129-880: Brandt Jones (born January 13, 1968), better known by his stage name B-Legit , is an American rapper from Vallejo, California . Before he started his music career, he went to Grambling State University . He became a member of The Click , a rap group formed by his cousin E-40 . He was featured on the track "Aint Hard 2 Find" on 2Pac 's album All Eyez on Me . He has been on several independent and major labels such as Sick Wid It Records , Jive Records , and Koch Records . He has collaborated with numerous other artists including E-40 , Celly Cel , Master P , Too Short , Scarface , Snoop Dogg , C-Murder , Bushwick Bill , Jadakiss , Daz Dillinger , Kurupt , Styles P , The Federation , Mystikal , UGK , Mack 10 , Daryl Hall , Keak Da Sneak , Rick Rock , Young Buck , Luniz , Paul Wall , and
258-461: A music director . Depending on the style of vocal music that a person has trained in, the "talent buyers" that they seek out may be record company , A&R representatives, music directors, choir directors, nightclub managers, or concert promoters. A CD or DVD with excerpts of vocal performances is used to demonstrate a singer's skills. Some singers hire an agent or manager to help them to seek out paid engagements and other performance opportunities;
387-408: A symphony orchestra or big band . Many styles of singing exist throughout the world. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged, or improvised. It may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, as part of a ritual, during music education or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice . If practice
516-542: A Jamaican immigrant, started delivering simple raps at his parties, which some claim were inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting . However, Kool Herc himself denies this link (in the 1984 book Hip Hop ), saying, "Jamaican toasting? Naw, naw. No connection there. I couldn't play reggae in the Bronx. People wouldn't accept it. The inspiration for rap is James Brown and the album Hustler's Convention ". Herc also suggests he
645-480: A few weeks before the Sugarhill Gang in 1979. In another interview Curtis said: "There was rapping in the Bronx and the cats there had been doing it for a while...Fatback certainly didn't invent rap or anything. I was just interested in it and I guess years later we were the first to record it. At the time you could already see cats rapping everywhere in the streets and doing stuff." With the decline of disco in
774-496: A few" as artists who exemplify this progression. Kool Moe Dee adds, "in 2002 Eminem created the song that got the first Oscar in Hip-Hop history [Lose Yourself] ... and I would have to say that his flow is the most dominant right now (2003)". There are many different styles of flow, with different terminology used by different people – stic.man of Dead Prez uses the following terms – Alternatively, music scholar Adam Krims uses
903-591: A jazz poet/musician, has been cited as an influence on rappers such as Chuck D and KRS-One . Scott-Heron himself was influenced by Melvin Van Peebles , whose first album was 1968's Brer Soul . Van Peebles describes his vocal style as "the old Southern style", which was influenced by singers he had heard growing up in South Chicago . Van Peebles also said that he was influenced by older forms of African-American music : "... people like Blind Lemon Jefferson and
1032-512: A means of expression. Many successful artists can sing a deep, rich vibrato. Extended vocal techniques include rapping, screaming, growling, overtones, sliding , falsetto , yodeling , belting , use of vocal fry register , using sound reinforcement systems , among others. A sound reinforcement system is the combination of microphones, signal processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers. The combination of such units may also use reverb, echo chambers and Auto-Tune among other devices. Vocal music
1161-428: A particular part of the vocal range or type of vocal register ; a vocal resonance area; or a specific vocal timbre. Head voice can be used in relation to a particular part of the vocal range or type of vocal register or a vocal resonance area. In Men, the head voice is commonly referred to as the falsetto. The transition from and combination of chest voice and head voice is referred to as vocal mix or vocal mixing in
1290-518: A pause or emphasis on words in certain places.", and Aesop Rock says, "I have a system of maybe 10 little symbols that I use on paper that tell me to do something when I'm recording." Hip-hop scholars also make use of the same flow diagrams: the books How to Rap and How to Rap 2 use the diagrams to explain rap's triplets, flams, rests, rhyme schemes, runs of rhyme, and breaking rhyme patterns, among other techniques. Similar systems are used by PhD musicologists Adam Krims in his book Rap Music and
1419-621: A pre-recorded recording of their vocal performance or, in the case of the controversial act Milli Vanilli , lip-syncing to tracks recorded by other uncredited singers. While some bands use backup singers who only sing when they are on stage, it is common for backup singers in popular music to have other roles. In many rock and metal bands, the musicians doing backup vocals also play instruments, such as rhythm guitar , electric bass, or drums. In Latin or Afro-Cuban groups, backup singers may play percussion instruments or shakers while singing. In some pop and hip hop groups and in musical theater ,
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#17330855466091548-501: A production studio, most frequently a producer provides the beat(s) for the MC to flow over. Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area between speech, prose, poetry, and singing . The word, which predates the musical form, originally meant "to lightly strike", and is now used to describe quick speech or repartee. The word has been used in the English language since the 16th century. In the 1960s
1677-465: A rapper to master, and a must for any MC. An MC with poor breath control cannot deliver difficult verses without making unintentional pauses. Raps are sometimes delivered with melody. West Coast rapper Egyptian Lover was the first notable MC to deliver "sing-raps". Popular rappers such as 50 Cent and Ja Rule add a slight melody to their otherwise purely percussive raps whereas some rappers such as Cee-Lo Green are able to harmonize their raps with
1806-421: A recovery period. These stages must be under conscious control by the singer until they become conditioned reflexes. Many singers abandon conscious controls before their reflexes are fully conditioned which ultimately leads to chronic vocal problems. Vibrato is a technique in which a sustained note wavers very quickly and consistently between a higher and a lower pitch, giving the note a slight quaver. Vibrato
1935-485: A rich timbre, because of the overtones due to the sympathetic resonance within the human body. Their names are derived from the area in which the singer feels these resonant vibration in the body. The chest register, more commonly referred to as the chest voice, is the lowest of the registers. When singing in the chest voice the singer feels sympathetic vibration in the chest. This is the register that people most commonly use while speaking. The middle voice falls in between
