John Lennon's 'EASY' Songwriting Formula
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 15. 05. 2024
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In this video, we investigate the songwriting formula of John Lennon and go deep on the specifics of narrative, rhyme scheme and rhythm.
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ABOUT BENNY
Hi, I'm Benny. My passion for music and creativity stretches across multiple disciplines and art-forms. I am a founding member and songwriter / lap-slide guitarist for one of Australia's best and most bearded country-bluegrass-folk bands, THE GREEN MOHAIR SUITS. To date the Mohairs have released 4 full-length albums and tour both nationally and overseas.
I am also the Founder and Head Producer of SILAMOR STUDIOS, a boutique studio specialising in Composition for Film, TV and Interactive Media. I write extensively across various instrumental and lyric-based genres and has been commissioned for major projects by Adobe, Cathay Pacific and Audible. I currently release original songs under the name SILAMOR.
I am also passionate about education and have taught song and lyric writing as well as film composition for JMC Academy, Collarts and the Australian Institute of Music. I design and regularly facilitate workshops on creative process and innovation.
Links to Bennny's music are here:
The Green Mohair Suits
open.spotify.com/artist/7M3Zf...
SILAMOR
open.spotify.com/artist/5HOpa...
www.silamor.com/music
#songwriting
#howtowritesongs
#howtowriteasong
#songwriting
#johnlennon
#songwritingtips - Hudba
Correction: 'Something' is absolutely written by George Harrison and was not meant to be on that list - in the frenzy of scripting, filming and editing I got my lists mixed up - it happens. Thanks for understanding. Benny
Dude, you have no idea what you are talking about. There is no Lennon formula. John said this as an off the cuff remark and you took it like a real wanker.
Without a doubt . Across the universe is much higher quality
I did have a wtf moment there. Anyway, nice video.
This is just one way Lennon wrote. He also had an absurdist phase. This just happens to be the method Bowie was told about and quoted.
i will never forgive you
The same Lennon saying " Half of what I say is meaningless.." - excerpt of Julia
I always interpreted that as the things he said to Julia.
He got it from Khalil gibran. Foam and sand
@@artistaccount I love Khalil Gibran. I grew up in Brazil reading him. I wonder how many great poets and writers are under the rubble in Palestine or rotting in israeli prisons.
Great stuff! People don't hear YOUR story in YOUR music. They hear THEIR story in YOUR music! Be plainspoken, straightforward and cut to the quick of it!
Great point
That is the exact opposite of Lennon's philosophy, he was very clear that he was interested only in his own story.
The great thing about a back beat is that you really can't lose it, and not just in certain situations, but, and I really mean this, any old time you use it.
But it damn well better be Rock n Roll music, at least if you wanna dance with me! đ Cheers buddy
Chuck berry , wrote that John covered it
I have written over a thousand songs in my life. My first ones when just a child were what were known then as bubble gum songs. Due to the fact they appealed to that age group. Iâm 70 now and have been retired for 12 years.
The songs that Iâve written in last 12 years have had themes such as: Dealing with pain, death, tear jerkers, cheating , lust, and of course love.
I have to have a âhookâ. I read things, see things on CZcams or TV, or hear something someone might say. I think ,âthatâs a song â. After that I simply write a story around the hook, and set it to rhyme. Once this is finished I assign it a genre . I then use the appropriate instruments to achieve the desired sound of that genre. Also, I feel one of the most important details in the creation is attitude. Try to impose your attitude upon the singing and playing.
I have always approached writing with the mindset of establishing a method and a technique. Once you have perfected your technique, never deviate. Play the instruments in the same order, use the same levels when recording, and once your tracks have been laid down, get away from it a few days before mixing and mastering.
As far as the Beatles are concerned, I think they were exceptional talents. But, the great talent only gets you so far. You have to have a determined work ethic. Which I think was very obvious. Also, the amount of songs that you write hones your ability. But if you have a passion for music and for creating it , youâll never work one day in your life. Cheers!
Where can we hear your songs?
Larry! Where is this beautiful sounding biographic catalog?
