Rap is a difficult musical genre that requires from the performer not only talent, but also a technique worked out to perfection. How to learn the difficult skill of rap, we will tell further.

What does it take to make good rap?

Rap is an artistic recitative, which is pronounced in the rhythm of the selected music track. Not every performer is able to work in this musical direction. To really qualitatively, professionally, interestingly read rap, you need:

• Have good developed lungs. This will allow you to pronounce long lines without a hitch, in one breath. To do this, run, swim. Learn to hold your breath for a few minutes.
• Have impeccable diction. Rap is a quick recitation of poetic forms, and if you pronounce the words indistinctly, crumpled, then the audience simply will not be able to understand what you are rapping about. To develop diction will help tongue twisters.
• Know how to work with your voice. The ability to vary the timbre during the recitation, lower and raise the key, speak a little hoarsely or, on the contrary, very softly and smoothly, is extremely important for a beautiful, emotional performance. Learn about all the possibilities of your voice and try to develop the skills given by nature as much as possible.
• Have charisma. A real rapper certainly knows how to perfectly work with the audience. He conveys the meaning of words with facial expressions, gestures, eyes, and an internal energy message. Learn to completely liberate yourself on stage, flirt with the audience where it is needed, convince them of something through your music and performance.
• To be in trend - to understand what topics are most relevant, interesting for listeners. At the same time, it is very important to learn to distinguish high-quality texts from superficial, frivolous, and false ones.

The first stages of training

• Learn rap terminology. This will allow in the future to better understand the meaning of thematic sites, articles, magazines dedicated to this style of music.
• Carefully study the work of recognized masters of the chosen direction of rap. At the same time, it is desirable to read articles that describe the technique used by MC, the style of performance.
• Write out a few exercises for the development of diction and devote a couple of hours a day to practice.
• Learn to feel the rhythm. To do this, turn on rap and quietly repeat the words after the performer, trying to get into the tempo of the work as accurately as possible.
• Having learned to clearly and quickly pronounce the phrases of rap verses to the music, pay attention to the artistry of the presentation of the song. Work with facial expressions, gestures. Video recordings of performances by famous MCs will help here.
• Learn sophisticated rapping techniques that will make your performance truly professional and beautiful.

Rap reading techniques

So, venerable professionals are critical of Russian rap, since it very often uses the so-called "square" rhymes. By them is meant the imposition of text clearly under certain sections of the backing track - that is, for each measure, which consists of 4 bits, there are 4 lines of text. This technique is well suited for mastering by beginners, but for professionals, such a technique is inappropriate. Solid rap is the ability to make complex rhymes that start or end just before or after the final beat in the bar. To do this, you will need to learn how to stretch or, conversely, "cut" individual words use other methods.

• Doubble Time and Fast-Flow. These are techniques in which the reading of text is 1.5, 2 or more times faster than the beat rhythm. In addition, you can speed up or slow down the reading of individual syllables of a word.
• Tung Twist. This is a rather complicated technique in which one or more syllables in a word are repeated several times.
• Triplets. This is a method of rap reading using both Doubble Time / Fast-Flow, and Tung Twist and other similar tricks that make reading broken, and therefore more emotional, interesting.

The following techniques, already related to the skill of creating texts, are also very adorn the reading of rap:

• Spelling. The use within the framework of rhyming is not just words that sound appropriate, but vivid expressions characteristic of modern rap, a very special, “branded” pun.
• punchline. This term means setting a semantic emphasis on the phrase that completes the square. As a rule, this is achieved by comparative turnover.

• Use different intonations when reading texts. Read up to a peak and then down. Or read the lines in waves. For example, one line is ascending, the other is descending.
• Feel the tone of the music and try to emphasize it in rap. To do this, it is desirable to study at least basic musical theory and consolidate it by listening to tracks with different keys.
• Don't forget about backing vocals if you're recording a piece. It will make the work even more colorful, atmospheric. For processing back vocal occurrences, it is convenient to use, in particular, Adobe Audition and Sound Forge programs.
• Do chanting before the performance. To do this, take a low note and sing the letter “A” for a minute, as if you were at a therapist’s appointment, showing him your throat. Try to keep the sound even. After that, take a higher note and sing "E" already. Then even higher - "I". After that, you need to take a sound lower than what was for "A", sing "O" and at the end even lower than "U". In the end, you will spend only 5 minutes of time (one for each sound), but perfectly prepare your vocal cords for the performance.

