For my project listening description, I am re-listening and re-writing a listening description for the song “Top 5 (Dead or Alive)” by MC Jin.
The song opens with an introductory phrase lasting the first ten seconds of the song. The phrase contains a bass drum sample that serves as the pulse of the song, a snare drum sample that accents the off-beats of the pulse, a bass guitar line that helps to keep the beat and a guitar layer playing a singular chord that also serves as an accent to the back beat. Over those three layers lies is a sampled disc scratch sound effect to give the song more of an “old school hip-hop” as old-school hip-hop commonly included DJ-ing and record scratching on the tracks. The phrase maintains a duple meter that continues throughout the rest of the song, as the introductory phrase serves as the beat for the song. The overall tempo of the pulse is moderate. It does not go overly fast or overly slow, nor does it speed up or slow down in certain sections of the song. The rhythm of this phrase, as well as the majority of the song up until the last phrase, consists of very short, concise notes for the most part, utilizing the bass drum, snare drum, and guitar layer. I separate the rhythm into 5 distinct notes. Notes 1, 2, and 4 all last the same amount of time in the meter. However, notes 3 and 5 seem to last double the time that the 1, 2, and 4 notes do. When written out, the rhythm of the song appears to follow this pattern: 1-2-3..-4-5… This rhythmic motive is repeated for most of the song as the pulse of the introductory phrase, also serves as the pulse for the entire song as well.
The layers used in the introductory phrase continue into the first chorus, lasting twenty seconds from the ten second to thirty second mark, where three vocal samples are introduced. One vocal layer asks the question, “Who’s the best emcee?” and answers the question as well, saying “…ain’t no best”. Another layer states the title of the song, “Top five, dead or alive”. The third layer is an indistinct, incomplete vocalization, providing some deep tonal melody at intermittent intervals. The phrase is repeated twice during the duration of its section. This layer is revisited later in the song and elongated, providing a better context for the audience both lyrically and musically, so we can begin to understand the role it plays in the structure of the song.
At the thirty second mark of the song, a two new layers are introduced: Jin’s main rapping layer and a backing vocal layer that comes in sporadically to emphasize certain lyrics in the song. Two layers from the previous section of the song, the “Who’s the best emcee…ain’t no best” and the “Top five, dead or alive” layers end. The indistinct vocal layer maintains its presence in the following section. This section serves a role as the first verse of the song. This section ends at the 1:12 mark of the song and is followed by a repeat of the introductory phrase.
The repeating phrase is doubled in length, instead of taking up ten seconds of the song’s runtime, it now takes twenty seconds. Also, in the last two seconds of the repeating phrase, a new layer is introduced of Jin rapping, where he makes a callback to a very popular Notorious B.I.G. song “Juicy”, using the popular lyric, “If you don’t know, now you know…”.
The song resumes again with a second verse, starting at the 1:32 mark, eliminating the same layers as the last transition between the introductory phrase and the first verse phrase. However, another new layer is introduced in this section. The new layer consists of different vocables, very deep-sounding and baritone in tonal quality. This layer utilizes “woo”s and grunts intermittently throughout Jin’s verse. The vocables are reminiscent of the Notorious B.I.G. and other famous rappers’ style of rapping. This section of the song takes up a greater portion of time than the last verse phrase, with this one spanning the time between 1:32 and 2:50, taking up almost a minute and twenty seconds of runtime whereas the first verse only lasted 42 seconds.
After the second verse ends at the 2:50 mark, the introductory phrase is repeated for a second time, utilizing the same layers and same structure as when it was first introduced at the beginning of the song. The phrase, again, runs for twenty seconds, just like its first repetition after the first verse earlier in the song.
The third verse begins right where the third introductory phrase leaves off at the 3:10 mark. The third verse follows the same kind of texture and layering as the previous verse phrases but it is considerably shorter than the previous verse phrases seeing as it only spans 42 seconds, a far cry from the length of the second verse which was a minute and twenty seconds long, but exactly the same length as the first verse.
After the end of the third verse, the introductory phrase is again repeated for a third and final time. This final phrase of the song takes up the longest amount of time of any of the previous repeated phrases, running from the 3:52 mark of the song to the 4:33 mark. Unlike the other phrases where it was repeated only twice for twenty seconds, this final repetition was extended almost double for about forty seconds of runtime instead of twenty.
The third and final repeated introductory phrase transitions out of one and into the final phrase of the song at the 4:33 mark by extending the indistinct vocal sample that has been used throughout the song and never completed, but now finally completes it. The vocal sample that was once indistinct becomes clear and the guitar sample that accompanies it is transformed from accenting notes into a full melody. The drum sample that accompanies it, as well as all of the other layers besides the vocal and guitar layers drop off and do not come back into the song until the 4:43 mark when the scratching sample resumes, shortly followed by drum sample, continuing until the end of the song at the 4:55 mark.