An off-centered rhyme is an

internal Internal may refer to: *Internality as a concept in behavioural economics *Neijia, internal styles of Chinese martial arts *Neigong or "internal skills", a type of exercise in meditation associated with Daoism * ''Internal'' (album) by Safia, 2016 ...

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

characterized by placing

rhyming A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciously used for a musica ...

words or

syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

s in unexpected places in a given line. This is sometimes called a misplaced-rhyme scheme or a spoken-word rhyme style. Here is an example from the

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

group

De La Soul De La Soul ( ) is an American hip hop music, hip hop group formed in the village of Amityville on Long Island, New York (state), New York in 1988. They are best known for their eclectic sampling, eccentric lyrics, and contributions to the evoluti ...

Playin' ''wait up'', with the ''data'' servin' your ears with infor''mation'' due to confir''mation'' of the ''nation's'' most wicked ''ways'' of livin', like them glassy eyed ''beans'' Inhale to smoke the ''fiends'', while bangin' a ''tape'' ''Rated'' at the high point of the ''mass'' Rippin' MC's at the top of a ''class'', oc''cas''ionally rippin' some sucker's ''face'', or some suckable ''ass'' from a ''girl'' It's a big brother beat for the wide wide ''world'' mphasis added/poem>

This is a common rhyme scheme found in the

spoken word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

form of

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

and can also be found in hip-hop to a lesser degree.

References

Rhyme {{poetry-stub