Further Reflections On Weezy: The Nature Of Flow
Keep a hold of those trousers bro. You don’t wanna make yourself look silly now, do ya?
According to Dallas it’s Weezy’s birthday today, so given that there was a decent response to my previous post and I’ve had a chance to think about the issue at hand a little more, I thought I’d extend my musings on Weezy F. Baby a little further. Man, I love myself a lazy Sunday afternoon.
However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point you in the direction of Brandon’s exceptional two-part piece which engages with the same ideas that I was trying to get down with but in a far more developed and intelligent way (shouts to reader WestIndianArchie for the recommendation). What I found particularly interesting about this piece was that Brandon incorporates a discussion of shifts in production aesthetics and how this has consequences on the style of vocal delivery that is required in order for a song to feel homogeneous. In short, you can’t have Nas’ lyrical flow sit over the top of the more stripped-down, jittery staccato beats that have now found favour with the masses because their very nature necessitates a more off-kilter, abstract style of rhyme. Weezy would sound similarly goofy rhyming over the instrumental of ‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell’. I accept this, and it goes a long way to explaining why Wayne remains a mystery to me because at a base level I don’t ever really feel the beats that he’s rapping over: I’m lost and pretty much lacking engagement before I even attempt to get my head around what’s coming out of his mouth.
But this leads me down another avenue in the discussion. Almost unquestionably, the pinnacle of any MC’s achievement is their flow. Hip hop is so intrinsically a case of style over substance that in reality it doesn’t matter what you’re talking about, but rather the way in which it is delivered (although naturally the true greats transcend this generalisation). But then what do we really mean when we talk about flow? Water flows. Air flows. The word by definition means a movement that is smooth and continuous. In which case, can we really talk about the proficiency and accomplishment of an MC’s flow - if this is the key parameter on which we judge their ability - when their style of delivery is at times the deliberate antithesis of the term itself?
Now I don’t want to go too over the top here. I realise that what I’m now beginning to engage in is a slightly silly semantic argument that perhaps doesn’t hold a lot of weight and would be relatively easy to debunk. I’m also keen to point out that I’m not saying that Weezy hasn’t got flow in the more traditional sense of the word. Of course he does. It also doesn’t mean that some MCs who I love haven’t been deliberately playing with more staccato, off-beat rhythms since way back when (see Pharoah Monch). But when it comes down to it I guess the root of my problem here is that when I listen to the music coming out of the South its deliberate stop and start aesthetic is at odds with what I love about hip hop music in the first place: its sense of unshakable momentum. It flows.
Rather obviously, this is all entirely subjective. One man’s caviar is another man’s stinking pile of fish eggs. Does Lil’ Wayne’s ‘flow’ flow? Does it really matter? Am I misunderstanding something crucial about Wayne’s skills as a lyricist? Are you? Will his heralded genius endure when inevitable shifts in the genre come around again?
Who knows. I still don’t like the guy though.
September 29th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Don’t sweat it Dan Love, if you have to dig this deep into your thoughts to come to a conclusion on why anyone might like Lil’ Wack then he probably isn’t all that great to begin with (thats putting it so very lightly), which I’m sure almost every true hip-hop head would agree with. I mean come on your having to deconstruct the word “flow” for gods sakes. Did you ever have to do this for the legends like Lord Finesse, Guru, CL Smooth, ATCQ, De La Soul, O.C., Big L, Jeru, Rakim, and the rest (so many more)? I mean right off the bat you knew these catz were dope as hell. And just think, this Lil’ Wayne your trying to make sense of is getting all the attention and making mass amounts of dough, f–k that shit!!! what a f–king insult, good greif! Please Dan Love, don’t waste your intellect on this f–king scum! YUCK! Oh, and by the way, that pic of Lil’ Wayne really makes me want to knock his f–king a** out.
September 29th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
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September 29th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
You won’t get Wayne. It’s okay, it’s not for you.
But you ask a more important question.
What is flow?
