Stress-meter alignment in American hip hop

Abstract

This paper presents stress-meter alignment patterns in the rapping of six American hip hop artists. The rate of shift in lexical stress in the rapping in order for stressed syllables to align with strong positions in the musical meter is explored. While differences exist between artists, results suggest that there is a strong correlation between strong metrical position and stressed syllables in American hip hop. Shifts in lexical stress also vary between artists, however it is shown that the majority of shifts allow stressed syllables to align with strong positions in the musical meter.