In this video I’m going to be breaking down Blueface’s unique rap flow.
When it comes to Blueface’s rap flow, the best way to describe peoples reaction to it is, polarizing. There’s people who absolutely love it and people who fervently hate it.
The people who hate it typically state that Blueface can’t rap on beat to save his life which they find to be unenjoyable to listen to.
And the people who love his rap flow find it to be unique, different, and refreshing.
To get started let’s listen to a quick Demo of him rapping a few bars from his song “Respect My Cryppin”.
The Instrumental I’m using today is a beat that I produced called “The Hunt” Which Is available for purchase via my beat store.
WHAT BLUEFACES RAP FLOW LOOKS LIKE
Now the people who say Blueface is rapping off beat are not wrong. Blueface is 100% rapping off beat but he’s not doing it due to a lack of skill. He’s doing it on purpose and I’m about to show you how and why.
GETTING ON BEAT
The first thing any rapper should learn how to do is measure musical time. That’s because, in order for your lyrics to ever sound good on top of an instrumental, you will need to turn each of your syllables into what is known as a rhythmic music note such as an 8th, 16th, or 32nd note. More on those in just a moment.
The key to developing an awesome rap flow is all about measurements.
Specifically one of the first things you should learn how to measure as a rapper is something called beats.
In Hip-Hop “beats” is slang for an instrumental and that’s not what I’m talking about here. In music beats are the 4 even divisions of a bar.
QUARTER NOTES
If you were to structure your words to fill in these beats, then you would be using rhythmic music notes known as ¼ notes because each note takes up one quarter of a bar. Fitting your lyrics within a division of the bar is the key to making your lyrics sound musical or in other words, this is how you make your lyrics fit perfectly within any instrumental.
Now rappers typically don’t use a lot of these quarter notes because they are very long and are usually better suited for singing melodies. For example check out this snippet of Lecrae’s song “Gravity”
ONLY 4 BEATS?
And if you only use 4 words per bar, things are going to get boring very quickly so where else should you place your syllables? Well if you think about beats as just being a division of a bar then you can divide each beat into smaller beats which creates more locations for you to place your syllables.
EIGHTH NOTES
HALF BEATS
For example you can divide each beat in half. I like to refer to these as the “Half Beats” . These are also known as 8th notes because they take up 1/8th of a bar.
If you primarily filled in your bars using 8th notes your raps would sound like a nursery rhyme which is why some people say Lil Yachty sometimes has a nursery rhyme rap flow for example his song “one night” uses the same cadence as “twinkle twinkle little star which is all 8th notes with a quarter note on the 4th beat.
SIXTEENTH NOTES
SUB BEATS
If you divide these Half Beats or 8th notes in half you now get what I like to think of as sub Beats or 16th notes because they take up 1/16th of a bar. I like to think of these as the sub beats within each beat. Just like there are 4 main beats within each bar, with 16th notes there are 4 beats within each beat that you can land on.
16th notes are some of the most common rhythmic music notes used by rappers.
FOR EXAMPLE CHECK OUT THIS SNIPPET FROM OUTKAST’S SONG “ATLIENS”
THIRTY SECOND NOTES
If you divide these Sub Beats aka 16th notes in half you get what are known as 32nd notes because, well you get it, they take up 1/32nd of a bar! These are those really fast Eminem Godzilla, Tech N9ne type notes!
Check out this snippet of Tech N9ne using a lot of 32nd notes from his song “Face Off”
ON THE GRID
So basically, as long as you place your syllables within one of these divisions of a bar you’re going to sound on beat. This is also what we call, rapping on the grid.
So if you’re learning how to rap one of the first things you should learn to do is divide bars into these different divisions which will unlock many different locations for you to place your syllables. I created a free rap course called 5 Minutes To A Better Rap Flow to help you do just that which I’ve posted a link to in the video’s description below.
WHAT’S UP WITH BLUEFACE’S RAP FLOW?
Now that you understand what rapping on beat or on the grid means let’s take a closer look at what Blueface is doing.