We also invite you to read other articles on this topic.

Everyone knows that the concept of "MS" is very extensible, like "msing".
There are many different styles, features, etc. But most rappers for some reason never share with anyone that information about how to rap, the basic elements of creating a full-fledged song. Some secrets and mysteries! How so! Who will know your signature method or at least basic techniques! Some competitors and enemies!! No one can be trusted! (does it really look like the plot of some kind of detective or abstruse action movie?)
But I, your obedient servant and friend of Spirit aka Nasty B, will now try to tell you the most important thing from what I know about it myself. Pass on your knowledge! And I don’t feel sorry at all, and if my advice helps, teaches something and promotes a real talent, I will only be proud of myself, and sincerely glad. My first article, basic data about reading.

And So, as they say: "Check it, bro!"

1. Reading.
Each rapper has his own corporate identity, and this cannot be argued, but also every MC uses and knows the basic knowledge. In order:

a) rhythm.
First of all, this is hitting the beat. Someone has been gifted with a musical ear since childhood and can immediately feel the rhythm. Someone has to catch him. Most easy way to get into the beat is to read a track that you know from the memory of your favorite group, download the minus of this group (or MC), and read it under it. And read not just under your breath like a verse, but maybe stretching the words, maybe emphasizing them under a beat with the help of intonation, the most successful example it's eminem. Someone reads the text under the beat evenly, someone stretches the last word. Someone pauses, someone stretches a certain word in a line. Here you have to experiment.
Also, if you understand that you are badly hit by a beat, then there may be a reason in the text, but more on that later.

b) Diction.
One of the most important points, in my opinion, because without it no one will understand you.
Diction: correct pronunciation and pronunciation of letters, sounds, words, etc. I understand that everyone has their own speech defects, for example, when I started I stuttered a little and badly pronounce the letters "r" and hissing. Many with speech defects become a performer's chip. You can hide speech defects, but you can not. But the conversation is not about that.
The easiest way to work out diction is, of course, how you can read. The tongue twisters also help. There is such a way: to clamp a cork, preferably from wine, between the teeth in the middle and try to read the text well.

c) submission.
Delivery - this can be said to be loud, but not reaching a scream or an ora, reading, reading pressure, with emotions, etc. It's hard to explain, but when you listen to the likes of lil john, boncrusher, eminem, dmh, you'll understand. And the best thing is to listen to the Busta Rhymes track “Touch It”, and the remix is ​​better.
The pitch can be worked out with the help of a screaming reading, or with the help of a text shouting, and not reading. But we must remember that the submission is not a cry.

d) Dynamics.
Dynamics gives your track not even emotions, but the intensity of events.
This may be, if the lyrics, the growth in the length of the verse of your reading from calm indifferent, to a cry of hopelessness, etc. Dynamics develops the plot, gives interest to your track.

e) emotions.
Emotions, whatever they are, should be in the track. You use them to convey the meaning of the track, your emotions and the emotions of what is happening in your text.
You have to feel what you read about - whether it's pity for someone, lust for sex, anger, hopelessness, joy or disgust. Emotions must be understood by the reader. They should be directed to the reader!
Working out emotions is easy: take any phrase, for example: “I love you” or “I have a closet” and speak with different emotions. Example:
Say the phrase I love you in surprise, then with anger, with fatigue, with fear, with joy.

e) Breathing.
Many beginner rappers have trouble breathing. They do not have time to read many lines. It's easier if you're recording a track, in a studio, for example. You can read 2 lines. What if you perform? And even more so without backup singers or friends to catch you? You need to distribute your breath, know where the pause is, and there is an opportunity to inhale air.
You can develop your breath only by playing sports, quit smoking. There are such ways as to hold your breath for as long as you can, and so five times a day. But it doesn't work well. It is easier to write the text correctly and to pause correctly.

g) chant.
This does not apply to reading so clearly, but still! The chant is the transition from reading to semi-singing. They can also be heard from foreign benchmarks such as eminem, from ours, such as NTL and noise msi. This is giving a reading of melody, tonality. For example, you feel the minus melody and adjust the text and reading to the melody.
Often chant is used in refrains.

