Who made it the standard to rap 16 bars?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mev_The_Producer
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its interesting that u ask this question. yesterday i was watching a video of Rockwilder talking about how he placed Jay-Z's Do it Again on Vol 3. Dude says he looped the beat on the 3rd bar. When Jay heard the beat he started flowing then the beat looped at the third bar before he could finish his flow,Then he looked at him wit that look (i think its the same look he gives timbo on fade to black)....from there Roc new he was onto something ....So i guess you can do whatever even with the raps tooo..
 
Like it has been said before, it's the influence of pop/rock music radio format : verse/16bars, chorus/8bars and so on.

And as rap tends to be more of a commercial music than before, the usual radio format is becoming the rule ...
 
In hip hop it wasn't always like that. It used to standard to rap 24 bars or more in one verse. Go back to the early to mid 80's and listen some of those verses, hardly any of them just 16 bars.

It became more popular in hip hop in the mid 90's.

IMO
 
Sunraze said:
Roni Size's Brown Paper Bag? That's the last reference I'd expect to hear from someone on here. Song is classic.
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just gotta say i agree with that .. !^ big choon
 
it's because being that 95% of hip hop is in 4/4 so all the sections are going to be multiples of 4.
 
But if it has to be 4/4 why not take the 12 bar blues route and go 12-8-12?

Who did really decide 16?
 
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ThaNinjaMonkey88 said:
But if it has to be 4/4 why not take the 12 bar blues route and go 12-8-12?

Who did really decide 16?
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2 - 16 - 8 -16 - 8 - 16 - 8 - 2

about 3 to 3:30 minutes depending on tempo....


thats why...
 
J. Dubya III said:
It seems like a lot of songs are switchin to 12 bar verses these days...

DFB "Oh I Think Dey Like Me"
Boyz N Da Hood "Dem Boyz"
Shawty Lo "Dey Know"
Plies "Got Em Hatin"

Bow Wow "Shortie Like Mine" and Gorilla Zoe "Hood Niggr" actually had 8 bar verses...
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hood niggr huh....smh

Coop7ca said:
LOL girl comes here and get hollered at in every thread. Reminds me of hot girls at the mall
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c'mon man a fine girl into music is like every FPer's wet dream lol... lets be real... unless you swing the other way lol
 
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Regardless of where it came from, I think it stuck because it's more radio friendly than some dude spitting 100 bars. But if the hook is really catchy or longer than 8 bars, you'll sometimes find 12 bar or 8 bar verses. Sometimes, ppl will do an 8 bar verse after doing two 16 bar verses with hooks in between.
 
I was thinking the same thing a few years ago when I was listening to some older rap music...

As far back as NWA's Boyz N Da Hood, verses just ran until they felt like ending them...whether that was 16, 20, or 24 measures.


But then in listening, just a few years later, verses went to 16 bars and stayed there.



I think it was probably a decision that was made once rap really became a staple on the radio. Radio has that 3:30 rule for singles (probably even less at the time), and these 24 and 32 bar verses didn't fit the radio format.

So some radio-minded producer decided to cut the verses down to 16 in order to make it more radio friendly. Or if it didn't happen in the recording of the track, it happened in the "radio editing" of a hip hop single...


and it just stuck.




lol @ you smart ass people talking about rock and jazz and blues. It's not even that serious. I think it was just a format decision once rap got on the radio, to make it more digestible for the sheep.
 
yeah, people are digging too deep into this.

Back in the days sometimes raps would run on forever without a chorus coming in. The more pop influenced hip hop has become the more sequenced it's become as well.

Notice rap now has breakdowns and transitions? Go back and listen to anything made before 2000 you won't hear many of those at all. Most you'd usually hear is an extra sound coming in over the top of a loop to indicate the chorus.
 
Once hiphop producers started learning music theory and composing their own melody theyve been deep into the basic 80's pop music standard structure.

And everyone does midi now instead of using live instruments, when you're in a band or recording live it leaves alot more room for improvising with the structure.
 
BJv said:
Once hiphop producers started learning music theory and composing their own melody theyve been deep into the basic 80's pop music standard structure.

And everyone does midi now instead of using live instruments, when you're in a band or recording live it leaves alot more room for improvising with the structure.
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you are looking way too deep into this.....
 
Did you sprinkle the wrong white powder on your breakfast cereal this morning?
 
BJv said:
Did you sprinkle the wrong white powder on your breakfast cereal this morning?
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as the other people said already, it happened because of a run time issue. Not because of MIDI or whatever else wanna make up from the top of their dome...
 
I think if your record comany told you we want 3 minute long singles for radio it wouldnt take long before you found out about the industry standard song structure. I think it goes hand in hand but whatever.
 
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