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lewis lister - chapter 5: discussion lyrics

5. discussion
the results presented above empirically show the use of aave variants by jay-z and nas. this section will -n-lyse these results individually, in relation to one another, and contextualise them in light of the extant literature. this discussion will highlight and offer explanation for any patterns evident in the data, and evaluate the extent to which they are consistent with the findings of the extant literature

5.1. discussion by variable
5.1.1. variable 1: devoicing of voiced stops in stressed syllables
one reason for the relatively high frequency of this variant in the speech of jay-z and nas (64% and 68%, respectively) is that, as a phonological variant, it is relatively un0btrusive. in casual speech, the majority of speakers (and indeed hearers) may not even notice the devoicing occur. this means that speakers freely use the variant without subjecting it to correction. devoicing is also unlikely to affect the rhyme scheme/cadence of the lyrics, and so is unlikely to be altered in the rappers’ speech. although it is possible that devoicing at the end of a line could result in a half rhyme, this is not a problem for either artist: half rhymes (often referred to as ‘slant rhymes’) are actually to be embraced as ingenuity in hip hop music. occasionally, artists actually use devoicing to create half rhymes. in the example below we see nas use devoicing to create a half rhyme between diamond and lining:
deep like the shining, sparkle like a diamond
sneak a uzi on the island in my army jacket lining
(nas illmatic)
evidently, rather than being a hindrance to the process of writing rhymes, rappers such as nas and jay-z actually use the variants of their dialect to their advantage. this is consistent with a view expressed by smitherman (2000, 2006) that embedded in african american culture is an ability to incorporate something that has been allotted to african-american people into something worthy of real pride. she uses the example of a food known as ‘chitlins’: “originally scr-ps from the hog that slave masters discarded and gave away to the enslaved, who took them and made a delicacy of them” (smitherman 2006). in the same way, the speakers of aave in this study take a feature, over the production of which they have no control, and use it to contribute something of real cultural value

5.1.2. variable 2: present tense, 3rd person –s absence
the fact that nas produced no tokens of the aave variant, but 38 of the sae variant, would suggest that present tense, 3rd person –s absence is not a very prominent feature of aave. however, various studies provide evidence that is more consistent with jay-z’s aave frequency of 24%, suggesting that it is unlikely that this is the case. to the best of my knowledge, most studies of urban aave in fact report extensive patterning of present tense, third person –s absence (labov et al. 1968; wolfram 1969; fasold 1972; rickford 1992)
so why is it that the data from jay-z (roughly) fits the patterning described in the literature, but that the data from nas differs so radically? perhaps this marked contrast indicates a difference between the dialects of the two speakers. although both speakers originate from the brooklyn area, jay-z grew up in the marcy housing area, whereas nas grew up in queens. the two are not far from each other, but 1990s brooklyn was a place of extreme social unrest, and where ident-ty and affiliation were vital to survival. it may be the case that present tense, 3rd person –s absence is a feature of a dialect spoken by residents of marcy, and not of queens. this would explain jay-z’s not-infrequent use, compared to nas’ non-existent use, of the same feature

5.1.3. variable 3: plural –s absence on general cl-ss of noun plurals
the high frequency of sae tokens of this variable (247 in total) shows that it is certainly not a lack of tokens of this variable that is responsible for the low frequency of the aave variant ‘plural –s absence on general cl-ss of noun plurals’. this state of affairs strongly suggests that both artists favour the sae variant, i.e. non-deletion of plural –s
such low frequency scores for both speakers suggest that this is not a particularly common feature of aave speech in hip hop, or at least of jay-z and nas. such a low token number also indicates that jay-z and nas do not use this variant as an ident-ty marker. edwards (1986) categorises only those variants that occur with a high frequency in a variety of situations as markers. although situation is not a factor in this study, plural –s absence is clearly not a marker
furthermore, the data from jay-z and nas shows a general tendency with regard to final –s to delete the preceding consonant in order to simplify the cl-ster, rather than to delete the final –s. for example, in ‘ain’t no n-gga’ we find: meet your death in less than 8 seconds (jay-z reasonable doubt). here, he opts to reduce the cl-ster [nd] in seconds to the glottal stop [ʔ] and the final –s remains. this is by no means an isolated incident. perhaps the deletion of final –s in aave is conditioned by the preceding phonological environment

5.1.4. variable 5: possessive –s absence
in the speech of jay-z there was just one token of the sae variant, and zero tokens of the aave variant. because these token numbers are so low, no conclusions can be drawn about his use of this variable, and no further comment will be made. nas produced 1 token of the aave variant, but produced 14 tokens of the sae variant, showing almost zero variation in his adherence to the standard variant. as with variable 3, such a low frequency of the aave variant in nas’ speech suggests that he does not use this variable as an ident-ty marker. the fact that it did occur once however, does show that it is still a feature of aave speech

