The Musical Artistry of Rap by Connor Martin E

Author:Connor, Martin E. [Connor, Martin E.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2018-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

Wyclef Jean’s Hook–Freestyle Integration

For “80 Bars,” the fourth song from his third solo album, The Masquerade, Wyclef Jean actually did compose both the melody and the musical accompaniment. However, it this song’s unique integration of oppositional concepts of structure, and not its defiance of generic production norms, that are the most notable aspects of this 2002 track. Indeed, Wyclef’s adroit handling of the implications of structure and form is executed so masterfully on “80 Bars” that, in the end, he manages to largely redefine and upend previous conventional understandings of how verses and choruses can function within the genre.

On “80 Bars,” he rearranges the opposing sections of chorus and verse inside of a freestyle context that relies on a blurring of lines between repetition and variation. (A freestyle, in rap, is a textual form that can consists of one long run-on verse, without any hooks or choruses to it. The term freestyle is sometimes used as a verb to refer to a rap that is composed improvisationally and on the spot, but that will not be the typical sense of the term as it’s used herein.) In this way, the track ends up being a song with only one verse and only one chorus, a statement that would seem to be a contradiction in terms. However, Wyclef expands the traditional definition of verse and chorus by carefully handling not just these sections’ chronological order, but their degree of repetition and variation as well.

Wyclef’s compositional techniques on “80 Bars” are accomplished through a musical sleight of hand. By beginning his song in the form of a long stream-of-consciousness freestyle, and then unexpectedly introducing a new chorus section at the end of 80 bars, Wyclef merges the traditional forms of the rap genre. In order to capture this musical thought process, a simple representative system of brackets, apostrophes, and letters can be used. This typographical notation will tease out the true differences between the nature of a verse and the nature of a chorus, and just how it is that Wyclef Jean manages to manipulate their shifting relationship to each other.

The structure of Wyclef’s rap on “80 Bars” is elucidated in the following breakdown, wherein the section of music, its function, and the sonic elements appearing there are enumerated:

1. Bars 1–4: Introduction Section; Instrumental Arrangement and Spoken Ad-Libs.

2. Bars 5–84: Verse; Wyclef’s Rap.

3. Bars 85–92: Chorus; Wyclef’s Rap.

4. Bars 93–100: Outro; Soloing Guitar.

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