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Introduction
In 2016, Sony Pictures produced The Get Down, a Netflix-released musical drama series chronicling the emergence of hip-hop culture in late 1970s South Bronx, New York. Early on in the series, the teenage protagonists form a (fictitious) hip-hop group called the Get Down Brothers.1 In various episodes, the Get Down Brothers give live performances; most viewers familiar with early hip-hop music would agree that the music used in The Get Down is stylistically consistent with the actual hip-hop music produced in the Bronx at that time. However, during the sixth episode of the series, while engaging in a rap battle with a rival group, the Get Down Brothers collectively break into a rap sequence built on triplet rhythms, transcribed in Example 1. In presenting this scene, the show departs from the musical-stylistic norms of the period it portrays. Rapping in triplets – what I henceforth call triplet flow – was virtually unheard of at this time; the earliest recorded examples appear nearly a decade later.2 Furthermore, triplet flow's origins exhibit closer ties to hip-hop music from other American regions, such as the South and Midwest – but not New York.3 I do not wish to admonish The Get Down for its apparent anachronisms, but rather to ask the question: what motivated the shows’ creators to include a relatively modern rapping technique in this scene?
Example 1.
‘Get Down Brothers vs. Notorious 3’ (The Get Down Soundtrack, 2016). This excerpt comes from the final episode of series one, which is set in 1977. The time stamp references the song as it appears on The Get Down soundtrack.
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For those familiar with commercial hip-hop music since approximately 2012, the answer to this question might seem obvious. By featuring triplet flow in its music, The Get Down bears witness to this flow style's popularity in recent hip-hop music. Such popularity can perhaps be best seen through the critical and commercial success of Cardi B's debut album, Invasion of Privacy (2018), on which the lead single (among others) ‘Bodak Yellow’ features passages of triplet flow (see Example 2).4
Example 2.
‘Bodak Yellow’ (Cardi B., 2018).
[Figure omitted. See PDF]
This popularity inspires the present study, wherein I consider the...