RHYTHM/METER POLL: To my astonishment, this Ludacris tune has caused a ton of disagreement among experienced musicians in my classes. I feel like I'm losing my mind. Please help. Where do YOU hear the downbeat?

(open the thread for the two most common hearings)

Hearing No. 1, w/ transcription (snare on beat 3)

Like this tweet if this is how you hear it

Hearing No. 2, w/ transcription (snare on beat 2)

Like this tweet if this is how you hear it

I can only hear one of the above, and to my amazement, I've seen all sorts of highly credentialed musicians disagree with/vehemently defend one of these two hearings. A Mozart scholar and a hip-hop scholar disagreed about this during my dissertation defense!

I think this comes down to which layers you most readily entrain to--are you hearing the tonal motion from 5 to 1 in the brass as leading to a downbeat? Or are you listening more to the percussion?

Those of you that are liking both hearings are truly chaotic and I love it

So this is really interesting/cool: I hear the first hearing, but most of you disagree! For those of you who hear the second version, does listening to the whole track (or at least the first verse) change your interpretation?

Thank you for finding this @piesaac. For anyone secure in your hearing, maybe don't listen to this haha https://twitter.com/SamaanAshrawi/status/1261837385962336262?s=20

A new contender emerges. @juddgreenstein this is what I was talking about

Alright everybody, pack it up, I’ve discovered that this tune is clearly in 24/8, as demonstrated by snapping on the beats here.

(/s)