Question For Rappers Who Produce And Vice Versa

OGBama

Moderator
I'm not in an ideal space to lay down vocals, so I'm looking at learning producing for now, with a focus on learning piano as my long term goal is to compose sample free compositions for use with my own vocals. I have no future interest in selling beats and I have zero interest in mixing and/or mastering. If you rap and produce how do you balance both?
 
Last edited:
i spend most of my time producing. i usually have to be in a good mood and not busy to write and record my raps. it's a process, usually i produce my beats first and then depending on the feel of the song, i'll write to it.
 
I'd say don't balance it.. the big advantage you have if you do both is that you can view them as one piece. Make the music an integral part of your performance and style as a lyricist, tailor it exactly. And make your vocals an integral part of your production as well by not just laying them on top of the track, but IN the track if that makes sense.
 
I'm not in an ideal space to lay down vocals, so I'm looking at learning producing for now, with a focus on learning piano as my long term goal is to compose sample free compositions for use with my own vocals. I have no future interest in selling beats. If you rap and produce how do you balance both?


Hey OG,

I honestly could not tell you how to Balance both, as I havent achieved it myself. What I found is: If your aiming for a professional level, ist just not possible. Unless you have no Job or other commitments such as Family. If you have 18 hrs a day to Focus on Producing and Writing then I would say Produce the beat, write to as your producing and then go spit it. However most People dont have this time Frame. I mean look at kanye or Dre , they focused only on producing until they could nail it. And then they moved to rapping. I mean ofcourse there are Artist that have done both, for example soulja Boy, even tho im not a fan, he made that beat that went viral with the Trial Version of fruity Loops spit over it and the rest is history. but thats just my take on it, im sure many dont agree, maybe some do. it is really all about finding your best creative path.

Peace

Blitz out
 
My whole process is this.

I make at least two songs everyday, or attempt to at least. If I'm really feeling the beats people send me that day, then I'll just write to them, and see where that goes. If I'm not feeling anyone's beats that day, then I come up with a vocal melody, and then make a beat to it, or I just make a melody in the DAW. Kind of a repetitive process, but it gets the work done super quick and easy.
 
Glad this topic bounced back up cause I missed it..

Imo - it's based on who you are. Meaning, which are you first - a writer or a producer? For instance, I also do both but at heart, I'm a lyricist. That means, I'm writing even when I wasn't thinking about writing (washing dishes, mowing the lawn, watching tv, etc... lol).. The way I do it is, I write a verse or a song independent of the beat. I could have written the verse/song to the Jay-Z 4:44 beat but, not have a beat of my own created yet. Then, at some point, I produce. But, I'm not producing with the intent of matching it to the verse/song I created, I'm producing just cause its time to produce - knowing that most likely, the end product wont go with the verse/song I created. Then I repeat the process.

I agree with Blitz that it's tough to balance when you got fam/work, etc but, you find the time. Find a system that works. If you're like me, and you write, well you should be writing all the time based on inspiration and vibe - and depending on how strong either of those are on any given day, you can either come out with 1 or 2 verses or a song and the chorus too! For me, Producing in most cases, is part of a system I created - or time I set aside each week to get at it. There are those rare cases when I wake up with a beat or melody in my head and I need to jump on the DAW but, for the most part, it's finding a slot of time each week to knock something out.

Once I have a beat that's knocking, I go back to my rhymes and see what feels like it's supposed to go with that beat. For instance, I have a song called: Finally Free. I created the beat for that song in 2006 but the rhymes just came to me 2mths ago and I finished the song for the EP I did this month. Yeah, it's a tough tough balance - but, when you love to do it - you absolutely find the time.

Wayz
 
It's hard. But I am only speaking from my personal experience.
I'd say that I am a writer first, but that has changed over time.
I have fellow MC's that show up that only have to write to the beat that I produce on the spot...then they expect me to do the same, which can be kind of exhausting. But I've always done it. It's doing twice the work that anyone else does towards both artforms. Writing and creating music. You have to have a special fascination and obsession with both in order to be good at one and even half decent at the other.

Having the beat all layed out and in a finished product before you sit down to write with someone else is cool, but you still are challenged by having heard it 5,000 times; whereas the other person is hearing it for the first time and finds much more inspiration and motivation from it. They are hearing it with fresh ears and perspective. Again, my experience and opinion.

I've ran into snags in the past where i just said to friends "fuck you, you make the beat next time then" because they were genuinely holding me responsible for not feeling like writing after spending 3 hours making a banger. Meanwhile, their entire verses were written while I was combing over the fine details of the composition I has just made. Just one of those things, I suppose.
 
It's hard. But I am only speaking from my personal experience.
I'd say that I am a writer first, but that has changed over time.
I have fellow MC's that show up that only have to write to the beat that I produce on the spot...then they expect me to do the same, which can be kind of exhausting. But I've always done it. It's doing twice the work that anyone else does towards both artforms. Writing and creating music. You have to have a special fascination and obsession with both in order to be good at one and even half decent at the other.

Having the beat all layed out and in a finished product before you sit down to write with someone else is cool, but you still are challenged by having heard it 5,000 times; whereas the other person is hearing it for the first time and finds much more inspiration and motivation from it. They are hearing it with fresh ears and perspective. Again, my experience and opinion.

