rhythm rhyme results™
rhythm rhyme results™
About the Company
About the Music
Rhythm, Rhyme, Results, LLC (RRR) creates supplementary
educational music in academic subjects, featuring independent
artists, writers, and producers. We create educational rap music
that enriches learning in core academic subjects for students in
grades 6–12. Each song contains original music and content-rich
lyrics that adhere to federal and state curriculum guidelines. The
music is intended to reinforce academic fundamentals for students
in classroom or individual learning environments.
RRR was founded in 2006 in Cambridge, MA. Visit our website at
www.educationalrap.com
The music features four versions of every song, each written in
verse and chorus format. Each song presents information from a
required subject area or topic commonly taught in school.
Original and Downtempo versions are designed for use as an
introduction to the topic and/or for use with other study materials.
Recall and Instrumental versions are designed for use as
review of topics and for classroom or individual performance, and
include the RECALL TRACK™ feature.
Original Track
Song is played at original speed.
Downtempo TrackSong is played at a slightly slower speed
for those who prefer a more relaxed pace
or are less familiar with hip hop.
Recall TrackSong appears with critical words or phrases
deleted so listeners can sing along and fill
in the missing material. Deleted words and
phrases are indicated in blue in the lyrics.
Instrumental TrackSong appears with only the music,
background vocals, and chorus vocals so
that listeners can sing or rap along with full
accompaniment.
All materials and performances © ℗ 2007 Rhythm, Rhyme, Results, LLC.
All rights reserved.
Rhythm, Rhyme, Results, LLC
www.educationalrap.com
1. Sit Down & Write
Verse I
Are you the type of writer who uses words as
a lighter
To ignite flames on fire as a means to inspire?
Or are you the type of writer who writes for
herself
For peace of mind, creativity, and mental
health?
Are you the type of person who’s quite sure
and certain
That you can’t stand writing, reciting, and
rehearsing?
Or are you that hidden talent in the back of
the class
Who loves to tell stories, but no one cared
to ask
Are you a future journalist, playwright, or
poet
Developing your skills and you might not
even know it
Are you an emcee who’s listened to the
greats
And writes rhymes with his ipod, records,
and tapes?
Are you an essay writer? Or do you prefer
fiction
Concrete, abstract, vivid descriptions
Let’s use these words to document real life
Collect your thoughts, grab a pen, sit down
and write
Chorus
Sit down and write
Sit down and write
Sit down and write
Collect your thoughts, grab a pen, sit down
and write
(×2)
Verse II
First you need some focus and a plan
Figure out what you’re writing in the best way
you can
Ask yourself questions that you think might
be relevant
Access prior knowledge that will help you
with development
Free-write, brainstorm, and outline the
elements
Refine your craft and write a first draft
Organize your thoughts, connect the future
with the past
Now you’re on your way to success real fast
Be open-minded, we all need feedback
Some writers think they’re too good and
don’t need that
Embrace other input, be willing to revise
Try to understand your work through
someone else’s eyes
Re-evaluate, re-assess, re-organize
Edit and re-edit, that’s a word to the wise
Share your work with others, try reading it
aloud
Your finished product will be something
that’ll make you proud
Verse III
Writing is a form of self-expression
A way to liberate yourself from all oppression
It could be a teacher’s plans for next day’s
lesson
Or a novelist who loves to keep you guessing
Writing helps you use imagination
Whether you’re in school or on vacation
I make music in planes and train stations
These lyrics are a form of relaxation
Writing is an absolute necessity
If I couldn’t write people would think less of
me
I know it’s not fair but that’s reality
So practice using words ‘cause that’s the
recipe
Writing is key communication
You’ll need it for a job application (after
graduation)
It’s a form of conversation
All it takes is a little motivation
Verse IV
Now that you’ve learned all about the stages
Pick up your pen and write words on pages
Like ancient language engraved and chiseled
in stone
Feathers dipped in ink, burnt coal, papyrus
scrolls
Tell stories untold, let lyrics unfold
Sometimes you just gotta let it go
Try the many different styles of writing you
know
Step out your comfort zone, that’s how you
grow
You could be a critic of music, theatre, or
sports
Or a stenographer who documents the words
in court
You could write long novels or stories that
are short
Create tales in Braille and type e-mail
Any way you slice it, writing is essential
Grab a pad or a journal, a pen or a pencil
Your imagination has infinite potential
2. Dots and Dashes
(Punctuation)
Chorus
What’s the deal with these dots and dashes?
