The Unteachable Flow

Folks like to throw the word “flow” around when talking about their favorite rappers. But “flow” is actually a very quantifiable variable. It speaks to a rappers rhythmic vocabulary and his or her phrasing. In hip-hop, there are usually 4 beats in a measure or bar. Each beat can be subdivided into 2, 3, 4, 6 or 8 beats in most cases (5, 7 or 9 in others as well). This creates an extremely large number of possible beats for an MC to place a word or start a phrase. Equally, how one acknowledges the negative spaces or rests between the notes will also be a determining factor on whether their words come out sounding like a nursery rhyme or an interesting pattern that is in keeping with the emotional aspirations of the overall message.

On Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar explores a wide range of “flow” styles or rhythmic patterns. These range from free flowing, stream of consciousness bursts like on “For Free?” to sparse, classic Easy-E/NWA style West Coast patterns on “King Kunta.” Lamar is equally at home leaning on the smooth Native Tongue flow of a Q-Tip or Posdnous on “These Walls”; or the more modern rapid-fire, sixteenth-note bravado styles of today on “i.” Whatever the tempo or rhythmic current of the song, Lamar’s ability to start a phrase on any beat and then rest and pick back up on any beat all the while dictating the groove puts him in the same exclusive category as Nas or Biggie, where the rhythmic instinct is so fine-tuned that it sounds effortless.

What really separates great rappers from merely good is the ability to adjust precisely where a word falls within a specific beat. In other words, being able to deliberately lean back on the beat or push ahead of it. This type of subtlety falls into that rarefied category of unteachables. Like speed for athletes, you either got it or you don’t. Our guy Kendrick not only has it, he uses it as a tool to augment the emotional power of his words. He will lean ahead of the beat to emphasize anxiety or lay back behind the beat to create a sense of relaxation.

Listen to how each time he declares his crosstown rivals to be “boo boo” on “Hood Politics,” he leans farther and farther back behind the beat with each “boo boo,” a confidence bordering on bravado. Like: I can show up late for this note and still rock it. Likewise, listen to how he pushes ahead of the beat on the double-timed fourth verse of “Momma” and how it increases the tension surrounding his confusion about women, money and mankind.