Flow in Rap Music: Sources of Confusion and a Strategy for Clarity

Abstract

Artists, fans, critics, and scholars define “flow” in rap music in a variety of ways. Among the disputes are the proper scope of flow and the musical features that comprise it. This chapter begins by examining several sources of confusion: the many meanings of flow in rap lyrics, the proffered equivalence of flow with the purely musical musical, and the debate as to whether a theory of flow ought to describe or prescribe expressive practice. The chapter then identifies which features constitute flow by examining instances where artists call out flow within their lyrics, specifically when they announce in the midst of a verse that the flow has “flipped” or changed. This result is a definition of flow that arises not from what scholars say flow is, but what artists do when they (flip the) flow.