Questa Beat - No Kum Ba Yah

Topic: Rap
The terms rap and hip hop have been used interchangeably although they referred to different aspects of a performance. Rap usually referred to rhymed texts that were chanted, while hip hop might have referred to the music, the performance, or the life style of the artist.

The immediate origins of rap lay in the clubs of New York City during the disco period. Entrepreneurial disk jockeys played their private caches of records, which they often introduced with rhymed couplets. Some also spoke over the instrumental breaks in songs. DJ Hollywood was the first to chant on the beats of records with a conscious use of vocal intonations in 1975. His most significant innovation was repeating lyrics from an Isaac Hayes song during the break in MFSB’s "Love Is the Message." [1]

Early rap lyrics used end rhyme. Then, according to Masta Ace, "Rakim showed us that you could put rhymes within a rhyme, so you put more than one word in a line that rhymed together, so it didn’t have to be just the last word. Now here comes Big Daddy Kane—instead of going three words, he’s going multiple, seven and eight words in a sentence." [2]

In "No Kum Ba Yah" Questa Beat first set a dark mood by saying "I gotta paranoid like Watts," then added "ain’t in the same class as the Columbine." This was followed by short phrases that ended with front line, lunch line, gun line, and drum line.

Later he used initial repetition to repeat "double to cash," "double to work," and "double to burst." From there he bragged "I’m so good I don’t gotta rehearse" and referred to an ancient curse. Both incremental repetition and end rhyme were used in:

"I coulda been a ruler but I never give a inch
I coulda been a leader but I never give a shit"

Rap developed from Hollywood’s interjected rhymes into independent songs. Questa’s fell into the standard verse-chorus format, with a rapped verse that focused on him. The music was electronic. It began with a long sustained tone that ended with the sounds of a missile ready to strike. Then he began rapping against the sustained tone and a muted drum machine.

The line "’til you understand" and the sound of another missile marked the beginning of the chorus. The electronic instrument began playing a melody while Questa chanted:

"All my N**s like hassan
Tell them no kumbaya"

four times, and ended with one final iteration of the first line. The droned resumed with the rap, and ended with a repetition of the chorus.

"Hassan," according to the Urban Dictionary, referred to an awesome man who attracted all the women. [3] "Kumbaya" seems to have been used here as a synonym for hyperbole. However, the references to Armageddon and the missile sounds implied punning references to Saddam Hussein’s war in Iraq and "Kumbaya" as an opposing peace symbol, or, more simply to his opening theme that physical dangers threatened his tranquility. Rap worked best when meanings were fluid.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: male in tenor range
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: electronic sounds
Rhythm Accompaniment: muted drum machine

Credits
© 2017 Questa Beat

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English

Pronunciation: he used little rhythm in his accompaniment, and thus his voice had to supply both the melody and the rhythm. This meant he had to make a sound on every single beat, even if it was just an interjection or a loud breath.

Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Special Terms: street language

Basic Form: verse-chorus
Verse Repetition Pattern: three repetitions of chorus
Ending: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: his own
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: instrumental drone supported a vocal part

Singing Style: chant

Notes on Performance
Cover: drawing of a young man wearing a black baseball cap with "Danny tha Great" inscribed in white across the front crown.

Notes on Performers
Questa Beat graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2011. [4] While the school had the lowest graduation rate in Atlanta, [5] it also had one of the best marching bands. In 2005 its drum line was the best in the city, and won competitions in 2011. [6]

Lil Jon, the first of the Atlanta rappers to emerge in the late 1990s, graduated from Douglass in 1988. [7] In 2010, he released a new album that Billboard described as "a fusion of hip-hop, rock and electro." [8] While Questa may have borrowed the idea of electronic tones from Lil Jon, he may have been discovered the potentials of the word "cash" from a rapper who graduated from Douglass in 2012, the year after him. Lil Fat was responsible for a "viral hit ‘cash me outside’," according to Wikipedia. [9]

Availability
MP3: Till U Understand. 25 March 2017.

YouTube: uploaded by TuneCore on 24 March 2017.

End Notes
1. Mark Skillz. "DJ Hollywood: The Original King of New York in 1970s." Cuepoint website. 19 November 2014. He was born Anthony Holloway.

2. Masta Ace [Duval Clear]. Quoted by Paul Edwards. How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2009. 105.

3. On 2 May 2008, Xavier Zero said a hussan "usually ends up with all the hot girls.Hussan; is the coolest guy you will ever see." Two years later, on 21 June 2010, YouIsNoob defined a Hussain "as the best type of person around--noble, worthy, respectful, and..... awesomeness." On 18 November 2011, hollieanarray claimed a hasan was "a very good-looking guy," but anti-social because he "a very good-looking guy." However, the "girlsstill give him way too much attention which he pretends turns him off." All from Urban Dictionary website.

4. "About Questa Beat." Facebook.

5. Molly Bloom. "Atlanta’s Douglass High School Gets Another New Principal." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution website. 23 March 2016.

6. Wikipedia. "Douglass High School (Atlanta)."
7. Wikipedia, Douglass HS. His name was Jonathan Smith (Wikipedia. "Lil Jon.")
8. Mariel Concepcion. "Old Yeller." Billboard 3 April 2010. 37.
9. Wikipedia, Douglass HS.