My name is Timtation and i’m here to guide you into the glorious genre of hip hop. I’m have come to give you some strategies,tactics and advice on how you can structure your flow, improve your verses, impress your audience with your subject matter, and how to perfect your bars and choruses.

Hip Hop is a competitive, so more than likely you will have people that will want to challenge in your quest to become a rapper. When I started rapping I was a beginner like you the readers of this article. Throughout the years i’ve studied every aspect of rap.

It made me a better rapper and a teacher among beginners.  So enjoy and take this advice to heart for it will sure help you become a intelligent rapper.

A rapper’s best choice of beginning is vocabulary itself, learning enough words to write verses and choruses. Dictionary are the best resource to search for words. Many rappers have vocabularies that are extensive and it might influence you.

My advice to you is read what you can get your hands on. Read books and expand your vocab  Any rapper that you heard speaks words. Poetry is the body of rap. Rhyming words has been the foundation of hip hop since the beginning.

Hip Hop didn’t start out as it did in the 80’s. Funk music was hip hop before hip hop. Being Funky was a way of getting jiggy with it before Will Smith said it. Words express, words tell a story, words can amaze or shock anyone who listens.

The second strategy i give to you is verse. A rap song is broken up into verses and a chorus. The normal amount lines in a verse is 16 bars. A bar is a written line that is a start to the next line which rhymes. The flow of a rapper depends on his rhyming style. Rappers have a rhyme pattern.

While the first bar is an opening for the rhyme at the end of the second bar. If you maintain a pattern for your 16 bars you will have a verse.

Not every rap verse is sixteen bars. Most rappers are known to infinitely rhyme until a chorus is created. The extending of your verse is your choice. Legendary rapper Rakim said that his style of writing is he puts 16 dots on a page, he also tries to not fill a entire line with material for he stretches his bars to another line. Verses and choruses are another add to the body of hip hop which is important in rap.

Flow is a matter in rap today. Many artists in hip hop lack this necessity. Not every beginner can flow like The Notorious B.I.G. or Jay-Z. It takes lots of practice and study. The way to formulate your flow and create your style is to study the classics. From Nas to Kool G Rap. Flows take on many forms.

There is a multisyllabic flow where rappers rhyme two words on one line or phrases are shortened so they are made to sound like they rhyme. Rappers like Kool G Rap, Jay-Z, Nas, AZ, Big Daddy Kane, Masta Ace, and others have this talent of multisyllabic rhyming.

I am not telling you to be multisyllabic. You can have a basic flow and still be a great rapper. You could have a limited vocabulary and still be an excellent rapper.

Rapping on a beat is a puzzle that is easily solved. Rapping on an instrumental is not a complex measure. Your flow is your tempo. The rhythm that you have over a beat is a flow. The end of your line might not always end on the snare of the instrumental it might end later than that. It is not a bad thing. Nobody’s perfect but rap is a privilege. Rappers who pick up the pen and write in a notebook are great types of rappers. Before songwriting my advice is to freestyle to become comfortable with what you are about to put on paper. The selection of your beat or any beat is an option to freestyle over.

Your subject matter in hip hop is most important. Common subjects in hip hop include Money,Sex,Drugs,Violence and so on. You can rap about whatever you want. Rap about your own personal experience don’t impersonate another rapper. That is a condemn in rap never do that. Rappers are conscious or at least have a stream of one.

Negative subjects are listened to and followed. Remember whatever you talk about on a song can change or inspire a person to do a certain thing. Substance is the essential theme in a song. Your substance should be something that matters or something that could be included in a song.

Before you pick up a pen and write your song, know that subject matter is important. I am an overseer of today’s rap and it isn’t like it was. Certain subjects win over young listeners but perplex others who realize your subject matter. If rap is going to be your obligation find an important topic and stick to it.

Another lesson in rap is a very shortened one, memorize your material. Practice extensively. Know what you’ve written down on your paper. Embarrassment and stage fright are two traits that most rappers feel when they perform. Stuttering and pauses while rapping is known as choking.

Do not choke keep calm and pretend that the audience is not there watching you rap. Memorizing raps isn’t just prominent on stage, it works in the studio too. Rappers usually write their songs in the studio or come prepared.

They bring their phones or notepads and recite what they have written over the microphone. Like i said nobody’s perfect, but stage presence is a important part in any rappers career.

Those are a couple of tips to help you in your career as a rapper. Good luck and Hip Hop forever!