In today’s article, we’re going to discuss the secrets for you to keep your motivation to be a rapper…
…Even if you’ve taken a break, been unsure how to start rapping again, or EVEN if you think you’ve decided to quit and want to give this rapper thing one more shot.
As someone who has not only been professionally coaching rappers from around the world for almost a decade… and rapping myself for two decades…
I know for a fact that the tips in this article will help you to regain your motivation to be a rapper if you’ve lost it, and will help your ability to know how to start rapping again in an easy-to-follow fashion along the way.
7. Focus On Momentum For The First Month
When we say “momentum” when we’re talking about your motivation to be a rapper, we’re referring to you first getting “re-adjusted” to the act of using your brain to think of rhymes…
Fluctuating your voice to create an exciting tone over a beat, coming up with catchy choruses…
…And all of the other actions it takes to be a professional-level rapper.
Look, in plain English… if you’ve taken time off from rap or have lost a bit of motivation and haven’t been putting out a lot of music… YOU’RE RUSTY.
AND THAT’S OKAY.
There is literally nobody on the planet of the Earth, including Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, or anybody else, who will NOT get rusty if they take a long period of time off from rap…
…And this just doesn’t just apply to rap.
If you practice shooting free throws in basketball 3-4 times a week for an entire fall semester… you’re probably going to get pretty good at shooting free throws towards the end.
If, on the other hand, you take all of the winter breaks off and most of January… I can guarantee your first week of shots in February will be off.
As they say, “if you don’t use it, you lose it”, so if you’ve taken a break for a while… you’ve lost it a bit… but don’t worry you can get it back by focusing on MOMENTUM… meaning consistent practice, and eventually you will be easy coming up with tracks again before you know it.
6. Listen To Some Newly Released Music From The Culture
What I mean by this is if you’ve taken a significant break from rap, there may have been new flows, new beat styles, new song structures, etc. that have been bubbling since you left that you’ll want to incorporate.
Be sure to listen to them with an “artist’s ear” as you’re getting back into your groove with writing.
Now, you should STILL DO THIS even if you’ve been listening to music on your break, but NOT writing it yourself.
There is a MASSIVE difference between the act of listening to music as a FAN and listening to music as a PEER… meaning listening to music as somebody who ALSO creates music.
There’s an almost spiritual connection between artists when they listen to each other music because if they write a lot themselves, they are listening not only for pleasure, but to hear WHAT THEY CAN INCORPORATE in their own style.
With that said, be sure to listen to the top 10 Billboard charting rap songs, the top 5 best-reviewed rap albums of the past year, etc. It will help you to expand your style from where you started when you first took a break.
5. Listen To YOUR Old Music You Made Before You Took A Break
On the flip side, be sure to check out the old tracks you did as well as the new music that’s been released since you ALMOST gave up.
Often what will happen is you will find a track or two that you forgot how PROUD you were of making (or at the very least, felt you made progress on)…
…And you will also re-identify areas you could improve on.
So, for example… you might listen to a street banger you made 2 years ago that had an AMAZING chorus but when you re-listen to it now, you realize that the verses didn’t quite have the quality of rhymes you’d like to have.
With fresh ears and a fresh pen, you know that as you regain your momentum, you need to focus on sharpening your rhyme patterns, while you’ll also be listening to see if your chorus game is still sharp.
4. Make Raps / Songs In A Style That Are Your “Bread and Butter”
For our international readers “bread and butter” is an expression that means “most experienced style”. So, if you normally make fire-fast flows like “Rap God” by Eminem, your “bread and butter” would rap with a lot of flow changes and intricate rhyme schemes.
In any case, this secret is one of my favorite ways to regain my motivation to be a rapper.
There are certain rap styles and flow types that I find to be easier than others, for many reasons… including the fact that was the style that was hot when I started rapping, so it’s something I’ve practiced more than others, and so on.
There should be a similar style or SET of styles that you secretly find easier than others to start doing again.
3. Create An “Untold Narrative” For The Next Rap Generation
An “untold narrative” in rap would be the backstory of a previously unheard or discussed “sub-sect”, or smaller group of the culture.
Probably the most common example I see of this is when people from other countries outside of the U.S. hit me up and say…
“Hey Drew I’m from a country that doesn’t have any famous rappers… can I still be a rapper? What if I have an accent? What if I rap in a language that isn’t English?”
…And so forth and so on.
Sigh, look:
Being from a place or culture that hasn’t been represented in Hip-Hop before is one of the BEST opportunities to make money and leave a legacy in this game.
