Overcoding in Rap

everybody needs a secret knock! plus its fun to make up aliases and identities. i think meth is also hott nickels

semi-serious: probably just a continuation of 'street slang', constantly evolving and used to tell who's cool or not, who you can trust or not. you can talk about things in 'code' so yr target audience understands you, but 'squares' dont...

I know that in many ways, especially once you bring sex, drugs, and crime in, this kind of overcoding isn't really something special to rap. And obviously rappers aren't stuck using 'street' (I don't mean that in the street-vs-underground rap sense) language when they rap - it's not a requirement of the genre. But it does seem, at least to me, as still quite a bit of a genre outsider, that rap uses this kind of overcoding a lot more prevalently than lots of other kinds of music.

Also, I'm not thinking of the constant use of metaphor, simile, and allusion. I want to ask about those in a different question. That said, I suppose part of the effect of this overcoding comes from stuff like metaphor and the like. (But it seems to me to be a different kind of effect, since it's more along the lines of established names for things, thus 'coding'.)

One idea I had, which I haven't thought much about, is that this is just one particular aspect of the way rap engages listeners (who want to be engaged, I guess - there's always Ned, ha) in a different way from lots of other music. (Not sure if I'd say it's a difference in kind or degree.) It forces the listener to look elsewhere to find some things meaningful, in a pretty basic sense. ("Why did he just say 'pull a choo-choo'? What does this song have to do with trains?") This reminds me of (wait for it) various types of linguistic games: those of Vladimir Nabokov, James Joyce, and the snotty family with the "Genuine Class = Alec Guiness" game from the Simpsons. Sometimes word games and coded things like this are praised; sometimes they're derided as being "just" games.

Given that, there's an obvious sense in which this kind of overcoding forces a divide between the people who get it and the people who don't. Does overcoding center around a 'community' or anything that grandiose? How is rap enjoyable to people who can crack the code, vs. those who can't? Do they have to work at it, too? And is that part of the fun?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Acting out: Obviously Rap (and in a way Rock as well) is about re-inventing yourself. It is an escape and they can hide about a persona. This is taken it one step further. Like having a stage name but they are more open about it ... than say a rock / pop musician who isn't using it as a play but pretends its really his/her OWN name.

The point about street language being, I forgot to say, that of course language with similar sources shows up in other kinds of music. "I'm Waiting for the Man", etc. My perception is, though, that the overcoding is just exponentially more frequent in rap. (They do talk more, ha.) One thing to ask then is whether this is mostly due to my being a genre outsider, and being more familiar with the ways things are overcoded in my "home" music. But I still don't think the overcoding happens at much at "home".

Tends to keep the language and rhymes a bit more fresh. Wasn't O.D.B. refering to himself as Jesus before he went to prison? I think there's also some machismo involved. As if multiple aliases demonstrates infamy.

I think Nath's point is really important! But I'm going to lay off for now.

Oh yeah except for this which bnw brilliantly mentioned: more names for things and more ways of referring to things = possibilities for rhymes which mean kind of the same thing multiply. (Above I said I wasn't thinking of the constant use of metaphor, etc. That's a different matter because the metaphors present different possibilities for rhyming but also for meaning.)

Also, something to talk about is the way overcoding may or may not be tied to earlier black cultural forms.

"I've created a monster, cuz nobody wants to/ see Marshall no more they want Shady, I'm chopped liver"

I would think it just develops naturally, no? Trying to find fresh ways to describe the same things and all that...besides, more synonyms=more rhymes!

It is an escape and they can hide about a persona.

This is very Bowie. But does it really fit with someone like Jay Z? Seems to me he uses multiple names as like a demonstration of popularity and exclusivity.

(Semi-related question: why does Nas think his name is biblical?)

speaking of overcoding: kool keith!!
some of kool keith's multiple personalities:
Poppa Large
Age: 35
Birthplace: Bronx, NY
Likes: Daredevil videos, Spinning around in circles
Dislikes: Quicksand, Soft Pretzels
Quote: "I'm Poppa Large, Big Shot On The East Coast"

Mr. Green
Age: 259
Birthplace: Zzyzx
Likes: Big money strip clubs, Wells Fargo, Bank Of America
Dislikes: Purple
Quote: "Being green is easy for me."

Sinister 6000
Age: 7999
Birthplace: Iceland
Likes: Warm, Cuddly Woman
Dislikes: Democracy, Carbon

Quote: "Sinister 6000 / new styles I be housing."

Fly Ricky: The Wine Taster
Age: 43
Birthplace: Miami, F.L.
Likes: Salsa Music, Fine Wines, Mongos
Dislikes: Cheap, Inexpensive Wines, Fake burritos
Quote: "I did a show with the Gap Band in Miami."

Rhythm X
Age: 30
Birthplace: BX, New York
Likes: Mae West, Gastronomy
Dislikes: Traffic, Soft Cauliflower
Quote: "Rhythm X roller, my style gets critical, Brain connects, computer rhymes get physical."

sorry for crap formatting!! go here

characters are way cooler than plots

It is an escape and they can hide about a persona. This is very Bowie.
Yes, but that was about playing with gender boundaries. This is not the case in hip hop.

It's an initiatory thing - the initiate-fan knows all the aliases and can use this knowledge when listening to the albums or talking to other fans. A six million names of God type deal.

isn't it also a comic-book heroes thing? one of the reasons hiphop was so strong from the off is that a key part of its aesthetic-political base is marvel/dc

Again, this is the knowledge aspect. But I don't think that is so much why they do it though. I agree with Mark Shockah. But its definitely also the Kung Fu influence as well.

Of course it's totally a comic-book heroes thing but the comic-book heroes thing is an initiatory thing too!

Tony Stark(s) = Iron Man. Johnny Blaze = Ghost Rider.

P-Funk alb covers are full of comic bk imagery too.

FUBU

One reason may be boringly practical: MCs have to say a whole fookin' lot of words, way more than your typical rock lyricist; imagine how boring it would be for them always to use the same set of words.

I can dig practical. (Take a wider look around, etc.)

Big Baby Jesus. ODB.

Osirus?

for ( kick(it); ya_dont_stop(); flow++) { rhyme(); jam(); rhyme(); }

Brian I know I'm an academic but you are a BIG DORK sir.

Be not mean to the Brian, who is good and holy.

who want to be engaged

I do not regard my particular approach to lyrics -- of any stripe, in any style -- as implying a lack of engagement to the music. Neither do I feel engagement of any sort is as universally a conscious decision as you are trying to make it out to be, nor do I think it is as absolute in my case as you're saying, as I did say here (yes, it's temporarily down and all, but that will change)...

JUST WANTED TO MAKE CLEAR IN ADVANCE THAT I KNOW NED RAGGETT DOES NOT LISTEN TO LYRICS GUESS I WILL TRY HARDER NEXT TIME

Uh?

overcoding = one of the tools by which hiphop lyricism can perpetuate itself. expands the vocabulary for referential and metaphorical use. occam's razor is definitely part of it also, but there is the (now less virulent) distaste for plagiarism (even of self) in rap, and increasing the vocabulary allows a nifty sidestep as well as opening up possible avenues of content based on new rhyme components ie if i call myself jayhova, what can i say to rhyme with that, what are the ways to play on that etc. maybe it works as a sort of danceable freewrite, in addition to necessity and rebranding