2064-450: A sequence of shows. Aspiring singers and vocalists must have musical skills, an excellent voice, the ability to work with people, and a sense of showmanship and drama. Additionally, singers need to have the ambition and drive to continually study and improve. Professional singers continue to seek out vocal coaching to hone their skills, extend their range, and learn new styles. As well, aspiring singers need to gain specialized skills in
2193-412: A shift in the way MCs rhymed: "Up until Rakim, everybody who you heard rhyme, the last word in the sentence was the rhyming [word], the connection word. Then Rakim showed us that you could put rhymes within a rhyme ... now here comes Big Daddy Kane — instead of going three words, he's going multiple". How to Rap explains that "rhyme is often thought to be the most important factor in rap writing ... rhyme
2322-470: A shortening of repartee . A rapper refers to a performer who "raps". By the late 1960s, when Hubert G. Brown changed his name to H. Rap Brown , rap was a slang term referring to an oration or speech, such as was common among the "hip" crowd in the protest movements, but it did not come to be associated with a musical style for another decade. Rap was used to describe talking on records as early as 1970 on Isaac Hayes ' album ...To Be Continued with
2451-454: A specific kind of vocal coloration or vocal timbre. In classical singing, its use is limited entirely to the lower part of the modal register or normal voice. Within other forms of singing, chest voice is often applied throughout the modal register. Chest timbre can add a wonderful array of sounds to a singer's vocal interpretive palette. However, the use of an overly strong chest voice in the higher registers in an attempt to hit higher notes in
2580-411: A specific vocal role, applying such terms as soprano, tenor, baritone, etc. can be misleading or even inaccurate. Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a particular series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds , and possessing the same quality. Registers originate in laryngeal function. They occur because
2709-401: A striking resemblance to the evolution of jazz both stylistically and formally". Boxer Muhammad Ali anticipated elements of rap, often using rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in
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#17330855466092838-419: A subgenre within a subgenre such as vocalese and scat singing in jazz. In many modern pop musical groups , a lead singer performs the primary vocals or melody of a song , as opposed to a backing singer who sings backup vocals or the harmony of a song. Backing vocalists sing some, but usually, not all, parts of the song often singing only in a song's refrain or humming in the background. An exception
2967-411: A well-defined technique that depends on the use of the lungs, which act as an air supply or bellows ; on the larynx , which acts as a reed or vibrator ; on the chest , head cavities and the skeleton, which have the function of an amplifier , as the tube in a wind instrument ; and on the tongue , which together with the palate , teeth , and lips articulate and impose consonants and vowels on
3096-446: Is music performed by one or more singers, which are typically called songs , and which may be performed with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Vocal music is probably the oldest form of music since it does not require any instrument or equipment besides the voice. All musical cultures have some form of vocal music and there are many long-standing singing traditions throughout
3225-555: Is aided by use of external intercostals , scalenes , and sternocleidomastoid muscles . The pitch is altered with the vocal cords . With the lips closed, this is called humming . The sound of each individual's singing voice is entirely unique not only because of the actual shape and size of an individual's vocal cords , but also due to the size and shape of the rest of that person's body. Humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of
3354-400: Is also in alignment with the views of other academic fields that study vocal registration including speech pathology , phonetics , and linguistics . Although both methods are still in use, current vocal pedagogical practice tends to adopt the newer more scientific view. Also, some vocal pedagogists take ideas from both viewpoints. The contemporary use of the term chest voice often refers to
3483-546: Is broadly termed a song, although, in classical music , terms such as aria are typically used. Vocal music is written in many different forms and styles which are often labeled within a particular genre of music. These genres include popular music , art music , religious music , secular music , and fusions of such genres. Within these larger genres are many subgenres. For example, popular music would encompass blues , jazz , country music , easy listening , hip hop , rock music , and several other genres. There may also be
3612-666: Is commonly referred to as the "Migos Flow" (a term that is contentious within the hip-hop community). Mitchell Ohriner in "Flow: The Rhythmic Voice in Rap Music" describes seven "groove classes" consisting of archetypal sixteen-step accent patterns generated by grouping notes in clusters of two and/or three. These groove classes are further distinguished from one another as "duple" and "nonduple". Groove classes without internal repetition can occur in any of sixteen rhythmic rotations, whereas groove classes with internal repetition have fewer meaningful rotations. The standard form of rap notation
3741-405: Is connected with respiration; the articulators affect resonance; the resonators affect the vocal folds; the vocal folds affect breath control; and so forth. Vocal problems are often a result of a breakdown in one part of this coordinated process which causes voice teachers to frequently focus intensively on one area of the process with their student until that issue is resolved. However, some areas of
3870-538: Is currently no authoritative voice classification system within non-classical music. Attempts have been made to adopt classical voice type terms to other forms of singing but such attempts have been met with controversy. The development of voice categorizations were made with the understanding that the singer would be using classical vocal technique within a specified range using unamplified (no microphones) vocal production. Since contemporary musicians use different vocal techniques and microphones and are not forced to fit into
3999-431: Is done regularly then the sounds can become clearer and stronger. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific musical genre , such as classical or rock , although there are singers with crossover success (singing in more than one genre). Professional singers usually take voice training provided by voice teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. In its physical aspect, singing has
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4128-498: Is five-part gospel a cappella music, where the lead is the highest of the five voices and sings a descant and not the melody . Some artists may sing both the lead and backing vocals on audio recordings by overlapping recorded vocal tracks. Popular music includes a range of vocal styles. Hip hop uses rapping , the rhythmic delivery of rhymes in a rhythmic speech over a beat or without accompaniment. Some types of rapping consist mostly or entirely of speech and chanting, like