I think smooth and continuous is a pretty short-sighted idea of what flow is.
Are there any other ways to look @ flow?
September 29th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
WIA - It is of course a very short-sighted and deliberately contentious idea of what we mean by flow. But by definition, surely the term flow was applied to rapping as a result of its smooth, continuous nature. I dunno…
I’m not really sure how far you can go with different approaches to what we define as ‘flow’. It’s the same as trying to pin down a definition of more traditional verse: it proves impossible. The inevitable risk is disappearing up your own anus in an attempt to define that which by its very nature defies definition.
We can certainly argue the toss over who has ‘flow’ and who doesn’t, but I guess this ultimately falls victim to the same subjectivity which means I don’t really rate Wayne in the first place.
September 29th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
And Mick, are you trying to draw some analogy with the UK scene here?
September 30th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I too am baffled, but not by Wayne’s popularity - that’s easy to understand. Modern culture is littered with examples of things which are basic, lacking substance and of poor quality yet incredibly popular - McDonalds, X Factor, Boy Bands.
What baffles me is the extent to which the rap media (and media in general to an extent) will applaud artists like Wayne as geniuses despite the obviously quite basic nature of their output. Even if you wouldn’t eat a McDonalds or sit down on Saturday night to watch X Factor, most of us can understand why they’re popular. The difference is that the Times restaurant critic isn’t writing a probing two page spread on McDonalds’ latest menu changes, nor is NME writing a gushing review of Sandra from Liverpool’s recent appearance before Simon Cowell. Rap journlaists are, however, all too willing to explore the deeper nuances of a guy talking slowly about the length of his chain and the circumference of his rims. And once somebody has, it perpetuates - each writer more fearful than the last to admit they don’t see the emperor’s clothes. I congratulate you Dan for taking a deeper look and still admitting to not seeing the clothes.
I think it stems from the fact that most of us grew up in an era when popular rap music offered hidden depths. There was the sampled source material to explore and understand, advances in production techniques to admire, occasionally political and often social references made and, in the case of more experimental lyricists like Pharoahe Monch, hidden meanings and word play to get to grips with. There’s a nostalgic tendancy to believe that popular rap music still offers some, if not all, of those things, but the truth is that most of it doesn’t.
That’s not to say that modern hip hop lacks substance. There’s a wealth of incredible stuff coming out on both sides of the commercial / underground divide. What troubles me is why journalists would prefer to dedicate column inches to Wayne and friends (who lets face it can sell their ring tones without our help) over ‘real’ artists.
Wow - I’ve not ranted like that since the coining of the phrase ‘nu-rave’. Don’t get me started on genre classification.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
‘Nail’ and ‘head’ anyone?
I gotta admit to a penchant for the occasional Big Mac though. Gimme that sugary bun and processed beef over Wayne any day.
October 1st, 2008 at 3:21 am
No, no nail and head. I don’t know if we’ll look at him as a great rapper 10 years from now, but he’s the best commercial rapper out right now. And naturally people are going to say the best rapper out is really great, because no one wants to admit that everybody just sucks. But back to the nail and head, the whole substance/lacking substance dichotomy is laughable. What’s substance? Where’s the ’substance’ in DWYCK or Soul Clap or all sorts of classics? Of course Wayne isn’t saying anything (which is why he isn’t a Great Rapper), but he says what little he says in a very interesting and novel way, which is why he’s a very good one.
October 1st, 2008 at 5:44 am
Tray - I can accept that he may be the best commercial rapper out right now, but you’re actually enforcing some of what Read is saying by labelling Wayne as a great rapper as a result of no one wanting ‘to admit that everybody just sucks’. That doesn’t do Wayne or the people who critique him very much justice.
