Rap is sometimes referred to as poetry with music and rhythm. Rap music is a type of music that features rhythmic speech over a musical backdrop. Rappers that excel do so by speaking from the heart, repeating their point, and being able to rhyme, flow, and ride the beat.
I’ll include a guide here to better understand how to write a rap song for beginners to get started from the basics.
How To Write A Rap Song
In order to learn how to rap, you should put down your ideas on paper or do some brainstorming. A brainstorming session is a process in which you use your creativity to jot down any ideas, concepts, emotions, or thoughts that come to mind as you are brainstorming. It is possible that the words to your song will be inspired by this brainstorming exercise.
You might also get inspiration from the sound of music and a beat. Just keep in mind to write about yourself and keep it personal. These lyric concepts can be arranged into a structure as you compose your song that has a strong emotional focus and sticks to a consistent theme.
It is very common for hip-hop music to be composed of portions. The song consists of two or three 16-line verses and a hook or chorus, which can be either four or eight lines in length and repeated throughout the song.
Rap and hip-hop both heavily utilize rhyme. Start by adding rhymes to the fourth beat, which comes at the end of each line.
You should also get proficient at counting bars. The initial step is to listen to different instruments to discover the melodic pattern. The pattern is then divided into four equal pieces to represent a bar. In rap music, a bar denotes a verse of the song within a 1, 2, 3, 4 count. A bar is a unit of time in music.
You can write your lyrics inside the boundaries of a bar once you’ve established the bars. You can learn how to recognize bars by searching online for rap instrumentals or choosing a favorite rap tune.
Use Current Affairs
To get your audience hyped on your bars, you must use punchlines. Utilizing current affairs and hot subjects on the internet is a terrific approach to finding razor-sharp punchlines. Intriguing punchline themes can also be discovered on Reddit.
Research
It is known that one of the most effective ways to learn a craft is to study others who have mastered it. It is important to find rap artists whose work you enjoy and respect and listen to them. Take a moment to consider what makes their work so exceptional.
How can they combine all of the essential elements of the genre in a way that engages their audience? Any notes that you believe would aid in learning should be recorded. You can learn and find inspiration from this exercise, merely. Write whatever comes naturally to you.
How Many Lines Does A Rap Song Have?
Rap verses typically have 16 bars. 16 lines altogether. When you organize your thoughts into four bars as opposed to two at a time, you may do it more effectively. Your transition is simpler when you switch up your rhyme pattern every four measures. After the introduction, rap tracks play. Typically, there are sixteen bars for every stanza. Usually, between 2-4 verses make up a whole song.
Put 16 dots on the page for this fantastic trick. Each line in the verse gets one. Each line contains around 16 syllables. Allow space and pauses so that you can clearly pronounce longer or shorter words. This is called the Rakim method.
Beat makers are aware of this and typically leave 16 lines—the standard amount of space for a rap verse—available.
Key Elements
There are, of course, some key factors when it comes to rap music when writing. These factors are:
- The most important things to remember when writing rap songs are to embrace the emotion you are expressing and to write down whatever is on your mind.
- Adding syncopation to the lyrics, a form of rhythm that emphasizes specific beats—often the weaker beats—and then editing the phrases to reflect this.
- Incorporating a rhyme scheme into your lyrics could involve changing words at the ends of sentences to make the rhyme work.
- Establishing a structure for the song and adding lines as needed to keep it there.
Final Words
The constant, repeating beats, the pattern of the vocals and flow, and the rhyme patterns are what make rap the most popular musical genre right now.
Our brains are wired to notice patterns and fall in love. Before something happens, our egos predict if there will be a pattern and what it could look like. Additionally, our brain is rewarded for being right when it is predicted and does occur.