Language and Humor Blog

If you’ve been here to Language and Humor Blog before, you may have noticed a certain lack of roadway license. Er, street cred. That’s all about to change with this post about The Extensive Hip Hop Rhyming Dictionary (On-line Records, US$8.95) (on-linerecords.com/). [EDIT (6/7/10): dead link]

I’m not a fan of rap music or hip hop, but I find the phrasal rhymes very interesting. The book could be of use not only to rappers but also to song parodists (including science-fiction filkers), whose alternate lyrics often rhyme with those of the original song.

I notice that some of the examples in the book aren’t rhymes proper (same vowel sound and same final-consonant sound) but assonance (same vowel sound). For example, the phrase asthma attack rhymed with blast from the past has the “az-” of asthma and “(bl)ast” of blast. That’s assonance, but the consonant sounds are so close that it’s also an approximate rhyme. However, the “-(t)ak” of attack with the “(p)ast” of past is just assonance. With the unstressed schwa vowels, there’s also rhyme (“uh” of attack with “uh” of the), which keeps the rhythm/beat to STRESSED-unstressed-unstressed-STRESSED. The last set has the same schwa assonance as well as consonance (same consonant sound) of the initial “m” in asthma, “-muh,” and the final “m” in the word from, “(fr)um.” [EDIT (6/7/10): This paragraph edited for clarity.]

You might want this book if your level of “free flow” now is at “zero.”

See also:

Free Online Rhyming Dictionary
Rhyme with
WikiRhymer Rhyming Dictionary
Rhyme Generator