Spirit aka Nasty B

Chapter:

Write lyrics. Once you get good at rapping to different rhythms, start writing your own lyrics. You don't have to worry about what you'll rap about, just write about what's going on around you.

• Write at least 10 lines a day. Even if you don't like what you wrote, you can come back to this text later and rewrite some points. As soon as you start to like what you have done, then try reading the text to your friends and get their opinion. Find a rhyming dictionary to improve your rhymes and try expanding yours. lexicon by reading many different books.
• Depending on what influence you write lyrics on, the content of your songs can be very different. Try different styles and see what suits you.

Rap constantly. The most important thing in rap is talent and naturalness. For rap to become your own, you just need to constantly rap it. Listen to rap, analyze it and look for inspiration in everything. Successful rapping requires many hours of work so that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want.

• Keep a rap diary. Record your songs and practice with this diary. Take it with you always, and when inspiration strikes, you will always have this diary at hand to write down your thoughts. Do not think that if a brilliant idea comes to your mind, then you are guaranteed to remember it - write it down, otherwise you will forget and regret it for a very long time.

• Underline the consonants. If you try to rap the way you speak, then no one will understand you.
• Speak your words clearly. Make sure all words are pronounced clearly.
• Rhythm is more important than rhyme. Don't stop or stutter if you can't rhyme - just stay on the right beat and you'll be fine.
• Think about the next line while you clearly pronounce the first.
• Speak loud! in reading too loudly, there is nothing good, but it is very important that you be heard - both literally and figuratively.

Think in advance what your rap will be about so as not to start stammering and looking for words. There is nothing worse than such forced pauses!

Be natural. The idea of ​​imitating celebrities may seem tempting, but it will be difficult to rap about the world empire of cocaine if you are a simple teenager from sleeping area. You don't have to always tell the truth, but you need to be believed and everything to feel natural.

• Understand what makes you special and what you can bring to rap. You don't have to come up with a clever answer to this question, but don't try to be just another rapper by imitating someone (even if they're the best!). In order for you to succeed, you need to bring something new and fresh to this industry.

Try the style freestyle(free style). The poet Allen Ginsberg once said, "The first thought is the best thought." Start with a line you've already come up with and work your way up: if you can rhyme quickly, this free style can help bring out your talent and surprise you with your results.

• There are suggestions that Lil Wayne never writes rhymes, but just raps, listening to the rhythm and immersing himself in it.

Make your own beat . To create truly original music, you can come up with your own beats and work with them. This will free you from having to adapt to existing music, you will create what you want with the sounds you like, and will be able to surprise others with a completely new sound.

• Or you can contact a producer who wants to share his beats. This may facilitate future interaction.

We were sent an article by mail, which, we think, may be of interest to novice performers. Send your materials to and we will be happy to publish them on our website.

Rap language is a mix of music, rhythm, recitative and poetry. In order for all the components to be perceived harmoniously, the novice artist will have to work hard on himself. How to become a rapper who will be listened to and respected - let's try to figure it out together.

Needless to say, in addition to a great love for hip-hop, a future artist must have obvious skills: a sense of rhythm, an ear for music, clear diction, the ability to write lyrics, as well as charisma and a memorable appearance? In addition, you simply have to listen to tons of rap music, understand the subgenres, know the work of cult (and not so) representatives of hip-hop. This will help you develop your own direction, understand what exactly you like, who you would like to focus on in your own songs.

First you need to learn to feel the music. Play your favorite track from your favorite artist and try to feel the rhythm. How the beat sounds, how fast, how the words fall on it. Try to read the text together with the performer, stick to the given rhythm, place pauses and accents, get in time, as the original does.

The language of rap cannot be called simple, so first learn by heart any song, find its minus and rehearse, repeat the artist's style, contribute your chips. Be sure to record the result and evaluate the record objectively. It will be a very good practice to perform one track to different beats, with different melody and even rhythm. The task of such a training is to develop and hone a sense of rhythm, not be afraid of improvisation, and keep attention on yourself.

