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So, I (Italian native speaker) am a huge fan of rap and listening to it is a big part of how I learned English. It wasn't easy to get rid of the AAVE which kinda came natural to me lol. Anyways, I've noticed that some rappers I listen to pronounce words differently, so I wanted to know what is the correct one for some words and if the different pronunciations they have are typical of some area in particular. So here are some words:
Some rappers pronounce words like "get", "then" or "men" with a /e/ sound (like a closed E), at the point where they rhyme "get" and "sh*t". Some others pronounce them using a /ɛ/ sound. I've noticed that rappers from Detroit tend to use the /e/ sound, does that make sense?
Some rappers pronounce the words "law" and "thought" with an open O, like a /ɔ/ sound. At the same time, I've hears many times "law" and "thought" both being pronounced with a very closed O sound, like /o/.
Some rappers could rhyme "stuff" with "does", "was" or "love" because they pronounce all of them with the same /ə/ sound. For example Kanye West. Some also pronounce words like "f*ck" or in general the U sounds like a /o/ basically.
There will be other things that will come to my mind, I will probably make another post.
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: I have two other examples: first, "been" pronounced to rhyme with "pen". An example of this is at the end of Doomsday pt. 2 by Eminem, where he makes a homophone between "Bennett" and "been at". Second, the O sometimes pronounced like a /a/ and sometimes more like a /ɔ/.