How To Write A Rap Verse That’s Balanced

Today I’m going to show you an example of how to write a rap verse that’s balanced with a clear message, rap punchlines, rhyme schemes, and wordplay!

3 Enhancements

As rappers, when we’re writing we’re typically trying to convey some type of message while using one of three tools to enhance our message and make it sound more impressive. 

1. Rhyme Schemes
2. Wordplay such as punchlines, metaphors, double entendre’s, and similes 
3. Rap Flow

For today’s example let’s quickly take a look at some of my lyrics that I rapped over an instrumental I produced called Drumline. If you like this instrumental you can get it on my beat store.

GAMEPLAN

The main thing that I wanted to convey in these bars is that Life is too short to waste on things that really don’t matter. It’s important to have an idea of what you’re trying to express in your rap verse so that you have some clear direction, if not it’s probable that your lyrics may end up sounding random..

Bars 1-4

Now one thing I want to point out is how my first 2 lines are pretty dense with rhymes. Here I’m juggling an end rhyme and an internal rhyme scheme. 

Having two different rhyme schemes gives me more rhyming potential because I have more words to choose from and it prevents me from using words that rhyme but don’t make sense in the context of my message.

Now notice how the last two lines have fewer rhymes. I literally only rhyme once on bar 3! Why is that?

The reason I decided to do this was that I was executing a punchline and I really liked the way it was worded and I wasn’t willing to sacrifice that for the sake of rhyming a lot. 

In this example, I’m using two tools to enhance my message, rhymes and wordplay. But I allowed the rhyming to take a back seat in order to preserve my wordplay. This is a great example of using restraint with your rhyming skills. I could have rhymed much more, but I decided not to.

Bars 5-8

Now let’s look at bars 5-8.

I’m doing a similar thing here as before. Notice how bars 5 and 7 don’t have as many rhymes as bars 6 and 8.

Now bar 5 doesn’t have any wordplay, but I still decided not to rhyme heavy here because I wanted to set up my punchline that I executed on the 8th bar.

And I wrote bar 7 with the same purpose of setting up bar 8. Teeth connects with eating which connects with “vegan” and “beef”.

BALANCE

Most of us rappers are rhyme scheme feins which is great! But make sure you don’t let your rhyme schemes get in the way of your message or your wordplay. 

We are also sometimes guilty of chasing a cadence for our rap flow too closely and allowing it to dictate how many words we use in our bars and which syllables are stressed and which ones aren’t in order to emulate the cadence perfectly.

Keep the same energy with your cadences as you do with your rhymes and wordplay to ensure that none of these enhancement tools are getting in the way of your message.

Spit Something!

Now that I’ve shared my lyrics with you, why don’t you drop some of your lyrics in the comments section below.

My name is Cole Mize with colemizestudios.com where I strive to make you a better rapper now! If you’re trying to perfect your rap skills make sure you get yourself a FREE copy of my ebook “The #1 Fundamental To Rapping” below and And always remember, when it comes to rapping, there’s no rules, there’s only techniques. Peace!