How To Be An Amazing Rapper

Kick, punch, it’s all in the mind

Let me start by saying I’ve been making music since 2002. That’s 18 years of my living life. In 2006–2007 I had become the second most played Hip-Hop Artist on MySpace, in the state of Pennsylvania. I held the spot for a couple of months and then fell back down. I have never performed a single show, or spit my lyrical talent out in the open air usually. I have made jams for classroom projects that did get played to the classes, year after year. I have at least 1600+ tracks that I created over these past 18 years.

I am the lyrical genius that you have never heard of, and I continue to spit tracks 2–4 times a week. How you may ask? I will show you how in the upcoming bullet points. Whether you want to acquire a bit of musical knowledge or want to learn how to become a rapper this is just for you.

What kind of artist do you want to be?

For me, the answer was simple my entire life. I wanted to be an artist that was never put out in the mainstream spotlight but made amazing tracks left and right. Then hopefully when I died, the music could then bloom and make people’s days a bit brighter. By not blowing up in the first place, I can dedicate more time to completely mastering my art. I am also not put in positions where I have to abuse myself with drugs *ahem 2010’s mumble rappers*

The questions you must ask yourself include: what kind of rapper do you want to be? What kind of musical talent do you want to provide? What kind of artistry do you want to perform? Do you want to try to define a new genre of hip-hop the world has never heard? What kind of success level do you want? Where do you want to publish your music? Do you want to be a YouTube artist and make videos? Do you want to only want to release subtly? Do you want to become a virally streamed artist?

These are the questions you must answer to define what type of rapping artist you want to become. Whether you publish and produce your music, or go to the booth and have a producer tweak your music for you at cost. What kind of lyrical genius do you want to be when your music starts to make traction?

Do you want to be a mumble rapper that creates amazing steady flows? Do you want to be a lyrical chef that writes everything to satisfy the masses? Do you want to learn to freestyle and be able to just drop bars at the drop of a hat? Still, all these are valid questions on how you want your style to be.

How to find your talent

This is the part where you set yourself apart from every other musical artist. You can do this simply by songwriting. Every single person has a different way of writing things. From a simple text message to a full novel, writing differs from person to person.

When you song write you set the tempo, you set the rhyme scheme, you set the flow, you get to be crisp and clean. You get to appease to the masses simply from writing your lyrics down.

My first jams in life were all written in notebooks after notebooks. After a while though, I went for quantity over quality and the last 10 years have been spit in a way called “freestyle”. By implementing this practice I was able to work on my flows more. I became more versatile in the way I performed and was able to improve my art of freestyling over time. I would be ready to go tat for tat against anyone nowadays if that was a thing. I have stamina when it comes to spitting lyrics, and I have gone an hour plus just straight freestyling on beats.

How to song write

When songwriting, focus on the message you want your piece to present. Understand who your audience is. What type of emotions do you want the audience to feel? How do you want the song to sound? What speed do you want to spit? Do you want it to be vocalized, or more of a rapid barrage of lyrics? The choice is yours and your’s alone!

Now I have taken a songwriting course from Berkeley school of music and I can give you the boiled down version I acquired. It will help tremendously with the way a song starts, builds, climaxes, and finales.

How to truly song write

1. Choose a subject or topic
2. Brainstorm a plot for such subject
3. (Optional for now) come up with a hook or chorus
4. Draw 3 boxes stacked vertically
5. In the first box write out how the subject is being introduced and end with plot thickening
6. In the second box produce how the plot thickened too thick and it climaxed
7. In the third box write how the climax resolved and how things all tie together
8. Use those boxes as a strong basis on how you will configure your 3 verses in order from 1st box to 3rd box
9. Put the hooks in between verses
10. Prosper

It’s truly that simple to come up with a decent piece of music. Write your verses in the form of bars. In pairs of 2’s. Make the rhyme scheme a,b,a,b if possible. It keeps it interesting. Use compound rhymes, rhymes consisting of 3+ syllables. Write a “longer line, shorter line” to give the song a progressive feeling. Write “shorter line, longer line” to highlight the longer lines ending statement. Couplets “same line, same line” will give the bar a sense of closure.

How to rap

If you have written your lyrics and made a rhyme scheme, you are already ahead of the game. When it comes to performing your written works, focus more on the rhythm and syllables. Reading the lyrics is never the issue, it is the movement of flow that affects the quality of pleasantness to your audience. I highly recommend coming up with a simple rhythm in your head before spitting your bars.

“Boom, boom, tah tah, boom, ba-boom, tah tah“

That is a simple written out type of rhythm. I’m sure you could read those multiple ways and come up with the different placement of pauses and tempo.

Boom bah cha cha lala boom boom bop

This is straight from a children’s show and it still is a prime example of rhythm.

Focus your mind on the placement of syllables during spitting, it helps create the inner skeleton of the production. Don’t forget to scale your voice during performing. The last thing anyone wants to hear is a melancholy, monotoned voice the whole track. Focus on the beat and how it is subtle, then banging, then subtle again. Implement proper placement of your chorus/ hook built into the beats. Speaking of beats that’s a whole other story.

There are plenty of free options of beats online. Some producers of beats give exclusivity to the artist in full. Some only require that you put (prod. by so&so) You can go the extra mile and learn beat production, acquire all the correct midi devices, and produce an orchestra of beats if you so desire too. I’ve dabbled I’m beat Creation but I will straight up say, 97% of my tracks were spat in an other producers beat. They mostly are free creative common beats. It’s amazing how accessible this is now a days. Back in 2002–2009 it was very hard to acquire beats. Nowadays it’s a couple of clicks and keyword searches away.

The purpose here though is the more you spit bars, the more you improve. Don’t blindly spit and not revisit things to seek where you should improve. Re-listen to your tracks and do a straight study on your vocals. It will only help being a scientist of sorts to see what works best. Experiment, re-exam it, tweak it, rinse, and repeat.

Where to push your music?

There are so many tools nowadays that people can use to become an instant artist. There’s crazy software that makes it easily happen in a matter of minutes. Some of this software includes Adobe Audition, Ableton Live, Fruity Loops, Reaper, Audacity, Avid Pro Tools, etc. With any of these software programs, you can easily create and make music! It’s pretty simple and there are tons of tutorials online to get more detailed depth.

I do recommend multiple takes, different track lines, mix, and master like crazy. The thing nowadays are background hype vocals, you can do that if you like. This is where some raps become subliminal but just be nice if you go to that extent. If not people will feel it at a subconscious level and dislike your tracks.

Uploading avenues include YouTube, SoundCloud, Reverbnation, Spotify, DatPiff, etc. There are so many other side radio stations and music distributors that you can export your tracks to also! With all of these options, I would suggest the ones I listed here. Not only do these sites have an amazing amount of users, but they can also really set the pace of where your career could head. To get to iTunes or Spotify you need a distributor. There are some decently priced distributors that can push your music and albums to stores. Just make sure all legal rights are in your favor before attempting this.

This step is where you make your fame. Share with friends, groups, social media’s, Instagram, etc. You can grow more and more the more you interact with others in each of these external sources. It’ll only help drive traffic to you. There are also paid promotional ways to advance your musical career but some May come with hefty price tags for minimal return. Grow your fan base to whichever level you so desire. Never let numbers affect your creativity though. You’re still a human after all, so never fret.

Round of applause Fam if you can! Follow and share!!