r/LupeFiasco • u/ekkolapto1 • 10d ago

Discussion Based off of Lupe’s MIT Class…

Really interested in establishing Rap Theory as an actual field of research, based off his MIT classes. A few friends and I are even planning a Rap Theory-inspired conference at MIT Media Lab later this year.

Curious: what do you think are some interesting ideas that could push rap into a new direction?

Music Theory will be able to tell us a bit about where to go, but what I’ve seen happen is people will create songs that are *technically* brilliant—but it’ll never quite be a song that will make you question your world or make you cry, etc. This is where borrowing core principles and research from cognitive science, theories of computation and linguistics, etc. could potentially have some benefit.

This is just the beginning—so my ears are fully open for all ideas and criticisms.

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u/YaySourCream 9d ago

i think fully establishing the technical aspects of different subgenres is really important and is something that has been severely understudied. i also think different regions have historically leaned on different syllable rhymes, which is something worth studying, especially as “regional hiphop” has often blurred in recent times due to the internet

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u/YaySourCream 9d ago

fully evaluating the effect of the internet on the genre itself is also really important, honestly. it has both lessened and increased competition and that’s a really fascinating dynamic

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u/YaySourCream 9d ago

also i think the idea of rap vocals as an instrument needs to be more firmly established - lots of styles are grounded in the idea of, rather than rapping “with” the drums, an mc creates their own technical percussive layer on top of what’s already happening. diving further into that is invaluable for both the development of production and understanding the technicalities of rapping