You’re right though. The issue of ’substance’ is intangible. But it still seems bizarre to me that a ‘very good’ rapper has a substantial portion of the blog set and rap critics alike almost creaming in their pants over him.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:43 am
Look, lil’ wayne sucks ok, plain and simple. Even if DWYCK or Soul Clap are without any “substance”, they are still ten times better than anything lil’ wayne has put out, so what does that tell you? That he really really sucks, and that two other songs without so-called “substance” are still better than his songs. Hehe, just made myself laugh, sorry. Anyways, “interesting and novel way”, really? You have got to be kidding me, i’m not even going to go there. “Of course Wayne isn’t saying anything (which is why he isn’t a Great Rapper)”, exactly, which is why he SHOULDN’T be rapping in the first place and polluting the rap industry with his horrific music. OK, so let me reiterate, DWYCK and Soul Clap are CLASSICS without “substance”, we won’t remember wayne in ten years, wayne isn’t saying anything, and wayne is a very good rapper. Huh? So why are DWYCK and Soul Clap considered classics when, according to you, they are on the same level as Lollipop (that hurt to even type, hehe). Theoretically, we shouldn’t even remember DWYCK or Soul Clap, let alone call them classics. I’m obviously trying to stress something here and if you can’t see what it is then you really shouldn’t be listening to hip-hop. And again, lil’ wayne sucks. So please stop trying to find something good about him, or else you’ll end up contradicting yourself.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:45 am
I think this last exchange kind of reinforces what I was saying. People seem to assume that you must fall in to one of two camps; You’re either in the (1) ‘Wayne is incredible and modern commercial rap is a credible art form’ camp or the (2) ‘Rap was best in ‘93 and nobody these days measures up to Lord Finesse’ camp.
Just to set the record straight, I’m in neither camp. I appreciate the ‘classics’ from the so called golden era as much as the next man but I accept them for what they are. Many were thought provoking but, yes, a lot were also simply good party records. The difference between them and the ‘lollipop’ rap that dominates the charts currently is that the majority of records from the so called golden era were made without expectation of huge commercial success and with a firm nod in the direction of the legacy of music that had gone before them. That goes some way to constituting ’substance’ in my mind.
But for me this isn’t anything to do with looking back on that era and wishing it could still be like the good old days - The real question I’m asking is, with so much good, forward thinking new music coming out every day, why are people wasting their time glorifying somebody so obviously lacking any depth instead of highlighting what else is out there?
October 1st, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I guess there are two possible answers to that question Chris:
1. People aren’t wasting their time and we are missing the depth behind Wayne’s music.
2. The industry is fucked the fuck up.
I’m plumping for the latter.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
So a couple things.
“But it still seems bizarre to me that a ‘very good’ rapper has a substantial portion of the blog set and rap critics alike almost creaming in their pants over him.”
I don’t think it’s bizarre. If there were blogs in the days of Busta Rhymes, or, say, DMX, a ton of people would have been going crazy over them too. Especially if there had been no one else around nearly as good at that time. We’re currently in an age where virtually all the young commercial rappers are boring crack rappers and the older ones are pathetic imitations of what they were when they were young. And then there’s Kanye, who’s interesting but can’t rap. So being very good counts for a lot right now.
“So why are DWYCK and Soul Clap considered classics when, according to you, they are on the same level as Lollipop (that hurt to even type, hehe).”
Lollipop’s not good. (The remix is.) If you were going to take a single Wayne song and compare it to DWYCK or Soul Clap as, like, a great single he’d be remembered for, you might have to look at Go DJ. And granted that probably isn’t really seeing DWYCK or Soul Clap. But the thing is, it’s a somewhat unfair comparison because Wayne’s a bad songwriter. Any good idea for a hook he ever had was handed to him by his producer. What he basically is is a freeform freestyler. Hence the superiority of his mixtapes over his actual albums. Now, as to your argument about how there’s a contradiction in my saying that DWYCK and Soul Clap are classics if I say that Wayne’s not a ‘Great Rapper’ because he lacks substance, I would say this: of course you can make a classic party song. But you can’t be a Great Rapper making only Soul Claps. And indeed, AG and Guru are not remembered as Great Rappers (although Guru, of course, had plenty of ’substance’ whatever that means).
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