4257-437: Is known as vocal resonation . Another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of laryngeal function are described as different kinds of vocal registers . The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the singer's formant ; which has been shown to match particularly well to
4386-563: Is more common to explain registration events based on the physical sensations they feel when singing. Titze also explains that there are discrepancies in the terminology used to talk about vocal registration between speech pathologists and singing teachers. Since this article discusses the passaggio , which is a term used by classical singers, the registers will be discussed as they are in the field of singing rather than speech pathology and science. The three main registers, described as head, middle (mixed), and chest voice, are described as having
4515-433: Is often required to access the pitches within these registers. Men and women with lower voices rarely sing in these registers. Lower-voiced women in particular receive very little if any training in the flageolet register. Men have one more additional register called the strohbass , which lies below the chest voice. Singing in this register is hard on the vocal cords, and therefore, is hardly ever used. Vocal pedagogy
4644-945: Is often used within opera to associate possible roles with potential voices. There are currently several different systems in use within classical music including the German Fach system and the choral music system among many others. No system is universally applied or accepted. However, most classical music systems acknowledge seven different major voice categories. Women are typically divided into three groups: soprano , mezzo-soprano , and contralto . Men are usually divided into four groups: countertenor , tenor , baritone , and bass . With regard to voices of pre-pubescent children, an eighth term, treble , can be applied. Within each of these major categories, several sub-categories identify specific vocal qualities like coloratura facility and vocal weight to differentiate between voices. Within choral music , singers' voices are divided solely on
4773-435: Is singing is called a singer , artiste or vocalist (in jazz or popular music ). Singers perform music ( arias , recitatives , songs , etc.) that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments . Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir . Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument (as in art songs or some jazz styles ) up to
4902-468: Is still the rhyme foundation all emcees are building on". Artists and critics often credit Rakim with creating the overall shift from the more simplistic old school flows to more complex flows near the beginning of hip hop's new school – Kool Moe Dee says, "any emcee that came after 1986 had to study Rakim just to know what to be able to do. Rakim, in 1986, gave us flow and that was the rhyme style from 1986 to 1994. From that point on, anybody emceeing
5031-518: Is the flow diagram, where rappers line-up their lyrics underneath "beat numbers". Different rappers have slightly different forms of flow diagram that they use: Del the Funky Homosapien says, "I'm just writing out the rhythm of the flow, basically. Even if it's just slashes to represent the beats, that's enough to give me a visual path.", Vinnie Paz states, "I've created my own sort of writing technique, like little marks and asterisks to show like
5160-457: Is the pulse or wave in a sustained tone. Vibrato occurs naturally and is the result of proper breath support and a relaxed vocal apparatus. Some studies have shown that vibrato is the result of a neuromuscular tremor in the vocal folds. In 1922 Max Schoen was the first to make the comparison of vibrato to a tremor due to change in amplitude, lack of automatic control and it being half the rate of normal muscular discharge. Some singers use vibrato as
5289-520: Is the study of the teaching of singing. The art and science of vocal pedagogy has a long history that began in Ancient Greece and continues to develop and change today. Professions that practice the art and science of vocal pedagogy include vocal coaches , choral directors , vocal music educators , opera directors , and other teachers of singing. Vocal pedagogy concepts are a part of developing proper vocal technique . Typical areas of study include
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5418-740: Is to maintain an even timbre throughout the passaggio. Through proper training, it is possible to produce a resonant and powerful sound. One cannot adequately discuss the vocal passaggio without having a basic understanding of the different vocal registers. In his book The Principles of Voice Production , Ingo Titze states, "The term register has been used to describe perceptually distinct regions of vocal quality that can be maintained over some ranges of pitch and loudness." Discrepancies in terminology exist between different fields of vocal study, such as teachers and singers, researchers, and clinicians. As Marilee David points out, "Voice scientists see registration primarily as acoustic events." For singers, it
5547-431: Is usually performed off-time to musical accompaniment. It also differs from singing , which varies in pitch and does not always include words . Because they do not rely on pitch inflection, some rap artists may play with timbre or other vocal qualities. Rap is a primary ingredient of hip-hop music , and so commonly associated with the genre that it is sometimes called "rap music". Precursors to modern rap music include
5676-534: Is what gives rap lyrics their musicality. Many of the rhythmic techniques used in rapping come from percussive techniques and many rappers compare themselves to percussionists . How to Rap 2 identifies all the rhythmic techniques used in rapping such as triplets , flams , 16th notes , 32nd notes , syncopation , extensive use of rests , and rhythmic techniques unique to rapping such as West Coast "lazy tails", coined by Shock G . Rapping has also been done in various time signatures , such as 3/4 time . Since
5805-600: The 2000s , rapping has evolved into a style of rap that spills over the boundaries of the beat, closely resembling spoken English. Rappers like MF Doom and Eminem have exhibited this style, and since then, rapping has been difficult to notate. The American hip-hop group Crime Mob exhibited a new rap flow in songs such as " Knuck If You Buck ", heavily dependent on triplets. Rappers including Drake , Kanye West , Rick Ross , Young Jeezy and more have included this influence in their music. In 2014, an American hip-hop collective from Atlanta , Migos , popularized this flow, and
5934-421: The acronym 's expansion may be considered evidence for its ubiquity: the full term "Master of Ceremonies" is very rarely used in the hip-hop scene. This confusion prompted the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest to include this statement in the liner notes to their 1993 album Midnight Marauders : Singing Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice . A person whose profession
6063-434: The " death growl ". One difference between live performances in the popular and Classical genres is that whereas Classical performers often sing without amplification in small- to mid-size halls, in popular music, a microphone and PA system (amplifier and speakers) are used in almost all performance venues, even a small coffee house. The use of the microphone has had several impacts on popular music. For one, it facilitated
