The Simple Steps – How Do You Start A Rap?
I’ve often had trouble deciding how to begin my verses. Writing rap is not like writing poetry, it’s not like writing an essay, it’s like writing rap. It’s unique because you have to write with FLOW and rhythm as well. So how DO you start a rap? The Starting Point.
The best way to start a rap is to play the beat, listen, open your mouth and hum out the first pattern of flow you feel. The lyrics you write to fit that pattern should reflect the topic of your verse. If you are writing A Capella with no beat, the first line should make your IDEAL FAN want to listen to the next line. That’s it.
Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. So the first line needs to hook your listener in. You should have an idea of the type of people you want listening to your music. If you don’t, then you should start there. With the topic and ideal listener in mind you will have an easier time deciding how to start your rap.
There is a famous TikTok audio that acts as a great example of creating patterns and flows for how to start your raps.
The beginning to this track has become famous on TikTok. But it’s a great example of how you should be thinking about forming flows and patterns before your actual rap lyrics.
But this question, how do I start a rap, raises some other questions. Like should you start with the verse? Or should you start with the hook?
Unpopular Opinion: Start With The Verse
Rap structure typically has a verse, hook, verse, hook, verse, hook. Or some variation of that scheme. These are the meat and bones of a rap song. You can also add in bridges, pre-chorus, intro and outro.
You may read on other blogs to start a rap with the chorus or the hook. It makes sense logically because the hook is SUPPOSED to be the most memorable and catchiest part of the song. But I disagree.
Starting with very first line of the very first verse is so FREEING. So start with the first 16. That way you can feel how the first verse and beat transition INTO the hook. It helps you to create the melody for the hook because it will sound different than the verse melody.
“Hip-Hop Music Is Not Pop – The Verse Is AS Important due to rhyme scheme and flow”
Things To Avoid When You Start A Rap
In order to understand how to start a rap, it’s a good idea to get acquainted with the stuff that you SHOULDN’T DO. You should be trying to live up to your high quality standards when it comes to lyric choices. Don’t fall down to the level of your local scene, make sure you rise above.
Avoid Cliches
Don’t start your rap with “Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”. Don’t start your raps with “a penny saved is a penny earned”, or “a pictures worth a thousand words”.
Come up with your own idioms and phrases that have a deeper meaning. Idioms are written down because they have been used and thought of before. Unless you are using the idiom or phrase to put a play-on words or for a punchline, don’t bother.
Played-Out Rhyme Scheme
There is a great video of Eminem talking about how much he HATES hearing played out cliche rhyme schemes over and over and over again. For example: Lyrical, Miracle, Spiritual.
Pre-Written Lines You Wrote Before You Heard The Beat
This is the number one thing I see wrong with how a lot of rappers start out their raps. You write something sick in your rhyme scheme book and you want to squeeze it in over top of a beat you like. The reason this doesn’t usually work is because the flow and the cadence of your words are WAY OFF compared to the beat.
The whole idea of dope rap is to marry the idea of lyrics and an instrumental beat in a way that makes your head-bob and deliver a potential message that might change someones life. Or maybe yours.
Just let the lyrics come to you naturally when you play the beat. Don’t try too hard, or force too many syllables into the bar or else you will get skipped pretty quickly.
What Words Do Rappers Use To Start A Rap Verse?
Your choice of lyrics at the start of your verse will determine whether your listener will keep listening to your bars. So make sure you reinforce the vibe and the title/topic/theme of the music genre you intend to appeal too.
If you are looking for the types of words rappers use in general, then there is an amazing project and guide that was completed by The Pudding
to identify the types of diverse words rappers use.
What Is A 16 In Rap?
A 16 in rap refers to the amount of bars in a verse. Often there is 16 bars in a rap verse. One bar is equivalent to one written line of rap. One bar is also equivalent to four beats of time. The speed of the beats per minute will affect how fast or slow the four beats get counted. Meaning you will be able to fit more or less words in a bar depending on the BPM’s (beats per minute).
For example, if the song is set to 60 beats per minute, that would mean there is 1 beat every second. There are 60 seconds in a minute so 60 beats per minute makes sense. If the song is set to 60 bpm, every 4 seconds would be equal to 1 bar.
I made a visual aid to help with the visual thinkers out there.
How Long Is 16 Bars Of Rap In Time?
For a beat that is 60 bpm’s, 4 bars would be equal to 16 seconds. Which also means that 16 bars in rap at 60 beats per minute would be exactly 64 seconds.
60 BPM’s: 64 seconds
90 BPM’s: 48 seconds
120 BPM’s: 32 seconds
A great way to establish your workflow when writing bars in rap is to upload your beat into your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and map out the song structure of your beat.
A great free option is Audacity Recording software. This way you can visualize the beat and place markers to see the different sections. You will then know how long each section of your rap song will be.
It’s important to understand rap song structure in order to figure out how to start a rap.
How Do You Find Your Rap Flow?
The best way to find your rap flow at the start of a rap is to play the beat, and force a sound to come out of your mouth. It could be humming, gibberish or mumbles. Don’t even form real words, but pay attention to the melody, pattern and cadence of your words.
In particular, the consonants you choose to use in your bars will have a direct affect on your rap flow. When you use word with a “ff” sound compared to a “k” sound, you end up with a different cadence to your rap flow.
The same is true for vowel choices as well. Some vowels will have a more nasally finish to them, while other vowels are deeper like a ‘U’ sound compared to the ‘eh’ sound.
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