I've been rapping for a few years now, and I feel like I'm on the outside of recent activity in rap. What do other rappers, who aren't necessarily famous, rap about?
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.
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.
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
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...
-
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.