What Do Other Rappers Rap About?
- Thread starter zZzwalkr
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Pumpthrust
New member
Jimbo Trashy
Member
If you don't know what to write about, maybe you shouldn't focus on writing and maybe towards producing instead.
I feel a natural writer/rapper wouldn't need advice on what to write about because it just comes organically.
I feel a natural writer/rapper wouldn't need advice on what to write about because it just comes organically.
Jeru Hendrix
New member
That is just not true. Everyone can write. If it takes you a bit longer to think lines through (it does for me) then you may end up creating something great in it's own right. There are people who write very free form and from their heart but there are also people like me. I take time to edit and re-edit and do lots of research. I look up words in the dictionary and use a thesaurus to see if there are other words I can use that better convey and rhyme with what I'm trying to say. I sacrifice accessibility by doing this, but I don't care about reaching an audience TBH. and personally I can't freestyle worth a damn. They say any MC that can't freestyle is wack. This isn't really the case. Why? because those people who can freestyle might not be that great at writing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I wouldn't say lean more towards producing (an entirely different art form) if you've already gotten entrenched in writing. Instead find the creative process that works for you. You don't have to be one way or another to be great. Greatness comes from time put in. According to Michael Gladwell's theory; after 10,000 hours of doing something you're gonna be ****ing dope at it. If you just write here and there, you only ever be alright. This is something you have to do every day. If you don't have the time to write piece each day, then write at least one bar...
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To echo pescass; I find most emcees write about love, money, drugs, politics, their story... Life in general. Some of these subjects are played out, but people can relate to them. It's unavoidable to end up doing something already done. As Nas quoted the latin phrase; "Nothing new under the sun". It's about doing it in an original fashion... Making an idea your own...
Rapping is partly about trying to reach out to your audience in a way that they can relate. You are a preacher of sorts and a lot of hip-hop fans live by the music like it's gospel... The art form is meant to be very accessible... and it doesn't have to be dumbed down, necessarily. Certain rappers like Aesop just take a few more listens to "get". I really think that every type of rap has it's place. The Drakes, the Waynes, the Wu's, the DOOMs, the et ceteras.
Personally, I write about a few different things. I've been expanding my parameters lately. As a teen I talked about the typical shit. Hood shit... Now I go for a more poetical story telling style. I like to use personification and prosopopeia to convey my view point and to tell stories about my life in an indirect way. Maybe I will talk about an Artic whale being displaced in a tropic sea and getting killed. He washes ashore only to be found by some schmuck. The schmuck capitalizes on the death by turning his fat into oil and making necklaces from his bone fragments or some shit. Then, some sea dog buys the necklace and travels around the world in his boat...
It's akin to how native Americans respected every part of the animal they killed... and in some backhand way it's resurrection or some shit. Then meanwhile I'm talking about this whale as an embodiment of my own self and how I feel about be dissociated from the world around me. Someday I'm gonna die but in some backhand way I'll live on via the art and material belongings I left behind...
Not to sound like a dick, but I feel that so much more can be done with hip-hop. You can incorporate other styles of literary and musical art into rapping... Classical poetry, prose, singing, scatting, etc. It's a very versatile format. Yet, people tend to follow a certain formula. It works. It's effective. Like I said; everything has it's place and I can appreciate it... but at the same time I don't feel like people try to step outside of their comfort zone.
Sorry for the rant.
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boombapdame
Member
Damn good solid truth my man. I feel exactly how you do.
alienaircraftmusic
Member
me personally --the truth movement..politics..illuminati..drug addiction..love..everything that is not fake..unlike so many..and i dont rap about women..money and strippers..and rental cars..that shit is so fake and shallow
not tryna promote myself but this is my latest...this is a hobby of mine for the love of music..and I'm just a white boy that has always loved hip hop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8rlJt3JBCc&feature=youtu.be
not tryna promote myself but this is my latest...this is a hobby of mine for the love of music..and I'm just a white boy that has always loved hip hop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8rlJt3JBCc&feature=youtu.be
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boombapdame
Member
Women, money and strippers are all realistic and tangible but the irony is when rapped about the tone is usually depressingly degrading and from a self-aggrandizing perspective via the male voice.
Jimbo Trashy
Member
What you're saying doesn't suggest you don't know what to write about.
All it says, is that you take your time to write something.
Onehunned Pickings
New member
I rap bout my life what I been through DA gud DA bad DA ugly
iggiafrica
New member
lyrics come to me constantly. at work, asleep, ****ing, etc. more often than not bad lyrics, but usually it turns into something
aakalitkavi
New member
It starts wid one's own life i guess...Things one has been thru...Good worse... Bad best...Then u go good at it...Then u start seeing everything in RAP code...And u rap about almost everything worth rapin...But u only make a few raps public.. Like replyin to this post...I swear i see lines at the back of ma head To make this reply shady... But lets not get there... Coz it'll be too crazy...
Current rappers rap about uneeded stuff such as how much money they have or the amount of girls they have sex with, strive to make better lyrics man and make your lyrics have a purpose. Ive thought about all these current mainstream songs and ive noticed that in 10 years or so no one is gonna see songs such as 'No type" and "Rooster in my Rari" as classics, as an artist you should strive to make classic music.Rap about your troubles, how you feel about certain subjects, your childhood and thoughts on societey just some ideas. At the end of the day though it is up to you what you want to write but remember strive to make classic music.
SBxTRE
New member
Radio Rappers just talk about how much better they are then you. It has no meaning. Its about their money, their girls, and their lifestyle. Theyre entertainers, not artists. They don't produce their own music and they probably don't write their own songs.
They are pop stars that do provacative things for attention. They are in the music entertainment industry. To them its about the money not the Art. Its sad because they have so much influence on people yet all the messages are rotton.
They have paintings that they didn't paint themselves.
They are pop stars that do provacative things for attention. They are in the music entertainment industry. To them its about the money not the Art. Its sad because they have so much influence on people yet all the messages are rotton.
They have paintings that they didn't paint themselves.
J.F.K. The Movement
=|x|=
Ok i dont want to sound like an ******* but, that was a wierd question. And yeah...
1st off, it really doesn't matter what other people are doing because you should always be yourself and therefore rap about things that are relavent to you and your life. Because nothing is new, there will be other people going through the same thing. Sure rap today is getting dumber and dumber in my opinion and mainstream is taking way to much time premoting stupid SH%T but, when you are rich and party all the time...i guess you have nothing more to rap about. So write about what you are going through or what you want to have or see or do... but i mean, if you want to save this planet, you can also give some positive energy or at least give some substance when you write or rap. I mean, drugs, sex, partying, the trap, killing music...we have a handfull of those. Make your own lane!! =|x|=
1st off, it really doesn't matter what other people are doing because you should always be yourself and therefore rap about things that are relavent to you and your life. Because nothing is new, there will be other people going through the same thing. Sure rap today is getting dumber and dumber in my opinion and mainstream is taking way to much time premoting stupid SH%T but, when you are rich and party all the time...i guess you have nothing more to rap about. So write about what you are going through or what you want to have or see or do... but i mean, if you want to save this planet, you can also give some positive energy or at least give some substance when you write or rap. I mean, drugs, sex, partying, the trap, killing music...we have a handfull of those. Make your own lane!! =|x|=