So You Wanna Rap? Start By Understanding Bars.
Since all of you do an amazing job on decoding genius rap lyrics, do any of you have good tips on writing rap lyrics? I really need help, I’m running out of wordplay.
After determining the bars, you will be able to write your lyrics within the confines of a bar. Finding rap instrumentals online or picking a favorite rap song can help you learn how to identify bars.
Rap is one of the biggest selling music genres today, and many rap artists also consider themselves modern day poets, as do their fans. Whether you prefer poetry over rap or the other way around, there are definitely similarities and differences between both art forms. The main difference is the music.
Rap is like poetry, except good. So the Rap Genius University series is our effort to teach you some stuff that you zoned out for during that English class where the poems were about Nature, Love.
The method of writing a rap verse that I advocate is writing it by piecemeal. Writing a high volume of lyrics, choosing the best bars and putting them together in one verse. The reason why is to compartmentalize the tasks of writing lyrics and composing a verse.
In rap, as in music in general, bars (measures) break a song into bite-sized bits. Each bar contains a certain number of beats. In hip-hop, four beats per bar is most common. All the instruments in a song follow this pattern, and an MC's voice is no exception. The best rappers fit their rhymes seamlessly into the bars of their songs.
Writing bars takes time and a lot of practice, but like everything practice makes perfect. Firstly there’s many styles of writing, it could be storytelling, could be writing to describe how you feel about a certain situation or topic, whatever the subject matter may be.