6192-659: The "Black rhetorical continuum", continuing past traditions of expanding upon them through "creative use of language and rhetorical styles and strategies". Blues , rooted in the work songs and spirituals of slavery , was first played by black Americans around the time of the Emancipation Proclamation . This way of preaching, unique to African-Americans, called the Black sermonic tradition influenced singers and musicians such as 1940s African-American gospel group The Jubalaires . The Jubalaire's songs "The Preacher and
6321-494: The '90s. Music scholar Adam Krims says, "the flow of MCs is one of the profoundest changes that separates out new-sounding from older-sounding music ... it is widely recognized and remarked that rhythmic styles of many commercially successful MCs since roughly the beginning of the 1990s have progressively become faster and more 'complex'". He cites "members of the Wu-Tang Clan , Nas , AZ , Big Pun , and Ras Kass , just to name
6450-472: The 13th century when it was distinguished from the "throat voice" (pectoris, guttoris, capitis—at this time it is likely that head voice referred to the falsetto register ) by the writers Johannes de Garlandia and Jerome of Moravia . The terms were later adopted within bel canto , the Italian opera singing method, where chest voice was identified as the lowest and head voice the highest of three vocal registers:
6579-507: The 1970s. An editor of the newspaper, The Fayetteville Observer interviewed Bill Curtis of the disco-funk music group the Fatback Band in 2020. Curtis noted that when he moved to the Bronx in the 1970s he heard people rapping over scratched records throughout the neighborhoods and radio DJs were rapping before the genre was released on retail recordings. The Fatback Band released the first rap recording, " King Tim III (Personality Jock) ",
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#17330855466096708-522: The 2010s as "rap", the source came from Manhattan. Pete DJ Jones said the first person he heard rap was DJ Hollywood , a Harlem (not Bronx) native who was the house DJ at the Apollo Theater . Kurtis Blow also said the first person he heard rhyme was DJ Hollywood. In a 2014 interview, Hollywood said: "I used to like the way Frankie Crocker would ride a track, but he wasn't syncopated to the track though. I liked [WWRL DJ] Hank Spann too, but he wasn't on
6837-399: The 21st century, rap had become a global phenomenon, influencing music, fashion, and culture worldwide. The English verb rap has various meanings; these include "to strike, especially with a quick, smart, or light blow", as well "to utter sharply or vigorously: to rap out a command". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives a date of 1541 for the first recorded use of the word with
6966-510: The African-American community were items like schoolyard chants and taunts, clapping games , jump-rope rhymes , some with unwritten folk histories going back hundreds of years across many nationalities. Sometimes these items contain racially offensive lyrics. In his narration between the tracks on George Russell 's 1958 jazz album New York, N.Y. , the singer Jon Hendricks recorded something close to modern rap, since it all rhymed and
7095-444: The African-American community—"to discuss or debate informally." The early rapping of hip-hop developed out of DJ and master of ceremonies ' announcements made over the microphone at parties, and later into more complex raps. Grandmaster Caz stated: "The microphone was just used for making announcements, like when the next party was gonna be, or people's moms would come to the party looking for them, and you have to announce it on
7224-523: The Bear" (1941) and "Noah" (1946) are precursors to the genre of rap music. The Jubalaires and other African-American singing groups during the blues, jazz, and gospel era are examples of the origins and development of rap music. Grammy-winning blues musician/historian Elijah Wald and others have argued that the blues were being rapped as early as the 1920s. Wald went so far as to call hip hop "the living blues". A notable recorded example of rapping in blues
7353-485: The Bronx hip hop set that until then was composed of DJing and b-boying (or beatboxing ), with traditional "shout out" style rapping. The style that Hollywood created and his partner introduced to the hip hop set quickly became the standard. Before that time, most MC rhymes, based on radio DJs, consisted of short patters that were disconnected thematically; they were separate unto themselves. But by using song lyrics, Hollywood gave his rhyme an inherent flow and theme. This
7482-448: The Funky Homosapien , Tech N9ne , People Under the Stairs , Twista , B-Real , Mr Lif , 2Mex , and Cage . MCs stay on beat by stressing syllables in time to the four beats of the musical backdrop. Poetry scholar Derek Attridge describes how this works in his book Poetic Rhythm – "rap lyrics are written to be performed to an accompaniment that emphasizes the metrical structure of
7611-404: The Jamaican " toasting ". In some types of rapping, the performers may interpolate short sung or half-sung passages. Blues singing is based on the use of the blue notes – notes sung at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. In heavy metal and hardcore punk subgenres, vocal styles can include techniques such as screams , shouts, and unusual sounds such as
7740-576: The Poetics of Identity and Kyle Adams in his academic work on flow. Because rap revolves around a strong 4/4 beat, with certain syllables said in time to the beat, all the notational systems have a similar structure: they all have the same 4 beat numbers at the top of the diagram, so that syllables can be written in-line with the beat numbers. This allows devices such as rests, "lazy tails", flams, and other rhythmic techniques to be shown, as well as illustrating where different rhyming words fall in relation to
7869-463: The West African griot tradition, certain vocal styles of blues and jazz , an African-American insult game called playing the dozens (see Battle rap and Diss ), and 1960s African-American poetry. Stemming from the hip-hop cultural movement , rap music originated in the Bronx , New York City , in the early 1970s and became part of popular music later that decade. Rapping developed from
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#17330855466097998-412: The amplified sound. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are nevertheless coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort. Exhalation may be aided by the abdominal , internal intercostal and lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation
8127-443: The announcements made over the microphone at parties by DJs and MCs , evolving into more complex lyrical performances. Rap is usually delivered over a beat , typically provided by a DJ , turntablist , or beatboxer when performing live. Much less commonly a rapper can decide to perform a cappella , meaning without accompaniment of any sort. When a rap or hip-hop artist is creating a song, "track", or record, done primarily in
8256-457: The art of singing are so much the result of coordinated functions that it is hard to discuss them under a traditional heading like phonation, resonation, articulation, or respiration. Once the voice student has become aware of the physical processes that make up the act of singing and of how those processes function, the student begins the task of trying to coordinate them. Inevitably, students and teachers will become more concerned with one area of
