How to write a rap verse

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Man singing into microphone

Freestyle is one technique for writing rap verses

I want to explain a little something about how to write a rap verse.  If you’ve ever played chess or poker or even if you’re good at any sport you know that you’re at your best when you’re confident and get into a groove and can predict what’s going to happen next…it’s almost like you can see the future.

In chess this is called thinking two or three moves ahead and knowing your opponent.  In poker its the same.  In basketball, soccer, football and most sports this is called having presence of mind, reading defenses, passing ahead of a player and having good timing.

In rap this is called keeping in rhythm with the beat and thinking one step ahead of your words.  Easier said than done, I know, but just like in the examples above this comes with practice.  But as the old saying goes: Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.  And actually, perfect practice makes perfect pretty fast.

So if you want to learn how to write a rap verse fast it can be done.  You just need to train yourself to be in the right frame of mind when writing raps.  That training is something I go into a lot more detail in a seperate e-book that I’ve written. For example, when you freestyle you often think in two’s.  That is, you think of the two words that will be rhyming at the same time, while you’re saying your first bar, but before you even begin the second one.  This is a good practice for writing regular rap verses as well.

Here are a few other quick tips to get you thinking the right way when writing a rap verse.

Tip 1:  The better you are at freestyling, the better you’ll be at writing a rap verse.  This is true because the longer you dwell on a verse the more you tend to over-analyze it and pick it apart.  I’d consider myself a perfectionist but if I’m writing a verse and it takes me more than a couple of days I usually won’t use it.

Tip 2:  Learn the principles of poetry and music. You know how ever since Drake and Young Money started saying things like “I got her running back and forth, soccer team”, everyone started doing their punch lines that way?  Well that’s just one method out of dozens, most of which have been around since the beginning of literature.  A few other examples are alliteration, similes and metaphors, internal rhyme, anadiplosis, etc.  Learn them, these are like your weapons in battle.

Tip 3:  Learn what types of beats and rap styles suit you best.  Not everyone can rap fast well.  Not everyone sounds good rapping slow.  Not everyone is at their best making club tracks.  Not everyone is themselves writing thought-provoking lyrics.  Know where you strengths and weaknesses are.

Tip 4:  Be prepared to overcome writers block.  Writer’s block refers to the times when writers can’t seem to come up with anything to write about or can’t think of how to begin their lyrics. It is a mental block that most writers struggle with at some point. Though it can be useful to take a break from writing during times like these, you don’t want to get frustrated or get upset with yourself as this will only make your writer’s block last longer.

 

How to write a rap chorus or hook

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writing a rap chorus

You don't need a chorus line for a hot hook

Alright I know it’s been a minute since I typed up anything so here are a few tips on how to write a rap chorus.

First of all you should recognize that the chorus is the heart of a song.

If your song is a club or otherwise uptempo song then the chorus is what invigorates people and keeps them pumped.  If your song is more mellow and deep the chorus is what chills people out and soothes them.

When writing a rap chorus, a rap hook, or whatever you want to call it…keep in mind that 90% of the time you should be writing the words to the chorus while you’re hearing the beat that they will be layed over (the other 10% comes from rare moments of sudden inspiration).

When you’re a professional musician you’ll have the skill and capability to adjust the elements of the beat (or even the entire beat) from the ground up…writing a song that way gives you complete freedom to be totally creative.  Unfortunately, that much freedom is often daunting for beginners and can cause writers block.  Not to mention, most amateur rappers don’t have the luxury of recording in professional studios with a good producer and or engineer on hand.

Therefore, let’s assume you’re starting with an instrumental which you will only be tweeking slightly.

Step 1: Find the beats designated chorus slots.  Instrumentals are usually already structured to include three or four slots for 8-bar verses.  Find them and get a feel for the tempo.

Step 2: Think about what you want to say.  This is the hardest part and I could write a book about the subject (I actually have) but don’t be overwhelmed.  Let the beat inspire your topic, keep it simple.  Does the melody of the chorus sound like any particular words or phrases?  Write them down.

Step 3: Organize your thoughts and ideas into complete bars.  Here is where you’ll decide if your chorus is best sung, rapped, sampled, chopped, etc.  Remember, you don’t have to have a create singing voice to write a good chorus.  However, if you decide to sing your chorus and your voice is not as good as you’d like it to be you may be better off having someone else sing it or maybe even use Autotune pitch correcting software to help the sound of your vocals.

Sure there is more to it than this, but explaining it all would take a lot more than one blog post.  This should be enough to give you a rough outline for how you should approach writing a rap chorus or hook.

Next I’ll explain a brief outline for writing a rap verse.

How to write a rap in bars

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16 bars is the typical length of a rap verse

16 bars is the typical length of a rap verse

This short article will break down the concept of how to write a rap in bars.

“Bars” are simply a way of measuring a rap.

Bars are a concept that should be simple to understand. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed when people talk about a “hot 16″ or how The Game spit “300 bars”.  Bars are simply a way of measuring the length of a rap verse.

A great example of this that I like to use comes from Jay-Z.

On “The Takeover” from his album, The Blueprint, Jay-Z finishes his verse with 2 bars:

And all you other cats taking shots at Jigga// (1 bar)
You only get half a bar, fuck y’all niggas!// (2 bar)

Basically every time you rap you rhyme, and every time a rhyming line ends, that is one bar.

Usually rap verses are 16 bars in length and choruses are 8 bars in length. The number of syllables or beats in a line is not what defines a bar, instead a bar is defined by its ability to be divided evenly throughout the verse.   For example, here are a few bars from Papoose from his song “Alphabetical Slaughter”:

Alert, assassins at large allegedly// (1 bar)
Automatic artillery angrily aimed and aggressively// (2 bar)
Accurate AK’s angled all-ways// (3 bars)
Adversary afraid as active ammunition abraise// (4 bars)
Accumulated an alias after arrested// (5 bars)
Accompanied armed accessories as an adolescent//” ( 6 bars)

…and here’s a less dense 8 bars from will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas on “I Gotta Feelin”:

Here we come, here we go, we gotta rock// ( 1 bar)
Easy come, easy go, now we on top// (2 bars)
Fill the shot, body rock, rock it don’t stop// (3 bars)
Round and round, up and down, around the clock// (4 bars)
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday// (5 bars)
Friday, Saturday, Saturday to Sunday// (6 bars)
Weeekend get get get with us, you know what we say// (7 bars)
Party every day, pa-pa-pa-party every day// (8 bars)

The bottom line is you shouldn’t stress out over bars or the length of your verses.  Try to shoot for 16 bars in most of your raps. Most of the time, however, if you’re rapping over an instrumental, the instrumental will guide you as to how long your verse should be.  I hope that helps some of you better understand how to write a rap using bars.