Fulan

Rather interesting analysis from Cafe Salemba, my favourite blog.
It proves two things, Economist is one hell of a nasty creature, and
yet, it can be funny at the same time. 

Indonesian rap is annoying and stupid.

I
know this might irritate some people and it shows my own ignorance.
But, I can’t stand it — I was once told by economists here that
there’s nothing you could do with other people’s taste; well I don’t
care. . . I just happened to be in a long ride with this damn bus, and
all I could hear was that continuing weird noise called Indonesian rap.

I said "weird" and "noise" because of the following.

Rap
music, I gather, is a part of hip-hop culture that uses rhyme and
rhythm spitted mostly in a very fast beat. I’m no phonologist or
morphologist, but I believe human tongue (and mouth) has its limit when
it comes to spitting words quickly. It is then easier to spit
one-syllable words than two-syllable words. English (and I believe
African, too) words are dominated by one-syllables. At least for words
you want to rap with. Fine, two-syllables are also used. But not much.
Try this (from Usher feat Ludacris and Lil Jon):

I’m (1) in (1) the (1) club (1) with (1) my (1) homies (2), tryna (2) get (1) a (1) lil   (1) V-I (2),
keep (1) it (1) down (1) on (1) the (1) low (1) key (1),
cause (1) you (1) know (1) how (1) it (1) feels (1).
I (1) said (1) shorty (2) she (1) was (1) checkin (2) up (1) on (1) me (1),
from (1) the (1) game (1) she (1) was (1) spittin (2) my (1) ear ( 2 or
1.5) you’d (1) think (1) that (1) she (1) knew (1) me (1).
So (1) we (1) decided (3 or 2.5) to (1) chill (1).

See,
there are only 5 two-syllables and 1 three-syllable (even so, you can
spit "decided" as "decid’d" — so it sounds like a 2.5 only; like "ear"
to "e’r", a 1.5). The rest are one-syllables. Imagine if this is to be
adapted in Indonesian (forget about rhyme for now):

Aku (2) dalam (2) klab (1) dengan (2) teman-teman (4),
coba (2) dapatkan (3) sedikit (3) kesenangan (4!)
Jangan (2) berisik (3), kar’na (2) kau (1.5) tau (2) aku (2) s’dang (2) asik (2)….

    …. and so on

Look
how many twos and threes (and even fours) we got, just in the
beginning! Now try visualize a rapper wannabe who raps with Indonesian
words like that. Either he or she can be damn good with extremely fast
tongue (Iwa K was fast!) or you would experience a torture.

Not
that there’s anything wrong with Indonesian words. They just don’t go
with rap, trust me. You may as well end up funny: you move your hip and
wave your hands up and down. But your phonetic tools can’t follow.

Even in singing, efficiency matters — as the economist would say.
http://cafesalemba.blogspot.com/2007/09/my-own-stupid-analysis-indonesian-rap.html