When discussing the laziness of rhyming a word with itself, we often miss the boat and will mistake what is actually an internal rhyme scheme as a case of rhyming a word with the same word (i.e., rhyming “orange” with “orange” because finding a word that rhymes with orange is difficult. Try it. But Eminem can show you if you need to cheat). A fine example of internal rhyme scheme where a casual ear misses and, therefore, complains about rappers not being able to rhyme creatively would be Kanye West’s “I Wonder”, where he rhymes:
“Do you even remember what the issue is? / You just trying to find where the tissue is / You can still be what you wish you is / It ain’t happened yet, and that’s what intuition is”
The trick here is that Kanye is not rhyming the word “is” with itself. He rhymes “issue” with “tissue” with “wish you” with “intuition.” Only Bill Clinton is guilty of wordplay with the word “is.” Kanye is often cited for this supposed hip hop transgression because he’s Kanye and it is easy to pick on Kanye.
The original master of internal rhyme is the greatest emcee of all time, Rakim. Heed his words on “My Melody”:
My unusual style will confuse you a while
If I were water, I’d flow in the Nile
So many rhymes you won’t have time to go for yours
Just because of applause I have to pause
Right after tonight is when I prepare
To catch another sucker-duck MC out there
My strategy has to be tragedy, catastrophe
And after this you’ll call me your majesty…
