms where intentionally blurring the meaning of words during a song is less prevalent--though early Tribe Called Quest hooks, everything from ODB and most things Screwed point in the other way. The list could fill a house. And it works sometimes: stretching out syllables is like bending guitar strings when it matters or tapping MPC pads with baseball bats. Some bands need to be more earful of when its important to spread the love of easily understood lyrics and when its cheery to overlap verbs. You weren't listening, were you.