Think about how influential Kanye West was with The College Dropout.
Not only did that album (and the music he released in that era) re-introduce a new generation to the soul music of the 1960s and 1970s, but it was one of the first “middle-class suburban rap” types of albums and had a profound effect on the ability for rappers who weren’t from the stereotypical “streets” to be shown they can make genre-changing music.
You as a person from outside of the United States could do the same. I don’t even NEED to go in-depth about the profound impact that Drake as an individual artist had on the Canadian music industry as a whole.
Additionally – rappers who are from the United States but not from a stereotypical rapper background should feel like this secret is for them too.
I hear so many kids come to our platform and complain that they don’t have street cred, or face tattoos, or a lot of girls, or whatever 2004 vision of what a rapper should be and they feel like they’ve lost before they started…
Rather than the MUCH MORE positive vision of the POSSIBILITIES to make not only money but an IMPACT by telling an “underserved story” or “untold narrative” for rap.
NOTE: If you’re struggling on thinking how to write a dope rap on an “untold narrative” or your particular life story, be sure to pick up that brand new free video course, “How To Write A Rap On Any Topic In 20 Minutes or Less” we mentioned by clicking HERE to get your brain flowing.
2. Don’t Underestimate Freestyling For A Week
Don’t underestimate how useful freestyling off of the top of the dome for a week can be to get back your motivation to be a rapper can be.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is just literally RAP in order to get motivated to BE A RAPPER again, and so even just the act of spending half an hour each day freestyling for a week can get you right back where you need to be.
Now, I can already hear some of the peanut gallery saying… “But Drew, I don’t freestyle that much, or I suck… should I still do this?!”
YES!
The act of forcing yourself to practice something you’re not used to or got RUSTY at is one of the MAIN goals of learning how to start rapping again in this PROCESS!
So yes, do not be afraid to just push through freestyling for half an hour each day for a week and THEN re-check about how you feel about your motivation to be a rapper.
One quick tip along with this process of freestyling again for a week would be to CHOOSE A VARIETY of beats.
What I mean by this is pick let’s say 5 beats you’re going to freestyle to – which is roughly a half-hour of music – and have each beat a different STYLE of instrumental to flow along to…
One might be a trap banger, one might be a love song, one might be an upbeat party anthem, etc.
This will also help you stretch your “mind muscles” and force you to think outside of the box much as you would in any other creative process when making new music.
1. It’s Going To Feel Weird At First
I’m ending with this because it’s probably the biggest key to getting yourself back into not only rap but ANYTHING in life.
Look – I’m going to level with you… I’ve taken quite a long break myself from doing articles and videos at the beginning of 2021.
Once the whole lockdown thing seemed to be coming to a close, I began thinking about the next steps in life, where I wanted to live, and started focusing more on handling personal stuff for a while…
…And due to that, How To Rap went to the wayside for a few months.
Now I’m back at it, BUT you can imagine that for me right now, even writing this article and shooting videos FEELS ODD…
BECAUSE I’M OUT OF PRACTICE.
I understand this, and so right now I know I just have to GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS and create a bunch of new content, and then after 4-5, it will feel like I never left…
…But YES it feels weird right now even typing this for you.
The same will be true of your rap, so be sure to be chill on yourself and understand you’re not weird, untalented, or unmotivated just because it feels odd at first.
CONCLUSION
Let’s review the main points we learned how to start rapping again and how to keep the motivation to be a rapper:
7. Focus On Momentum For The First Month
Worry more about pushing yourself to make music consistently for a while rather than trying to make “the best music” from the jump.
6. Listen To Some Newly Released Music From The Culture
Check out the current musical landscape to get your creative juices flowing.
5. Listen To YOUR Old Music You Made Before You Took A Break
Who knows? You may find some of your best work that you didn’t REALIZE was your best work in your old tracks to help keep your motivation to be a rapper.
4. Make Raps / Songs In A Style That Are Your “Bread and Butter”
Make getting into momentum easier by making tracks that you know are the easiest for you to create.
3. Create An “Untold Narrative” For The Next Rap Generation
Focus on the stories in rap that HAVEN’T been told to expand your reach and legacy.
2. Don’t Underestimate Freestyling For A Week
Sometimes just freestyling for a week, a half-hour each day, can be your best tool to get back in the groove of learning how to start rapping again.
1. It’s Going To Feel Weird At First
Everything in life has a “re-adjustment period”. Don’t freak yourself out thinking this means you’re not meant to do this.
Chad is a professional journalist specializing in Hip-Hop culture and writing music reviews.
