Keywords and phrases: Kendrick Lamar, hip-hop, flow, rhyme, tension, formal role, formal ambiguity, narrative Suggested Citation Our methodology codifies previously unnamed formal categories, highlights formal similarities with pop-rock repertoires, reflects the aims of Lamar’s conscious rap aesthetic, and illuminates Lamar’s lyrics. ![]() ![]() Analyses of songs across Lamar’s output demonstrate how changing degrees of metrical tension suggest comprehensible formal subsections within verses. In this essay, we propose a more comprehensive model of rhyme-based tension and relaxation, then apply it to questions of formal norms and ambiguities in Lamar’s songs. Although rhyme manipulations have been discussed by Kyle Adams (2009), Mitch Ohriner (2019a), and others as sources of formal contrasts, their effects on affective tension, relaxation, and formal functionality have been unspecified. ![]() Through manipulating rhymes within $$4\atop4$$ time, Lamar increases and decreases affective tension, suggests formal ambiguity, and highlights changes in point of view and literary topic. The flow of Kendrick Lamar veers between old-school, metrically rigid and new-school, prose-like rhymes.
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