With the strong emergence of hip-hop in today’s music scene, a lot of people are interested in learning to rap and want to know how to write rap song lyrics. While there is no “exact” way, these 5 quick tips will definitely help you to write a better rap song.
1. Find a Beat to Inspire You. Ever wonder how the pros beginning writing a rap song? 9 times out of 10 they begin by looking for beats to inspire them. They are looking for something that touches them in way that inspires and motivates them to write lyrics to. Everyone has a different taste in music, so find a beat that YOU like and can write naturally to. Find something that instantly grabs you and relates to you. You can find beats easily on the internet. Just search Google and Soundclick and you will be sure to find a beat to write rap song lyrics to.
2. Choose a Main Topic. Once you find a beat that you want to use, begin thinking of a topic that goes nicely with the beat you chose. Remember to choose a topic that relates with both YOU and the beat. If you chose a sad, emotional-sounding beat, then pick a topic that is sad and emotional and that you relate with. If you pick a club style beat then choose a topic that is relevant to the club scene. Listen to your beat, ask yourself what kind of impact you would like your rap song lyrics to have on people, and decide on your main topic. Remember that how you write rap song lyrics will greatly depend on your topic.
3. Write Your Hook. A lot of rappers and producers alike find it best practice to begin a rap song by first writing the hook. Now that you have your beat and main topic selected, you have a great foundation to begin writing your hook lyrics to.
To explain how to write rap hooks, I’ve broken hook-writing down into a few steps that I have found to be very effective.
a.) Consider these things: Do you want the hook to be catchy? Do you want it to be deep and emotional? Do you want to sing it or rap it out?
b.) Listen to the hook part of your beat. Vibe with the beat and start freestyling some ideas. Even if your words aren’t making sense, freestyle to the beat to establish some different flows. Experiment and figure out what you like.
c.) Now that you have some ideas flowing, begin writing lyrics down. Make a list of words that you might want to incorporate into the hook.
d.) Look at your word list as you listen to the beat and begin freestyling some new ideas with these words.
e.) Once you come up with some strong ideas, it may be a good idea to quickly record them to see which one sounds the best. Once you’ve decided, we can move on with the verses!
4. Begin Writing the Verses. Now that the hook is finished, you have everything laid out for the verses. So how do you write rap song verses?
a.) Start each verse off strong in order to develop a connection with the listener right away. A good way to do this is to begin with a controversial, funny, bold, or catchy opening line.
b.) Now that you’ve got the listeners attention, finish out your verses with content that is relevant to your topic. Rhyme more than just the last word in each sentence when you can. Try to use different flow structures throughout instead of just sticking to one the whole time.
c.) If you are having trouble or writer’s block, write out a list of rhyming words that relate to your topic (use a dictionary and thesaurus if necessary) and refer to this list to spark ideas.
d.) Just as you started off strong, end the verse lyrics strong too! Make sure you transition into the hook smoothly and finish with a bang!
5. Practice! Perhaps the most underrated part of rapping…practice! It’s one thing to know how to write rap song lyrics, but putting it into action is something else. Once you have your song written, practice it over and over until you know it by heart and can recite it perfectly with no flaws. Trust me this is important!
I hope you now know how to write rap song lyrics more efficiently and effectively. Apply what you’ve learned to your next rap song and I am sure you will notice a difference!
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