Preparing to Write Rap Songs

Series Summary

Cypress Hill said it best with, "So you wanna be a rap super star, live large, a big house, five cars?" Ok, so they said 'rock' not 'rap' but they are rappers and the point is that you can have all those things in the rap industry but only if you have the songs and talent to back it up. It is definitely not as easy as it looks to write any song including a rap song. There are beats, flows, rhymes, off-rhymes, lyrical content and meaning. All that takes drive, determination, guts and talent. All of which can be improved upon with a lot of practice.

Our expert has been in the rap and hip hop world for years and brings with him all his knowledge of this industry to share it with you. There are several parts to a rap song including verses, a chorus, a beat and things called bars or measures. Jason will go over all these things in detail and teach you how to harness your emotions to bring out the best in your writing. He will show you some tips on how to overcome writer's block and collaborating with other artists. If you want to be the best you have to do more than the others. These videos will set you on your way to rap stardom!

Video Transcript

"All right first we?re going to talk about preparation in writing your rap song. This is a key part to writing a rap song. Because you want to mentally get prepared so some people might pray some people might mediate other people might just get in their own zone. What ever they do to get prepared. Hype them self's up. Slow them self's down depending on the tempo. Or what kind of vibe you?re feeling for the song. And also another thing that's preparation that's important is what you use to write with and what you use to write on. You know some rappers, a there was times in my life I wrote raps on the back of the pizza boxes and on the back of the Windy's sack. But the older I get the risk to my music I like to, you know it's kind of like dressing the parts. You know, I pick my pants wisely. I pick my sheets of paper wisely. I prefer to pick ball point pens. I prefer jell the pens ink jell pens. I like empty pads. I don't want nothing on my pad. If I get through a rap I rip it out. Because I like fresh pads. I don't want to be stagnated by the last rap. I'm not the guy who had the pad. But to each his own in there preparation a portion of writing a rap song. So you just want to prepare your self in all aspects of the song mentally and of course spiritually if you believe in such things. And put you pen and your pad and where your writing at that means a lot too. The lighting the vibe cause you'll write in accordance to your vibe."