Though
people may overlook “delivery” when thinking about rapping, the thing is it
matters a lot. You can have good lyrics,
but if the delivery is off, you can instantly get written off as a whack
rapper. The BEST advice I can give to begin with, is to sound natural.
Rap
like you’re reading your lyrics, but don’t “read” monotonously.
Most people I’ve known try to go
the other direction and stylize their sound by changing their voice, putting
too much emphasis on unnecessary lyrics, overdoing their hand gestures, and
stretching out the sounds of their rhymes just to make sure their audience
heard it. That’s a no. That stuff comes to you naturally in time, you shouldn’t
by any means have to force it.
Also, sometimes space needs to be
filled, or you want to hype your audience for a rap. You DON’T need to say “yo”
5x before you start rapping, that’s also a turn off. Before you start rapping,
sound natural and you can even say nothing special, like:
“Yeah…okay,” and maybe one “yo,”
before starting.
If you want to get more stylized
go:
“Listen up,” “I’m gonna drop this,”
“Check it,” or even “Alright, let’s go.”
Work on hand gestures. Try to move
your hands at the speed of your rap and try to make gestures that if possible
can match the nature of the subject you just mentioned. If that doesn’t quite
apply, you can use generic hand gestures like using a pointer finger and
swinging it down at the end of a line. Having both hands open palms down or
palms inward like carrying a box, and shifting it left and right. Doing a swift
slap, and swinging your hand down at stomach length.
If you’re sitting, make sure to
keep your eyes as well as your hands moving. Eye contact with many people.
If you’re standing, walk around
with a mic like you’re the center of attention.
That sums up this edition of
delivery for now. Thanks for reading.