8385-415: The backup singers may be required to perform elaborately choreographed dance routines while they sing through headset microphones. The salaries and working conditions for vocalists vary a great deal. While jobs in other music fields such as music education choir conductors tend to be based on full-time, salaried positions, singing jobs tend to be based on contracts for individual shows or performances, or for
8514-405: The baritone must sing tenor or bass. Either option can present problems for the singer, but for most singers, there are fewer dangers in singing too low than in singing too high. Within contemporary forms of music (sometimes referred to as contemporary commercial music ), singers are classified by the style of music they sing, such as jazz, pop, blues, soul, country, folk, and rock styles. There
8643-419: The basis of vocal range. Choral music most commonly divides vocal parts into high and low voices within each sex (SATB, or soprano, alto, tenor, and bass). As a result, the typical choral situation gives many opportunities for misclassification to occur. Since most people have medium voices, they must be assigned to a part that is either too high or too low for them; the mezzo-soprano must sing soprano or alto and
8772-405: The beat. The Midwestern group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony was one of the first groups to achieve nationwide recognition for using the fast-paced, melodic and harmonic raps that are also practiced by Do or Die , another Midwestern group. Another rapper that harmonized his rhymes was Nate Dogg , a rapper part of the group 213. Rakim experimented not only with following the beat, but also with complementing
8901-546: The body are put in place. The ability to move air in and out of the body freely and to obtain the needed quantity of air can be seriously affected by the posture of the various parts of the breathing mechanism. A sunken chest position will limit the capacity of the lungs, and a tense abdominal wall will inhibit the downward travel of the diaphragm. Good posture allows the breathing mechanism to fulfill its basic function efficiently without any undue expenditure of energy. Good posture also makes it easier to initiate phonation and to tune
9030-418: The body. There are eight components of the ideal singing posture: Natural breathing has three stages: a breathing-in period, breathing out period, and a resting or recovery period; these stages are not usually consciously controlled. Within singing, there are four stages of breathing: a breathing-in period (inhalation); a setting up controls period (suspension); a controlled exhalation period (phonation); and
9159-531: The book How to Rap breaks flow down into rhyme, rhyme schemes , and rhythm (also known as cadence ). 'Flow' is also sometimes used to refer to elements of the delivery ( pitch , timbre , volume ) as well, though often a distinction is made between the flow and the delivery. Staying on the beat is central to rap's flow – many MCs note the importance of staying on-beat in How to Rap including Sean Price , Mighty Casey, Zion I , Vinnie Paz , Fredro Starr , Del
9288-408: The book How to Rap , where diagrams are used to show how the lyrics line up with the beat – "stressing a syllable on each of the four beats gives the lyrics the same underlying rhythmic pulse as the music and keeps them in rhythm ... other syllables in the song may still be stressed, but the ones that fall in time with the four beats of a bar are the only ones that need to be emphasized in order to keep
9417-563: The careful and systematic practice of both songs and vocal exercises. Vocal exercises have several purposes, including warming up the voice; extending the vocal range; "lining up" the voice horizontally and vertically; and acquiring vocal techniques such as legato, staccato, control of dynamics, rapid figurations, learning to sing wide intervals comfortably, singing trills, singing melismas and correcting vocal faults. Vocal pedagogists instruct their students to exercise their voices in an intelligent manner. Singers should be thinking constantly about
9546-500: The chest and neck , the position of the tongue , and the tightness of otherwise unrelated muscles can be altered. Any one of these actions results in a change in pitch , volume ( loudness ), timbre , or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body and an individual's size and bone structure can affect the sound produced by an individual. Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This
9675-404: The chest can lead to forcing. Forcing can lead consequently to vocal deterioration. Passaggio ( Italian pronunciation: [pasˈsaddʒo] ) is a term used in classical singing to describe the transition area between the vocal registers . The passaggi (plural) of the voice lie between the different vocal registers, such as the chest voice , where any singer can produce a powerful sound,
9804-425: The chest or head. They argue that the vibratory sensations which are felt in these areas are resonance phenomena and should be described in terms related to vocal resonance , not to registers. These vocal pedagogists prefer the terms chest voice and head voice over the term register. This view believes that the problems which people identify as register problems are really problems of resonance adjustment. This view
9933-467: The chest voice and head voice. The head register, or the head voice, is the highest of the main vocal registers. When singing in the head voice, the singer may feel sympathetic vibration occurring in the face or another part of the head. Where these registers lie in the voice is dependent on sex and the voice type within each sex. There are an additional two registers called falsetto and flageolet register, which lie above their head register. Training
10062-440: The chest, passagio , and head registers. This approach is still taught by some vocal pedagogists today. Another current popular approach that is based on the bel canto model is to divide both men and women's voices into three registers. Men's voices are divided into "chest register", "head register", and "falsetto register" and woman's voices into "chest register", "middle register", and "head register". Such pedagogists teach that
10191-476: The crowd'. Some use this word interchangeably with the term rapper , while for others the term denotes a superior level of skill and connection to the wider culture. MC can often be used as a term of distinction; referring to an artist with good performance skills. As Kool G Rap notes, "masters of ceremony, where the word 'M.C.' comes from, means just keeping the party alive" [sic] . Many people in hip hop including DJ Premier and KRS-One feel that James Brown
10320-459: The development of intimate, expressive singing styles such as " crooning " which would not have enough projection and volume if done without a microphone. As well, pop singers who use microphones can do a range of other vocal styles that would not project without amplification, such as making whispering sounds, humming, and mixing half-sung and sung tones. As well, some performers use the microphone's response patterns to create effects, such as bringing
