What Rap Is and Is Not

Clearly the most popular forms of music on the planet today is rap music. And that has lead to an influx of people wanting to learn how to rap. But you need to know what rap is and is not. Rap started in the inner city of New York, NY and has spread like a wildfire ever since. Rap was said to be a fad by politicians and others who had no clue that rap was a part of hip-hop. Hip-hop is a culture and not just a few rhymes that you can put together. It is a way of life. The way a culture lives, eats, dresses, acts, and maintains is all hip-hop and rap is a branch of that lifestyle.

If you want to know how to rap you need to look at the people who are doing rap successfully. And not just the ones that make millions of dollars every year like Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, and Jay-Z. But rappers that are lesser known but have been in the rap game for 10-20 years. To survive in any genre of music or any job industry for that amount of times means you have achieved some kind of success. Rap is about not just your words you write in the notebook you never leave home without. Rap is your swagger, your mannerisms, content, and most importantly your flow.

To rap you need to capture your audience and make them want to keep listening to you and want to hear more. Think about your favorite CD. Why do you like it. Mainly because you can listen to the whole thing front to back, beginning to end and never get tired of it. Good rappers can make songs that hide meanings to words that you dont catch until the 20-30th time you hear the song. An example of this is Tupac. Many of his songs more than 20 years after his death are still being listened to and many people are just now catching on to a lot of things he was talking about in his songs. To learn how to rap means to study the old school rappers and have at least a little knowledge of the foundations of what you are trying to pursue and master.

My suggestions for anyone who would like to rap is to write rhymes on any subject that you can think of. I find a lot of times battle rappers cant make commercial rap songs. And the worst thing that I have come across is gangster rappers that cant make songs for women. If you cant appeal to women who are a huge part of the people buying records then you will surely not make it in the rap game these days. The days of shoot em up, kill the whole block, murder a whole state gangster rappers is done. Rap is about balance so you have to have that balance. If you have nothing but songs the club then you need song about struggle or pain. If you have every one of your songs for women then you need to make songs like anthems that the guys would like. If all of your songs are hardcore then make a few for the clubs. Many records get their breaks from club dj's. There is so much more to learning how to rap and rap music than to write a few rhyming lines on a piece of paper. And some rappers don't even use paper. If you want to rap then you have to equip yourself with every possible advantage. There are literally thousands of so called rappers out there and only about 5% of those rappers will ever see a contract from a national record label. And only a very small percentage of those 5% will ever make enough money to retire on during their career. How many times have you seen rappers or rap groups that were hot a few years back and now you ask yourself what happened to them when you hear their song on the radio. If you dont want to end up being one of those rappers then you have to know not only how to rap but how to find your flow, pick the right beats, and have enough swag to and credibility to make your rhymes believable and easy to relate to. Practice those things and you will succeed above your peers.