A typical release from Future. Decent music to play in your car, but the lyrical content leaves much to be desired. That is not an opinion. I use a carefully chosen set of criteria to determine if an album has a great set of songs or not. That is the only [...]

How To Write A Rap Verse I don’t think people should write a rap verse the standard way. At least not when you are first starting to write lyrics. The standard way is to sit down with an idea in mind and to write a verse in one sitting. You hear [...]

Analyzing Lyrics Mos Def’s contribution to the song “Respiration” on Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998) is notable for it’s use of imagery. That is why I think it’s important to have an analysis of a song like [...]

Is It Okay To Use A Rhyming Dictionary ? For rap music? No. But, not for the reason you are thinking. The thought that using a rhyming dictionary somehow makes you wack, or you are cheating, is bullshit. That is closed-mindedness. And all great artists [...]

Wordplay or Word-play, literally playing with the meanings of words to inspire humor or amusement. Many writers use wordplay to entertain an audience, hip hop artists who use it well become legends. Street Rapper’s Delight Wordplay is the highest [...]

Technique #3: Similes Comparisons are the most commonly used technique in rap music. For an explanation of Metaphors and Similes check out MC Lyte’s classic single “Lyte As A Rock”… Milk (of Audio Two, most famous for “Top [...]

Figures of Speech Or Rhetorical Devices, a unique arrangement or omission of words used to enhance the meaning of a sentence. In Hip Hop we use figurative language for one reason: Entertainment. A uniquely worded rap is more pleasing to the ear. People [...]

The First Technique to Practice For Better Raps People relate most to the things they are familiar with. Often, before someone will accept a new idea, it has to be wrapped up in a package of familiarity. We can use this to our advantage as artists. To a [...]

What Do I Rap About? Most blogs would say the following: if you don’t know already what you are going to rap about, you’re lost. This is not true. It’s okay not to know what subjects to take on, especially when you are young. The [...]

Tha Foundation The previous articles show you how to practice creating rap lyrics everyday, what music to listen to and fundamental ideas to become a good rapper. The foundation of the rap game has been set. Moving forward, we will build upon this [...]

Where to start? Freestyle rapping is a master level skill in hip hop. Masters like Biggie, Jay-Z, Kanye and Lil Wayne all claim to rap completely off the dome, without putting pen to pad. Out of all of the above I believe Lil Wayne the most, because his [...]

What is The First Rap Album You Ever Heard? The first rap album I ever heard is The Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready To Die. And that was the only album I listened to. Literally. In fact, for the longest time I only listened to “Juicy,” on [...]