10449-435: The early 1980s rap became a new form of expression. Rap arose from musical experimentation with rhyming, rhythmic speech. Rap was a departure from disco. Sherley Anne Williams refers to the development of rap as "anti-Disco" in style and means of reproduction. The early productions of Rap after Disco sought a more simplified manner of producing the tracks they were to sing over. Williams explains how Rap composers and DJ's opposed
10578-555: The field hollers. I was also influenced by spoken word song styles from Germany that I encountered when I lived in France." During the mid-20th century, the musical culture of the Caribbean was constantly influenced by the concurrent changes in American music . As early as 1956, deejays were toasting over dubbed Jamaican beats. It was called "rap", expanding the word's earlier meaning in
10707-400: The following terms – MCs use many different rhyming techniques, including complex rhyme schemes, as Adam Krims points out – "the complexity ... involves multiple rhymes in the same rhyme complex (i.e. section with consistently rhyming words), internal rhymes , [and] offbeat rhymes". There is also widespread use of multisyllabic rhymes . It has been noted that rap's use of rhyme is some of
10836-555: The following: Singing when done with proper vocal technique is an integrated and coordinated act that effectively coordinates the physical processes of singing. There are four physical processes involved in producing vocal sound: respiration , phonation , resonation , and articulation . These processes occur in the following sequence: Although these four processes are often considered separately when studied, in actual practice, they merge into one coordinated function. With an effective singer or speaker, one should rarely be reminded of
10965-512: The head register is a vocal technique used in singing to describe the resonance felt in the singer's head. However, as knowledge of physiology has increased over the past two hundred years, so has the understanding of the physical process of singing and vocal production. As a result, many vocal pedagogists, such as Ralph Appelman at Indiana University and William Vennard at the University of Southern California , have redefined or even abandoned
11094-440: The heavily orchestrated and ritzy multi-tracks of Disco for "break beats" which were created from compiling different records from numerous genres and did not require the equipment from professional recording studios . Professional studios were not necessary therefore opening the production of rap to the youth who as Williams explains felt "locked out" because of the capital needed to produce Disco records. More directly related to
11223-640: The internal sounds correspond to the desired sounds required by the style of singing the student aims to re-create. An important goal of vocal development is to learn to sing to the natural limits of one's vocal range without any obvious or distracting changes of quality or technique. Vocal pedagogists teach that a singer can only achieve this goal when all of the physical processes involved in singing (such as laryngeal action, breath support, resonance adjustment, and articulatory movement) are effectively working together. Most vocal pedagogists believe in coordinating these processes by (1) establishing good vocal habits in
11352-409: The kind of sound they are making and the kind of sensations they are feeling while they are singing. Learning to sing is an activity that benefits from the involvement of an instructor. A singer does not hear the same sounds inside his or her head that others hear outside. Therefore, having a guide who can tell a student what kinds of sounds he or she is producing guides a singer to understand which of
11481-534: The late Mac Dre . Rapping Rapping (also rhyming , flowing , spitting , emceeing , or MCing ) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme , rhythmic speech, and [commonly] street vernacular ". It is usually performed over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The components of rap include "content" (what is being said, e.g., lyrics ), "flow" ( rhythm , rhyme ), and "delivery" ( cadence , tone ). Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that it
11610-556: The late 1970s, the term emcee, MC or M.C., derived from " master of ceremonies ", became an alternative title for a rapper, and for their role within hip-hop music and culture. An MC uses rhyming verses, pre-written or ad lib (' freestyled '), to introduce the DJ with whom they work, to keep the crowd entertained or to glorify themselves. As hip hop progressed, the title MC acquired backronyms such as 'mike chanter' 'microphone controller', 'microphone checker', 'music commentator', and one who 'moves
11739-474: The lowest within the body to the highest, these areas are the chest , the tracheal tree , the larynx itself, the pharynx , the oral cavity , the nasal cavity , and the sinuses . Chest voice and head voice are terms used within vocal music . The use of these terms varies widely within vocal pedagogical circles and there is currently no one consistent opinion among vocal music professionals in regards to these terms. Chest voice can be used in relation to
11868-423: The lyrics in time with the music". In rap terminology, 16-bars is the amount of time that rappers are generally given to perform a guest verse on another artist's song; one bar is typically equal to four beats of music. Old school flows were relatively basic and used only few syllables per bar, simple rhythmic patterns, and basic rhyming techniques and rhyme schemes. Melle Mel is cited as an MC who epitomizes
11997-404: The meaning "to utter (esp. an oath) sharply, vigorously, or suddenly". Wentworth and Flexner 's Dictionary of American Slang gives the meaning "to speak to, recognize, or acknowledge acquaintance with someone", dated 1932, and a later meaning of "to converse, esp. in an open and frank manner". It is these meanings from which the musical form of rapping derives, and this definition may be from
12126-434: The mic very close to the mouth to get an enhanced bass response, or, in the case of hip-hop beatboxers , doing plosive "p" and "b" sounds into the mic to create percussive effects. In the 2000s, controversy arose over the widespread use of electronic Auto-Tune pitch correction devices with recorded and live popular music vocals. Controversy has also arisen due to cases where pop singers have been found to be lip-syncing to
12255-440: The mic. Different DJs started embellishing what they were saying. I would make an announcement this way, and somebody would hear that and they add a little bit to it. I'd hear it again and take it a little step further 'til it turned from lines to sentences to paragraphs to verses to rhymes." One of the first rappers at the beginning of the hip hop period, at the end of the 1970s, was also hip hop's first DJ , DJ Kool Herc . Herc,
12384-404: The middle voice, and the head voice , where a penetrating sound is accessible, but usually only through vocal training. The historic Italian school of singing describes a primo passaggio and a secondo passaggio connected through a zona di passaggio in the male voice and a primo passaggio and secondo passaggio in the female voice. A major goal of classical voice training in classical styles
12513-494: The military ( United States Navy ). It was within the lyrics of a rap song called " This Wall " that Hammer first identified himself as M.C. Hammer and later marketed it on his debut album Feel My Power . The term MC has also been used in the genre of grime music to refer to a rapid style of rapping. Grime artist JME released an album titled Grime MC in 2019 which peaked at 29 on the UK Albums Chart . Uncertainty over