SWING
Blueface is intentionally rapping off beat because he’s using a technique known as swing. Swing simply means that we intentionally rap off beat in a musical way. Again, being musical is all about measurements, and once you learn how to get on beat in a measured way, you can get off beat in a measured way and it will sound good but it will feel quite different depending on what type of swing you use and how off beat you chose to be.
There’s two types of swing. Late Swing which feels more laid back, lazy, and chill. And an early swing which feels more rushed, anxious, and tense.
Blueface is using an early swing in his rap flow.
BAR 1 – EARLY/ ON BEAT/ LATE
When you’re trying to wrap your head around a rappers swing it’s helpful to focus on where their syllables are landing in relation to the 2nd and 4th beat. These beats are typically where the snares will be placed. If you only hear one snare per bar which lands on the 3rd beat, that means you’re counting your beats in double time.
If a rapper is using a late swing their words will typically land after the snares and if they’re using an early swing like blueface their words will typically land before the snares.
BAR 1 EARLY SWING
On Bluefaces 1st bar F**k is placed right before the 2nd beat and “if” is placed on the 2nd beat. “F**k” is the longer and more stressed word of the two which would typically be placed on the 2nd beat which is why even though Blueface is on beat here, “f**k” still feels early.
Also on the 4th beat the word “respect” lands before the 4th beat instead of directly on it.
BAR 1 ON BEAT
Now I’m going to push “f**k” back onto the 2nd beat and I”m going to push “pect” from the word “respect” onto the 4th beat and pay attention to how these words are now connecting with the snares
BAR 1 LATE SWING
Now I’m going to do the opposite of what Blueface did and instead of landing before the 2nd and 4th beat, I’m going to land after the 2nd and 4th beat. This is what is known as late swing. Pay attention to how “f**k” and “pect” are now landing behind the 2nd and 4th beat
BAR 2 – EARLY/ ON BEAT/ LATE
Now moving on bar 2 listen to how “games” lands slightly before beat 3 and “ni**a” lands before the 4th beat
BAR 2 EARLY SWING
Now listen for how “games” lands more on the 3rd beat and “ni**a” lands on the 4th beat
BAR 2 ON BEAT
Now listen for how “games” lands after the 3rd beat and “ni**a” lands after the 4th beat
BAR 2 LATE SWING
Now let’s listen to to all 3 of these different versions back to back
BAR 3 – EARLY/ ON BEAT/ LATE
BAR 3 EARLY SWING
Now let’s move on to bar 3 and listen for how “floor” lands before the 2nd beat, “sign” lands slightly before the 3rd beat, and “catch” lands before the 4th beat.
BAR 3 ON BEAT
Now listen to how “floor” lands on the 2nd beat, “sign” lands on the 3rd beat, and “catch” lands on the 4th beat.
BAR 3 LATE SWING
Now listen to how “floor” lands after the 2nd beat, “sign” lands after the 3rd beat, and “catch” lands after the 4th beat.
BAR 4 – EARLY/ ON BEAT/ LATE
And moving on to bar 4 listen to how “bounce” lands before the 2nd beat and “handle” lands before the 4th beat.
BAR 4 EARLY SWING
Now listen to how “bounce” lands on the 2nd beat and “handle” lands on the 4th beat.
BAR 4 ON BEAT
Now listen to how “bounce” lands after the 2nd beat and “handle” lands after the 4th beat.
BAR 4 LATE SWING
BARS 1-4 BACK TO BACK ALL TIMINGS
Now I’m going to play all 4 bars back to back starting with Blueface’s original timing which has an early swing, followed by my edited version that moves his words more on beat, and my edited version that created a late swing
BARS 1-4 EARLY SWING
BARS 1-4 ON BEAT
BARS 1-4 LATE SWING
And let everyone know which one you prefer in the comments section below
The Rap Essentials Bundle
Now before you go, if you’re new to rapping and you’re looking for guidance on what you should be focusing on then make sure you get my FREE rap essentials bundle which includes
The #1 Fundamental To Rapping eBook
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Again my name is Cole Mize with colemizestudios.com and always remember, when it comes to rapping, there’s no rules, there’s only techniques. Peace!