Well, let’s slow it down like cold molasses.
You’ve got colons, parentheses, commas,
apostrophes;
punctuation, it can help you a lot, you see?
(×2)
Verse I
Whether you’re writing for school or just to
correspond
you need punctuation, or else your sentence
goes on, and on,
and on, and on, and on, and never stops…
so we can help you use punctuation in the
right spots.
A period occurs at the end of a sentence,
and if you’re using initials, periods must be
present.
For instance: “I went to the store.”
“I bought some milk, some O. J., and nothing
more.”
A question mark goes right after—guess
what—a question.
“Do you know what that means?” (Yeah, that’s
the lesson.)
An exclamation point shows surprise, pain,
or anger:
“Ow! I just pinched my finger!”
An apostrophe replaces the letters that get
denied
in a contraction, that’s when you’ve got two
words combined.
Apostrophes also show possession: “That
isn’t Mary’s pen.”
There are two apostrophes in that expression.
Verse II
Think of a comma like you think of a pause,
when a conjunction connects an independent
clause.
A comma’s like a breath expressed in written
form:
“I like the sound of thunder, so I love
thunderstorms.”
Let’s say you got a list, maybe 3 or more
things.
You better use that comma and place it in
between, like:
“My favorite colors are red, green, and blue.”
You know there’s gonna be drama if that
comma is never used.
Use a comma in a sentence with a
contrasting phrase:
“I’m awake, I’m just a little bit dazed.”
You can also use a comma to set off some
dialogue, like,
“The princess said, ‘I liked you better as a
frog!’”
Verse III
If you’ve got conjunctive adverbs, like
“therefore” or “however,”
or you’ve got two separate sentences you
want to join together,
a semi-colon’s gonna become your mediator:
“I gotta get home; I’ll see you later.”
A colon is used in a few situations:
before a list, an example, or sometimes a
quotation.
And speaking of quotations, don’t forget
quotation marks,
and add a capital letter for any word at the
start.
3. Verb Tenses
Chorus
Do it, I’m doing it, I have done it
Past, present, and future, without it I’m done
with
Sit back as RRR presents
This knowledge which could be common
sense
It’s verb tenses!
(×2)
Verse I
You use it all the time and probably do not
realize
So here we go let’s unfold it right before your
eyes
The suspense and mystery of verb tense
Might seem overwhelming until we make
sense of it
But once we do you’re going to love it!
You’ll be running around, trying it out in
public
It’s not that hard, there are just some things
you got to know
Like when to use what tense, so here we go
With no delay, no more further ado
I proudly present to you verb tenses
Through a series of sentences
That’ll help you run through what the
business is
And then you’ll learn it with the quickness
So just hold on to your britches!
‘Cause we’re about to get in it, get with it
We’re going to begin with the simplest, come
on!
Verse II
We’re going to discuss three forms of tenses
That enable you to construct unlimited
sentences
Simple, perfect, progressive, and then we’re
done
So let’s begin the lesson and have some fun
I ran, I run, and I will run around a city block
But if I don’t have the proper tense, I’ll never
stop
So if I ran yesterday, that’s simple
And if I run on Monday, that’s simple
If I will run on Sunday, then that’s simple
The past, present, and future tense with
simple
Verb tense, and now
Since we get that let’s jump that fence
To the next form that we’ll do
The perfect tense is number two
And it’s just as easy as the first one
So let’s continue on until we’re done
Verse III
In the perfect tense, you must add
One of these words: has, have, or had
Like, “Before last month, I had rapped.”
That’s an example of a perfect past tense
“And I have rapped everyday since.”
That’s present perfect, it’s happening, hence:
“I will have rapped” and that’s future
So now we move on to progressive, straight
like a ruler
And now everybody can follow me
And all you really need is an “-ing”
See, that’s at the end of a verb
The action is continuous if that’s what’s
heard
And if I was running, that’s progressive past
But since I am running You do the math!
And without you I’ll be running till I just fall
out
But you know your verb tenses, so you can
call out
“Stop!”
4. Parts of Speech
Chorus
So you wanna know about nouns, you wanna
know about verbs
And you probably know that there are several
other types of words
So if you yearn to learn, hey, we’re psyched
to teach
Now listen up and let me tell you about the
parts of speech.
Verse I
A noun is a person or a place or at thing
Like you or your school or all your blingbling
But the tricky kinds of nouns are ideas and
thoughts
Like your strength or intelligence
Man there are lots of these nouns
To list them all, that would be impressive!
