Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Listening to hip hop
• Part 2 of 3: Writing Rhymes
• Part 3 of 3: Taking the next step
• Tips
• Warnings
• Necessities

If you want to make it in hip hop, you have to start somewhere. Biggie started on the street in Brooklyn where he rapped with a boom-box and battled whoever wanted - sometimes he won, but sometimes he lost too. And so he learned his trade and got better and better. You probably have it a lot easier, but your goals are the same. Listen to the sounds around you, write your lyrics and start building those rhymes into tracks.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Listening to hip hop

1. Listen to hip hop as much as you can. You will have to listen to many different types of hip hop and rap before you can start writing your own rhymes. Study the history and culture of rap music and try to understand the core and the basics. Hip hop is a living organism that you must familiarize yourself with. If you don't know who Big Daddy Kane is, or if you only know Ice Cube as that joke dude from the movie, then wet your chest.
   • In recent years, the free online mixtape culture has become an incredibly important part of hip hop. ref> http://www.datpiff.com/ref> That's how Lil Wayne became famous in the mid-2000s by distributing his mixtapes online for free. Many of these mixtapes consisted largely of freestyles. Checking out free mixtapes is also a good way to get to know what's going on in contemporary hip-hop
2. Listen actively. Study the skills of other rappers until you can shape your own style. You are not stealing, you are learning. Copy their rhymes and freestyles, and read them as you would poetry. Studying their music also allows you to find fat beats that you can try rapping about yourself.
   • EEminem is known for its fast flow, complex rhyme schemes and metric perfection. Lil Wayne is known for his great one-liners and imagery. Look for rappers that appeal to you. A $ AP Rocky, Tribe Called Quest, Big L, Nas, Mos Def, Notorious BIG, Tupac, Kendrick Lamar, Freddie Gibbs, Jedi Mind Tricks, Army of The Pharaohs, MF Grimm, Jus Allah, Shabazz Palaces and the Wu-Tang Clan are all very different and talented rappers or groups worth checking out.
   • Listening to rap that you absolutely don't like can also be useful. Try to form an opinion. Compile your arguments. Discuss different rappers with your friends. Talk about who is dope and who is wack.
3. Memorize some verses. Choose a verse from one of your favorite tracks and listen to it repeatedly. Listen to it so often that you know it by heart. Repeat this text in your head. Get a feel for the syllables and the flow of the words, the way you pronounce them.
   • Think about why this particular verse is so good. What do you like about it? How come you can memorize it?
   • Try to find an instrumental version of the track. Practice rapping the verse over the beat. This will give you a better idea of ​​the flow and speed of the music and lyrics.

Part 2 of 3: Writing Rhymes

1. Write a lot of rhymes. Keep a notepad with you at all times, or use your phone to write down your rhymes. Try to write at least ten per day. At the end of the week, you can grab your notepad and pick out the best rhymes. Put together a list with the best rhymes per week. You can eventually process this collection into a track. Delete all bad phrases, delete all trite things - keep only the very best.
   • You may only have a few sentences at the end of the week. That's fine. That's okay, in fact. If you are just starting out you will write a lot of crappy lyrics. That's the way it is. A lot of time and effort goes into writing good lyrics. Making a track that people want to listen to is quite a job.
2. Keep "rhyme clusters" in your notepad. A rhyme cluster is a group of short sentences and words that are all interchangeable. So, phrases with words like "glass", "ash", "joker" and "atlas" can be part of the same rhyme cluster. Start compiling an encyclopedia of rhymes that you can memorize and refer to while writing songs or freestyling.
3. Stamp your lyrics into tracks. After a few weeks of writing, you will have built up a reasonable stock. Add a few more sentences, mix them up a bit and start thinking about how your rhymes could become a song. Write some extra lines to fill in the gaps and put everything together.
   • Narrative raps have a permanent place in classic hip-hop. Often they are about the hard life. The stories must at least answer the questions Who, What and When. This allows you to paint a vivid picture of the event you are trying to describe. Freddie Gibbs and Raekwon are good storytellers.
   • Bragging raps often contain many one-liners. Look no further than Lil Wayne, the self-crowned king of bragging rights. Use many similes and metaphors to compare yourself to all kinds of greatness.
   • Pop rap it's all about the chorus. Chief Keef's Rhymes may be awful, but he knows what a good hook is. Try to find one, two simple phrases that fit the beat perfectly. For example, "Don't Like" and "Sosa" have choruses that are guaranteed to stay in your head for weeks. Just like Soulja Boy's "Crank That". For some classic work you can think of "C.R.E.A.M." from Wu Tang, or whatever from Snoop Dogg.
4. Try to freestyle. Find a beat you like, an instrumental version of a track you like, or just try rapping over the intros and outros. Find the beat, feel the beat, and try to carve out everything that's in your head.
   • Start with a good "opening line". This is a phrase that comes to mind and gets you going. Then rely on your rhyme clusters to maintain flow.
   • Do not freestyle in front of others. Practice it yourself first. It can fail quickly, but try to stay on the beat at all times, keep the flow, and find your way back if you start to stumble a bit. Do not stop. If you stop you are finished. Make sure you don't stall, even if you have to rap nonsense. Just make sure it rhymes and keep going.
5. Take your time. You won't be able to write great songs right away. Focus on the little things, try to get better at freestyling and learn to write songs. Try to develop your own voice and style without copying other rappers. You don't want to look like someone else; you want to have your own voice, you want to be your own rapper.
   • Even Chief Keef and Soulja Boy, rappers who already became famous at the age of sixteen or seventeen, have had to take their time. If you want to take rapping seriously, you have to be self-critical. Gza was 25 before he got successful, and he started rapping as a child.