Iâm sort of old fashioned and do not participate in social media. I produced an album in the 70âs . I lacked a proper monitoring system , thus it was out of sync and not my best work. I performed in bands for around twenty years off and on.
Since retiring, I produce CDâs . I play all the instruments ,do the engineering , and recording. Then, I give them away to people I know or meet.
Folks are always telling me ,âYou should put your music on Spotify or CZcams â.
My music is my therapy. Iâm afraid if I were to publish it on social media , it would become a hinderance .
If you wish ,you may send me an address , tell me what genre you prefer, and Iâll mail you a CD. Cheers!
I love this comment. Screenshotted, will come back to it.
@@BuckBarker I say you should share with us your work and let it be heard instead of rotten. As someone once said it : "It's better to burn out rather than to fade away". Who knows, maybe you could have become one of the biggest artists nowadays
in Lucy in the Sky, "Look for the girl with the sun in here eyes, and she' gone" is rhyming gone with sun. If you try it with say 'light' instead of 'sun', the finality of 'gone' doesn't have the same impact. It's subtle. there is also phasi-rhyme of 'cellophane' and 'green'... it's going for a psychedelic feel, so the patterns are more fluid and unexpected, and the connections are more delicate, but they are there!
And 'flowers' rhyming with 'towering'
@@frostyclimesmusic yes... and the most obvious one being 'sky' with the first syllable of 'dia'monds which is held for the same length of two beats... not sure if that would be called a rhyme though... but it's definitely an intentional mechanism of a similar type.
@@oldmossystone Yes it's an internal rhyme.
Assonance
This is quickly becoming my favorite channel on CZcams.
"In musical theater, perfect rhyme is really the only rhyme that counts"
Lin-Manuel Miranda: Hold my coffee
Lin manual has an Eminem type of style to his songs, just throw in rhyme after rhyme
Ohhh no. Is that true? đź
Songwriting is such an enigma. Itâs good to acknowledge the importance of ârulesâ or guidelines, and this video is great,.. if it helps. Donât get hung up on formulas and rules. Thatâs where songs become predictable. Itâs good to hear about how others write, especially Lennon. Iâd like to hear McCartneyâs thoughts. My thought is: be constantly writing lyrics. Be constantly writing chord progressions. Dedicate a block of time in your week in trying to smash the two things together. Know that you are going to write some crap. But in being prolific some good stuff will emerge. Good luck!
Man this channel is unbelievably good. Thank you so much!
I was lucky enough to have a songwriting module as part of a general music course some years back. It was very inspring and led me to write some of my best songs. Your channel elaborates many aspects of the craft we didn't have time to cover in detail. It has reignited my passion for pursuing this great art, which I feared was lost. Thank you.
Ya know what....even though 'Something' was written by George, there is a definite John connection. In the film Get Back George is having trouble with a lyric in the song and John tells him to just stick any ol' word in there until the right one presents itself. Obviously that right word did present itself because its a masterpiece! So of course it turns out he wasn't just giving that advice to George but to all of us 'mere mortals' as well! Great video by the way!
Johnâs genius was to underthink everything and have everyone else overthink what he had done. Just like this video. When this guy started defining âbackbeatâ I knew he was overthinking it
Amen
You are an exceptional coach/instructor/communicator. Thank U
Itâs all good. I believe âSomethingâ was a Harrison song? One of my favorite Beatles tunes đ
Great advice, especially the first part. I enjoyed the dissection of rhyming couplets and patterns. Breaking up normal rhyming schemes, but still having a flow and natural feelâŠnot easy.
Was just about to say the same đ
In the words of John Lennon, âa Harrisongâ
This is the same mistake Frank Sinatra would make in concert. He would start by saying he initially disliked the Beatles, but had to admit that Something was a GREAT Lennon / McCartney song before singing HIS rendition. This was Frank Sinatra, though, no-one was going to correct him. YES, George wrote Something, not John.
P.S. Very good content overall on this channel. Shocked & saddened to witness this slip up.
My very sentiment â
Hopefully you read the top comment!
Great video; interesting analysis, organized very nicely and delivered succinctly. Thankd, Marty
I LOVE yours and Keppiâs videos- thank you.
