In this video, I’m going to demonstrate why you should never box yourself into a cadence 100% when you’re learning how to write a rap.
The Scenario
First let me explain the scenario that all of us rappers face, including all of your favorite rappers.
You have this really cool cadence pattern that you love but you can’t come up with a combination of syllables that will match it 100% that also supports the message in your song.
You may not realize your favorite rappers also go through this as well because you only hear the finalized version of your favorite rap songs but you didn’t hear all the problems they had to fix to get it to its glorified state.
Every syllable you rap is a rhythmic music note, so when you commit 100% to a cadence you’re limiting yourself to only using a set amount of syllables to express yourself. Sometimes this works, but oftentimes it doesn’t!
The Solution
So what should you do?
You should free yourself from the box you’ve confined yourself to!
And the way you can do that is by simply improvising the cadence in many different ways which will present so many more possibilities that will work better with your lyrics.
This is why your favorite rappers do not always rap the same exact cadence throughout their cadence scheme even though it sounds like they are.
Allow me to explain.
Anchor Points
You can change things about your cadence and it can still feel like the same cadence. This is due to something I like to refer to as anchor points. Anchor points are small sections of your bars where your patterns don’t change which makes them feel like the same pattern. These anchor points are typically around the 2nd half of your bar because that’s where your end rhyme scheme is usually placed.
Now let’s take a listen to a cadence and change it in 5 different ways while retaining enough of how it originally sounded.
I’m using an instrumental I produced called Midnight Drive, if you like this instrumental you can get it over on my beat store.
CADENCE 1
Our starter cadence is simple. I’m just filling in the bar with 16th notes up until the 4th beat.
CADENCE 2
On cadence 2 I merged three sixteenth notes into one long note on beat 2 and kept everything else the same.
CADENCE 3
On cadence 3 I took a short 16th note pause on the 2nd beat and kept everything else the same.
CADENCE 4
On cadence 4 I paused for the entire 1st beat and kept everything else the same.
CADENCE 5
On cadence 5 I paused for the first half of the 1st beat and filled the 2nd half of the 1st beat in with two 16th notes, then I filled the first half of beat 2 in with an 8th note and kept everything else the same.
CADENCE 6
On cadence 6 I paused for ¾’s of the 1st beat and filled in the last quarter of the 1st beat with two 32nd notes and kept everything else the same.
CADENCE 1-6
Now let’s listen to them all back to back and pay attention to how creating anchor points on beats 3 and 4 is allowing all my cadences to feel the same even though technically they’re all different.
Has this happened to you?
So the next time you’re stuck trying to get your lyrics to fit a cadence, change the cadence in different ways while maintaining your anchor points and it will likely fix your issue!
I’m curious to know, have you ever run into this issue before? And have you ever used this technique to fix it? Let me know 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 always remember, when it comes to rapping, there’s no rules, there’s only techniques! Peace!
