 My name is Olita Enrico. Some people know me as another name. It's my hip hop name, my superhero name, my rap name, Spice E. Hip hop is awesome. It's what I consider the ultimate form of expression. And so rap, being a part of hip hop, is the ultimate form of expression in word, written word or spoken word. And today we're going to talk about delivery. What are we delivering? We're delivering the message. We're delivering the intense, the mood, the emotion of whatever it is we wrote or someone else wrote that we want to share with folks. There's a lot of ways to do that, more than I could ever go over. I mean, more than I could ever touch in a moment. So we're just going to deal with a few that I think are most important. So today we're going to talk about cadence, inflection, and emphasis. And at the end we'll throw in a little gesture, what I like to call rap hands. Because in our culture, 70 to 80% of what we communicate is done with our body. So very important, but we'll do that at the end. Let's talk about cadence. People say the word a lot and sometimes they know what they're talking about and sometimes they don't. Cadence is basically the rhythmic flow of either a single word, entire line or the whole piece, the whole rap or poem or story that you're telling. So an example, let's see. Oh, you know Hickory Dickory Dock? It's a nursery rhyme. It has a cadence built into it. Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse went up the clock, the clock took one and down he run Hickory Dickory Dock. So the rhythm of those words, the way it flows. That's the cadence, Hickory Dickory Dock. All right, so I'm going to use my rap, one of my rap, to explore some cadence. Ready? Ignite your imagination. That's the first line. I could say it a million ways. Depending on how slow or fast I want to go, it's tempo. Ignite your imagination. Maybe I want to speed it up. Ignite your imagination. Ignite your imagination. I like that. On a search for inspiration. Ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration. That's a fun one. I like it just to flow a little faster, though, because I feel like it should be intense. That's the mood I want. Ignite your imagination. I want to give a little, like, I want people to do what I'm saying. Ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration. They get an inhalation. That's the cadence I like, but I could change it at any time to however I want to share my feelings and my message. Cadence, it's the flow of the rhythm. Another way we can work with delivery is through inflection. Now, inflection is the movement of the pitch, the note, pitch is note. So if I go, uh, the inflection is going up. Or if I go, uh, the inflection is going down. Now, in our culture, inflection indicates whether it's a question or a statement. Often at the end of a question, we'll go up. Going to the store indicates that I'm asking you if you're going to the store. If I go down, I'm making a statement, usually. Going to the store, boom. You know I'm headed to the store. So if you want something, you better tell me now. Anyway, inflection is fun to play with. Some of my favorite MCs, those are rappers. Some of my favorite MCs use a lot of different inflection. E40, Kendrick Lamar, they go all over the place. I too like to go different places. Let's play with inflection with the rap we were doing earlier. Ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration taken inhalation, those are the words. Ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration taken inhalation, it's not my favorite, but I'm going to play with it again. Ignite your imagination, that's a statement. Ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration. Make it a question, let's put a question mark at the end of that. Ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration taken inhalation and peep the situation. Peep, peep, peep. I like going up on that one. Ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration taken inhalation. Oh, I like that change in cadence too. Taking inhalation and peep the situation a generation facing, I like that too. So you can just play around with whatever you're doing. We could play with hickory dickory dock. Hickory dickory dock. The mouse went up the clock. The clock struck one and down he run hickory dickory dock. I like nursery rhymes, they're fun to play with. Not high stakes, low stakes. All right, so another way we can play with delivery is through emphasis. Now, emphasis is where you put the weight of the word or weight in the sentence. What do I mean by weight? That's a weird way to explain. Well, let's look at the word emphasis. In our culture, we tend to emphasize certain syllables in a word. Now side note, there are languages that don't do that. There are languages where each syllable has an equal weight. But in English, our syllables have different weights. Like emphasis, the first syllable has weight in it. I don't say emphasis or I don't say emphasis or the word syllable. The first syllable has the weight. I don't say syllable or syllable. I could, but it just changes what it sounds like. You might not know what I'm saying. So we can also do that within a line and it changes the meaning of what I'm trying to tell you. For instance, with I love you, right? If I say I love you, I'm emphasizing that I love, love is emphasis. But if I put emphasis on the word I, I love you, I might be saying or suggesting that maybe that person doesn't, but I do. Or if I emphasize the word you, I love you. Then I'm saying, I don't love that other person. I love you. So where you emphasize changes the meaning of the line or the sentence or the rap. So let's play with some emphasis. Ignite your imagination. So I want you to turn it on, set it on fire. Ignite, maybe I want to stress imagination. Ignite your imagination. I don't know, what do I like better? Depends on what I mean, how I want the person to receive it. Ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration, taking inhalation. Inhalation is the most important word I think for that one. Peep the situation, peep it, look at it, figure it out. A generation facing cultural annihilation. Annihilation is a very important word. That means flattened out, it could just end. All right, so we're gonna play with the different ones. Cadence, that's the rhythm, the pattern, the flow. We're gonna play with inflection, that's the pitch where it goes up and down. And also the emphasis where the weight is placed, which words are most important to make sure that the people who are listening to you hear the message that you want to send. See, I did that, you want, want was the most important word there. I could have said that you want to send and then you're most important. Paul, how would you want to send, right? How we communicate? Let's play with my rap. All right, let's see. I'm gonna start with the slow tempo and try some different cadences, inflections and emphasis. Ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration, taken inhalation and peep the situation. A generation facing cultural annihilation by assimilation. I don't feel like I was communicating the urgency that I want for that. To me, this is important, so maybe I'll pick up the pace a little bit. Pick up the pace, pick up the tempo. Ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration, taken inhalation and peep the situation. A generation facing cultural annihilation by assimilation. I like that a little better. Now, the last thing I wanna add is gesture. I said this earlier, 80% of what we communicate is through our bodies, body language. If I'm just stiff like this, you might not understand me as much, but when I add gesture, you're more likely to understand what I have to say. So let me add some gesture to that. See, ignite your imagination on a search for inspiration, taken inhalation and peep the situation. A generation facing cultural annihilation by assimilation. Expliciation by incarceration. Distabilization by gentrification. Extermination by sterilization without authorization. Yeah, gesture. It helps me to understand what you mean and it helps you to understand what I mean. So when you're playing with your nursery rhyme, your poem or your rap, and this works for storytelling, for monologues, for rapping, for just communicating with each other. Use your cadence, your rhythm on your flow. Use your emphasis where you place the weight of the word. Use your inflection. Use those things. Use your gestures to communicate so that people know what you want them to know about you or the message that you wanna send. And make sure that you rap. Rhythm and poetry, R-A-P. And that's a rap. R-A-P.