7 Rap Songwriting Secrets NOBODY Tells You (Hip-Hop Songwriting Tips)

Let’s expose 10 rap songwriting secrets that nobody tells you about. 

We’ll not only be discussing WHY the greatest rappers of all time use each one of these Hip-Hop songwriting tactics… 

…But also HOW you can do it too if mastering rap songwriting is a goal for your music this year… 

Or if you’re a fan of the art form who is curious about the secrets of rap songwriting that the greats use. 

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The Top 20 Songwriting Secrets of Full-Time Rappers (FREE VIDEO COURSE): https://freestylefortnight.com/top20songwriter

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The Top 100 Words Every Professional Rapper Must Know (FREE HTR DICTIONARY): https://freestylefortnight.com/top100

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Introduction
0:52 Free Songwriting Course
1:18 #7 Same Words and Melody, Different Voice 
2:18 Free Rap Dictionary
2:32 #6 Short Intro Rolling Quickly To Catchy Section
4:14 #5 Shorten The End of The Song
5:52 #4 Introducing The Chorus Within The First 30 Seconds 
7:11 #3 Simplify Your Flow In The Last 4 Bars of Each Verse
8:13 #2 The J. Cole Method of ”Layering the Hook”
9:03 #1 Write More Songs Than Needed
10:53 Comment and Get Your Free Course!

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FULL ARTICLE ON THIS TOPIC: https://rapgamenow.com/7-rap-songwriting-secrets/

Let’s start this off with one of the easiest rap songwriting secrets for rappers to create a catchy chorus (also known as a hook): 
Keeping the same words or even melody in a chorus or bridge and simply changing the vocal delivery or voice tone to give it more life and energy. 

If you look at a track like Joey Badass’ “Devastated”, the chorus is technically just a 4-bar “scheme” repeated twice… totaling in 8 bars: 

I used to feel so devastated
At times I thought we’d never make it

The major key difference that makes this chorus feel “bigger” or “longer” is that he does a distinctly strong vocal change when the beat drops for bars 5-8. This is an expert example of great advanced rap songwriting techniques.

He actually does the exact same technique for the bridge (or verse 3, depending how you look at it) with the “put my pain in a cadence, turn my brain up a wavelength” section… 

Where he performs it one go around in a calm voice and then does the exact same section AGAIN but with doubled voices and more vocal intensity. 

Both in that particular song “Devastated” and many others by rappers such as Kendrick Lamar – whose songwriting we’ll break down in a second… 

Often modern rappers have shortened their instrumental intro and rolled QUICKLY into a catchy section (such as the chorus) in order to capture the listener’s attention. 

Due to the shortened attention span of your average listener, hip-hop songs (especially in the mainstream – even for “lyrical” rappers) have been shortening. 

According to a report done by Stat Crunch, the average song length of a song on the Billboard Hot 100 has decreased by a full 20 seconds… over the past FIVE years alone. 

Now, historically, the intro – the section of the song where the beat is first introduced, without or without vocals – is usually 8 bars (or lines of rap over the beat). 

That means in the past… for a full 8 bars you’d be listening to just the beat playing or the beat with some ad-libs and trash-talking to get into the mood of the song. 

However, since we’ve just learned that a slightly shorter song is one of the keys to getting closer to the definition of a modern “hit”, new rappers might consider cutting out that extra 4 bars and just get right into the track.

You definitely usually WANT to have an intro of some sort, but 4 bars is long enough to get people in the mood of the beat and add any short ad-libbing you want to do. 

In the next secret, we’ll show again how even lyrical rappers like Kendrick Lamar do this EXACT same “shortening the intro” trick… but a quick pro-tip if you ARE an up-and-coming rapper watching this: be sure that you’ve purchased the proper type of beat lease from the producer where you can “manipulate”, or change the beat… otherwise the producer can come after you for messing with their portion of music. 

FULL ARTICLE CONTINUED: https://rapgamenow.com/7-rap-songwriting-secrets/

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