Before you even step up to the mic, you should have an idea of what you want to say. There are too many rappers trying to make it for you to just rap about the same shit they're rapping about.
Be unique and creative. Even if you want to tackle a subject matter that's been rapped about, use your personal experience and lyrical creativity to spin it in a new direction.
Paul Edwards splits the five things you can rap about into the following sections.
- Real-Life
- Fictional
- Controversial
- Conscious
- Club/Party
Let's take a closer look at each.
Rap About Your Real Life
This is a great way to connect with listeners since at the very least it let's them appreciate what you have gone through, and at best, it gives them a way to relate to your song.
Listeners who can relate to your song, or feel that you've told the story the same way they would've told it are more likely to continue listening to your music.
You can rap about what you've gone through, the relationships you've had, the things you've had to do, or just the views you have on certain things. Most artists rap about something difficult they had to endure, since that tends to be the most interesting.
Make Something Up
By conjuring up fictional stories you can break the barrier of what you want to rap about. Often times, what you can make up is more interesting than what you've gone through. Want to have the best of real-life and fictional content? Take a real life story and exaggerate it to make it more interesting or entertaining.
Rap About What Sells
Sex, drugs, alcohol, power, money, and violence - what do these all have in common? They're all attention-grabbing topics that for better or worse are prevalent in our society.
If you're going to go this route, be wary of rapping about the same thing everyone else is rapping about. The only way you can pull off one of these topics is if you use your creativity to do it in an original and entertaining way.
One of the reasons that these topics have a lot of success for rappers like Tupac and Biggie was that they told their stories in a way that let the listener be part of their lifestyle. People love to listen to songs that make them feel a certain way - and the songs of those rap legends made people feel like they were right there on the streets experiencing the gangster life that they would otherwise never experience.
I'm In Love With The Coco is a song that comes to mind when talking about this subject.
Conscious Rap
Rapping is a medium to convey any kind of message - and if that message is positive or inspiring, it falls under conscious rap. If you choose this path, you should take confidence in the fact that your music can be a moving part of a listener's life, and it'll tend to resonate more if it's something they can learn from. Unfortunately socially-aware music tends to get less exposure than other rap content types. One of the more popular socially-aware songs is by the black eyed peas:
The Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love?
Party/Club Rap
This is the kind of rap that you hear in the clubs or at a party. Just feel-good music that's more about the flow, rhythm, then it is the actual subject matter. A lot of rap that you hear on the radio today falls under this category - when you're casually listening to music in these environments you don't have time to fully digest the actual lyrics. Therefore you have to get the beat and flow perfected.
Hopefully you have an idea about the different kinds of things you can rap about. Can't wait to see what you'll write.
