Hip Hop Lesson

The Punchline:

The punchline is something very simple that all hip hop artists need to be able to grasp and utilize as a part of their hip hop weaponry. What a punchline is in the basic point is the ending line of your "bar" its the last part that ends the bar. When you listen to anyone rhyme there are a lot of punchlines. Its the "zinger" that makes the crowd oohh and ahh when they hear it.

Some quality examples of punchlines can be by your favorite artists:

"Yo, I got slugs for snitches, no love for bitches,

Puttin' thugs in ditches when my trigger finger itches"

-Big L

"Immortal technique desintegrates Mic's when i spit

i cause more casualties than sunken slave ships"

-Immortal Technique

"If you go platinum, it's got nothing to do with luck,

It just means that a million people are stupid as f*ck"

-Immortal Technique

Some artists are also classified as a punchline artist. They specialize in dealing out damage in freestyle battles or in verse's on songs. Every line they end as a hard ending finisher. Its as if there was a fatality after everyline the way they attack the artist/track/cd. You will usually hear a lot more punchlines when it comes to mixtapes or diss tracks for artists. Many of the punchlines are usually a good way to either pass the mic, start a verse or just to check the crowd to make sure they are still following. You have to be able to utlize the power of the punchline. For exampe in a battle if the punchline you thought would have went hard but yet as you said it, no one really got it then there is a problem. The punchline has to have the ablility to touch the masses but yet get that ohh and ahh attack effect. But you cant really use your punchline untill you have the ablity to move the crowd...