How I moved from rap into other genres

minervx

Member
I wrote songs since I was a teen. My mentor was my middle school English teacher who practically grew up on Wu-Tang. He inspired me in creative writing and literature, and he occasionally wrote rap songs with me during lunch period. During high school, I went into a cliche rock n' roll phase, wrote very few songs and then decided I didn't want to be another Blink 182 clone.

A few years later, I went back to writing lyrics. I was very biased and fanboyish toward the very technical rappers like Eminem and Nas. I tried that route, and while I could rhyme a bunch of words, I had a clumsy flow and my lyrics weren't really saying anything. There are a bunch of underground rappers that try to rap like that, and unless you're like Big Pun or Busta Rhymes, you get lost in the crowd.

I began expanding my tastes, listening to all types of rappers, everything from storytelling to club hits. I tried a bunch of different styles and couldn't settle on one really. I started writing a few hooks, and general feedback I got from people I collabed with was that my verses were okay but my singing was good. So, I kept going the singing route until my songs became more singing-oriented.

I found the rap genre very limiting in subject matter. I tried out the rap cliches at first, but at one point, I decided that it's just ridiculous to rap about being a thug, millionaire and player when when you're none of these. If you're white and didn't grow up in the hood, you have to be extremely good to establish any credibility. With other genres, I was able to make songs about topics that would've just sounded silly as rap songs.

It was a mix of me realizing I wasn't cut out for it and it wasn't cut out for me. I don't want to convince white underground rappers who are truly passionate about it to stop doing it, but only state that the music only goes so far if you're trying to hold up an image that's not really you.
 
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Props for sharing your journey, but Hip Hop overall has moved on from the aforementioned predetermined boxes you state. What I'll tell you is there is a lane for everyone in Rap as long as you ignore the boxes that you felt you had to fit in. Rap subject matter has been what it has been for 4 decades and when many artists did try atypical subject matter there were fans who hated on it. Every genre has cliché subject matter so Rap is no different in that regard. In your case there are tons of White rappers being themselves and every genre has preconceived images so you coming to your personal realization isn't affecting anyone.
 
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