Flow theorizes the rhythm of the rapping voice at the intersection of music, speech, and poetry. Author Mitchell Ohriner addresses pressing questions in theories of musical rhythm and meter through a combination of computational music analysis and humanistic close reading.

• List of acronyms


• Introduction


• On reproducible research in the humanities


• Conventions


• About the Companion Website


• Part I. Representing Flow


• 1: Flow in rap music: three sources of confusion and a strategy for clarity


• 2: A corpus for rap music analysis


• 3: From rhythm to accent, from sound to rhyme


• 4: From accent to vocal groove


• 5: Features of flow in the genre and the artist


• Part II. Three Flows


• 6: Flow, metric complexity, and text in Eminem


• 7: Flow, groove, and beat in Black Thought


• 8: Flow and free rhythm in Talib Kweli


• Glossary


• Works cited


• Index

Mitchell Ohriner has earned degrees in music composition and music theory from the Universities of Colorado and Indiana and taught music theory at Washington University in St. Louis, Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA, and the University of Denver. His work on rap music, rhythm, expressive timing, and computational music analysis appears in journals, conference proceedings, and edited volumes. He lives in Denver with his wife and two sons.