How to Rap: Inspiration

 

                So in the first edition of How to Rap, I’m going to teach you inspiration, which you cannot start writing a rap without! It is the inspiration that sets the drive, story, imagery, mood and feel of the whole rap, which is why I’m putting this first. The right inspiration can make it a success. The wrong ones can make it bomb. Luckily, there’s more “right” inspirations than wrong here ;)

                To get inspiration, you have to think about a topic that weighs you down, that you think about constantly, that you are really engaged with, have a lot of knowledge about, really like/dislike…etc!  It can be anything from a feeling, an experience, a place, a person. Maybe it’s that feeling you want to escape. Or the experience when you won a championship match. Time, love, school, work, clothes, style, win, loss, thoughts, your city, power, food, music itself, even a car chase! B.o.B even does raps about Outer Space! (No rhyme intended)

                All the above have the capability of being deeply expanded upon all while sounding legitimate. If you want approval and to be taken seriously, what you DON’T want to base your rap off of is:

                1) Fan-art, like Pokemon, cartoons, and videogames. Popular Internet memes, like trolling or kittens. Something uber-specific that doesn’t need its own rap…like “my rock collection”. Or anything that would be considered “too much information” or something that could be used against you, keep out!

                Also, what NOT to do with your inspiration of your rap.

2) Unless for the sake of scholarly vocabulary, don’t say words that you WOULDN’T say, like saying n****,  strong swear words, or sounding ghetto for the sake of sounding cool. If you didn’t grow up in that environment or grow up in that culture, it is just an insult to those people plus it will NOT get you respect trying to imitate them. Quite the opposite, it can really get you in trouble.

3) It’s OKAY to exaggerate the truth, but don’t stretch it too much that it changes your image. Don’t say you’re rich if you are not, or that you will do this violent act or sexual act when you’re really a good kid. (I myself might imply something mildly/moderately violent but even then it’s stylized like “I’ll roll you all over like I got legs made of tires” and not “I’ll put a gun to your head and pull the trigger”).  So don’t flat-out LIE. You can however exaggerate and make some claims here and there to blow off steam.

4) Don’t HATE in your rap. It may be hard sometimes depending on your topic. But you want your audience to be as wide as possible with nothing against you. So don’t rap negatively against race, gender, orientation, a type of music, a specific person, an interest, etc. That can only send arguments your way and you don’t want that.

You probably just want to try out a new interest and develop it into a SKILL, or you probably just want to impress some friends. Just think about sitting in a lounge chair with a counselor, cleanly pouring out all your feelings about a given subject. That subject will be your inspiration, and soon we will shape it into a rap.