As always on this site, a very insightful helpful and clear analysis. Many thanks.
Excellent, great job Benny đđđ.
I learned a lot, this was one of your best videos.
Thank you
The best! đ
That was very useful information presented in a way I could understand. Thank you!
I learned a lot from this video⊠Iâm going to go back and look at some of my lyrics
Great video. I'll be trying some of this out. I love complex ideas and techniques distilled down to a simple statement Like Lennon did here. We can all take the distillation, think about it, make our own methods and routines out of them and teach them to others like you have done here. Thanks Bennie!
Great value video!
đđŸ
Itâs Trinity from the Songwriting Intensive, I just love â€ïž how this is so timely because I JUST finished â writing âđŸ a song đ” using yâallâs formula đ
Go you!! đ
A top notch presentation, very generous & inspiring. Grazie mille!
I tend to hear a melody or beat and rattle it around in my head until the words fall in place. Rarely do the words and music come together but when they do itâs like magic.
Great explanation - cheers.
Amazing and helpful content! Thanks a lot!
Really Great! Would be interesting to see something about melody writing
Lennon also liked to drop in an instrumental pause or musical change in those places when his lyrics didnât rhyme. You can see that perfectly in those two examples: Imagine & Lucy
13:30 "Something" is a Harrisong
â€very helpful đ
Great to see you both today, across the check-outs, at Woolworths.
Love your channel.
Gordon Pavilion xxx
Lovely to see you out in the wilds (of Woolworths!)
@@htws â€ïž
Fantastic!!!
Excellent!
One of the big barriers to writing lyrics- NOT saying what you mean or what you want to say. Great advice on this video. Other examples of saying what you mean - Morrisey, Fagans/ Becker.
"Rhyme" also comes from the Latin roots of "fitting together, sound rhythmically, repeating motion, vibration" and further more Greek roots of "to arrange, to count, to put". So "... and make it rhyme" could also be translated into "make it count" or "make it resonate (vibrate) with others". The double meaning of words and using that as a tool in lyrics is a bit missing in the video tho.
great video!
I've been watching your videos for a while, and they've been very helpful and I enjoy them. Please do one for Alex Turner, his songwriting is incredible!
No one has ever gotten near Johnny's musicality. Greatest singer , greatest songs , greatest style icon of ALL time ! not bad for an English shitkicker of a kid from the pool ! Go J Go đ
More Lennon stuff please!
On a sidenote: cool instruments in the background, with the weissenborn and resonator. Love the sound of those
Itâs good to remember why we have meter and rhyme. They are remnants of our ancient oral tradition. Before writing the only way to pass down culture from one generation to the next was by memorization, so mnemonics were invented to aid the memory, meter and rhyme. When you structure your lyrics following meter and rhyme, you are creating patterns that humans have evolved to seek, recognize and delight in. A technique I use is to not write anything down while Iâm composing. If I canât remember it, it wasnât any good.
Songwriting is my favorite part of the musical process (when you have a good idea) and I heard that John Lennon quote before. I agree, say what you mean and be direct. I've written songs like "You Should Have Known Better" "Bad Man" and "Please Dont Miss Me When Im Gone". Imperfect rhymes have the same effect as a suspended chord, they are dissonant, then resolved, unless you are leaving something open. One thing I learned from Dylan was placing rhymes in the middle of your lines, lots of ways to change that up
nice video! thanks
George would be most upset to see Something on your list of Lennon songs! Love your channel though - so much good stuff
I found that very interesting and informative. The Beatles in general were able to create leaps of imagination. For example they wrote âWhen Iâm Sixty Fourâ when very young but weâre able to accurately describe and project the process of aging.
It would be fantastic if you could do a video on what makes a gorgeous timeless catchy melody as found in so many Beatles songs, versus so-so or even really good melodies.
John wasn't even a cowriter on "Something." Great video though!
