Figurative Language in Rap?


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A Guide to Similes, Metaphors & More

Hip-hop music and poetry are full of figurative language. Here is a guide for identifying and using figurative language in rap songs and poems. In this list, each figurative language term has a pronunciation guide, a definition, and an example. Remember: Rap is poetry, and a lot of poetry is rap. Also check out examples of metaphors in popular hip-hop page.

Simile (SIH-muh-lee): a comparison between two or more things using the words like or as.

Example: "I move fast like a cheetah on the Serengeti."

Metaphor (MET-uh-for): a comparison between two or more things that doesn't use the words like or as.

Example: "You are an ant, while I'm the lion."

Alliteration (uh-LIT-er-AY-shuhn): a phrase with a string of words all beginning with the same sound.

Example: "Five freaky females finding sales at retail."

Hyperbole (hie-PER-buh-lee): an exaggeration.

Example: "I fought a million rappers in an afternoon in June."

Personification, (per-son-if-ih-KAY-shon): giving an animal or object human-like characteristics.

Example: "Alright, the sky misses the sun at night."

Paradox (PARE-uh-docks): a statement that seems untrue, that seems to contradict itself.

Example: "The poorest man is the richest, and the rich are poor."

Symbol (SIM-bull): something that stands for something else (often something more abstract).

Example: In Tupac Shakur's song Me and My Girlfriend, the "girflfriend" referenced is actually his gun.

Assonance (ASS-uh-nince): the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyme.

Example: "Hear the mellow wedding bells." - Edgar Allen Poe"

Onomatopoeia (ON-uh-maht-uh-PEE-uh): a word that imitates the sound it is describing.

Example: "Out of reach, I pull out with a screech."

Apostrophe (uh-POS-troh-fee): a figure of speech that addresses (talks to) a dead or nonpresent person, or an object.

Example: "O, King Vitamin cereal, you blow my mind!"

Imagery (IM-aj-ree): a very general term that encompasses nearly any description of something that conjures an image, sound, taste, smell or feeling to mind. In other words a literal or concrete representation of a sensory experience or of an object that can be known by one or more senses.

Example: "Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels / And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells" - T.S. Eliot

Metonymy (met-TON-im-ee): a figure of speech that replaces the literal thing with a more vivid, but closely related thing or idea.

Example: Instead of saying "give me your attention," you could say "give me your ear."

Understatement (UHN-der-stayt-ment): the opposite of hyperbole, an understatement makes something that is a big deal seem not very important. It's often used for humor.

Example: "The boat had been ripped apart by the storm and now a dozen hungry sharks began circling the captain. 'This isn't great,' he told his wife."


Want to add to our list of figurative language examples? Write your own figurative language example, define the technique and email it to escher(AT)flocabulary.com.