But to describe them, all we need are
adjectives
Like hot, cool, false, true, spicy, or bland
And now I think you understand
Verse II
Verbs. That’s what we call the action words
Anything you can do, even if it’s absurd
Whenever you eat, drink, move, think, go, or
stop
Even if you just are, that’s a verb that you’ve
got
“But, Mr. Jackson, how do I describe these
words?”
You use another part of speech we call
adverbs
Like loudly, proudly, and well, don’t ask me
why, but
Most of them end in -ly.
Verse III
A preposition gives location, just so you
know
Whether an object is between, in, by, or
below
But it can also talk about time, as a matter
of fact;
If something happened before this, or is
gonna happen after that
They always have a prepositional phrase
it’s the traditional way that every preposition
operates
So just make sure that the object is there
Or else you’ll never know what goes where
Verse IV
A conjunction joins phrases or words
together
Like and, but, or, as, if, and whether
Some appear in pairs, like neither and nor,
You know I’d love to list them all but there are
so many more
So let’s go on to pronouns, they replace
nouns
So you can say “it” instead of saying the
same noun again
It can be just a breeze, you see
Instead of names, saying “he” or “she”
Verse V
Hold up! Almost forgot about the next one
I’m speaking, of course, of the interjection:
Whoa!, yo!, yikes!, holy cow!
You know the parts of speech, well I think
you do now
5. Prefixes,
Suffixes, and
Roots *
Chorus
Words are power, and that’s the truth
Prefixes, suffixes, and they all got roots
Words are power, they run this town
So let’s run the track back, and break ‘em
on down
(×2)
Verse I
Let me break this down, we start with root
words the truest
Not a full word, just a linguistic unit
You get a lot of room here to improvise
Visualize words of small size as I summarize
“aqua” means water, “ami” means love
“bio” means life, “hemo” means blood
“geo” means earth, and “vita” means life
Let’s hit the next topic so y’all can get it right
Verse II
You want to know what’s next, it’s the prefix
step
The initial portion of a term or object
Look at the word itself, it’s a two-part patch
“pre” means before, and “fix” is to attach
“anti-” means against, “inter-” means
between
“poly-” means many, while “homo-” means
the same
“pseudo-” means false, and “trans-” means
across
Prefixes start words, you should never take
a loss
Verse III
If prefixes come before, then what’s the next
chapter
Suffixes follows root words, so they must
come after
And while this may sound absurd
A suffix can also change the grammar
function of a whole word
“Wait, from adjectives to adverbs?” Like clear
into clearly
“But then child into childish?” It’s semantics,
can you hear me?
“-ology” means study of, “-ism” is belief in
“-cide” means killing, and “-or” and “-er”
mean demonstration
“-phobia” means fear of, “-kinesis” means
movement
And that’s what it is, now you’re getting some
improvement
6. Public Speaking
Chorus
Public speaking, don’t be freaking
Just listen to the RRR technique in… (×3)
Public speaking, don’t be freaking
Just listen to the RRR technique in public
speaking
Verse I
Have you ever seen a hip hop show
Where the emcee’s completely locked into
the flow?
His words are clear, his voice is loud
And he really knows how to interact with the
crowd
In public speaking you need the same types
of things
It’s important to keep the audience engaged
So use eye contact, make sure you look
around
Don’t just stare at the page or the sky or the
ground
Keep a steady pace, make sure you don’t
rush
Project your voice, don’t let it be hushed
‘Cause you could have some great points to
convey
But they mean nothing if we can’t hear what
you say
Humor is a great way to break the ice
And to emphasize your points, hand gestures
are nice
And you can make your talk stronger with
visual aids
Like a PowerPoint®, photo, or a graph that
you made
Verse II
Public speaking’s easier when you feel
refreshed
So the night before, make sure you get plenty
of rest
And it’s always critical that you know your
audience
When it comes to this, just use some
common sense
If you’re talking to a panel for college
admissions
Use vocab. that shows intellect and ambition
But if you’re talking is a group of third
graders instead
All those big words would go over their
heads
Be sure to use voice inflection when you
speak
‘Cause if you talk in monotone you’ll put the
people to sleep
And the best way to master all of these
tactics?
Practice, practice, practice!