I've ran into snags in the past where i just said to friends "fuck you, you make the beat next time then" because they were genuinely holding me responsible for not feeling like writing after spending 3 hours making a banger. Meanwhile, their entire verses were written while I was combing over the fine details of the composition I has just made. Just one of those things, I suppose.

"You have to have a special fascination and obsession with both in order to be good at one and even half decent at the other." - Truer words have never been said.. It's common knowledge that if you're working on several things but, focus on one thing more than the others, the others will suffer.. I've run into this issue more times that I'd like to admit.. It boiled down to who I was - a writer or a producer.. And by nature, I'm a writer.. So I focused on writing most of the time but, the balance in having that fire track and being able to spit that fire is extremely tough.. The only way I've been able to tame it to some degree, is to create the beat in it's entirety and come back to it later.. Which brings up another good point you made..

"Having the beat all layed out and in a finished product before you sit down to write with someone else is cool, but you still are challenged by having heard it 5,000 times; whereas the other person is hearing it for the first time and finds much more inspiration and motivation from it. They are hearing it with fresh ears and perspective. Again, my experience and opinion.".. This is why I have to let the track sit there for awhile.. To the point where I forget what it sounds like.. There were occasions where in a 24-48hr period, I've come up with a full track and verses to match but so many things have to fall in place that it's near impossible to repeat on a steady basis.. You have to be inspired to make the beat, the beat gotta come out blazing, which in turn inspires you to write to it - but you're spit game gotta be fire - and if those weren't enough, you have to have the time to complete your thought process for the entire project.. Not a simple task..

The only thing I can hang my hat on is, how many musicians/artists actually produce/write.. Not even those at the top of the game right now do both.. It's either they're nice with the pen and they find top producers for tracks or vice-versa.. The success rate isn't in the favor of the producer/writer but, I don't know that I would have it any other way..
 
When I start producing thats usually when the lyrics start to come in. I have to tell myself before hand that "no matter what this beat is not gonna be for me" when I feel I start keeping too many beats for myself. Ultimately I let it all come down to feeling. If I'm making a beat and it starts to feel complete and let it be. If The writing keeps flowing out I just let it keep going until it feels right, then I chop down what doesn't fit.
 
I have a folder on my computer titled "100 Beats" where I make 100 beats of any genre i feel then i pick 10 of the best ones, write to em, record em, pick 7, then mix and master them for a project. It usually takes me about 2 and a half to 3 months to make em and a week or 2 to write, record and mix.
 
I have a folder on my computer titled "100 Beats" where I make 100 beats of any genre i feel then i pick 10 of the best ones, write to em, record em, pick 7, then mix and master them for a project. It usually takes me about 2 and a half to 3 months to make em and a week or 2 to write, record and mix.

Wish I was that organized, I'm still working in a folder called "Summer 2013" haha
 
Its a hand full to put the whole spectrum of record creating on your back sometimes. You want to stay consistent with your bars, while also, staying up to date with your beats. I think learning the piano will be a a great move in the long run. Mixing, I learned helps bring your beats our more and also your vocals, so it all plays hand and hand. I would say learn the bare basics of EQ. Mainly EQ and you would be set! Composing is mainly finding a DAW/ software program friendly enough for you and expressing yourself. I know your a lyric already so thats that.
 
just do it.. that's all i can say.. i lay a beat down.. come up with something on top it.. record and i know how to mix real well... so its nothign at this point.
 
I started out rapping when I was about 14 but by the age of 21/22 I'd stopped and only made beats for a number of years. I think I love production just a little more than writing - be it composition or working with samples, the creative process of making beats taps into a different part of the mind. Don't get me started on mixing - probably my favourite part of the process.

Long story short, I'm 31 now and last year rediscovered how much I really loved writing rhymes and recording - it took a big break and for some additional life experience to inspire me to write again.

Basically, I think when you do both, balance is a difficult thing to attain. I make tons of throwaway beats, but I tend to use most of the verses I write - mainly because writing takes longer to manifest into something productive for me - I really have to be in the frame of mind to write rhymes. With production, I can load up Maschine when I'm bored and still create something pretty cool.

If you're interested, here's a little something I uploaded today which is me rapping/on production:
 
I just let it become one whether the first step is writing or producing, I will take either to the point where I plateau, then start incorporating the other into what I have started. I follow this process until I reach a plateau with both, and then I treat each aspect with the water torture treatment until I break through. Chipping away when feeling surrounded by walls on all sides is my personal approach to strengthening my creativity.

Let's say I start with lyrics, maybe not even close to complete, my transition to producing could be exploring the delivery of the lyrics in other genres I enjoy as opposed to the genre it was originally written in. For example, I primarily start with rap but I will look for the underlying emotion I've expressed and deliver it in the genre I think best expresses that emotion. So now I've got this blues vibe riding out strong, from that I add and subtract from what I initially wrote to better express my interpretation of a blues structure.

Following that milestone of shape and anchor, I could move into identifying the tempo and time signature with use of a metronome. Ok cool got that, now I may lay just the hi hats and rides for what I wrote and begin to identify a key and something like a chord progression.

So on and so forth...on a personal note, it really took me quite a while to overcome the state of being overly attached to so many little things until I was finally, somehow, able to start throwing things away in an effort to move forward. In addition to that, overcoming my desire to finish each item on my plate before moving to the next helped me progress in productivity towards the end goal of wrapping up everything I start. So at the end of the day I don't have a fridge full of leftovers.
 
Back
Top