Try to write your own texts. You don't have to be born in the ghetto to rap, you can write on current topics and draw inspiration from everything that surrounds you and worries you. Try to objectively evaluate the fruits of your creativity, read poetry to friends and listen to criticism, this will help to achieve a better result and accustom you to the public.

Read more good literature and classical poetry. This will expand your vocabulary and fill your rap language with beautiful wordplay and witty metaphors. Try to avoid flat texts, humiliating comparisons, obscene speech (rap without swearing is possible!), respect your listener.

Get a paper notebook and take it everywhere with you. Inspiration can come unexpectedly, and ideas are quickly forgotten. In addition, text written by hand and on paper is perceived somewhat differently than that typed on a computer. Write in pencil, reread the lines, evaluate them objectively, and edit if necessary.

How to Rap: Basic Techniques

Good lyrics that pump the beat are important components of success. But besides this, you need to be able to present the material in such a way as to hook the listener from the very first lines. How to rap effectively, clearly and legibly?

Highlight consonants. They should sound firmer and clearer than in everyday speech. Speak competently and confidently, do not lose the ending.

Remember that in rap reading leading role plays the rhythm. Even if you get lost, catch the beat and keep going.

At performances, try to stay natural, choose comfortable clothes that emphasize the image and do not hinder movement. But do not overdo it with gestures and movements, so as not to look comical.

Where to perform?

Of course, the artist must be heard, and therefore study the clubs in your city that cooperate with newcomers and knock on them.

Another great event that will allow you to unlock your potential and show yourself is a rap battle. It's no secret that it was the rap battle that became launch pad for many famous rappers such as Noize MC and Oxxxymiron. Participation in rap battles gives a tremendous experience, where you can easily hone your reading skills and see the public's reaction to your work, this good way test yourself, learn to compose texts on any given topic. Face-to-face rap battles are especially popular now (like the already famous Versus Battle), when there is an opportunity to look into the eyes of an opponent and prove that you are the best. However, not everyone dares to enter the competitive scene, because often a rap battle is designed for people with a certain experience. There is also a light version of such events - online battles, and if this is your first experience of a public competition, then it is better to start with them.

Should not be bypassed special schools rap, where competent and practicing specialists will put their voice, develop the necessary skills and give a great start to your musical career. One of them is the Myrapgame Rap School, where Al Solo from the Bad Balance group teaches. The guys regularly conduct trainings and webinars on reading, including free ones. Also, quite recently, a St. Petersburg performer Kazhe Oboyma opened his rap school.

Be sure to record your songs and put them on the Internet, read the comments and listen to the criticism of the public, because it depends on it further development your his creative way.

By the way, who better than Eminem knows how to rap better. We offer you to watch a video on this topic from the king of hip-hop 😉

First way

Learning to sing, or rather rapping, is not so easy: firstly, you need very good lungs, secondly, you need to be able to read very quickly without stammering, and thirdly, you need a voice that breaks very often during recitative (I myself checked ). The basics of rapping are about impressing people with how fast you can rap without panting (of course, it's not just about being fast).
Therefore, I advise you to do more running and compose something more often, and then maybe you will rise to the top.

Third way:
It is known that African Americans have an unsurpassed sense of rhythm, which is what allowed them to come up with rock and roll, jazz, and eventually rap and hip-hop. Therefore, a rapper must have at least a small share of their talent in order to be able to bring the drawing to his text, to impose it on the beat.

Only rare talents come up with nuggets, something from scratch, all the rest draw skills from existing examples. Behind last years Russia has developed its own school of rap, where there are strong musicians with their own bright style. By repeating their ‘carts’, you can learn a lot, for example, develop diction. After all, it is very important that the language is not bony, so that everyone can understand what they want to convey to him. If the performer will 'live' and 'swallow' the words, then they simply will not listen to him.

What to write about is a personal matter for everyone. It can be "banter" or texts about experienced emotions. Many rappers have a hard life, and it is the emotional upheavals that become the trigger of their talent, when the painful results in songs that then become hits. Wherever the line comes, it must be written down. In a notebook or a piece of paper - it does not matter. He recommends using a voice recorder for this - you can immediately read rap into it, and then rewrite the words on paper.

