Many writers use wordplay to entertain an audience, hip hop artists who use it well become legends. All rappers need to learn how to effectively use wordplay, because many styles of rap rely on wordplay to sway a crowd in their direction. Battle rappers who make references to their opponents using wordplay always get a reaction from the crowd. Comedic rappers use humorous wordplay to make you laugh. Street rappers use wordplay and street themes to entertain. A posse cut is a cypher on wax. Cypher: a DJ puts on a beat and several rappers take turns rapping over it.
Posse cuts that will be released as singles all have hooks. And most of those types of posse cuts are the best place to find wordplay on wax. Posse cuts started as a showcase for a whole group to rap together and show the group united. So posse cuts were born out of necessity.
A way to use wordplay and idioms at the same time. The great thing about The Native Tongues Movement A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers and others is that they kept the tropes that made hip hop what it is and rejected what they believed to be passe, like negativity and violence, and championed individuality.
They just have to be different. The Tribe got together with the Leaders of The New School to make one of the greatest rap songs ever. But no list of posse cuts would be complete without this song. The dark menacing beat by Buckwild is a great example of archetypal boom bap most often found on great posse cuts.
An all-star cast of The L. Best wordplay: Sauce Money is too underrated. He is a prime example of a wordplay driven street rapper. This song is famous for being the debut of the boriqua bomber, Big Pun. But there are a few interesting uses of wordplay. AZ, Cormega, Nas and Foxy over smooth strings that sound like a gangster movie soundtrack. The Firm uses mafia themes more than wordplay. A different way of approaching a posse cut, using the mafia form of street themes.
The wordplay on this song is fantastic, pun intended. Especially Cam, Jada and Fabolous. Too many examples to include in a caption. Danny Brown has a decent following, but still more people need to know about him. He is at least as good as J. I just love this song! The most star-packed posse cut of all-time. Sway, King Tech and DJ Revolution have always been doing it for the culture and this track proves it. Every rule is made to be broken. There are a few posse cuts with hooks meant to be released as singles that were for the culture.
The best of those hits is Flava In Ya Ear. This is the most important post I have ever made. If there is a single technique missing in new music that is leading to the decline in hip hop, it is the decrease in proper wordplay. The best place to start in learning wordplay is explaining exactly what it is. Wordplay is using the multiple meanings, spelling and structure of words and sentences to surprise a listener and create humor. Shakespeare used wordplay. A pun is wordplay. It plays on a double meaning of a word to make a joke.
Wordplay techniques like these are the most effective way to sway any crowd. The right hook to knock out any contender. If it lands you win. Using puns in a rap requires finesse. Bad puns are what makes a line cringe worthy. The only way to know is to write puns yourself, trial and error. A pun relies on the double meaning of a single word within a sentence. The key to writing puns is finding words that sound the same but have different meanings or spellings.
Start with a list of homophones. Google it. Then use the list to write as many lines in a row as you can. Choose two words with the same pronunciation but different meanings and make a rhyme with it. Two parts two a bar. Subject and predicate. Set-up and payoff. The first half of the bar is the subject. What the bar is about. The subject usually contains the set-up. The set-up is the first part of the joke that creates an expectation, which is then subverted by the payoff.
It sets us up for a phrase that relates to having soul. It becomes a pun when he subverts our expectations by comparing it to shoe soles. This is the best way to structure any rhyme, not just puns and wordplay. The easiest way to practice writing wordplay is to use a list of homophones to write a bar and think of alternative meanings as a rhyme.
A decent rhyme off the top of my head. I need to practice more. Then fill in the context after. Rinse and repeat. As you get better, you can advance the structure and complexity. The skillful bending of the meaning of a brand-name or pop culture reference will always get a reaction from the audience. Especially when paired with a multi-syllable rhyme like Kanye does in the above example. Most wordplay depends on references and many rappers become known for their colorful use of the technique. Try to use them as much as possible in your wordplay.
It is considered a generally sloppy practice when you rhyme the same word with itself. It is only acceptable when the meanings of the two words in question are different, but sound the same. He twists unorthodox phrases to make them sound the same. What makes Killa so adept at this technique is the fact that he is unpredictable with the way he uses it.
Because Cam himself is dope. This is another technique where you can use commonly used phrases to your advantage. Look up lists of idioms and cliches on Google, we will be using the lists to create more rhymes. A great way to use wordplay. It requires creativity to make certain phrases make sense in a wordplay context. It may take an unorthodox comparison. It may take a slant rhyme. Or you may have to change the way you say a word to make it fit. Luckily, these things only make your wordplay sound better.
Random idiom: Red carpet treatment. Using your idiom as the rhyme is the easiest way to begin practicing wordplay. As you get better the subject matter will evolve though. Do what comes easiest to you in the beginning. The path of least resistance.
There are other ways to use wordplay by manipulating the structure and spelling of your lyrics. This is the way the earliest rappers played with words to add more creativity to their lyrics. Spell your name, especially if it has a strange spelling. The technique here is taking parts of a word or phrase and mixing them up. They call this a spoonerism. Otherwise this technique can come across a little campy.