Production Breakdown: PackFM’s “Nasty” (Review & Video)

Ahh, it feels good to be back. Notwithstanding the fact that I was not only not gone but very much present in Nathan's absence. In any case, it's good to be back in the “Production Breakdown“ saddle, dropping science like Galileo dropped the orange.

Anyway, a fascinating topic pretty much fell into my lap earlier this week when Booth newcomer PackFM made his debut with single “Nasty.” While I hailed the cut as innovative for using a 6/8 time signature instead of your garden-variety 4/4, the consensus among readers seems to be that the beat was “too slow.” Initially, I chalked it up to a matter of taste, but after seeing a couple brave souls go against the grain and suggest that perhaps the lukewarm reception was because of the unusual time signature, I began to suspect there might be something else going on.

But let's back up a second. “What the f*ck is a time signature?”, those who didn't sign up for their high-school band may ask. Well, that's a damned good question. When a rhythmic pulse and a pattern of stresses love each other very much... um... OK, let me start over. Essentially, it's just a system of counting beats in written music; the top number represents what note value constitutes one beat, and the bottom determines how many beats make up one bar. Thus, in 4/4, the time signature that nearly all hip-hop records share, one bar is made up of four quarter notes. This sound file, courtesy of Wikipedia, provides an example of one bar of 4/4. The hi-hat is ticking away eighth notes, while the kick and snare trade off on the four quarter notes It may sound pretty square to ears used to the heavily-syncopated rhythms used in hip-hop, but it is the basis for nearly every rap (and rock, for the most part) record ever written.

The, exceptions, however, are where things get interesting. Switch to 6/8, one of the most common alternate time signatures in hip-hop, and you you're no longer counting each quarter note as representing one beat; instead, you're counting eighth notes along with the hi-hat. So, you get a pattern of stresses something like “one-two-three four-five-six.” The, triplet feel, the sense of counting in threes, is reflected in the flow a rapper uses on a 6/8 track; the simplest example from PackFM's cut would be on the chorus – "grun-gy-dis-gus-ting-and-gri-my-and...” – but the possibilities are pretty much endless. “My 1st Song,” the final track off Hova's Black Album, shows just how creative a skilled emcee can be over a beat in 6/8.



While the beat on “My 1st Song” is somewhat less ambiguous, someone used to hearing track in 4/4 could easily overlook the “triplet feel” on PackFM's cut and simply listen to the kick and snare, in which case you'd hear something like, “one (two-three) two (two-three), three (two-three) four (two-three).” In other words, two bars of 6/8 can be misconstrued as one slow and awkward bar of 4/4, if you count quarter notes instead of half notes.

So, does that knowledge make “Nasty” a better or more interesting record? Beats me – pun intended. That's for you to decide. But it does illuminate the fact that tempo is relative to what you're counting – what you designate 'the beat' – and shows that a subtly switched-up time signature can yield some majorly fresh, nuanced flows from a rapper savvy enough to roll with the musical punches.