Nowadays there are a lot of people aspiring to be rappers and little to no one that actually tries to improve on the quality of their lyrical content or how they flow over a beat. A lot of people believe that being a rapper is as simple as picking up a microphone and finding a hot beat to "spit" over. On the contrary, writing clever lyrics that flow good over a beat is a difficult task and requires practice. I have been writing music since I was 14 years old and I always worked hard to outdo my previous song.
Okay, on to some examples. Rappers such as Waka Flocka do not care about what they say at all, as long as they make money off of the consumer. He has club songs that people can dance to, but what happens if you aren't at a club... there is nothing that catches your attention besides the beat. When you begin writing start with experiences that you have had in the past. These can be work related, struggles growing up, or anything that you can think of. If you want to write a few lines about having money you can use words such as bread, butter, relish, cabbage, lettuce, cheese, or chips to talk about money. A few bars like I get butter like a slice of bread/ or I'm getting relish cuz I'm hot dog/. These bars have a little word play in them and will get you respect from other rappers who may not have thought about using those words in a sequence like that. Another thing most aspiring rappers need to work on is mic presence. This takes time and dedication because you have to be able to put the right amount of energy into your performance without going too over the top. After a few months to a year of writing and recording you should be up to par with other rappers that are trying to make it big.
A lot of people also need to realize that the music industry is a hard one to break into and being famous overnight is not going to happen without years of blood, sweat and tears. A lot of rookies believe they can make one hot song and then the entire world is going to know who they are. This is not true at all and it takes a great song, dedication, a little money, some live shows, and few good contacts just to blow up in your local area. You can start by making a website that has information about you and a sample of your music/photos. If you have any videos these will help your future fans get to know you better as well. A great site to start out is reverbnation, they also use a website designer called bandzoogle. Once you do that you should start joining as many social media networks as possible and find people to network with. Create a Press Kit and mail your singles to local radio stations around the country and college radio stations. If you would like to get paid for radio plays you need to create an account with BMI or ASCAP to make sure that you get the money you deserve. Once you do all of these steps and start to meet other local music talent you should be on the road to becoming a popular local rapper and maybe even a Hip-Hop icon someday.
If you have any questions about advertising, creating a website, writing music, etc... email me at chrisking919@gmail.com Also if you would like to network and exchange website links you can email me as well. Thank you for taking the time to read my article and I hope you enjoyed it.
No comments:
Post a Comment