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Eugene Ahn
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1101
8 August 2014
This is an Ode to the B-boys, B-girls...
Macklemore is an established hiphop artist and rapper, well known for his more unique
rapping style and the messages and stories he often tells in his songs. His biggest hits includ
Cant Hold Us and Thrift Shop. Previous to his explosion of popularity in 2012,
Macklemore's previous album release was Language Of My World in 2005. This album was
based around a history of his roots as a hiphop artist. The language and world in the title of
his album represent the culture of hiphop as an entirely different entity as the rest of the world
and the rest of culture. On this album, his song B-Boy stood out to me, instead of reflecting on
the culture of hiphop and attempting to make listeners experience it, B-Boy specifically speaks
to the denizens of this hiphop culture, asking the question of where the culture had actually gone.
B-Boy address modern day issues of the hiphop culture, how the true community and essence
of hiphop has begun to slip away from itself. Macklemore asks listeners when hiphop had gone
from a thriving culture and underground community to a household name, a genre of pop music,
and a cash grab in the music industry. B-Boy questions modern day hiphop and hiphop
artists in a reflective manner while maintaining Macklemores own image as a someone who
cant be considered a sell-out.
But in the End Whats Classic?
As I listened to various other hiphop songs, modern and oldschool, I came to the decision
of comparing the conventions used in B-Boy that categorized the song into two different

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genres. While directly speaking, the song very clearly associates itself with old-school hiphop
with Macklemore seeing himself as an MC rather than a rapper. On the other hand, the song does
make its own efforts in becoming a modern song that could spread its message to more than just
the hiphop community in attempts to revitalize a new and stronger hiphop community. In terms
of genre analysis, Ive decided to show how the songs conventions line up to that of an oldschool hiphop songs and how those same conventions differ from most modern day hiphop,
when the genres are supposed to be so very similar. Comparison songs I have chosen are the 90s
Much Love by Ghetto Concept and the recent release Anaconda by Nicki Minaj.
A Tabletop and a Beatbox
In any song, the feel, beat, groove and instruments are often the main points of interest in
identifying the potential genre of a song. The vast majority of songs will have lyrics and a beat
and instruments, but the type of lyrics, speed of a beat, and every the kind of instruments can
shift a song through entire genres, and are the basis behind the different conventions between
music genres. The simplest ways to describe the music behind old-school hiphop is based around
low bass to set a groove, a strong steady beat, and often wind instruments or string instruments,
especially the saxophone. Macklemores B-Boy uses these elements to their fullest, utilizing
wind instruments and string instruments to provide a repeating melody with the beat of the
drums driving the music forward in a steady manner. The actual speed of the music is steady and
somewhat slow contrasted by the speed of the rapper who tends to speak at twice the speed of the
beat. This kind of contrast makes the rappers words seem much faster than they are. In Much
Love by Ghetto Concept, the instruments used are similar to the ones in B-Boy, emphasis on
the beat of the drums and the groove of a low bass. The song also uses wind instruments to
provide a repetitive melody that takes a backseat to the groove of the bass and the beat supplied

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by the drums. While Macklemores B-Boy follows the old-school conventions set by Ghetto
Concepts Much Love, the song differs slightly from another more modern hiphop rap song.
Nicki Minajs Anaconda sets up the conventions well with a low bass to set the pace of the song,
but rather than a groove, the bass sets the pace of the song to more of a dance song than that of a
rap song. Anaconda also opts to forgo the drums due to the basss ability to keep the tempo of
the song. B-Boy follows neither of these more modern conventions and sticks closer to the
setup of an old school hiphop rap.
The Passion into the Art
Macklemores B-Boy was considered an important song in the modern day of hiphop
due to its reflective tone and message, specifically because its message was directed toward
hiphop itself. This follows the general tone of old school hiphop rap, the subject of which was
generally either hiphop, violence, or social/economic issues. Ghetto Concepts Much Love
follows a similar tone with its focus on the issues of people in hiphop and how they arent
following the true meanings and just following along with the motions. Nicki Minajs
Anaconda is somewhat different, the main idea of a lot of hiphop rap has shifted from
reflective and progressive to that of a more worldly view. Emphasis on drugs, partying and sex
has plagued the image of hiphop rap and Anaconda is a perfect example of this shift in
convention.
Monumentally, Grammatically, Killing the Mic
A genre that is very similar to some of the conventions of hiphop rap is poetry. Both
genres put focus on the words of a speaker, or rapper, and the messages they speak. Both genres
also emphasize the speed in which the words are spoken, the rhythm of the lines and stanzas and
the hidden meanings behind the words that most writers put in their work. Transforming

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Macklemores B-Boy into a poem from a rap would be to strip away some of the rap-only
conventions between the genres. Removing the music would almost completely change the song
into a poem, the rhythm and speed of the words are already pre established in its rap form,
allowing those conventions to shift over to their poem counterparts with ease.