How to become a professional recording Rapper

Rap guides are written by spectators and novice MC's still learning the ropes. Most tips are obvious and others are obviously wrong. Here are easy steps to becoming a sensible recording artist starting in your own home!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Common sense
• Dreams
• Individuality
• A computer

1. Samson's C01U USB Studio Condensor with Shockmount Look for a good flexible microphone for beginners that will last and sound pretty good. You need a Condensor microphone preferably with a USB connection. Without USB, you would need to buy an extra source of power that may cost about $100. I highly recommend 'Samson's C01U USB Studio Condensor' for around $70-90 over Ebay.
2. Create an account at SoundClick.com and decide a name for yourself. It doesn't have to be a permanent name but try to be creative. Keep in mind that there are already a million Youngs, Littles, Bigs and Soulja names out there. You may change your name 2 or even 3 times throughout your career.
3. Go look for a beat to record over in SoundClick's charts for Instrumentals. The link is listed on the home page. Download the beat if it's free and downloadable. A good beat is something you feel right away and want to dance or sing to.
4. Now we need a studio program for you to use. Some use Audacity but I recommend Cool Edit 2.1/Adobe Audition 1.5 above all else. Professional sound artists eventually move up to Pro Tools but you don't need to worry about that for a long time. It's like $300 anyway. You can buy Adobe Audition 1.5 or download the trial version here:
   http://www.tradebit.com/usr/dngmusic1/pub/5008/audition-1-5-tryout-en.zip
   
   Hint: Some people unlock it with a crack they find on Google.
5. Lyrics. They come in verses of 16 lines and choruses of 8 lines in most cases. Almost all songs have 2-3 verses. Write your song about anything for now. It could be totally random or about something political. Your pick. It doesn't matter what you say yet. You just need to get used to saying it. Which brings us to...
6. Developing your vocal muscles. They make the difference between a brittle sounding Irish boy and a booming influential Superhero. Carry an iPod around and just sing to yourself anything you love to sing. Songs with a crisp sounding guitar are usually pretty decent. Examples: Everlast, Avril Lavigne, Akon, Nine Days, Linkin Park, Gym Class Heroes, and the dude who sang Hey There Delilah.
7. You can choose to keep singing and writing poetic songs to yourself for the next few months or jump straight to making your first song. Whichever you're more comfortable with is best. Don't do anything you really don't want to yet. That stuff will come very much later when you're ready to perform on stage.
8. If you decide to create your first song, though...tip-toe around in Adobe Audition and learn your way by playing with everything you're curious about. I'm serious, press any button you want and as often as you need to. Nothing is permanent once you close out of that window!
9. What you'll need to do next is load up the beat from before into Track 1 and arm yourself for recording on Track 2. Each track will have its own sound clip recorded by you except the first one which is always the beat. For information on how to set up your microphone and adjusting sound settings, you'll need to refer to Google. That's more technical stuff that can be found easily.
10. Once you've recorded all of the vocals, you're ready to mix them. Mixing means editing and putting on effects and all that good stuff. Again, it's best to learn that from playing with the program and looking up what words like Mastering, Reverb, Filter, Bypass and Equalization means. Google and Dictionary.com works.
11. Save your work into an mp3 file and upload it onto your SoundClick page. By publishing your work, you feel a sense of accomplishment and shame. The shame of being horrible as a beginner will motivate you to try harder everytime you write a song. It's also important to look at your music as another person would, though. Not just always negatively or positively.
12. No good rapper has started out well. They all sounded pitiful and embarrassing for the first 6 to 12 months at least. The average time it takes to master flow and rap like one of the best is 4 to 6 years. But when you get there, you'll have the mind and strength to conquer all the things that would normally be very difficult to another person. If you love music then you will be addicted to creating more of it, your own way.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember that style and creativity destroys a popular trend any day.
• Keep singing and humming whenever you're alone.
• As an authentic rapper, you will eventually need to understand advance sound editing and professional singing.
• Many will read this guide but only 1 in a million will truly understand the meaning behind it and become a celebrity. That's why it's likely that everyone else will give up while you're still going at it.
• Don't give up.
• If you become like the rest, you'll probably get left behind when their style wears out.
• Gangs and crews actually make you learn more slowly. So do rap forums.
• Making a band to rely on another person's strength to carry you on up will almost always end in disappointment when the label they're joining doesn't want you. Just get good the long way.