What Are Rap Ad Libs?
Yeah.
boi
eh.
skrr.
oh.
These are common rap ad libs you will hear in random hip hop songs throughout the history of this music. I would argue they are used almost too much in 2020 but they can actually really add emotion and rhythm to your music.
Ad libs in rap are almost always placed at the end of the bar after the fourth beat. They are phrases, remarks, comments, noises, or melodic tones that are often a syllable or two in length.
They can add depth to a line, but they almost always come after the rhyme and before the start of the next bar.
Examples of Rap Ad Libs
There are a ton of examples of rap ad lips.
One of my favourite artist to incorporate dope adlibs is Tech N9ne. I’m pretty sure this dude lives to write libs. Haha. Let’s see how it looks on paper. The ad libs show up in bold for the lyrics below.
Tech N9ne verse on the song Fragile.
“By the times it’ll be better, leave it in the sto (Chea)
Cause they wrote nothin’ but lies, quotes stuck in my eyes
Amateur writer dissin’ (Chea)
He’s a beginner and hopes for your demise, folks I’ma despise
Never do try to listen (Chea)“
Another great example of ad libs in hip hop music is Joyner Lucas on Eminem’s track Lucky You.
“Run at you hard like a sumo (Sumo)
They say I talk like a chulo (Chulo)
I live in Mars, I’m not Bruno (Woo)
Bitch I’m a dog, call me Cujo (Rah)
You play your cards, I reverse on you all
And I might just draw 4 like a Uno (Bup)
Cállate boca mejor, maricón, little puto, and all of you culo (Joyner)“
But maybe the most famous rap ad-lib to date is Lil’ Jon with his “OKAYYYY” or “WHATTT”. But there are so many different types of potential for rap ad libs to make your hip hop music sound dope and even flow better. The ad libs really do fill in some gaps.
How To Do Your Own Rap Ad-Libs
Ad libs in rap are usually represented by brackets at the end of the bar when you look at lyrics. Oftentimes, rappers will record their verse lyrics in one recording and then go back over the vocals a second time to add the rap ad libs.
Sometimes you pre-write the ad libs so that they can alter the effect and emotion of the song. But you can also just let your emotions take over in the booth when recording and grunt it out haha. Not like tennis style, well, nevermind that might work too.
Most rappers will not pre-write their ad-libs in rap. Just record them in after they record their verse to fill in the holes. This is a stylistic choice. You DO NOT NEED to have ad lips so don’t force them.
Where Do You Put The Ad Libs?
They are placed at the end of the bar after the 4th beat in the bar. The reason for this is that at the end of the bar, people tend to place the emphasis of their last rhyme right on the 4th beat.
Which leaves space between the 4th beat and the 1st beat of the next bar. This space doesn’t just dissapear. Sometimes the silence is good so the cadence and delivery get a chance to breathe.
Other times you might feel like that space can be filled. In comes Rap ad libs.
Who Started This?
I really can’t trace this back to one specific rapper. But the most famous ad libs came from Lil’ Jon.
WHHHHHHAAAAAT!? OK!
I could imagine it started way before this when hip-hop and rap first started gathering attention. But there are so many different styles of ad libs you can use. Some types will just fill in space, while other types of ad libs in rap will add depth to bars.
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