Benny, it's interesting you chose Jealous Guy as an example of Lennon's work because I think there may be a further lesson to be learned from that song. If you've watched the Beatles film "Get Back" you'll hear Lennon introduce a song he called 'Road to Marrakesh' to the rest of the band. It's a song that was to become Jealous Guy. The majority of the chord changes and melody were there but the lyrics were not his best at that point. Maybe a future tutorial could discuss when and how to edit or when to let a song go and when to persist until the best version of the song is uncovered. Thanks for all of your tutorials.
I missed the part you are talking about. Guess I'll have to watch "Get Back" again, oh darn :)
It was also called Child of Nature on the Esher Demos (demos of songs mostly from the white album, recorded at Georgeâs house)
I lived thru all that and seen them twice. Once in 65 and again in 66. Lennon was a better lyrist, but McCartney was more moladic.
After writing songs for 17 years, I feel only within the last 4 have I truly grasped what John meant. Before I would write songs as more of stories that had music as the conduit for the story. Lyrics would be straight forward, and rhymes were more forced. My middle years were more planned, stories had a direction and lyrics were shaped to say what I needed poignantly, but also with open rhymes. Now, I write lyrics with every intent to be followed by a narrative, and rhymes are completely tertiary to expression of lyrics, and flow of the music. And ironically, my rhymes are better, but not as frequent as my early work.
Revolution
John : just say what you mean
Also john : yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dogs eye
Instant Karma is written in 6/8 - two beats split into triplets.
I think Norwegian Wood is classic Waltz time - 3/4.
As is Hide Your Love Away.
The second portion of I Want You is also classic Waltz 3/4.
Dig a Pony is definite 3/4 - they even count the one, two, three at the start.
So John mixed it up a fair bit.
Not to be a vampire but Something is a Harrison composition. Still, point taken đ
Is there a special term for "rhyming" a word with itself? I'm referring to the rhyme scheme in IMAGINE when you list "hurt you" and "hurt you" as a CC rhyme in the context of the song. Thanks for the info, Mark
Yes, I think he meant give the words a purpose alongside the meaning, like using alliteration, plosives, fricatives, multi-purpose words, etc., so when you sing it, one sound leads into another, flips off your tongue and blows out your lips with the right syncopation and is simpatico with the music in a way that seem both clever and natural. I think he meant play with words like an instrument and have them fit together like they belong there.
that's a great example of how people who do great things often cannot really explain what their doing. clarity is the last thing you want in music
For all of the great stuff John wrote with The Beatles,I think that maybe my single favorite song he wrote is (Just Like) Starting Over. It's just so...pretty.
I prefer to discover the song as im writing it. I try to start with the music, whatever i play, i play for some subconcious reason. And that sound usually informs me on the lyrical content. Its hard because unless i grab on to something that im playing, it can be difficult to complete. But its what works for me usually
Very interesting video thank you for that. I am wondering about the "put a back beat to it" idea, Did John actually mean it literally as in 2 and 4, or perhaps he meant it lyrically. The first two statements are about the lyrics, maybe so is the third: give the words a lyrical rhythm. I can definitely hear a rhythm in the lyrics of many of John's (and other songwriters) lyrics independently from the musical rhythm. Emphasis on certain words, phrasing, accents, space between words, also serve to give the lyrics a certain sense, or emotions, just like a back beat. It's just a thought. Thank you again
The method is make it work. Say what you want to get across. Try to keep the syllables even, have pattern of rhyme. If you can't make a line rhyme in a verse that line or lines in all the verses won't rhyme but it must flow. Don't write to long of a song helps too.
Brilliant video! As to .... how did John Lennon so consistently write so many brilliant songs .....? I'm sure "clarity of mind" had something to do with it, but also - he could focus 100% on his music, without wasting time on social media, creating online promotional "content", self-promotion, etc, etc, etc .... Everything that today's artists are almost forced to do (at least that's what we're told!)
5:00- "I want to possess her to death" is much deeper - close to rawness and vulnerability in my view. "I am a jealous guy" feels more like sugar coating... doesn't cut so deep.
Having said that, I really appreciate your presentation. Dont agree entirely, but appreciate it.
I think itâs come out that Yoko wrote most of imagine. I believe there is a recording of John saying as much.
