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'70s-'80s hip hop

'70s-'80s hip hop

Style marker

Syncopated third-beat rhythm

It was common in the 1970s and '80s to end a rap line with this rhythmic figure on the third beat of a measure:

Notation in which the third beat articulates three of its four sixteenth notes, omitting the third.

It fell out of favor by the early '90s.

Transcript of a line from Kurtis Blow's 1980 song Basketball.
Kurtis Blow's Basketball (1980)
Transcript of a line from Run-D.M.C.'s 1986 song My Adidas.
Run-D.M.C.'s My Adidas (1986)
Transcript of a line from Eric B. & Rakim's 1988 song Microphone Fiend.
Eric B. & Rakim's Microphone Fiend (1988)

References in later music

The Pharcyde

The Pharcyde's 1992 song Return of the B-Boy, which opens with the lyric "yo, is '87 in the house," uses this rhythm to imitate the sound of the '80s.

Transcript of a line from The Pharcyde's 1992 song Return of the B-Boy.
The Pharcyde's Return of the B-Boy (1992)

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