The Dojo Rap Contest has officially come to an end and three winners have prevailed! We received a lot of submissions and this was a close competition! Thanks to everyone who participated! Y’all rock!
As I reveal each winner I will share why they won along with some tips on how they could improve or tweak their verses.
1st Winner
STRENGTHS
The first winner won because of the following reasons
[1] Lyrical Cohesion
I really enjoyed the cohesiveness of his lyrics. This rapper wrote a 12-bar verse about his journey to becoming a rapper and shared some of the key techniques he learned that helped him improve his rap skills.
[2] Delivery
I also really enjoyed his Delivery. It wasn’t anything crazy or over the top which came off as sounding very natural and his voice reminded me of Nas a little bit.
[3] Rhyme Schemes
He did an excellent job structuring his rhyme schemes and at times juggling multiple rhyme schemes at once.
[4] Rap Flow
I really enjoyed his rap flow as it felt like it was ever-evolving. He also changed up his rap flow to support the narrative of his lyrics when talking about how he learned to rap faster which I thought was very creative.
Now let’s check the first winners verse who goes too….
🏆DJ GLENN🏆
OPPORTUNITIES
[1] Ending
The only thing I felt could have been improved upon was DJ Glenn’s cadence on the last two bars felt too stagnant and lacked movement. I wanted to hear a little bit of a build there to end the verse on a high note.
So the way I achieved this was by simply filling in his pauses with more syllables. On his 11th bar, I placed an “and” to fill in the empty space which made this line fill a little more aggressive than the one before it which creates movement.
Then on his 12th bar, I shaved a little sustain off the “cess” on “process” and filled this and his pause with the word “obviously” which the “Ah” sound served as an internal rhyme with “Process”. I also remove the word “that” to make more room for “obviously” since it is 4 syllables and I didn’t want to overcrowd the final line. So technically I added 3 additional syllables than were initially there making it even denser than the bar before which coupled with the additional internal rhyme I created made this very last line really stand out and end the verse on a high note!
Feel free to show DJ Glenn some love by visiting him on the following platforms. 👇
2ND WINNER
STRENGTHS
The next winner won because of the following reasons
[1] Wordplay
This rappers verse is filled with lots of wordplay such as punchlines, metaphors, puns, and double entendres without getting in the way of his message. Also, he occasionally manipulates the enunciation of words to make it fit his rhyme scheme better.
[2] Rap Flow
This Rapper’s rap flow felt very fluid and free and never felt stagnant.
[3] Delivery
I also really enjoyed his Delivery. His emotions came through as fun, lighthearted, and playful which matched the tone of his lyrics perfectly.
Now let’s check out this dope rap verse from your next winner…
🏆EXPLAINED THROUGH RAP🏆
OPPORTUNITIES
[1] Drifting Rhyme Scheme
The only thing I felt could have been improved upon is to tighten up the placement of his rhyme “Sex Scene” on the 6th bar. On the 5th bar he is rhyming “best peak” with peak landing on the 3rd beat. And then on Bar 6 he rhymed “Sex Scene” with scene landing on the 4th beat.
This isn’t wrong and I encourage you all to play around with drifting your rhyme schemes just like this. But I decided to tweak this line to make the rhyme scheme tighter.
I decided to reword this line from
“Few bits of it like a hollywood sex scene I”
To
“Few bits like hollywood sex scenes, and yeah I know I”
Here’s a before and after of this tweak.
Feel free to show Explained Through Rap some love by visiting him on the following platforms. 👇
3RD WINNER
STRENGTHS
The final winner won because of the following reasons
[1] Delivery
I really enjoyed his delivery. He did a great job rapping without projecting his voice too much which allowed a lot of the deeper tones of his rap voice to come through. I felt the energy in his voice matched the emotion of his lyrics, which came off as sounding confident and chill.
[2] Fluid Rap Flow
Also, he had a very fluid rap flow and never boxed himself into a cadence 100% at any time which allowed him to build upon cadences and freely move in and out of cadences smoothly.
[3] Captivating Lyrical Content
From a lyrical standpoint, he had a clear stream of consciousness that kept me engaged from beginning to end. His writing style came off as a hybrid between a storytelling verse as well as a freestyle because he shared some of his life story while also talking trash and cracking jokes.
[4] Solid Rhyme Scheme Structure
His rhyme schemes were very well structured and he did a great job juggling multiple rhyme schemes while not allowing his rhymes to derail his verses subject matter.
[5] Nice Use of Punchlines
He added a few punchlines throughout his verse which I felt added a nice touch to make his lyrics pop.
Now let’s check out this dope rap verse from your next winner…
🏆3D33 (THREE-D)🏆
OPPORTUNITIES
[1] Ending
The only thing I felt could have been improved upon in 3D’s verse is the very last line. Let’s check it out
Some of the most difficult parts to get right in a rap verse is the beginning and the ending. You want to start strong and end strong and I felt the following things held back 3D’s last line.
[1] Using the same word “spit” as your rhyme scheme made the rhyme a bit anti-climatic and left a little more to be desired.
[2] The cadence used on the last line felt a little too different from the one before it which made it feel a little out of place or unintentional. Almost as if you went with a different cadence just to make your words fit.
[3] With that being said I decided to improve upon the last line by addressing those two issues. I decided to rhyme a different word with “Spit” and I don’t know this for sure but 3D may have thought of this same word but decided not to use it in his efforts to keep his verse clean for the contest.
I liked his idea of ending on a punchline, but due to me changing the word “spit” I went ahead and created a new punchline that would make sense with the new word that I chose.
From a cadence standpoint, I built off the triplet rap flow that 3D already had going and I just made it a little denser by eliminating the short pause during the 1st beat and I added a few more 32nd note triplets
Let’s listen to a before and after of this line.
Feel free to show Explained Through Rap some love by visiting him on the following platforms. 👇
Thanks again to everyone who participated!
My name is Cole Mize with colemizestudios.com where I strive to make YOU a BETTER rapper NOW!
If you’re new here, don’t leave before getting hooked up with all my free goodies such as my eBook The #1 Fundamental To Rapping, Bar Sheets, and practice instrumentals via the form below.👇
