Once I got decent at rapping I still couldn't write a good rap hook to save my life! Writing hooks for my rap songs was something I struggled with for many years and it's very common for the majority of budding rappers to find themselves struggling with writing hooks as well. Well now, writing hooks has become one of my strengths and within this article, I'll be sharing with you my top 5 tips to help you overcome this obstacle as well. LET'S GET IT!! 1. The Instrumental You must first pick an instrumental that you not only think sounds good, but it must move you emotionally. Sometimes … [Read more...] about My Top 5 Tips For Writing Dope Rap Hooks
How To Rap
The Best 3 Ways To Improve Your Rap Flow With Scatting
Picture this for a moment. The legendary guitar player, Jimi Hendrix is on stage with his band. The drummer starts banging away at the drums as he creates a funky groove on the spot. Jimi is feeling it, so he joins in and he absolutely starts killing it on the Guitar! None of it was pre-planned, it was all happening live and in the moment and it seemed like magic! How Is This Possible? What they both were doing is something known as "improvisation". Which basically means they were drawing from all the thousands of patterns they had already learned on their instruments and they were using … [Read more...] about The Best 3 Ways To Improve Your Rap Flow With Scatting
How To Perfect Your Rap Songs Without Being Perfect!
Often times we as rappers strive for perfection. This could mean landing on all the beats perfectly or having our rhyme schemes line up seamlessly from one bar to the next. While this is awesome and important It isn't the determining factor that dictates if your song turns out amazing. In this article, I'm going to be sharing with you how you can add more character to your songs. So without further ado, LET'S GET IT!! The Goal In music and many other art forms perfection really isn't the main goal. It's really all about feeling, vibe, character, groove, and emotion. Plus perfection is … [Read more...] about How To Perfect Your Rap Songs Without Being Perfect!
The Top 4 Reasons Rappers Struggle To Improve Their Rap Skills
Over the past 4 years, I've had the opportunity to speak with thousands of struggling rappers and I've been honored to see so many people grow their skills very quickly! But I've also seen many people continue to struggle and not see much improvement. Why is that? How come some are getting awesome results and others aren't? It must be because one person is just more talented than the other right?...WRONG! It's really all about learning how to learn. Over the years I've noticed a trend in the patterns of both types of people and I'd like to share some of them with you today and hopefully, … [Read more...] about The Top 4 Reasons Rappers Struggle To Improve Their Rap Skills
The Top 4 Ways Tempo Affects Rappers!
When you're learning how to rap it's important to have a good grasp on what tempo is because it impacts you dramatically as a rapper! Within this article, I'm going to be explaining how tempo affects the length of your bars. As well as the top 4 ways it will impact you as a rapper! So without further ado...LET'S GET IT!! Tempo First off you need to understand what tempo is. I've already done an in-depth video which not only explains what tempos it but also how you can detect tempo as well. Be sure to check it out here. But to give you the short and skinny, Tempo is also known as BPM … [Read more...] about The Top 4 Ways Tempo Affects Rappers!
How Long Does It Take To Get Good At Rapping?
Have you recently embarked on your musical journey in hopes of one day becoming a "Rap God"? Just like any other trip you may take, you're probably wondering how long it's going to take you to reach your destination. Well, after reading this article you will certainly have a better understanding of how long it actually takes to get good at rapping. Let's get straight to it! What's Happening? I have been personally training and developing rappers 1 on 1 via my coaching service for the past 3 years and I've certainly noticed that some of my students grow faster than others. As a … [Read more...] about How Long Does It Take To Get Good At Rapping?
How To Improve Your Rap Freestyles With Rhyme Lists
Today I'd like to share with you a very practical way of not only improving your rap freestyles but your songwriting as well using something called Rhyme lists. As the name implies, Rhyme Lists are simply a list of rhymes. The Struggle If you're freestyling off the dome your biggest struggle is going to be coming up with rhymes quickly before your bar runs out. In fact, while you're rapping one bar you should already be thinking of the word you're going to rhyme with it on the next bar. That Guy We've all heard that guy freestyling who keeps using the same words over and over … [Read more...] about How To Improve Your Rap Freestyles With Rhyme Lists
The Four Bar Theory – How To Keep Your Listeners Hooked!
Today I'm going to share something with you that will not only make you a better rapper but it will make you an outstanding entertainer! This "thing" I'm talking about is called "The 4 Bar Theory" and it doesn't just apply to rapping but it's also useful in songwriting, music production, and mixing as well. The 4 Bar Theory is simple. 4 bars isn't too long nor is it too short. If you can create a payoff for your listener every 4 bars you will have them locked in because your song will be highly entertaining! Let's take a quick look at the word "entertainment". To entertain means to … [Read more...] about The Four Bar Theory – How To Keep Your Listeners Hooked!
The Biggest Mistake I Made When I First Started Rapping
Have you ever heard the quote "hindsight is 20/20"? If not, basically it means that mistakes you made in your past due to a lack of experience and understanding are crystal clear to you now in the present moment. What once was so confusing and mysterious is now so simple that you regard it as common sense. Time Traveling I wish I could jump into a time machine and travel back 22 years when I first started rapping. Not just so I could play video games all day without the worries of paying bills, but mainly because I could save myself so much time and frustration with learning this … [Read more...] about The Biggest Mistake I Made When I First Started Rapping
Breathing Techniques For Rappers
Have you ever thought about how much your breathing plays a huge role in how well you sound when you're rapping? Most of the time, us rappers mainly focus on the parts that are being spoken and overlook the importance of the pauses. We have a tendency to overload our bars with too many syllables which cause us to rush words, reducing their clarity while compromising our vocal quality in the process. Let's look a little deeper into this, shall we? Preserving Your Energy Your voice is actually an instrument and in fact, it's typically the main instrument in each of your songs. In order to … [Read more...] about Breathing Techniques For Rappers