Hit Parade: Say My Name, Say My Name, Part 2

Slate Daily Feed

Slate

News, Business, Society & Culture

3.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2021

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Part 2 of this episode of Hit Parade, Chris Molanphy continues his analysis of when singing became central to rap music. Rap has always been musical. But back in the day, rappers generally, well, rapped: talked in cadence over a beat. Fans judged MCs primarily by their rhymes and rhythms, not their melodies. Now? Rappers are mostly singers: MCs from Drake to DaBaby slip seamlessly in and out of melody. Some hits that appear on Billboard’s Rap charts feature literally no rapping. When did this change? Part 2 takes a close look at an integral pivot point in this progression: when Beyoncé changed the game by singing with triple-time flow like the baddest MC. Podcast production by Asha Saluja. Hit Parade episodes are now split into two parts, released two weeks apart. For the full episode right now, sign up for Slate Plus and you'll also get The Bridge, our Trivia show and bonus deep dive. Click here for more info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	At Eon Next, we believe life's better when you know you can get your hands on discounts
0:05.4	across a range of home energy solutions, like boilers and solar panels, so you can treat
0:10.4	your home to a bit of future-proofing.
0:12.8	We think that makes energy a little bit better, and that's why we're always working towards
0:17.6	helping you get more out of your energy.
0:20.1	So visit eonnext.com today.
0:22.4	Discounts available to Eon Next customers in 30th of December 2023, T's and C's eligibility
0:27.2	criteria and geographical restrictions apply.
0:30.0	This episode contains explicit language.
0:34.8	Welcome back to hip parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about
0:40.9	the hits from coast to coast.
0:42.8	I'm Chris Malanfee, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song Number
0:48.2	One series on our last episode.
0:51.6	We tried to answer the question of when wrapping and singing blended into a single hip-hop
0:58.1	era musical genre.
1:00.4	Turns out, rap was flirting with Melody from the beginning, and right through the 80s and
1:06.3	90s, a string of MCs and singers were part of the hybridizing, from Houdini to Slick
1:13.7	Rick, Queen Latifa to PM Dawn, Mary J. Blasch to Bone Thugs in Harmony to the Fuji's.
1:21.4	We are now at the turn of the millennium, as a new generation of rappers are starting
1:26.5	to sing their bars, and a rising rapper from Brooklyn and a teenage singer from Houston
1:33.3	are about to join forces.
1:36.2	Coming into 1999, Destiny's Child were not only going to push past their one hit wonder
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.