Do you love rap and Hip-Hop music and want to learn more about it?
Want to become as skilled and famous as Cassper Nyovest or Nadia Nakai?
To become a professional rap artist takes a lot of dedication and hard work. Most famous artists worked on their craft for years before they managed to land a deal with a record label. When they perform it seems effortless, but it’s a lot trickier than you think to really master rapping.
This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to do it. You’ll just have to find the right ingredients to become an excellent rapper, create your own unique style and the commitment to keep on the path towards your dream.
If you have a true passion for it, it should be a fun and an exciting journey.
This article will give you the low-down on how you can get started. We'll also help you to keep it trill (true + real = trill) with the perfect tips and guidelines if you are rapping for the first time.
Immersing Yourself in Rap
If you don’t know names like Eminem, Jay Z, Drake, L'il Wayne or Kanye West - where ya’ been?
The first part to becoming a rapper is to learn what’s goin’ down in the music industry, the world of rap and Hip-Hop. Get your hands, and ears, dirty by diving into the world of rap and Hip-Hop by listening to as much music as possible.
Analyse the various styles, famous personalities and types of rap there are. You’ll start to notice the differences, and similarities, in all of them and this exploration will create a firm foundation for understanding other more complex aspects like tempo, rhythm, execution and lyrics.
Here are some other helpful tips that can help a new rapper master the beats:
- Learn rap songs and practise the ones you love. Not only will you have the amazing experience of making rap a part of your body and expression, but you’ll also notice the nuances around how stars deliver words and how much work it takes to give a great performance.
- Get a good grip on tempo and rhythm. Famous artists can string out sentences with rhythmic percussion, making it sound easy and good on the ear. Try rap with the same ease and tempo as the artist and see if you can create a smooth flow of words.
- Look and listen to yourself. Recording yourself and listening back while you practise will help you identify where and how you can improve. Video recordings are great if you want to perform live one day. It’ll give you an idea whether you appear stiff and unnatural so that you can fix it and build your confidence in performing. Once you’ve perfected this you can share clips of it with your social media followers while you start to build a fan base.
- Listen to other genres of music. It’ll improve your understanding of what makes a good song, what is popular, what makes them unique, what other genres exist and you might get inspiration to combine other genres with Hip-Hop or rap.
- Improve diction and pronunciation. Rappers uses street vernacular to express themselves, but the audience still needs to hear what they say. Try and identify the most important words, syllables and consonants in each phrase and play around to see what works best with the rap flow.
- Get your breathing right. The pros know when, where and how to breathe to ensure the lyrics just flow without effort. Breath exercises and tutorials for singers can help you improve your breathing.
- Study, explore and understand lyrics. Rap lyrics is a masterful way of mixing modern poetry and music to a beat. To become good at rap you’ll have to put meaning behind the words. Besides, don’t you want to write your own lyrics and songs one day?
Slam Poetry – The Word Up to Good Lyrics
A critical building block to creating your own songs will be the lyrics. Without strong words the song will just be, well ... ordinary at best. You need a message, a reason to speak up and most of us have plenty of influential messages we want to share with the world.
Slam poetry is a great way for beginners to explore word craft. This is an emotive form of delivering poetry with optional background music or accompaniment. The beats and music is not the focus and slam poetry is less complex than rapping, as you can deliver the poetry in a way and tempo you want to.
Slam poetry will help you lay a foundation of understanding lyrics, rhymes and how structure and words flow together to create impressive messaging.
Once you feel comfortable you can start to write your own expressive poetry and step on stage to test it in front of people. Writing poetry in itself is a skill and it might take a bit of practice and rewriting, but it’s a constructive way to express your views and share your message with the world.
Rap No-No’s
The more you learn about rapping, the more you will realise just how much of a skill it is. There are some common mistakes that most beginners make when they are learning for the first time that you can avoid:
- Wrong speed of delivery – always stick to the tempo
- Precision and accuracy in delivery is important if you want to create a professional rap. Words should be clear and precisely placed in each phrase
- If it sounds bitty and jarring, you are not getting the flow and delivery right
- Just saying words is a big mistake that some beginners make. Be sure you mean what you say, and each word you use has a reason for existing
- They think they are right. Getting the advice and a second opinion from someone who knows rap can be helpful in identifying some mistakes you are not even aware of
- Irrelevance of content. Are you rapping to something the world cares about and is this a big enough message?
- Copying artists. You should sound like you, with your intention and your message. Try and see if you can put your own spin to famous rap songs.
Here are some other common mistakes newbie rappers make.
Writing Rap Lyrics
To become a real performing artist you’ll have to be able to write and potentially produce your own music. Well, that’s until you land a nice record deal where a producer takes over the technical production. An artist sends their message into the world and we’re sure you’d like to be one of those impactful, influential artists with meaningful messages in their songs?
You’ll need a basic understanding of beat and rhythm to do this. Check who is currently topping the charts for inspiration, they will also guide you in how you can deliver words and rhyme on the on- or off-beat. Your exposure to other types of music will help you understand the differences in tempo, pace, rhythm, instrumental usage and even word selection.
Music theory explores things like bars and beats and knowing this will make producing and writing songs a breeze. Generally a rap song is written to 16 bars before it goes into a chorus, which sounds different to the verse and is repeated. You know however, that not all songs are the same and artists love to break those rules. Just think about some songs where they co-lab with other music styles and change the tempo of the song mid-song.
If you don’t want to play instruments and create your own music with the help of computers, you can find music samples online that you can use to write your own lyrics to. Beginners generally need a very basic beat and a bit of instrumental changes with the chorus.
Learn to write better words and rhyme, with this article about writing rap lyrics.
Freestyle Rapping
If you are one of the lucky ones who were born to rap, you’ll probably find it easier to just rap and flo', as you go. Freestyle rapping is where the artist makes up lyrics and rap on the spot. It's generally done to a theme and making up words and rhymes is not for the faint-hearted.
Do you think you have the skills and rhyme to take on other rappers in a rap battle?
The amount of improvisation required is next level, and this is what makes it a skill very few people can master. Practice makes perfect and if you want to become an expert rapper this is a good way of pushing the boundaries on how well, and quickly you can rap around a specific theme.
Rap Classes
It might be a bit tricky to find rap lessons for beginners at first. Rapping is a lifestyle and most artists had to learn a range of skills to create the artist they wanted to be.
It's a careful mix of personal style, talent, smart publicity and skills.
There are, however, plenty of professionals out there that have the experience to help you with building your rap skills. Singing tutors and professional performers are some of the most helpful allies in your journey.
Lessons with a rap tutor on Superprof will allow you to become better at your rapping, regardless of your location. Most of our tutors can offer a class in-person or online and our online platform allows you to browse and compare tutors and their different skills, to find one that's suited to your style.
We hope we've given you enough information to start rapping to the beat of your passion.
Are you ready to rhyme to the beat of the bass? Now bust a move, and get your lessons in place!
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