Practice with your family, practice in front of
a mirror
Practice so that every word is clearer
Practice builds confidence and makes you
less nervous
‘Cause like the saying goes: practice makes
perfect
7. Figurative
Language
Chorus
Sometimes what you mean is not exactly
what you say
That’s figurative language, using words in
different ways
Personification, alliteration, assonance,
hyperbole
Onomatopoeia, metaphor, and simile
Verse I
When Sally seems to sit somewhere separate
from Sonia,
Or Caleb calls Chris ‘cause he’s coming to
California
It’s called alliteration: that’s what occurs
When you got the same sound at the start of
every word
But when you’ve got a vowel sound that
keeps sounding the same
That’s a figure called assonance, yeah, that’s
its name
It’s what I’m trying to define by providing this
example
But I cannot deny that assonance can be a
handful
Verse II
A simile is something that you use to
compare
Two unrelated things with an element that’s
shared
My mind is like an ocean; it’s as smooth as
jazz
But it’s only a simile if it uses “like” or “as”
A metaphor is similar, but watch out!
Be careful ‘cause you’ve got to leave “like”
and “as” out
My mind is an ocean; my words are a river,
So keep your ears open as I continue to
deliver
Verse III
Now if the sun’s smiling down, or the boat
hugged the shore
That’s personification, nothing less, nothing
more
But with a buzz or a ding or a hiss or a roar
That’s onomatopoeia that we’re using for sure
Nope, not really, though some of them are
static
So they’re flat, one-dimensional, nothing real
dramatic
And people with the drama are called
dynamic characters
Like if they start out calm and get hysterical
Verse III
Now, the plot unfolds in five different phases
I’ll try to get you through it in just a few
phrases
Take you all the way from beginning to end
But you’ve got to listen close or rewind again
Hyperbole: man, that’s like a million times
harder!
Take something true, then exaggerate it way
farther
Now you’ve heard this song from beginning
to the finish
Now you’ve got some tools to draw your
literary image
Or if they start out in love and end up not
That’s the motion and emotion that propels
the plot
“What’s that?” Fear not, I’ll tell you in verse III
Here’s how it goes writing fictional prose
Before action happens, we’ve got the
exposition
Where the author can establish or begin a
definition
Of the characters, the setting, and yes, the
point of view
And once that’s all established we can move
to phase two
8. Characters,
Setting, Plot*
Chorus
We’ve got the characters, the setting, and of
course the plot
It’s the elements of fiction that I’m talking
about
(x4)
Verse I
In any decent story, you’ve got to have
characters
The people in it, and they can be generic or
They can be complex, interesting, unique
Like a girl who walks on her hands and
writes with her feet
The protagonist, the main character, the good
guy
In most works of fiction, is usually opposed
by
The antagonist, the bad guy, the villain
“But what about the other folks, are they just
chillin’?”
Verse II
For the setting of a story, you need to know
when it occurs
Like 7:30 in the morning on November the
first
It doesn’t always have to be that specific
For instance, if the characters are using
hieroglyphics
Then you know you’re in ancient times, not
the present day
But if somebody’s driving up in a Chevrolet
You’re in the present or the future or the
recent past
But there’s another setting question that we
need to ask
And that’s “Where?” Location, it can be
narrow
Like 57 Main Street, Rio de Janeiro
Or it can be broad, not specific at all
Like somewhere in Canada, north of
Montreal
So there you have it, the time and the place
Even if it’s in the future or up in outer space
Make up a fundamental element of fiction:
the setting
Now here’s the hook again so you don’t
forget it
The rising action. A period of conflict and
crisis
This part is unpredictable, it’s full of
surprises
So open up your eyes as wide as they can
possibly be
After this we’re gonna hit phase three, which
is the
\Climax, the high point, a moment most
intense
A turning point, a major culmination of
events
After that, there isn’t really much more
We gotta end the story, let’s go to phase four
We’ve got the denouement, that’s what we
call the falling action
And hopefully it leaves you with a sense of
satisfaction
‘Cause phase five is the end, it’s called the
resolution
Tying it all together, and we’ve come to the
conclusion
9. It's Non-Fiction
Chorus
It’s not fiction
It’s non-fiction
It’s non-fiction, yo we’re keeping it real
Nothing fake, only opinions and facts to
reveal
(×2)
Verse I
When you’re sitting home at your desk
And your thoughts are all a mess
And your brain can’t think any more
And even though your research is done
Your assignment’s just begun, because your
Thoughts are all scattered on the floor
So listen up, pick ‘em up, sort ‘em out, and
create an outline
Like a roadmap to direct your prose
And you’ll find if you’re outlining it properly
You’re streamlining the process
You see the rest of the assignment just flows
Starting with the introduction
A paragraph whose primary function
Is to introduce what you’re about to say
And so it should go easy on the length
But establish the strength of
The argument you’re tryin’ to make
Do you know what a paragraph is?
