Flow - Blu

This song could easily have a post about any of the following categories.

Wordplay 

"Blu black hearted and young"

Structure

Repeating the "Seed killer" lines at 2 different points in the song to illustrate different forms of death. Abortion and murder.

Got a Story to Tell

This is a deep, insightful narrative about his formative years. It does not flow in the way other story raps do, missing transitions and context. but his herky-jerky flow makes that lack of cohesion seem intentional.

Speaking of flow, that is precisely what drew me to this song. Blu has a myriad of flows which he employs liberally depending on the track. Here he decides to go with a hesitation, stutter step style which perfectly compliments the track as well as the aforementioned story structure.

"You don't even know your english, your verbs your nouns..." - Run DMC

As teacher I am a real stickler with my students about the structure of the stories they write. I try to impose upon them that you must first master the fundamentals and structures of writing before venturing off into free form. Master the rules, and then break them.

Hip-Hop lyrics are far from being locked-in by rules however there are times when rappers use some basic, elementary story structures when putting rhymes together.

While listening to newcomer J Cole's recent mixtape The Warm Up, I noticed some intentional use of such structures. The song Lights Please is an introspective look at the sexual dynamics in male/female relationships. The vehicle he uses for his imagery is two verse (scenes) where he is trying to put the girl up on some knowledge and all she wants to do is smash, then...

"All of that deep shit I was previously down for/ replaced by freak shit I am currently down for"