incomplete similes in hip-hop lyrics

  Quote

"yo, it's got to be me 'cause i'm seasoned, haters givin' me salty looks, lawry's"

this lyric is from "good life" by kanye west that came out in october 2007

now everyone is leaving out the "like" in their similes it's the current trend

i've noticed lil wayne doing it a lot as well as other mcs from young money

i don't feel like digging up youtubes as proof but have you all noticed this?

Ah yes, reminds me of the awkward syntax trend of thrash metal in the late '80s and early '90s, when brash young lyricists had no fear of placing direct objects at the beginning of the sentence, followed by the subject and the predicate.

Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" serves as a great example.

  Quote

Never opened myself this way

Life is ours, we live it our way

All these words I don't just say

and nothing else matters

i don't get it

  On 4/14/2010 at 7:46 PM, scones to die for said:

Ah yes, reminds me of the awkward syntax trend of thrash metal in the late '80s and early '90s, when brash young lyricists had no fear of placing direct objects at the beginning of the sentence, followed by the subject and the predicate.

 

Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" serves as a great example.

 

  Quote

Never opened myself this way

Life is ours, we live it our way

All these words I don't just say

and nothing else matters

i never took exception to that particular instance but there a lot of idiosyncracies about thrash lyrics

where does the "like" word fit on that simile??

"all these words "like" i don't just say" ???

i'm trying to learn some english gramar here please

  On 4/14/2010 at 7:33 PM, tht tne said:

  Quote

"yo, it's got to be me 'cause i'm seasoned, haters givin' me salty looks, lawry's"

 

this lyric is from "good life" by kanye west that came out in october 2007

now everyone is leaving out the "like" in their similes it's the current trend

i've noticed lil wayne doing it a lot as well as other mcs from young money

i don't feel like digging up youtubes as proof but have you all noticed this?

You might be on to something there but that quote isn't much proof of this, it's just a succession of ideas with a common semantic field. He says he's seasoned, then how he's given salty looks, and he might continue with "there's pepper on every rhyme, red meat goes well with thyme" ( ) and so on.

TBH "i'm seasoned LIKE haters givin' me salty looks" would make much less sense and would sound more awkward.

  On 4/14/2010 at 9:04 PM, Lube Saibot said:

  On 4/14/2010 at 7:33 PM, tht tne said:

  Quote

"yo, it's got to be me 'cause i'm seasoned, haters givin' me salty looks, lawry's"

 

this lyric is from "good life" by kanye west that came out in october 2007

now everyone is leaving out the "like" in their similes it's the current trend

i've noticed lil wayne doing it a lot as well as other mcs from young money

i don't feel like digging up youtubes as proof but have you all noticed this?

 

You might be on to something there but that quote isn't much proof of this, it's just a succession of ideas with a common semantic field. He says he's seasoned, then how he's given salty looks, and he might continue with "there's pepper on every rhyme, red meat goes well with thyme" ( ) and so on.

 

TBH "i'm seasoned LIKE haters givin' me salty looks" would make much less sense and would sound more awkward.

no, i'm talking about where he says "lawry's..." lawry's is a seasoning salt

it would have been more sensible/traditional imo if he had said "like lawry's"

check out this ludacris video for several examples of exactly where i'm at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqHliQijgvA

inspect 1:41-1:47... "fill her up... balloons!" and "like a parade... macy's"

nicki minaj does it too at 2:28 when she says "dunkin' on 'em, lisa leslie"

i don't know what to call this phenomenon other than incomplete similes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lTB1pIg1y0

here are another few examples in this drake video for his new single "over"

1:04-1:06 "set it off... jada pinkett" don't you notice he could've said "like"

1:13-1:15 "i could teach you how to speak my language... rosetta stone"

so this is just all over popular hip-hop lyrics right now but it kinda sucks

this is bullshit, these are not even similes!

lol A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things

fill something up like a balloon is not unlike...

lol

i get it now

  On 4/14/2010 at 9:26 PM, THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON said:

this is bullshit, these are not even similes!

 

lol A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things

 

fill something up like a balloon is not unlike...

okay maybe these are metaphors professor what would you call them

i just wanted some attention that's all

  On 4/14/2010 at 9:31 PM, THIS IS MICHAEL JACKSON said:

i just wanted some attention that's all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzcua6Q4ep8

one more example : 2:58-3:01 lil wayne "i been runnin' this shit... blisters"

i bet someone here can name this properly, has noticed, or has an opinion

i'd like to know about examples outside of young money artists and ludacris

my thesis is basically that kanye west is influential lyrically in a stupid way

  On 4/14/2010 at 9:21 PM, tht tne said:

so this is just all over popular hip-hop lyrics right now but it kinda sucks

Oh, yea, i see it now. It seems to vary a lot though, the way it's "framed" when luda does the balloons "thing" seems to justify it, and then that chick really hat no room for a "like" in that flow.

The way Drake does it... fuuuuuuuck. Really, just Drake overall.

  On 4/14/2010 at 9:43 PM, Lube Saibot said:

  On 4/14/2010 at 9:21 PM, tht tne said:

so this is just all over popular hip-hop lyrics right now but it kinda sucks

 

Oh, yea, i see it now. It seems to vary a lot though, the way it's "framed" when luda does the balloons "thing" seems to justify it, and then that chick really hat no room for a "like" in that flow.

 

The way Drake does it... fuuuuuuuck. Really, just Drake overall.

drake is a laughably untalented kanye-west wannabe; he was on degrassi ffs

i am so happy i haven't noticed this, it would drive me insane.

The worst thing about him is that he seems to have got this gimmick down of him "singing" on EVERY single track he does or features on and it's always this overlong anti-climactic bullshit. Additionally, TWO times (as far as i know at least) he's done a track with lil' wayne and both times he did that Lousiana slur thing wayne does. DUDE, YOU'RE FROM FUCKING CANADA!

Also i think that the last example you posted ("... blisters") could've made a little more sense without the censoring.

  On 4/14/2010 at 9:52 PM, Lube Saibot said:

The worst thing about him is that he seems to have got this gimmick down of him "singing" on EVERY single track he does or features on and it's always this overlong anti-climactic bullshit. Additionally, TWO times (as far as i know at least) he's done a track with lil' wayne and both times he did that Lousiana slur thing wayne does. DUDE, YOU'RE FROM FUCKING CANADA!

 

Also i think that the last example you posted ("... blisters") could've made a little more sense without the censoring.

overlong is a very good descriptor... i hate his chorus on birdman's 4 my town

Is he talking bout synths or motorcycles?

he could be talking about either one... you can't even hold lil wayne's similes

fucking miracles

you also have to consider syllables and meter when coming up with lyrics so it probably just didn't fit the flow

  On 4/15/2010 at 6:32 AM, Fishtank said:

you also have to consider syllables and meter when coming up with lyrics so it probably just didn't fit the flow

that would be a good point but you're wrong

I claim to know nothing about rap

  On 4/14/2010 at 7:46 PM, scones to die for said:

Ah yes, reminds me of the awkward syntax trend of thrash metal in the late '80s and early '90s, when brash young lyricists had no fear of placing direct objects at the beginning of the sentence, followed by the subject and the predicate.

 

Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" serves as a great example.

 

  Quote

Never opened myself this way

Life is ours, we live it our way

All these words I don't just say

and nothing else matters

Well the rapscallions were merely rebelling in their own way. compare it if

you

will with

e.

e.

cummingsbolduseofform and

style

or T.S. Eliot's experiments with stream of consciousness.

must we be so harsh and hurried in our censure?