After the text has been written, it is worth reading it to your friends in order to hear constructive criticism, because from the side the shortcomings are always more visible. And it doesn’t matter if at first something doesn’t work out, if the words get stuck somewhere in the throat. You can rub a corn on your tongue, but in the end you get a great rap. After all, it's worth it.

Ernest Hemingway once gave this advice to young writers. "Write as much as you can so you can understand how it's done." It's the same with rap.

Because how to write a rap text, you can scribble a whole job! In principle, it is roughly possible to divide the text into 2 components: rhyme and meaning, i.e. what the text is about. Both that, and another, are important approximately equally, it is impossible to neglect a rhyme in the name of sense and vice versa. But in principle, if you go to extremes, you can make really strong texts, but weakly (from the point of view of the method described by me below) rhymed. An example of this is Pencil. Weak in rhyme of the text, but great plots, good presentation - it listens excellently! But still, a text for 10 points without a 10-point rhyme will not work. If we take the minimum (and this is the most basic), then the rhymes themselves, rhymed words, must meet some requirements. Still, the rap text is a kind of verse, and the center of the verse is a rhyme. Those. it is on her emphasis, as a rule, the author rhymes exactly the most important word in the line. I am not a journalist, so I can’t explain it on my fingers, I can only give a link to V.V. Mayakovsky - read his article "How to make poetry" - I have not yet read something that more accurately describes this moment. In the same article, I will try to briefly retell Mayakovsky, supplementing it with some illustrative examples.

So let's go! I'll start with how you can't rhyme. In one fell swoop, we remove all the “same” words: single-rooted (thoughts - meaning, for a short time - in a timely manner, went - found, etc.), verbs (take - give, was - bought, said - showed), nouns of the same form (idiot - garden - whirlpool, attitude - opinion, couplets - newspapers - toilets, answer - nonsense, etc. I think the idea is clear), the same adjectives (original - vaginal - regional, gold - mine - blue) - in short, all the words that rhyme too obviously + a huge list of zadrochennyh rhymes that have been used more than once and everyone is already tired. There are a bunch of such rhymes, you can’t sort through all of them, only through the experience of reading other people’s texts can you outline this circle for yourself. I bring a couple of the most fucked up rows, these rhymes should never be used

news - flattery - climb - revenge - six - wool, etc.

blood - love - carrots - again, etc. (in principle, these words are the same nouns) female, i.e. I have already written about this kind of words)

meeting - evening - nothing

prose - rose - rods - air

autumn - eight

legs - many - miserable - God - lair - anxiety

That means they cut it all off and now we rhyme "according to the rules" We take the word that must be rhymed. Let's say "lime". And we begin mentally (or aloud, as it is more convenient for anyone) to say this word “lime”, to say words similar to it, there, for example, baseness, from the outside, a ghost, recognized, Lisa, etc. — i.e. immediately a series of words pops up. Choose what suits you and go! The main idea is to surprise the listener with a rhyme; for example, at the end of the line is the word “dummy” and the listener expects to hear something like “cormorant”, “glass”, “trap”, etc. at the end of the second line, and you put the word “rumor”. Or the word "dimensions". We find the stressed syllable - "-rits" - and let's go, we rhyme it: sugary, soaked. In short, I explained as best I could, but it’s better to find Mayakovsky’s article - the same thing is painted there, but better

Everyone, with what exactly to rhyme, figured out. Let's move on to the structure of the text, how these rhymes should be arranged. Of course, you can rhyme 2 adjacent lines to yourself with the last word and not worry (the so-called “square” construction of the text. BUT for this you need to read like Kool G Rap or Big Daddy Kane so that this drawback is not evident. Therefore, it is necessary that the text sounded varied: from a simple rhyming of two lines to the last word

a serious type, because he himself earned money for sneakers,
although no, rather he stole it somewhere in the supermarket ...
what I list is just a miserable minimum,
in the repertoire of the native city, the anthem is golimy

rhyme through a word

as in the soup, the chef puts a bay leaf on top of a bit of talk,
and while you sweat-blood for the day concocted a decent text ...

rhyme a few words in a row

…by incorporating grand speakers for the benefit of the rap underground, we poison you with drugs… (Leoni)

Dead in the middle of Little Italy little did we know
that we riddled some middleman who didn't do diddily (Big Pun 'Twins')

double rhyme (i.e. 2-word rhyme)

Stay away from such rubbish, stay away until you lose your pulse, and while I read, let the door bend from the pressure ...

