(upbeat music)
-: Hi everybody, my name is Olisa Enrico,
some people know me as Another Name.
It's my hip-hop name, my superhero name,
my rap name, Spyc-E.
Hip-hop is awesome.
It's what I consider the ultimate form of expression.
And so rap being a part of hip-hop
is the ultimate form of expression in word,
written word or spoken word.
And today we're gonna talk about delivery.
What are we delivering?
We're delivering the message.
We're delivering the intent, the mood, the emotion,
of whatever it is we wrote or someone else wrote
that we wanna share with folks.
Is a lotta ways to do that
more than I could ever go over.
I mean, more than I could ever touch in a moment.
So we're just gonna deal with the few
that I think are most important.
So today we're gonna talk about cadence,
inflection and emphasis.
And at the end we'll throw in a little gesture,
what I like to call wrap hands.
Because in our culture 70 to 80%
of what we communicate is done with our body.
So very important, but we'll do that at the end.
Let's talk about cadence.
People say the word a lot
and sometimes they know what they're talking about
and sometimes they don't.
Cadence is basically the rhythmic flow
of either a single word, entire line or the whole piece,
the whole rap or poem or story that you're telling.
So an example, let's see
oh, you know, "Hickory Dickory Dock", it's a nursery rhyme.
It has a cadence built into it.
♪ Hickory dickory dock ♪
♪ The mouse went up the clock ♪
♪ The clock struck one ♪
♪ And down he run ♪
♪ Hickory dickory dock ♪
So the rhythm of those words, the way it flows,
that's the cadence.
♪ Hickory dickory dock. ♪
Alright, so I'm gonna use my rap,
one of my raps, to explore some cadence.
Ready? Ignite your imagination.
That's the first line.
I could say it a million ways.
Depending on how slow or fast I wanna go, that's tempo.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
Maybe I wanna speed it up.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
I like that.
On a search for inspiration.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
♪ On a search for inspiration ♪
That's a fun one.
I like it just to flow a little faster though
because I feel like it should be intense
that's the mood I want.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
I wanna give a little, mm,
like I want people to do what I'm saying.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
♪ On a search for inspiration ♪
♪ Take an inhalation ♪
That's the cadence I like but I could change it
at any time to however I want
to share my feelings and my message.
Cadence, it's the flow of the rhythm.
Another way we can work with delivery is through inflection.
Now inflection is the movement of the pitch, the note.
Pitch is note, so if I go, aaah!
The inflection's going up,
or if I go aaah, the inflection's going down.
Now, in our culture,
inflection indicates whether it's a question or a statement.
Often at the end of the question, will go up.
Going to the store?
Indicates that I'm asking you if you're going to the store.
If I go down, I'm making a statement usually.
I'm going to the store.
Boom.
You know, I'm headed to the store
so if you want something you better tell me now.
Anyway.
Inflection is fun to play with.
Some of my favorite MCs, those are rappers.
Some of my favorite MCs use a lotta different inflection.
E-40, Kendrick Lamar, they go all over the place.
I too like to go different places.
Let's play with inflection
with the rap we were doing earlier.
Ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration
take an inhalation.
Those are the words.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
♪ On a search for inspiration ♪
♪ Take an inhalation ♪
It's not my favorite, but I'm gonna play with it again.
♪ Ignite your imagination. ♪
That's a statement.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
♪ On a search for inspiration? ♪
Make it a question.
Let's put a question mark at the end of that.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
♪ On a search for inspiration ♪
♪ Take an inhalation ♪
♪ & peep the situation ♪
Peep, peep, peep.
I like going up on that one.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
♪ On a search for inspiration ♪
♪ Take an inhalation ♪
Oh, I like that change in cadence too.
♪ Take an inhalation ♪
♪ & peep the situation ♪
♪ A generation facing-- ♪
Ah, I like that too.
So we can just play around with whatever you're doing.
We could play with "Hickory Dickory Dock"
♪ Hickory dickory dock ♪
♪ The mouse went up the clock ♪
♪ The clock struck one ♪
♪ And down he run ♪
♪ Hickory dickory dock. ♪
I like nursery rhymes they're fun to play with.
