Style
Lyrics Born's rhymes showcase a large vocabulary, and often complex rhythmic patterns, deployed via regular use of various rhyming techniques, such as alliteration, internal rhyme, and double entendres. His style also frequently blends such techniques with melody, for which he has coined the term "Em-singing". His style is influenced by groups and artists such as James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Syl Johnson, KRS-One, Jon Hendricks, Rakim, Kool G. Rap, The Sugarhill Gang and Ice Cube is often conversational, observant, and melodious. His signature, sandy baritone speaking/rapping voice and "Bay Area drawl" has drawn comparisons to Barry White, Tone-Loc, and Tom Waits. Songs such as "Before and After" explore the subtleties of day-to-day human relations while "The Last Trumpet" (with Lateef) features a very politically charged and globally conscious mindset.
His collaborations with Lateef on Latyrx records often see them trading lyrics back and forth in quick succession - Lyrics Born and Lateef's methodology for writing this type of lyric is described by Lateef in the book How to Rap: "With Latyrx stuff, when we have parts that we’re writing that we’re both going to be trading off, we write them together for the most part. I’ll sit there and write a rhyme, like I’ll write a line or two and then we’ll break up who’s gonna say what, and he’ll write a line or two and we’ll break up who’s gonna say what. It’s a very organic process."
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Famous quotes containing the word style:
“Where there is no style, there is in effect no point of view. There is, essentially, no anger, no conviction, no self. Style is opinion, hung washing, the calibre of a bullet, teething beads.... One’s style holds one, thankfully, at bay from the enemies of it but not from the stupid crucifixions by those who must willfully misunderstand it.”
—Alexander Theroux (b. 1940)
“As the style of Faulkner grew out of his rage—out of the impotence of his rage—the style of Hemingway grew out of the depth and nuance of his disenchantment.”
—Wright Morris (b. 1910)
“Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo clock style of architecture.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)