And every year I gain clout and my name sprouts
Some brothers'd still be large if the crack never came out (Big L 'Put It On')

In general, I should note that among US rappers, double rhyme is generally the most common: it is quite simple to make it, but it sounds beautiful.

triple rhyme

sleep in the train, Emelya, you
and in prose I had loving (these are the lines of Majahid - a guy from hip-hop.ru).

The top of skill and chic is a full-line rhyme, i.e. all (or almost all) words in a line respectively rhyme with another line:

the principle of complete inertia, the puppets are in the wrong hands, there are no princes here, I understand, I shoot accurately and into dust (Sergi)

I sweep away from my path, those who are clearly
how China in Buddhism is melting in clumsy texts

I'm searching for the impostor to pat down
I'm urgin to put the glock up and clap rounds
It's curtains like Jimmy Hoffa, he not found (Redman ‘Soopaman Luva 5 (Part I)’)

My sound wave liftin' your chin up like uppercuts
New found ways of rippin' shit up, I de-ve-lop (Black Thought, Big Pun album 'Capital Punishment', track 'Super Lyrycal')

also a super-rhyme is a rhyme when a word rhymes not with one, but with two or even several:

Goustride rapid firer,
Arrows at the ready soon… (Ghostrida, Moscow)

This contract is unique, no matter how many verses you forge at night, my rhymes act like Kadochnikov's tricks

endure - you have not subsided (Peace Keeper)

There is also such a thing as consonance. This is not a rhyme, these are just consonant words, usually with many of the same consonants, but with different stressed vowels.

For example:

“Squads of battle to fight’ with guys’ mi ala barbie, fans of ‘tami a’renbi”

- as you can see, half of the words do not rhyme, they are simply consonant in the general flow of syllables. Sounds nice to me.
They also make tautological consonances, when, in addition to rhyming words, cognate ones are obviously stuffed:

the whole world is full of bass and beat,
I am saturated with rhythm and rhymes, every atom of mine is saturated with them

KRS-One does this kind of thing a lot, for example from the track 'When The Moon':

Your lightweight, I devisate on the equal races
No I'm not a racist, but no race could really face this

That's basically it. You can write forever on this topic, as I said, but there is not much point - I showed the main points, the rest is learned in the process. Read other people's texts (no matter Russian or American - the principle is the same). Of the Americans, IMHO, Eminem, Inspector Deck (Wu-Tang), Big-L (RIP), Big Pun (RIP) and many others rhyme best of all. Of the Russians - no doubt, Vladi (and the whole Caste + Serpent from the Faces), then G Vilks (Big Black Boots), Drago, Steam, Sevzkvad, etc. The main thing is not to overdo it with rhyme for the sake of rhyme. The more complex and twisted the rhyme is, the more difficult the text is for perception, so you need to look for a middle ground, and not tear your ass in the selection of words for the sake of a full-line rhyme. When I listen to, for example, Sevzkvad, I don't like it - a bunch of identical words, generally a continuous rhyme, but the meaning is not clear. Some people like it, I don’t argue, but I don’t perceive it.

Also, I would advise only in the most extreme cases to adjust the phrase "to rhyme", i.e. it is somehow unnatural to change the order of words, to force a sentence. Such techniques cut the ears very much, make it difficult to perceive the meaning and generally look unprofessional. Try to build a phrase as close as possible to colloquial speech (but not quite, do not shove all sorts of obscenities and all sorts of household phrases all the time. Although storytelling in this style is just fat) - it looks simple, but brilliant

Another such moment - I would advise sacrificing rhyme for the sake of diction! Quite often it turns out beautifully to twirl on paper, but then it’s incredible to play it out loud to the beat, here preference should not be given in favor of rhyme, because people hear the tech, and do not read the text from the paper, so it’s better to simplify and say clearly than just screw it up.

Chapter: