Music Writing Quotes

“Unlike the rhythms of literary poetry, then, the rhythms of rap are governed by something outside of the MC's own literary conceptions. Rap's beat serves an analogous purpose for the MC that meter does for the literary poet: Namely, it sets out the terms of a rhythmic ideal. One might even consider hip hop's beat as poetic meter rendered audible, clarifying the relationship beween metrical perfction and rhythmic innovation.”
― Adam Bradley, Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop