Good things come in threes
Triplet Flow in Recent Hip-Hop Music
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4304583 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ben Duinker (0009-0009-3896-9611, McGill University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 03 |
| Pages | 423-456 |
| Publication date | 2019-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Popular Music (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0261-1430 • E-ISSN: 1474-0095 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s026114301900028x |
| OpenAlex | W2979520337 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 12 |
MCs (rappers) such as Cardi B, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Big Sean and Young Thug use triplet rhythms in their rapping, a practice that is known as triplet flow. This paper argues that the prevalence of triplet flow is one of the most aurally salient features of contemporary hip hop, and exemplifies the popularity and influence of the Atlanta-centred genre of trap music through its sparse, slow beats. Three types of triplet flow are defined - mixed, phrasal and total - and are used to explore how various songs and artists active in the late 1980s and early 1990s provided the stylistic blueprint for triplet flow's recent explosion in popularity. With the aid of a 50 song mini-corpus, the paper concludes with a general survey of stylistic characteristics common in many songs featuring triplet flow, and further analysis of two of these songs in order to illuminate the creative, rhetorical and virtuosic potential that underpins this ostensibly simple style of rapping
Aesthetics · Art · Blueprint · Literature · Political science · Popularity · Rhetorical question · Salient · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Visual arts · Law · Music and Audio Processing · Music History and Culture · Music Technology and Sound Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,17 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |