Okay maybe Beyonce started her very own version of rap-singing that the hive created in 1997
but when I and the rest of the real world think of rap-singing we think TLC (1994)
So to answer the OP's Question "Did beyonce start the sing-rap trend".
The answer is
No
This doesn't make any sense considering:
1: Beyonce/DC are the ones that are credited for the trend and NOT TLC
2: TLC never rap-sung in 1994
Quote:
Deaad at the hive acting like they know the True and Only definition of rap-singing
No, you're just the one that's confused. Tboz's voice may have a hip-hop funky flare to it but she never infused rhythmic and melodic vocals together. She always sang 100% melodically over hard hip-hop beats, which is something entirely different.
Okay maybe Beyonce started her very own version of rap-singing that the hive created in 1997
but when I and the rest of the real world think of rap-singing we think TLC (1994)
So to answer the OP's Question "Did beyonce start the sing-rap trend".
The answer is
No
Deaad at the hive acting like they know the True and Only definition of rap-singing.
TLC never rap-sung. You have yet to post any video of TLC "rap-singing". Matter fact none of you posted any videos of any these females (Janet, Mariah. Mary, L Hill or TLC) rap-singing.. you all claimed "who did it before her". Where's the proof?
I don't think anyone is claiming that she invented it though, however, THE WAY she approached the style was different and unique and it was that style of the rap-singing that's heard all over R&B since the early 2000's which is why Beyonce/Destiny's Child are most associated with it.
Even ignoring those articles, The rap-singing in R&B music today doesn't even sound like the examples that you listed (Teena Marie and Blondie are just straight up rapping in those clips btw, not the same thing) Not to mention the timing of when the trend first started.
The way she approached it is the same way others have as well - finding the medium between singing and rapping. Surely she may have popularized it, but it had already been done. She just did it with a hip-hop flare. Each artist who did it prior just did in with another backing in terms of genre. And I see you acknowledged Teena and Blondie but completely ignored the Mariah clip where she is indeed doing a rap-sing. You're just nickel and diming it at this point.
Edit: here's the Spice Girls doing a rap-sing over a funk beat:
1: Beyonce/DC are the ones that are credited for the trend and NOT TLC
2: TLC never rap-sung in 1994
No, you're just the one that's confused. Tboz's voice may have a hip-hop funky flare to it but she never infused rhythmic and melodic vocals together. She always sang 100% melodically over hard hip-hop beats, which is something entirely different.
The way she approached it is the same way others have as well - finding the medium between singing and rapping. Surely she may have popularized it, but it had already been done. She just did it with a hip-hop flare. Each artist who did it prior just did in with another backing in terms of genre. And I see you acknowledged Teena and Blondie but completely ignored the Mariah clip where she is indeed doing a rap-sing. You're just nickel and diming it at this point.
Edit: here's the Spice Girls doing a rap-sing over a funk beat:
It really isn't though. There are definitely people that dabbled in the style before her but no one really combined traditional elements with rap-like flows to the extent of Destiny's Child. If you listen to songs from the 2000's like Ignition, Caramel, Hit Em Up Style, Karma, Family Affair, Thinking About You, Love Don't Cost a Thing, Confessions, Hard, Glamorous, Put it Down etc you'd hear that they sound nothing like Mariah in someday, James Brown, The Spice Girls etc but instead falls directly in line with Beyonce/ Destiny's Child brand of rap-singing.
Mariah has rapped on Prisoner. That's not rap singing... it's just plain rapping.
Janet has never rap-sung.
IDK. i feel like T-Boz definitely did have a Hip Hop feel to her songs. Creep doesn't have rap-singing... but I think "This Is How We Do It" Was definitely rap-singing.
It really isn't though. There are definitely people that dabbled in the style before her but no one really combined traditional elements with rap-like flows to the extent of Destiny's Child. If you listen to songs from the 2000's like Ignition, Caramel, Hit Em Up Style, Karma, Family Affair, Thinking About You, Love Don't Cost a Thing, Confessions, Hard, Glamorous, Put it Down etc you'd hear that they sound nothing like Mariah in someday, James Brown, The Spice Girls etc but instead falls directly in line with Beyonce/ Destiny's Child brand of rap-singing.
Quote:
Originally posted by Lately 1814
You're just nickel and diming it at this point.
You realize there are different levels of rap right? Not all of it is rapid rhythm and cadence. You have your Twisters and Bone Thugs, but you also have your Snoops and Big Daddys Kanes.
Funny you mention some of those songs with a tempo slower than "No No No" and "Bug A Boo", which should tell you they didn't really look at DC's approach, they took other's.
You realize there are different levels of rap right? Not all of it is rapid rhythm and cadence. You have your Twisters and Bone Thugs, but you also have your Snoops and Big Daddys Kanes.
