Particularly in hip-hop with dense lyrics, I have trouble gaining what I feel to be a full appreciation of the lyrics while I am in the process of listening. For example, I am currently listening to Aesop Rock's Impossible Kid and reading along with the Genius lyrics. However, I feel like the only way I could really grasp the full meaning of the lyrics and any double entendres, plays on words, etc., is to stop after each bar and read deeper into it. I have this problem with Earl Sweatshirt as well. Was curious of getting into practicing of interpreting and placing lyrics into their respective theme, even within the context of the album. Keep in mind this never becomes a problem when listening to rappers like J Cole and Kendrick, only for underground dense rappers.

What is your process for tackling dense lyricism? Do you read through them first and then listen? It's incredibly frustrating seeing number of hip-hop fans effortlessly decipher and break down the lyrics, especially on Genius.com, seeing users gain recognition for their annotation. I'm already mediocre with number of other interests I harbor such as Chess and Mortal Kombat.

Maybe with y'all's help I'd have a greater understanding towards certain sub-sect of rappers.

Haha yea

Haha Yea to what?

stopping the song just to understand the lyrics doesn't sound fun at all

Well the first thing I usually do is

I first listen to the song, then I read along with the lyrics up, then I copy the lyrics down on a sheet of paper, then I throw the piece of paper away

I'll just keep relistening and pick up more and more of it

You just smoke weed and you unlock the ability to generate genius annotations, it’s pretty simple actually

not really familiar with aesop rock but earl is a poet dude you're probably thinking too much

let it unfold itself over time. part of the gift of music is a bar hitting you on the 148th listen

Also listen to the song in different moods, being tired and anxious or sad and lonesome will unlock hidden meanings to the lyrics previously unnoticed

the way you're approaching appreciating an art form feels very clinical . it's not memorising movesets in a fighting game or strategies in chess

stop thinking & start feeling ... listen to the music in different settings & have a life experience for goodness sake! maybe it'll change your perspective on the work itself

sometimes you hear a song outside in some hot air & all of a sudden it dawns on you... this song is about p**** !

Yeah for reals. Dark times made me relate to songs better and really peep what they were saying

I just try to decipher the song's concept and context as a whole and then the individual lines / bars that i like the most are what i am looking to understand and hear most in subsequent listens. Sometimes i'll read the lyrics for a rapper I think is deserving of truly being Studied, maybe on an album like TPAB where things like a sample or a certain turn of phrase I wouldn't know has a lot of meaning. But maybe I'm not listening to the same music as you. As the Wayne song says "repetition is the father of learning". So I am not gonna look too deeply into songs that don't compel me to play them. the music is the main priority for me as a listener nowadays. I was more into lyricism when I was a kid ironically

Great topic. Reading your post made me realize that there aren’t many rappers that truly have dense lyrics.

But to answer your question I tend to listen over and over to see what I can unravel. Then after I scan the lyrics while listening. Over a few years your brain and ears become trained to catch things

Who are some of these rappers you’ve been listening to OP

☝️

^ this is the answer

Rap genius