12642-402: The most advanced in all forms of poetry – music scholar Adam Bradley notes, "rap rhymes so much and with such variety that it is now the largest and richest contemporary archive of rhymed words. It has done more than any other art form in recent history to expand rhyme's formal range and expressive possibilities". In the book How to Rap , Masta Ace explains how Rakim and Big Daddy Kane caused
12771-589: The most comfortable tessitura of the voice, and then (2) slowly expanding the range. There are three factors that significantly affect the ability to sing higher or lower: McKinney says, "These three factors can be expressed in three basic rules: (1) As you sing higher, you must use more energy; as you sing lower, you must use less. (2) As you sing higher, you must use more space; as you sing lower, you must use less. (3) As you sing higher, you must use more depth; as you sing lower, you must use less." The singing process functions best when certain physical conditions of
12900-440: The most sensitive part of the ear 's frequency range. It has also been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa. The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds. In European classical music and opera , voices are treated like musical instruments . Composers who write vocal music must have an understanding of
13029-402: The music. To successfully deliver a rap, a rapper must also develop vocal presence, enunciation , and breath control . Vocal presence is the distinctiveness of a rapper's voice on record. Enunciation is essential to a flowing rap; some rappers choose also to exaggerate it for comic and artistic effect. Breath control, taking in air without interrupting one's delivery, is an important skill for
13158-399: The old school flow – Kool Moe Dee says, "from 1970 to 1978 we rhymed one way [then] Melle Mel, in 1978, gave us the new cadence we would use from 1978 to 1986". He's the first emcee to explode in a new rhyme cadence, and change the way every emcee rhymed forever. Rakim, The Notorious B.I.G. , and Eminem have flipped the flow, but Melle Mel's downbeat on the two, four, kick to snare cadence
13287-578: The one. Guys back then weren't concerned with being musical. I wanted to flow with the record". And in 1975, he ushered in what became known as the "hip hop" style by rhyming syncopated to the beat of an existing record uninterruptedly for nearly a minute. He adapted the lyrics of Isaac Hayes ' "Good Love 6-9969" and rhymed it to the breakdown part of "Love Is the Message". His partner Kevin Smith, better known as Lovebug Starski , took this new style and introduced it to
13416-411: The physiology of laryngeal function: the vocal fry register , the modal register , the falsetto register , and the whistle register . This view is also adopted by many vocal pedagogues. Vocal resonation is the process by which the basic product of phonation is enhanced in timbre or intensity by the air-filled cavities through which it passes on its way to the outside air. Various terms related to
13545-404: The process involved as their mind and body are so coordinated that one only perceives the resulting unified function. Many vocal problems result from a lack of coordination within this process. Since singing is a coordinated act, it is difficult to discuss any of the individual technical areas and processes without relating them to others. For example, phonation only comes into perspective when it
13674-437: The resonation process include amplification, enrichment, enlargement, improvement, intensification, and prolongation, although in strictly scientific usage acoustic authorities would question most of them. The main point to be drawn from these terms by a singer or speaker is that the result of resonation is, or should be, to make a better sound. There are seven areas that may be listed as possible vocal resonators. In sequence from
13803-458: The resonators as proper alignment prevents unnecessary tension in the body. Vocal pedagogists have also noted that when singers assume good posture it often provides them with a greater sense of self-assurance and poise while performing. Audiences also tend to respond better to singers with good posture. Habitual good posture also ultimately improves the overall health of the body by enabling better blood circulation and preventing fatigue and stress on
13932-410: The same time" and Allmusic writes, "rhymers like PE 's Chuck D , Big Daddy Kane , KRS-One , and Rakim basically invented the complex wordplay and lyrical kung-fu of later hip-hop". The golden age is considered to have ended around 1993–94, marking the end of rap lyricism's most innovative period. "Flow" is defined as "the rhythms and rhymes" of a hip-hop song's lyrics and how they interact –
14061-407: The singer's performance. Vocal mixing can be inflected in specific modalities of artists who may concentrate on smooth transitions between chest voice and head voice, and those who may use a "flip" to describe the sudden transition from chest voice to head voice for artistic reasons and enhancement of vocal performances. The first recorded mention of the terms chest voice and head voice was around
14190-695: The skills, talents, and vocal properties of singers. Voice classification is the process by which human singing voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types . These qualities include but are not limited to vocal range , vocal weight , vocal tessitura , vocal timbre , and vocal transition points such as breaks and lifts within the voice. Other considerations are physical characteristics, speech level, scientific testing, and vocal registration . The science behind voice classification developed within European classical music has been slow in adapting to more modern forms of singing. Voice classification
14319-501: The song's melody with his own voice, making his flow sound like that of an instrument (a saxophone in particular). The ability to rap quickly and clearly is sometimes regarded as an important sign of skill. In certain hip-hop subgenres such as chopped and screwed , slow-paced rapping is often considered optimal. The current record for fastest rapper is held by Spanish rapper Domingo Edjang Moreno, known by his alias Chojin, who rapped 921 syllables in one minute on December 23, 2008. In
14448-487: The technique than another. The various processes may progress at different rates, with a resulting imbalance or lack of coordination. The areas of vocal technique which seem to depend most strongly on the student's ability to coordinate various functions are: Singing is a skill that requires highly developed muscle reflexes. Singing does not require much muscle strength but it does require a high degree of muscle coordination. Individuals can develop their voices further through
14577-422: The track name "Monologue: Ike's Rap I". Hayes' "husky-voiced sexy spoken 'raps' became key components in his signature sound". Del the Funky Homosapien similarly states that rap was used to refer to talking in a stylistic manner in the early 1970s: "I was born in '72 ... back then what rapping meant, basically, was you trying to convey something—you're trying to convince somebody. That's what rapping is, it's in