Not high stakes, low stakes.
All right, so another way we can play
with delivery is through emphasis.
Now emphasis is where you put the weight of the word
or weight in the sentence.
What do I mean by weight?
That's a weird way to explain.
Well, let's look at the word emphasis.
In our culture, we tend to emphasize
certain syllables in a word.
Now side note, there are languages that don't do that.
There are languages where each syllable has an equal weight.
But in English, our syllables have different weights.
Like emphasis, the first syllable has weight in it.
I don't say, emphasis or I don't say emphasis.
Or the word syllable, the first syllable has the weight.
I don't say syllable or syllable.
I could, but it just changes what it sounds like
you might not know what I'm saying.
So we can also do that within a line.
And it changes the meaning of what I'm trying to tell you.
For instance, with I love you, right?
If I say, I love you, I'm emphasizing that I love.
Love is the emphasis.
But if I put emphasis on the word I, I love you,
I might be saying or suggesting that
maybe that person doesn't, but I do.
Or if I emphasize the word you, I love you,
then I'm saying I don't love that other person I love you.
So where you emphasize changes the meaning
of the line or the sentence or the rap.
So let's play with some emphasis.
♪ Ignite your imagination. ♪
So I want you to turn it on, set it on fire, ignite.
Maybe I wanna stress imagination.
♪ Ignite your imagination. ♪
I don't know, what do I like better?
Depends on what I mean.
How I want the person to receive it.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
♪ On a search for inspiration ♪
♪ Take an inhalation ♪
Inhalation is the most important word, I think for that one.
♪ Peep the situation ♪
Peep it, look at it, figure it out.
♪ A generation facing cultural annihilation ♪
Annihilation, is a very important word.
It means flattened out, it could just end.
Alright, so we're gonna play with the different ones.
Cadence, that's the rhythm, the pattern, the flow.
We're gonna play with inflection,
that's the pitch, where it goes up and down.
And also the emphasis, where the weight is placed.
Which words are most important
to make sure that the people who are listening to you
hear the message that you want to send.
See I did that, you want.
Want was the most important word there.
I could've said, that you want to send
and then you're most important.
So how would you wanna send right?
How we communicate.
Let's play with my rap.
Let's see, I'm gonna start with a slow tempo
and try some different cadences, inflections and emphasis.
♪ Ignite your imagination. ♪
♪ On a search for inspiration ♪
♪ Take an inhalation ♪
♪ & peep the situation ♪
♪ A generation facing cultural annihilation ♪
♪ By assimilation. ♪
I don't feel like I was communicating
the urgency that I want for that.
To me, this is important,
so maybe I'll pick up the pace a little bit.
Pick up the pace, pick up the tempo.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
♪ On a search for inspiration ♪
♪ Take an inhalation ♪
♪ & peep the situation ♪
♪ A generation facing cultural annihilation ♪
♪ By assimilation ♪
Ah, I like that a little better.
Now, the last thing I wanna add is gesture.
I said this earlier, 80% of what we communicate
is through our bodies, body language.
If I'm just stiff like this,
you might not understand me as much.
But when I add gesture,
you're more likely to understand what I have to say.
So let me add some gesture to that.
♪ Ignite your imagination ♪
♪ On a search for inspiration ♪
♪ Take an inhalation ♪
♪ & peep the situation ♪
♪ A generation facing cultural annihilation ♪
♪ By assimilation- asphyxiation ♪
♪ By incarceration- destabilization ♪
♪ By gentrification- extermination ♪
♪ By sterilization without authorization. ♪
Yeah, gesture.
It helps me to understand what you mean
and it helps you to understand what I mean.
So, when you're playing with your nursery rhyme,
your poem or your rap and this works for storytelling,
for monologues, for rapping,
for just communicating with each other.
Use your cadence, your rhythm and your flow.
Use your emphasis, where you place the weight of the word.
use your inflection.
Use those things, use your gestures to communicate,
so that people know what you want them to know,
about you or the message that you wanna send.
And make sure that you rap.
Rhythm and poetry, R-A-P and that's a wrap.
(upbeat music)