Flow, Groove, and Beat in Black Thought

Abstract

Previous analyses of and discourse on the relationship between flow and beat (i.e., the instrumental streams of a rap track) have mapped musical meaning flowing directionally from the beat to the flow. This chapter documents a wider range of relationships between flow and beat in the rapping of Black Thought, including flows that diverge from rather than converge with beats, and flows that converge with beats but with a conceptual or temporal distance. Since Black Thought performs with a live band (The Roots), the chapter also considers how changes to the beat in live performance affect the groove of his flow. As rap music presents an ontology far different from European classical music, one in which creative agencies multiply and authority frequently shifts, this chapter sketches an analytical method for a host of musics that do not exhibit the work concept of the classical score.