Pitch Structure in Rap Flow

1. Rap as Melody

So far we’ve discussed and analyzed many types of melodies but…I have to admit that I didn’t pick up any rap music as references at all because “flow” in rap is far more complicated than traditional melodies.

Music sheet or piano roll is based on the premise that an octave consists of just 12 tones, but rap is not bounded by such systems. If you visualize the pitch movements of rap as lines on pianoroll, it will be like this:

It meanders through tones like a river running through valleys, hence called a Flow.

You may not care seriously about such pitches of rap flow on listening to them or some may even think that rap doesn’t have pitches, which is not true. Thinking logically, it is impossible for human voices not to have pitches. Rap flows do have pitches and you cannot simply track it as they bend and move too fast.

That’s why auto-tune effects are often used to quantize rap flows (=force-align flowing pitches into 12 tones or a specific scale), so that those who are familiar only with 12-tone music can listen to them with relatively high comfort.

Rap has pitches, which means that the theory of melodies explained so far is more or less applicable to it. Although it inevitably involves some sort of simplification, it will be well fruitful to analyze rap flows from the perspective of 12-tone melody theory like how a rapper interact with background tracks.

2. Target Tone

In fact, there’re often cases where a rapper sets his sight at a particular pitch and moves around the tone, resulting in a noticeable pitch structure even without auto-tune. Here I call the pitch Target Tone.

Let me introduce some examples.

Mobb Deep – Put ‘Em In Their Place

This is the typical case. In the second verse Havoc targets at F^♯. If you cannot feel the sense of pitch, play the referential tone below along with his rap and listen how the two are in harmony.

Though it fluctuates up and down, the flow clearly stays around the target tone. If he literally just “speaks” the lyrics, the pitches should not be this much consistent.

NAS – Represent

A song by the East legend, NAS. In the beginning, lowered B is set as the target tone.

Yes, “lowered” B, like between B and B^♭. Since rap music does not bound itself to 12-tone system, such lowered tunings can commonly happen.
In the second verse, on the other hand, the pitches get a bit higher and the intensity of fluctuation gets much stronger, by which he makes variations in his flow.

Jay-Z & Kanye West – Ni**as In Paris

In this song, C is targeted in the first verse/chorus (-1:45).

This case is interesting in that in the beginning of the second verse (1:46-), Kanye’s rap is almost like singing, still targeting C. This shows that there’s no clear border between “sing” and “rap”.

Kendrick Lamar – We Cry Together ft. Taylour Paige

This is a unique song, sung in the style of quarrel between a man and a lady. Maybe to stage to look like they’re battling, their flows fluctuate very intensively. Ordinary listeners may not believe that this rap has pitches…

But listen to the lady, Taylour Paige. She basically set B^♭ as the target tone. It can be seen typically at “late for shit, won’t buy shit”, though her flow is very colorful and moves around many pitches.

The most interesting part is the hook, where she repeats the “F” word; Listen very carefully to it and you’ll notice that the pitches of her “f**k you” is very much consistent—Approximately D^♭–B^♭.

F**k (D^♭) – you (B^♭)

Her first “f*ck you” at 0:44 is also in these pitches. However furious they may look, their voices are totally under control!

3. Forms of Pitch Fluctuation

So basically rap flows have target pitches just like traditional melodies, which is “disguised” by switching targets rapidly or by bending pitches up and down. Sometimes pitches bend according to original accents of words or intonations of sentences, other times they bend for expressing high/low states, still other times for musical expressions.

Intonational Fluctuation

For example, Taylour Paige’s “f**k you” follows its natural intonation; The F word is emphasized with higher pitch, just like spoken words.

Preserving original intonation can make flow look more like speech, which is one of the most important traits in rap music¹.

Also notice that this accentuation is done by heightening the accented word, not by lowering the unaccented words (by comparison to the basic target pitch). This can well convey the feeling that the quarrel is heating up🔥🔥

High/Low Feelings

On the other hand, “Ni**as In Paris” takes the opposite way. The song has a key phrase “ball so hard”, but the flow doesn’t follow the natural intonation of words and bends down from the target tone.

In spoken words, “hard” deserves a bit higher pitch than this. Downward fluctuation will evoke a sense of chill, disgust or something like that. Thus, whether go up or down from the target tone is a very important factor to control the vibes of rap flow.

Distinctive Contour

Pitch movement in rap flow can sometimes be seen as more than mere “fluctuation”. In some flow, the contour (the outline of pitch curves) is elaborately planned in order to give an impressive “hook” to flow.

Kanye West – Diamonds From Sierra Leone

The persistent repetition of the word “ever” with gradually rising pitch is very ear-catching! This is anything but “fluctuation”. The flow here is so designed that it works like a riser build of synth.

Monkey Majik + Yoshida Brothers – Change

Here again pitch bend up is used in the phrase at 2:42. The case is quite interesting in that the shamisen, a Japanese traditional guitar, perfectly follows the pitch of the rap flow. What this means is that they really “design” the contour of rap flow.

Now you notice that it is not only rap flow that utilizes stepless pitches, but also many other instruments like guitars, strings, horns, synths and so forth. Therefore such flow can be seen as a kind of sound effects like glissando, legato or portamento you can find in the plays of those instruments.

Musical expressions by pitch bend

Considering this, non-quantized expressions are nothing strange, rather ubiquitous in musical history! As to vocal, even in traditional melodies singers use techniques like vibrato, portamento or intonational fluctuation, which is why an auto-tuned vocal sounds like a robot voice even in 12-tone based melodies.

There’s no clear border to be drawn between rap and traditional singing—It is just the intensity and frequency of pitch fluctuation that devide them from each other.

“Four Elements” of Flow

To sum up, you’ve got four major parameters for analyzing pitch movements around a target tone, namely, 12-tone quantization, correspondence to original intonation, relative position to the target tone and structural explicitness of contour.

Rappers combine these elements to develop their flow. Traditional melodies use motives to develop the structure for the easiness to understand, but rap flow does not necessarily follow the concept. More often than not, transient phrases are generated ceaselessly and listeners enjoy the change of flows, expecting what’s coming next. In that sense, rap flow could be more like ad-lib solo improvisation like you see in, say, jazz or rock.