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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.

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

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.

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

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