14706-416: The use of the terms chest voice and head voice. In particular, the use of the terms chest register and head register have become controversial since vocal registration is more commonly seen today as a product of laryngeal function that is unrelated to the physiology of the chest, lungs, and head. For this reason, many vocal pedagogists argue that it is meaningless to speak of registers being produced in
14835-399: The verse". He says rap lyrics are made up of, "lines with four stressed beats, separated by other syllables that may vary in number and may include other stressed syllables. The strong beat of the accompaniment coincides with the stressed beats of the verse, and the rapper organizes the rhythms of the intervening syllables to provide variety and surprise". The same technique is also noted in
14964-440: The vocal folds are capable of producing several different vibratory patterns. Each of these vibratory patterns appears within a particular range of pitches and produces certain characteristic sounds. The occurrence of registers has also been attributed to the effects of the acoustic interaction between the vocal fold oscillation and the vocal tract. The term "register" can be somewhat confusing as it encompasses several aspects of
15093-461: The vocal techniques used to interpret songs, learn about the vocal literature from their chosen style of music, and gain skills in choral music techniques, sight singing and memorizing songs, and vocal exercises. Some singers learn other music jobs, such as the composing , music producing and songwriting . Some singers put videos on YouTube and streaming apps. Singers market themselves to buyers of vocal talent, by doing auditions in front of
15222-460: The voice. The term register can be used to refer to any of the following: In linguistics , a register language is a language which combines tone and vowel phonation into a single phonological system. Within speech pathology , the term vocal register has three constituent elements: a certain vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, a certain series of pitches, and a certain type of sound. Speech pathologists identify four vocal registers based on
15351-579: The way you talk." Rap is sometimes said to be an acronym for ' R hythm A nd P oetry', though this is not the origin of the word and so may be a backronym . Similarities to rapping can be observed in West African chanting folk traditions. Centuries before hip-hop music existed, the griots of West Africans were delivering stories rhythmically , over drums and sparse instrumentation. Such resemblances have been noted by many modern artists, modern day "griots", spoken word artists, mainstream news sources, and academics. Rap lyrics and music are part of
15480-468: The word became a slang term meaning "to converse" in African American vernacular , and very soon after that came to denote the musical style. The word "rap" is so closely associated with hip-hop music that many writers use the terms interchangeably. Rap music has played a significant role in expressing social and political issues, addressing topics such as racism, poverty, and political oppression. By
15609-468: The word". Kool Moe Dee states that Biggie introduced a newer flow which "dominated from 1994 to 2002", and also says that Method Man was "one of the emcees from the early to mid-'90s that ushered in the era of flow ... Rakim invented it, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, and Kool G Rap expanded it, but Biggie and Method Man made flow the single most important aspect of an emcee's game". He also cites Craig Mack as an artist who contributed to developing flow in
15738-546: The world's cultures. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music. For example, some blues rock songs may have a short, simple call-and-response chorus, but the emphasis in the song is on the instrumental melodies and improvisation. Vocal music typically features sung words called lyrics , although there are notable examples of vocal music that are performed using non-linguistic syllables or noises, sometimes as musical onomatopoeia . A short piece of vocal music with lyrics
15867-702: Was delivered in a hip, rhythm-conscious manner. Art forms such as spoken word jazz poetry and comedy records had an influence on the first rappers. Coke La Rock , often credited as hip-hop's first MC cites the Last Poets among his influences, as well as comedians such as Wild Man Steve and Richard Pryor . Comedian Rudy Ray Moore released under the counter albums in the 1960s and 1970s such as This Pussy Belongs to Me (1970), which contained "raunchy, sexually explicit rhymes that often had to do with pimps, prostitutes, players, and hustlers", and which later led to him being called "The Godfather of Rap". Gil Scott-Heron ,
15996-400: Was forced to focus on their flow". Kool Moe Dee explains that before Rakim, the term 'flow' was not widely used – "Rakim is basically the inventor of flow. We were not even using the word flow until Rakim came along. It was called rhyming, it was called cadence, but it wasn't called flow. Rakim created flow!" He adds that while Rakim upgraded and popularized the focus on flow, "he didn't invent
16125-481: Was not on lyrical technique, but simply on good times", one notable exception being Melle Mel , who set the way for future rappers through his socio-political content and creative wordplay. Golden age hip hop (the mid-1980s to early '90s) was the time period where hip-hop lyricism went through its most drastic transformation – writer William Jelani Cobb says "in these golden years, a critical mass of mic prodigies were literally creating themselves and their art form at
16254-534: Was quickly noticed, and the style spread. By the end of the 1970s, artists such as Kurtis Blow and the Sugarhill Gang were starting to receive radio airplay and make an impact far outside of New York City, on a national scale. Blondie 's 1981 single, " Rapture ", was one of the first songs featuring rap to top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Old school rap (1979–84) was "easily identified by its relatively simple raps" according to AllMusic , "the emphasis
16383-436: Was the 1950 song "Gotta Let You Go" by Joe Hill Louis . Jazz , which developed from the blues and other African-American and European musical traditions and originated around the beginning of the 20th century, has also influenced hip hop and has been cited as a precursor of hip hop. Not just jazz music and lyrics but also jazz poetry . According to John Sobol, the jazz musician and poet who wrote Digitopia Blues , rap "bears
16512-475: Was the first MC. James Brown had the lyrics, moves, and soul that greatly influenced a lot of rappers in hip hop, and arguably even started the first MC rhyme. For some rappers, there was a distinction to the term, such as for MC Hammer who acquired the nickname "MC" for being a "Master of Ceremonies" which he used when he began performing at various clubs while on the road with the Oakland As and eventually in
16641-451: Was too young while in Jamaica to get into sound system parties: "I couldn't get in. Couldn't get in. I was ten, eleven years old," and that while in Jamaica, he was listening to James Brown: "I was listening to American music in Jamaica and my favorite artist was James Brown. That's who inspired me. A lot of the records I played were by James Brown." However, in terms of what was identified in
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