5.1.5. variable 6: reduction of final consonant cl-sters when followed by words beginning with a vowel
such a high frequency of final consonant cl-ster reduction (84% on average) indicates the significance of this result: it is reasonable to -ssume, at the very least, that this is a prominent aave feature in at least the speech of jay-z and nas, if not the language of the hip hop community as a whole. the fact that the aave frequency in the speech of both jay-z and nas is so similar (86% and 84%, respectively) suggests that not only is this feature prominent, but that it is used in the same way: as a linguistic marker of ident-ty
the artists may use this feature to mark themselves as aave speakers, representative of the hip hop nation. stylistically, the feature is obvious to a sae speaker: when nas says load up the mic’ and bust one (realised as [ˈbəs ˈwən]), it is immediately apparent that he is a speaker of a different dialect. an overview of the genre reveals that this feature is mostly likely used above the level of consciousness: forms involving the reduction of final consonant cl-sters are so frequent that they are actually reflected in the spellings of song names. one of countless examples is the track buss down (wiz khalifa prince of the city). based on this evidence, it seems likely that aave speakers are proud of this variant, and use it as a linguistic marker in order to distinguish themselves from sae speakers

5.1.6. variable 7: copula and aux deletion involving ‘is’ forms
jay-z exhibited copula/aux deletion involving ‘is’ forms with a frequency of 4%, showing a near categorical adherence to sae forms. while nas’ frequency of deletion was slightly higher (13%), neither are as high as expected, given the interest in copula deletion since labov’s new york study (1969)
labov (1969) found that the copula in aave was deleted in situations where it could contract in se. this does not appear to be the case in the present study: because tokens of the sae variant were also recorded, this study can report that copula/aux deletion did not occur in several instances where contraction could have occurred. indeed, there were several cases where sae contraction did occur, and aave deletion did not. for example, in the track ny state of mind (nas illmatic) we find the token:
nothing’s equivalent to the new york state of mind
here, the copula –is ¬has been contracted to ¬–‘s, in accordance with sae, but has not been deleted, as we might expect in aave. perhaps it is the case that since labov’s observations (1969) there has been a shift from deletion to contraction in aave speech; from non-standard to standard. this is a controversial -ssumption because it would suggest that aave is converging with sae in this respect: much more research would have to be undertaken in order to -ssess whether or not this is a valid conclusion to draw

5.1.7. variable 8: use of habitual ‘be’
jay-z and nas used habitual ‘be’ with a relatively high frequency of 26%. this finding is consistent with the work of wolfram (2004) and alim (2001) who -ssert that the form ‘be v-ing’ (of which habitual ‘be´ is an example) is a feature used most frequently by young, urban aave speakers (wolfram 2004: 119), and that ‘be’ is frequently found in equative statements in hip hop, such as ‘dr. dre be the name’ (alim 2001)
however, given how well both artists fit the above criteria ‘be’, and given “its [‘be v-ing’ forms] iconic status as a marker of black speech” (wolfram 2004: 119) it is a little surprising that there aren’t more instances of habitual ‘be’. there are two possible explanations for this. the first is that the criteria for ‘be’ was too narrow: wolfram (2004: 119) notes a “semantic expansion of invariant be beyond its reference to habituality”. perhaps the reason for a lack of tokens of habitual ‘be’ is that jay-z used the ‘be’ construction for other semantic purposes than habituality. secondly, as with most morpho-syntactic variants, use of habitual ‘be’ can alter the meter of a sentence quite drastically. the artists may have chosen not to use it for stylistic reasons that have to do with their cadence, meter or rhyme scheme. the latter seems the most reasonable explanation (a search of the data provided no further instances of ‘be’ forms that fitted wolfram’s criteria (2004)), and highlights the importance of considering the data in its appropriate context. this data is not from natural speech per se, but natural speech that comes with its own set of stylistic conditions that come from pairing speech with music
the data then, does support wolfram’s characterisation of ‘invariant be’ as “probably the most salient grammatical trait of aave” (wolfram 2004: 118). of the grammatical variables coded for in this study (variables 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8), use of habitual ‘be’ was found with significantly higher frequency. however, it was not found with such a high frequency as to support his -ssertion that its use is “becoming a stereotype” (wolfram 2004: 118)
the data used in this study found several instances of ‘is’ being used in the exact same context in which one would expect to find habitual be. one such example of this is ‘n-ggas is fiending’ (jay-z reasonable doubt). this context involves the sort of habituality that would normally facilitate the use of the aave variant habitual be. perhaps one reason that the frequency of habitual be is lower than expected is that it is actually used alongside habitual is by jay-z and nas