Sinead O'Conner: "These are dangerous days, to say what you mean is lay your own grave, remember what I told you,
'If they hated me, they will hate you."
Her own critique of UK power.
i love your channel so much †but something is by george
Such genius' like the Beatles are probably the worst people to ask about song writing because it was such a natural thing for them. You can tell someone how to ride a bike, show them how to ride a bike but riding a bike is completely different to both of those, you either can or you can't
What did McCartney mean with the reference to "Mother Mary" in "Let It Be"? What of Paul Simon's beautiful but ambiguous lyrics in "The Sound of Silence"?
Which ambiguous lyrics?
@@michellemonet4358 "The song's ... basis [is] unclear, with some thinking that the song commented on the assassination of John F. Kennedy ... although Simon & Garfunkel had performed the song live as Kane & Garr two months before the assassination. ... The first stanza presents the singer as taking some relative solace in the peacefulness he associates with 'darkness' which is submerged 'within' the ambiguous sound of silence," according to Wikipedia.
Due to the ambiguity of the song's lyrics, "the imagery and themes in the song have been interpreted in various ways," according to Quora.
_"Hello, darkness, my old friend_ / _I've come to talk with you again,_ the song immediately grabs the attention, its words casting vague, but stirring imagery across the delicate acoustics," writes Alli Patton in the _American Songwriter._
@@michellemonet4358
Hello, darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
"Fools," said I, "You do not know"
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence"
Yoko had a big impact in the writing of imagine. John admitted it later and didnât give her full credit
Chords rhythm and melody come first for me and then I put the words and meaning into it. I think the Beatles did the same thing. I know they heard the music first and then came up with the words and meaning.
This was very interesting and I agree with most or all of what you say about his writing so the following comments donât detract from a general thumbs up rating (which I have given).
However, regarding rhyming, I think the example you give is not a good one.
You say âinsecureâ and âmoreâ donât sound like they should rhyme, but thatâs because you pronounce âinsecureâ as âinsekewer.
Having grown up in the same part of Liverpool as John, I can tell you that we pronounce it âinsecyoreâ. So the pronunciation doesnât need changing to make it rhyme and it wouldnât have occurred to him that it did. In the song, he doesnât actually change âmoreâ to sound âmuerâ but the opposite, he pronounces the end of insecure like more, just like he would in normal speech.
Similarly, I agree that most of his songs were 4/4 - he was, after all, basically a rockânâroller , as you suggested - but showing a limited list of songs could be misleading; he wrote other songs in 3-time that were not listed. Also he often used triplets even within a 4/4 songs - the words âStrawberry Fields Foreverâ or the refrain of âGive peace a chanceâ have a triplet feel, though you correctly describe the songs as mainly 4/4 and your general point that 4/4 is versatile is a good one, well made.
A third point is that John, partly for humour and partly modesty, sometimes down-played his own and The Beatlesâ achievements. Johnâs sophisticated use of harmony, which was crucial to his individuality - and genius - is not covered by his own, rather flippant formula and I donât think, therefore, that we should take it too seriously or too literally. Yes, itâs a good starting point, but it takes more than that to be a Lennon or a McCartney.
A very good songwriter once likened the pop song form like a haiku...certain form restrictions but freedom within it
I Am The Walrus is not exactly 4/4. It feels like 4/4 but itâs all over the place when it comes to time signature. Same thing for Good Morning, Good Morning. Feels like 4/4 but has multiple time signatures. Just Like Starting Over may have a 12/8 feel but could also be counted as 4/4. Sgt. Pepper and after his writing is focused on lyrical phrasing that forces measures to be extended or shortened depending on the lyric lines. This was his true genius⊠making unusual times feel like 4/4. Revolution does this at times too. Donât Let Me Down is another great example is unusual times being made to feel like 4/4.
I very frequently end up using time signatures OTHER than 4/4. Usually it's on accident, but I'd say the majority of my songs aren't in 4/4. However, I have noticed that a fair number of my choruses are, even if the rest of the song isn't. Usually I end up writing the chorus in either 4/4, or in some cases, 3/4, but I have never written one in a weird time signature like 7/4 (at least, not yet).