It’s a bunch of sentences
That express one continuous thought
So now I think you can take it from here
And you won’t have any fear
If you just remember what you’ve been
taught!
Verse II
In every paragraph you should be finding
A topic sentence shining
Coming at you from a mile away
It’s the one that kicks it off
And you know that it’s always on the ball
About the content that’s about to be relayed.
At every paragraph’s end there’s a sentence
that will append
A conclusion to whatever was said
And rather than just ending it there
Instead it’s gonna prepare us
For the content that’s just ahead
Now when you’ve worked through the night
And you’ve written all you can write
You gotta wrap up everything you’ve put
down
So you write a conclusion paragraph
That’s the one that comes last
And it should be thoroughly strong and
profound
Now after all this, you gotta make a list
Of the articles and books that you used
The list is called a bibliography
It’s what your readers gotta see
Or else they will get unbelievably confused.
Breakdown
Plagiarism—copying what someone else
has written
Without admitting—yo, that is strictly
forbidden
I’m not kidding. That’s like stealing all their
wisdom
As your own erudition, that’s a dishonest
system
So listen: If you take a phrase from
somewhere else
Anything at all that isn’t written by yourself
You gotta use quotation marks around the
quote
And then put a citation or a footnote
10. Poetry (for Life)
Verse I
When beautiful lyrics start to take form
At that very moment a poem is born
It’s like an emotion you feel in your chest
Sincere words you may find hard to express
But when we look under the hood to see
what’s up
You’ll find some basic principles that make
it up
It’s more than words that pour from your soul
you see
There’s a couple of standard elements of
poetry
The rhyme, for instance, is broken down
To a couple of word play styles that change
the sound
What usually happens we see all the time
The words sound alike at the end of the lines
But it goes even deeper from there
There a variation in the styles of the rhymes
that we hear
There’s perfect and off rhymes, but we can
break it down more
So much in store, let’s take our time
Chorus
Just give me poetry, for life
All I need is that beat, for life
Let’s go, come along with me
Let’s go, come along with me
Verse II
Rhyme means “sounds agree”
So in perfect or off rhymes this is always
the key
Perfect means the syllables sound exactly
the same
And the rhyme is responsible
In other words to rhyme “time” while using a
perfect rhyme
Then I might use “mime”
Perfect cause they both have “-ime”
Their endings are exactly the same so the
sound is sublime
Off rhymes are really close too
They’re imperfect, or half the same, all the
way through
For instance you could say, I’m on a “streak”
And I could imperfectly rhyme that with the
way that I “teach”
So now let’s discuss rhythm
The meter is the tone of the words and the
stress that you give them
And then there are the feet
The iamb, the trochee, the anapest, and
dactyl get a beat
Verse III
When discussing feet, there’s nothing to it
The other name for these is a poetic unit
The iamb is the most used
A rising foot made of two syllables
With the stress moved to the second syllable
The anapest is the same
Except there’s three in a row, with the
stressing on the third one
The trochee is a falling foot with the accent
in the front
And the dactyl’s like the trochee
You still put a stress on the first syllable, but
there’s three
So what kind of poem will you write?
There are so many forms
And nobody else can tell you what to like
A ballad basically tells a story
And a haiku is 17 syllables, not wordy
Or a cinquain has 5 lines
A limerick has 5 lines, too, but it’s meant to
be cut
Composers, lyricists, and performers featured
in this collection:
Produced by Ben Jackson, Robbie Mitchell, and
Matt O’Malley
Except where noted, all tracks recorded and
mixed by Matt O’Malley at HKR studios,
Arlington, MA.
*Recorded and mixed by The Arcitype
at The Sweat Shop Studios.
All songs © 2007 by
Rhythm, Rhyme, Results, LLC.
All rights reserved.
Afro DZ ak
The Arcitype
TommyBoots
Matthew Donahue
Freddy Hall
Ben Jackson
Kazuo
Paul Logan, Jr
MC Kabir for Uncle Trouble Music, LLC
Nakia Simon for Simon Sez Productions
Taunia Soderquist