How do rappers grow and evolve as rappers and lyric writers? Any advice on what to read or what music to listen to? How do rappers grow in the same way a singer would hone in on his craft? For a singer, it might be a bit easier to practice "singing." How does a rapper go about practicing rapping? A big part of rapping is creating lyrics/rhymes that aren't stale. I mean it seems harder for a rapper to grow than say a drummer or guitar player, ya know? A music producer once told me, "Rappers should pick up books of quotes and old fairy tales, if they want to grow as rappers." (He wasn't kidding.) My response was:

Any ideas..?

I googled history of rap...

it seems very wordy if ya ask me.....

http://www.rhino.com/Feat...1lin.lasso

and you could start
here and
work back
words....

There's an article on Snoop in Rolling Stone - I think right around Christmas last year. It gave a description of his home studio, which included a rhyming dictionary and a thesaurus.

Picturing that dude reading a thesaurus, looking for alternate phrases for "fu**", "mother*****" and "penis" always makes me laugh.

I know the secret to this.

CinisterCee said:

You really should share it....

Rappers are writers, best way to improve as a writer, is to read other writers lol
thats what cats like pac did,
people get shocked when they hear Pac was into Shakespeare and black poetry.
i've always said that a musician, be it rapper or song writer
is only as good as their influences, sometimes better

get shot.

Then you can be marketed as a true "thug" who is "real".

or

get shot AND die.

Then they can release all sorts of compilation albums featuring collaborations with people you never met for ten years after your death.

or
read, read, read. listen to poets. learn about history, particular the history of the U.S., black history, history of the music business or anything else that will be the topic you want to write about.

learn how classical poets structured their work. learn the meaning of "iambic pentameter".

learn how music is actually created rather than just sampled.

read anything ever written by Chuck D.

You just grow up, basically. Most of rappers start out their careers as teenagers, and if they are lucky they won't get famous until their late-twenties when they will be finally old enough to understand what terrible crap they usually did as teenagers.

novabrkr said:

Spin that.....


[Edited 2/27/07 6:51am]