http://www.zshare.net/audio/5040759cd8c5f4/
Is Andre 3000, the rap Bob Dylan? He could be. In this verse here he seems to be driven by intention of expression first, eschewing conventional rhyming until the 5th bar. In the verse, he offers excuses for his down to earth approach to subject matter, as if he feels the need to justify his anti-party rap rhymes. What’s interesting is that he relates his verse as an answer to a question posed by a woman he had a casual date with. There’s a tradition in songwriting, and Bob Dylan passed through it as well, where women evoke the expression of sentiments. The difficulties of love married to the difficulties of writing.
But rap is more than writing, especially today when most rappers reveal that they don’t write but instead think up their verses as they record the song. I dont know if Andre does this, I would assume that he doesn’t exactly, as he appears to be more cohesive and ‘together’ in his verses than say Lil Wayne of Jay-Z, two write-less rappers. But regardless of his technique, he still delivers his vocals filled with unexpected inflections, unique rhythmic sections, and flawless breath control.
So what do we have here? It is not the simile-filled free-associative rhyming of Jay-Z and Wayne. Although both those rappers are probably the best in their league. Andre is another kind of poet. He is situational in his approach, rooting the listener into a situational reality. He sees the verse as an unified element for one urge when others have more of a cut+paste approach, and pastiche conventional tropes. Not to say that Andre doesnt use those tropes, because he does, but their nature is always subservient to the expression of the primary urge in his subject matter. In other words, Jay-Z has punchlines with similes because he wants them to stand out in the verse; Andre uses them simply as literary devices to convey a primordial intention. It is another kind of rapping intelligence, very unique in the industry. My guess is that it has its roots in the storytelling blues songs from the South of which Andre (I’m sure) is a huge fan.
Artist: Outkast
Year: 2007
Title: The Art Of Storytellin Part 4
[Andre 3000:]
Verse One:
So I’m watchin’ her fine ass
Walked to my bedroom, and thought to myself
That’s the shape of things to come
She said, “Why you in the club, and you don’t make it precipitate?
You know, make it rain when you can make it thunderstorm”
I’m like, “Why? “
The world needs sun
The hood needs funds
There’s a war going on and half the battle is guns
How dare I throw it on the floor
When people are poor
So I write like Edgar Allen to restore, got a cord?
Umbilical attached to a place they can’t afford
No landscaping, Or window draping
This old lady told me,
“If I ain’t got nothin’ good, say nathing”
That’s why I don’t talk much
I swear it don’t cost much, to pay attention to me
I tell like it is, and I tell it how it could be
The hood be
Requesting my services, Oh don’t get nervous it’s
Step yo game up time, These ain’t them same old rhymes
Designed to have you dancin’ in some club
Niggas write to me
Woman be up in they tub
Exfoliating with hey pom poms
Yellin’ “GO 3000! “
I’m in my whatever bumpin’ what?
A 100 miles in
Runnin’ Runnin’ Runnin’ Runnin’
Summon
Woman
Come in
Sit down, heard you need some plumbing
Done and
I’m in
A swell mood
A rather swoll mood
Until she told me that she told dood
That’s she’ll be back, she’s going to the store
I didn’t know she had a boyfriend, so the door
I pointed her too
I said, “Call me when ya’ll break up
I don’t fuck nobody bitch”
And never owned a Jakob, know what time it is
Nigga just tryin’ to live
Like a Nigga suppose to live
If I still drink that malt liquor
I pour that beer
On the ground for niggas not around
I started out starvin’
Now they got me out here Brett Farvin’
Try’n to see if I still got it… (got it…)
I guess it’s like the right thing about it… (’bout it…)
Posted by Hugo