5.2. discussion of general trends
the most significant trend found in the study has to do with the nature of the variants that were coded for. variants one and six were found to occur with substantially higher frequency than the other six. given this distinction, it is interesting to note that variants one and six are the only phonological variants that were coded for. the other six are all morpho-syntactic. this patterning is consistent with the findings of wolfram (2004: 117): “relative immunity to the linguistic changes taking place in cohort white communities […] tends to be more salient in phonology than in morphology and syntax”
it is hypothesised that these results indicate that the two artists have a tendency to use phonological variants over morpho-syntactic variants as ident-ty markers. this may be because they are used more easily/natural than morpho-syntactic variants. for example, reduction of a final consonant cl-ster can easily occur below the level of consciousness, whereas use of remote time stressed ‘been’ is more likely to occur at, or above, the level of consciousness, because it alters sentential structure so dramatically. the difference between the two is all the more prominent when the nature of the data used in this study is considered. the speech of both artists is set to music, and must therefore be in accordance with the meter and rhyme scheme used on the record. in this way, it would be very difficult for them to use morpho-syntactic structures such as use of remote time stressed ‘been’, unless the structure comes naturally to the speaker when the line is written and happens to fit the meter. by contrast, the two phonological variants are highly unlikely to alter the rhyme scheme or the meter. therefore, even if they do not come naturally/subconsciously to the artists at the time of writing, they can easily be incorporated during rehearsal of lines in order to further mark the ident-ty of the artist
this patterning is consistent with the findings of wolfram (2004: 117): “relative immunity to the linguistic changes taking place in cohort white communities […] tends to be more salient in phonology than in morphology and syntax”
-n-lysis of results implies that nas and jay-z use the aave variants of the variables used in this study with an almost identical frequency. although each show their own preferences for certain variants over others, both use the aave variant with an average frequency of 27%. this startling similarity suggests that any attempt to rank the two artists according to their adherence to aave and subsequent allegiance to their african-american heritage has proved fruitless. this is not necessarily a surprising finding: the issue itself is almost a moot point. the fruitful question concerns not who uses aave variants the most, but how, where and why artists use some variants more than other variants

5.3. discussion of non morpho-syntactic ident-ty marking in hip hop
although this study is based on the -n-lysis of morphological, syntactic and phonological variables, these are not the only ways that rappers express their cultural ident-ty on record. as rickford (1999: 12)contends: “for the preachers, novelists, storytellers, poets, playwrights, actors and actresses, street corner hustlers, church-going grandparents, working mothers and fathers and schoolyard children, rappers, singers, barber-shop and beauty-salon clients who draw on it daily, aave is not simply a compendium of features, but the integral whole which brown evocatively called ‘spoken soul.’”

linguistically, hip hop artists signify allegiance to their hometown, as well as to their african heritage, through the verbal genres (“speakers’ use of culturally significant varieties and styles which mediate, const-tute, and construct contexts” (morgan 1998: 251)) they employ in their speech. morgan, as well as smitherman (2000) identifies indirectness, call-response, signifying and playing the dozens (making jokes about a peer’s mother) as tools with which speakers “imbue language with their historical, social, and cultural experience in the united states” and “mark the african-american speech community as distinct across generation, gender, and cl-ss.” (morgan 1998: 277). discussing the current state of the african-american experience, smitherman regards the ‘africanized christianity’ as “paramount” (1998: 210). in the tradition of african-american church, the power of the word (nommo) is of great importance, and call-response methods of communication are commonplace (smitherman 1998, 2000). this “celebration of the power of the word” (smitherman 1998) is also witnessed today in hip hop, in which rappers bring words into being by uttering them on record. all of these verbal genres are commonplace in rap (including the work of jay-z and nas), but have been overlooked in this study, which focussed purely on morphological, phonological and syntactic features
hip hop artists also use their lexical choices to mark their ident-ty. cramer & ward found that “hip hop perpetuates local indices of ident-ty on an international scale” (cramer & ward 2010: 1) through their choice of lexicon, as well as through many other methods. jay-z and nas reference the streets on which they grew up constantly in their lyrics, no doubt demonstrating their allegiance to their predominantly african-american neighbourhoods. an -n-lysis of their lexical choices and references would most likely provide a useful insight into the linguistic construction of ident-ty in hip hop

this study was concerned with the linguistic construction of ident-ty through the variables identified as being typical of aave in the extant literature. however, there are a whole host of other, extra-linguistic ways that are used by artists to construct ident-ty through hip hop music. extra-linguistically, both artists in this study use sampling to construct their dual ident-ty as african-americans. musicians such as james brown mimic the black preachers in their musical style, and it is no coincidence that artists such as brown and aretha franklin are some of the most sampled in hip hop. hip hop artists (jay-z and nas included) often pay homage to their african-american roots through sampling. it is therefore conceivable that this might reduce the need for them to do so through their use of aave. adherence to aave is just one of manifold ways of reflecting one’s cultural heritage through music

also, the choice of artists featured on ‘reasonable doubt’ and ‘illmatic’ (and indeed other hip hop albums) is no doubt significant in the construction of ident-ty. artists featured on the ‘reasonable doubt’ include mary j. blige, notorious b.i.g, clark kent, mecca, dj premier, foxy brown, big jaz, memphis bleek and sauce money, all of whom are african-american soul/hip hop artists local to new york city. the exact same applies to artists featured on ‘illmatic’, which features production from exclusively new york city artists: q tip, large professor, pete rock and dj premier. it appears that featured artists are chosen selectively, according to their musical style, ethnicity, and locality. it is important then, to contextualise the findings of this study correctly. the extent to which jay-z and nas represent their cultural heritage linguistically, must be considered alongside other, extra-linguistic methods. artists utilise language to construct their ident-ty, rather than being dependent on it

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