Part 3 of 3: Taking the next step

1. Look for freestyle competitions and rap battles. Here, participants have to freestyle to a beat chosen by the DJ. You will also be timed, so you will not have much time to think first. If you want to battle you will face another MC, one who may have a lot more experience than you and might want to humiliate you to get the crowd on his side. This is one of the most exciting parts of rapping. You will need to be thick-skinned and able to rap well before venturing into this.
   • It is smart to go as a spectator a few times first. This way you can get an idea of ​​how good the other rappers are, and you can determine when you are ready to take the stage.
2. Make original music. Try to connect with up-and-coming producers nearby or online. They can give you original beats to work with. If you have a beat, you basically don't need more than software and a microphone to make your own tracks.
   • Go to concerts, competitions and battles. There you can meet other rappers and producers with whom you can collaborate. They may even be willing to share their resources with you.
3. Put your music online. In the end, if you have enough material that you are proud of, you can start a YouTube channel to share your music. This way you can show your music to a large audience. Put together a mixtape and share it on the Internet for free. Rappers who sign cool contracts are increasingly known for their free mix tapes.
   • Burn copies of your mix tapes to hand out at concerts and gatherings. Make sure to include your contact details with the CDs.
4. Keep practicing. Put your beats on your phone or iPod and freestyle all day long - when you're on the bus, walking down the street, or running errands. Practice makes perfect, also with your rhymes.

Tips

• Stay yourself and keep going.
• Make sure to get your lyrics out loud and clear. Your fans want to understand what you have to say.
• Speak clearly when rapping.
• a lot of people want to be like Eminem or Lil Wayne when they rap. Rather, try to be yourself and rap the way you like it.
• When you rap, try to use instrumental beats to hone your skills.
• Rap not just about yourself, but also about things that a lot of other people deal with.
• A rhyming dictionary can help.
• Do not hurry. Pronounce your rhymes clearly! Don't do what other people want you to do; do what you can.
• While rapping, make sure you feel yourself. Remember, you can be the best rapper ever if you do your best.
• Create a crew with other MCs to learn from each other.
• By adding emotion to your track, you make the track more about you.
• Don't steal texts.
• Keep it real. Rap about things that are echoes; not about things that are clearly not true. Don't say you have a bazooka and a tech nine - you probably don't.
• When you have written your rhymes you can improve them by counting how many syllables they have. Adjust your lyrics to the number of syllables per line and the tempo. If you want to maintain a steady tempo, keep about the same number of syllables on a line. Once you get the hang of this you can start experimenting with different paces. This will improve your flow.

Warnings

• Don't steal beats. This can have serious consequences.
• Don't drop out of school to become a rapper. THE chance that you will make it is very small, even if you are talented. And even if you do make it, you will still have time to both rap and learn.
• Don't say things that will offend a particular race or population group.

Necessities

• In principle, you don't need more than pen and paper. If you want to get a little more serious you might be able to get some equipment to record your tracks with.
• A rhyming dictionary. Only if you want some extra help.
• A rap name: like Lil Wayne (Dwayne Carter), Hopsin (Marcus Hopson), etc.
• A YouTube channel to put your tracks on.