There is something to be said for building some tension and then resolving it in the chorus. I'm always trying to do that as a writer, but I always make sure not to introduce too much tension at the beginning (the first few lines of the song need to hook the listener in for the rest).
âInstead, his main form of misery came from the mental strength it took to look deep within his mind to fuel his songwriting, which drained the singer. He once commented, âSongwriting is about getting the demon out of me. Itâs like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song wonât let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then youâre allowed to sleepâ.
That comment from Lennon shows just how introspective he needed to look in order to produce his masterpieces.â
I still struggle with the rhyming thing. I listened to the Eaglesâ âTake it Easyâ literally hundreds of times before I realized they rhymed âeasyâ with âcrazyâ and it works so well you donât even notice
Phonetic congruence and similarity are so huge.
I have a song where I rhymed "people" with "needle", sort of in an interior rhyme.
Yoko Ono wrote the lyrics to ' Imagine '.
It was in her ' Grapefruit ' book.
Inspired not wrote.
@@jhaduvala
If you want to get technical, ' Imagine ' is inspired by ' The Communist Manifesto '.
@@jhaduvala
But she still wrote it.
@@aisforapple2494 Technical...ok. I prefer the word accurate. Imagine was not "inspired by" the communist manifesto. Lennon joked that it's LIKE the communist manifesto...after the fact. Yoko certainly inspired the whole concept of imagine, and is certailny co-creator. I've read Grapefruit.
He should have imagined there was no Charter Arms Undercover .38 Special revolver.
Imagine and Because were written in large part by Yoko.
Maybe he did mean both lyrics and music, actually. "Say what you mean" might as well refer to musical statements. Picking up that context, "making them rhyme" then refers to the temporal and harmonic assembly of a song.
I think you're over-analysing what was probably a fairly flippant comment John made but you did a great job nonetheless. Great tips for any songwriter !
@How To Write Songs - to make an artificial division between yourself and John Lennon - "...mortal beings..." - no wonder there are so many "lessons". He's a bloke, his style, his songs, you're a bloke with your own style, your own songs. There is an infinitude of songs and styles, literally the "vault" never goes empty.
Sitting on a cornflake , waiting for the van to come...
Corporation T-shirt , stupid bloody Tuesday...
Man you been a naughty boy , you let your face grow long....
Oooookay....Say what you mean , huh !??
I love John Lennon...
Itâs absolutely true but that kind of advice reminds me of the Monty Python skit about how to play the flute. âYou blow there and you move your fingers up and down there.â
Sometimes I write the song first then listening to it , I hear what it wants me to say
I write songs and one thing I discovered when I first started was I had to learn themđź when I put the lyrics and tunes together I swear I've wrote songs and forgotten them the next day đ I mean I write the lyrics but if I've not recorded the tune I can't remember how the tune went so the lyrics are useless as I come up with an alternative tune thats not so good đđđplus I always look for perfection immediately but as Ed sheeran says you have to get the crap songs out of your system before the great stuff comes out...wise words
I usually like ambiguous lyrics more
its easy if you try đ
I have a bad habit of overthinking it, and end up getting nothing done. I'm going to try this trick and see what happens
I thought he might say, it's easy, just make Paul do it.
What do you mean by "iconic"? Is it a good thing? Why?
Arenât cryptic references part of what fascinates us about good songs?
John Lennon: "Writing songs is easy. Step 1: be me."
Check out Donnie Vie from Enuff Z Nuff
It's one way of writing a song: I don't agree that direct songwriting is necessarily better at all, though. Both Lennon and Bowie wrote plenty of abstract songs that are all the better for it, although in Lennon's case it was more about absurdity and something darker and/or stranger in Bowie's.
The key point I think is, if you're not saying something directly, don't do it because you don't really want to say it: do it because it creates a different and better flavour than simply saying it directly. If Bowie had written "The Man Who Sold The World" as a perfectly flat, open song, it wouldn't be half as memorable as it is: it's so intriguing because it's so cryptic.
Simple for Lennon
If you really think about it, Lennon is perfectly describing... rap.