Funny you mention some of those songs with a tempo slower than "No No No" and "Bug A Boo", which should tell you they didn't really look at DC's approach, they took other's.
Bone Thugs, Snoop Dogg are not vocalists. Sure some of their raps may have been melodic driven and they may influenced other rappers like Ja Rule, Future, T-pain, Fetty Wap but Destiny's Child are the ones that trendsetted that sound amongst actual singers.
and as far as your last part, 1: No No No and Bug a Boo are not the only songs they rap-sung on. It was their signature sound they did on most of their songs and they were first R&B act to really make it a trademark, The Writings On The Wall is full of rap-sung vocals. 2: It doesn't really have much to do with the tempo but HOW they vocally approach the song.
Are you going to tell me that the vocal approaches of these two songs aren't eerily similar?
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Beyonce was even asked about it in an interview in 1999. The interviewer asks her about it and how unusual it is hearing that style from a singer. If the style of singing was soooo common and all over the place in the 90's why would she ask her that? and why was Wyclef so surprised when he first heard Bey sing No No No Part 2? (Especially considering he was in a group with a singer/rapper like Lauryn Hill)
0:50
Again, and it's not a coincidence that a slew of singer started adapting that style in their vocals only AFTER Destiny's Child had so much success with it and was done in such a similar manner.
Bone Thugs, Snoop Dogg are not vocalists. Sure some of their raps may have been melodic driven and they may influenced other rappers like Ja Rule, Future, T-pain, Fetty Wap but Destiny's Child are the ones that trendsetted that sound amongst actual singers.
and as far as your last part, 1: No No No and Bug a Boo are not the only songs they rap-sung on. It was their signature sound they did on most of their songs and they were first R&B act to really make it a trademark, The Writings On The Wall is full of rap-sung vocals. 2: It doesn't really have much to do with the tempo but HOW they vocally approach the song.
Are you going to tell me that the vocal approaches of these two songs aren't eerily similar?
Beyonce was even asked about it in an interview in 1999. The interviewer asks her about it and how unusual it is hearing that style from a singer. If the style of singing was soooo common and all over the place in the 90's why would she ask her that? and why was Wyclef so surprised when he first heard Bey sing No No No Part 2? (Especially considering he was in a group with a singer/rapper like Lauryn Hill)
0:50
Again, and it's not a coincidence that a slew of singer started adapting that style in their vocals only AFTER Destiny's Child had so much success with it and was done in such a similar manner.
And you don't hear the similarities between "Bug A Boo" and "Someday"? The end of the vocal lines having stressed syllables? The upward inflections? The rhythmic approach (a complete departure from the melody of "Someday")? They are similar. One of the obvious differences is the meter. Other than that?.....
The style wasn't common in the 90s, but it was definitely there, and had been there since the 70s. It's analogous to the Mariah-melisma argument the lambs like to use. Melisma was already present in vocal musicianship, but Mariah made it a thing. Hence why I said the better argument is that they popularized the form.
And you don't hear the similarities between "Bug A Boo" and "Someday"? The end of the vocal lines having stressed syllables? The upward inflections? The rhythmic approach (a complete departure from the melody of "Someday")? They are similar. One of the obvious differences is the meter. Other than that?.....
The style wasn't common in the 90s, but it was definitely there, and had been there since the 70s. It's analogous to the Mariah-melisma argument the lambs like to use. Melisma was already present in vocal musicianship, but Mariah made it a thing. Hence why I said the better argument is that they popularized the form.
I knew someone would make that comparison. I see where you are coming from but no Someday and Bug A Boo aren't really that similar (definitely not to the same extent as the examples I posted in my previous post) other than them both being fast-paced. Bug A Boo is more complex than the fast-singing Somebody, it has more layers to it,. Bey follows the beat more closely, She rides it almost like a rapper would and the vocals come in rhythms which is something Mariah doesn't really do in Someday. There is nothing really 'rap-like' about Someday IMO. She's just singing very fast to one simple melodic flow kinda like Britney in Me Against The Music. (Which I don't really consider rap-singing) A better example of Mariah rap-singing would be Breakdown.
The argument isn't that she invented it though. We even acknowledge that Michael Jackson did it Jam and that rappers like Bone Thugs and N Harmony were doing it. But Destiny's Child did it in a unique way and it was their way that was implemented in the R&B landscape, thus being their influence.
I don't think that Mariah stans claim that Mariah invented melisma either but rather it was her approach to melisma that influenced a big crop of singers. Melisma is still hugely associated with Mariah regardless of who was doing it before her.
Mariah, Lauryn Hill, Prince, Missy Elliot, TLC, Will Smith..several artists who have sold more than her hsve been doing it for decades, try again beyhive
The end of the vocal lines having stressed syllables? The upward inflections? The rhythmic approach (a complete departure from the melody of "Someday")? They are similar. 