An observation I have made about Korean as a language in relation to rapping.
N.B. I’m not a linguist (yet), and don’t know all the correct terms, I just like languages (and khip hop) a lot. I also don’t speak Korean but I know a little bit about its phonetics. So if you disagree I would love to hear your thoughts, this is just a theory of mine haha.

For me, Korean as a language lends itself to rapping very well, much more than say English. Its word structure is reliant on short and “bouncy” syllables, which lends itself to rapping either straight, off beat or in triplets, which means you can do a lot more things with it in terms of diction, intonation, style and flow. English is Germanic in grammar structure but a mishmash when it comes to pronunciation, with Germanic, Romantic and Celtic roots; it just doesn’t have a consistent patterning to how things are said, so when you’re trying to rap to it I personally find it hard to make it sound cohesive or as poetic. Not saying there aren’t good English rappers, just that linguistically Korean lends itself to the genre better.

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    This was your ‘quickly tapped out’? XD It’s a very well made point. I do like how both poetry and rap in Korean inherently sound more… melodic? You don’t have to depend on rhyming to emphasize notes, but even rhymes come easily. Anyway, yeah, excellent observation!

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    I agree! But in English there is a way to make this work tooโ€”Eminem has a way that he strings words together that is genius, where they donโ€™t look like they would rhyme but how he pronounces them, dropping syllables, or slurring others, itโ€™s amazing. But in truth I enjoy listening to Korean rap more than English because of exactly what you say!

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      Very good point Ally! I was going to bring up Eminem too. I can’t remember if I shared this video with you Sic, but it’s a pretty good breakdown of American rap music. While you may be correct in your assessment–as I too am no linguist or musician etc.–you might be selling English rap short.

      Rap music in English–as I suspect it might in Korean as well–exists on a very wide spectrum. I’m not one for mumble rap or most songs about hoes/drugs/beefs etc.–not that I have a problem with it, just that most don’t appeal to me. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good ones out there that I like, but the average song like that, no. On that spectrum though are the different types of delivery. Probably because of the syllable structure I like aggressive fast paced lively delivery of many Korean raps. But that’s usually all I have to go by, delivery. Sure, the lyrics are usually very good, but there’s a disconnect for me there when I’m not reading it. Even when I do, it’s not like English.

      Take this English song for example. His delivery is very different from most Korean rap, but the sound and delivery work really well with the message/lyrics. It doesn’t have to be a “positive” song to be a good song either. Take this song which is quite different.

      Why do I feel like I rambled?

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        Whoops. I messed up the html formatting. The two songs are there though in the “Take” paragraph.

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        As I said to KSKalways below, this is not meant to discredit English rap, or presume that English can’t be used brilliantly in rap (you have sent me that video before, we’ve also discussed it before lol), because it can, I like a lot of 90s rap specifically for example, and I love how the English language CAN be used in literature and poetry, and I do think that rap is in a way just spoken word poetry to music.
        Just that in its Phonology, the literal technical Linguistic make up, I think Korean suits rap better than English. I would even go as far to say that Korean is a lot more Linguistically pure than English; English Phonology is all over the place because of the Great Vowel Shift and the British Isles being invaded so many times.

        You always ramble, and I always appreciate your rambles because I also ramble lol

        (also I’m not really sure why I never replied to you Ally, sorry haha)

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          I have no idea who replies and who doesnโ€™t. I wrote this off the cuff and donโ€™t remember who I write things to most of the time. ๐Ÿ™‚

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    Given that rap & hip-hop were born in an English-speaking country, given the history/culture of rap and with the amazing lyrically-talented English-speaking rappers out there, I really can’t agree with your statement…
    But hey… to each their own.

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      I think… for me it’s got more to do with the phonology of Korean and less to do with where it came from. Just because it originated in English, doesn’t mean other languages exist that aren’t potentially, linguistically more suited to the genre. There are, as Ally said, definitely fantastic English rappers, with good flow and lyrics- but my point was more from a pure phonetics, phonology and language structure perspective, so mostly, how the language sounds and is built, I think Korean works better.
      And I’m not an academic linguist as much as I would like to be, so I can only hypothesize based on my limited knowledge and my own (currently quite subjective) ear, that happens to listen to all sorts of music in other languages purely because they’re not English. *shurgs*

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    @hades I found old wall posts of mine you might appreciate lol

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