Hello, The Rapper's Handbook. (Wordplay) (Back to The Forum)

From the birth of Hiphop to the current era of rap, lyrical content and tendencies have evolved…as most things do. The most apparent change is in the Rapper’s style. From the lyrics used, charisma, flow and general swag.

Literary devices have always been common in writing’s from the early 90’s and are becoming more widely used today. Common devices are simile’s, puns, imagery, and metaphors. Artists become known for there common use of these and/or for there skill and ability to use them well.

I personally am a BIG fan of wordplay (puns). A couple I made recently to Dead Presidents by Nas, are:

• “…Now I’m synced out. But Oh, I’m O.K. see? , like a Durant feed, going in for the dunks, while rockin' Sb’s.”

(Play on “OK see” for O.K.C., where Durant plays basketball at) and (Play on “dunks” and “Sb’s”, where dunks is interpreted as a Slam dunk and a type of popular shoe…Nike sb dunks.)

• “…Fly chicks to my nest, pent top sky’s. I should be in ya top 5, wingin' it, and yea i pop eyes. Beating competitors to a pulp, now concentrate on my OJ traits. Killin' these hoes without a glove. Late…periods, turn to weekday pay…periods.”

(Play on “fly chicks to my nest”, where they commonly share the qualities of a bird, while using slang to tie them in together. Also incorporates personification.)

(Play on “Pop eyes” {which continues from last bar about birds}, is used with “wingin' it” {said earlier in bar} and with “beating competitors” {said beginning of next bar},“Popeyes” shares a connection with birds {chicken} as the restaurant POPEYES is a known for their great chicken and buiscuits and connects to the next bar, {“beating competitors”} as Pop eyes, as in actually hitting eyes)

(Play on “pulp”, “concentrate” and “OJ”. These all share the characteristics of Juice. {while having more obvious meanings like concentrate=focus/pay attention})

(Play on “OJ”, again, this time as OJ Simpson. “Killin' these hoes” and “without a glove”. These are all tied into OJ Simpson, who is known for notoriously {though didn’t hold in court} killing his wife. Police ended up finding a glove that {if it had fit him} would have tied him to the murder and he possibly would be behind bars to this day.

(Play on “killin' these hoes without a glove” and “late periods”. this time “killin' these…” is slang for killin' the pussy without a condom, which possibly could lead to late periods)

(Didn’t expect this to be so damn long, sorry. this ISN’T an “Explain my lyrics thread” just used them as examples. Hope I explained it well/clear enough)

Puns are also prominent in more mainstream artists, an awesome example is Ab-Soul. He has released a recent album that is GREAT, called Control System.

On one of the tracks Pineal Gland, Ab-Soul made some great examples saying:

1. “I wrote like Edgar Allen, I was po' like Edgar Allen”
2. “They failed in testing like whats inside of them”
3. “We overseas, back-to-back, never wore Chanel”

So, how do you feel about wordplay? and What is your favorite example of wordplay?

wordplays mad killer bro. that line bout durant tite., he goin hard in the playoffs.

“If you can’t stand the heat then turn the kitchen colder
In 20 bar writtin quotas you’d feel outta place like an eviction notice"
– Wordsworth

nice…
This lines dope as fuck doe…
You Damn Right I’ll Click The Pound,And Blow It By Ya
Just Like A Campsight The Way I Sit Around And Open Fire
sheeeeeeeeeeeeesh

The “Babylon” line on Terrorist Threats by Ab-Soul is a great example.
“Babylon, Babylon
At my window all I see is Babylon
On the news all I see is Babylon
And all niggas do is just babble on"
and the
"We can see you half-stepping, I should somersault
Some are salty that I made it in the way I did” line on Soulo Ho3.
Abs worplay is too dope.

I know this song is played too much but I can’t get over this line

“I carry 4 5’s like the change for a 20” — J Cole, Can’t Get Enough
J Cole carries .45 pistols (pronounced 4-5) just like he carries 4 $5 bills, which make the change for a $20

Wale excels at this type of wordplay.
For example, sticking with the rap theme:
‘Half a mil rap-touring, Jarret Jack, boy’

I made it back to Fahrenheit, grimey get dinero type
Feral, fuckin' ill apparel, wearin' pack of parasites
Threw his own youth off the roof after paradise
La di da di, back in here to fuck the party up
Raidin' fridges, tippin' over vases with a tommy gun
Never dollars, poppa make it rain hockey pucks
And 60 day chips from fuckin' awesome anonymous
Call him bloated ‘til he show 'em that the flow deluxe
Off the wall loafers, Four Loko in a cobra clutch
Vocals bold and rough, evoke a ho to pose as drum
And let me hit and beat it with a stick until the hole is numb
The culprit of the potent punch -EARL SWEATSHIRT … Future of Odd Future

TERM K, MAYDAY! MAYDAY! “all these cats rhymes sound like they squeezed em out they RECTUM, WRECK'ED-EM? nearly killed em!”

@squiggles, dude i cant lie, when i heard that line i liked it..