poetryslamilton

I've finally hit on it. There's a distinct type of speaking lyrics or poetry that can be described as "poetryslam/Hamilton."   Poetryslamilton! 

And here's what I hit on: When you have exact rhymes, the kind that ruled in English for generations, speakers tend to de-emphasize them.   (It's always better to de-emphasize the obvious and emphasize the less obvious.)   When you have inexact rhymes, then, speakers tend to bring them out, using tone of voice, stress, and even jiggered pronunciation to highlight the near-rhymes.

The Poetryslamilton style is always abrasive to me.   By the time Mike Myers lampooned it in "So I Married An Axe-Murderer," that was the signal that it was over.   So why is it still not over?

To me, it's like those jazz and pop singers who always point, with a finger, at all the cool notes they're singing. (The spot-on lampoon here is the character of Andy Bernard in "The Office.")