Okay, this thread is not about how to come up with great lines or great metaphors or great punchlines or great rap melodies.

I will start by saying that this is a difficult topic to talk about. I mean, all (of the two) producers I have talked to, found it very difficult to explain this properly.

PS: If I say anything you disagree with, just add your two cents to correct me etc. But even better, give a specific reason why you disagree with it instead of giving a generic answer like "that's how life is."

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I just noticed, like in the last few weeks, that I don't really rap to the drums/percussions in beats. Apparently, I rap to other non-percussion instrument like piano or bass; in one particular beat, I was rhyming to the electric guitar. Which is impressive and all (lol). Like, you can tell which instrument I am rapping to cos when you turn off every other instrument except the one I am rhyming to, my shit would sound hot.

I couldn't see what a bad idea - NOT having the syllable end on or before the last snare of a bar was - until I had the producer take away every instrument except the kick and snare and I immediately saw how bad it was. (I mean, my shit sounded so good to me until the producer took those instruments away. I was sooo close to a grammy man! "I am $600 grand deep in this ... Don't tell me I don't deserve at least one grammy." by y'all-know-who Lol)


Seriously though, **I'm about to boil this down to a science/something technical** (while ignoring the artistic aspects as much as possible)::
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A voice is also a musical instrument so it has to go with the music. And in rap beats, the most important instruments are the kicks and snares. Hiphop beats are rhythmic by nature and kick and snares are the main instruments that give hiphop/r&b (and I think, dance) beats that rhythm.

So, (it seems to me that) the most basic rule to maintaining that rhythm is to rhyme within that bar: making sure syllables end on or before the snare. When you don't end on the snare, it seems that that is what most people tend to describe as "not flowing with the beat" or "not catching a beat" or "flowing too fast for the beat" or "flowing too slow for the beat." (I bet if I think about this hard enough, I can come up with an experiment to demonstrate this CLEARLY)

There are other ways to maintain the rhythm; but no matter how complex the rhythm-maintaining-scheme is, it still obeys that end-on-or-before the snare rule. I think that other ways to get more complex with it is to rhyme to (in addition to the drums that come in between the first kick and last snare in a bar) the other drums within the bar, or the bass within the bar etc.

Part of the reason I can't verify these thoughts of mine very well is cos I am just starting to pay much closer attention to the instruments of a song (particularly, the kick, snares and any other percussion instrument); and I am not very good at hearing or paying *continuous* attention to the kick and drums.

Plus on top of that, it's difficult to observe this properly on other artists' works cos some of them get really slick with it, that you can barely tell how on earth they are able to arrange it. Listen to Lauryn Hill's rap on "So High" remix.

Even Twista obeys this rule. Once, I concentrated hard enough, and I noticed it a lil bit in Slow Jamz; and I mean, he obeys it even within that stream of words that come out before he takes a noticeable breath.

And I guess that complex rhyme-within-a-bar schemes like Lauryn's makes it hard for me to know for a fact that 99% of MOST SYLLABLES HAVE TO END ON OR BEFORE THE SNARE.

And it's harder to observe this rap-within-a-bar rule especially if you are still training your ear to think of the words coming out of the artist's mouth as just a musical instrument (I pay a lot of attention to the meaning of the words, the metaphors etc; I am more of a lyricist).

It's easier to notice rappers obey the rap-within-a-bar rule in some other artists who use simpler flow schemes like 50 Cent, and harder for flyer artists like Lauryn Hill and Jay-Z. And in some beats, the kick and snares are not as obvious as a lot of the other instruments.

Now, it may seem as if the solution to this problem is as simple as saying something like "write fewer words" or "just listen to the beat and make it fit" or "rewrite the rhyme to fit the bar." Because, I don't think it is. I mean, it can't be the solution because lightly put, I have tried those and it doesn't seem to work. There's more to it. Like, some rappers are able to fit in more words per bar, others keep it simpler, others do even more interesting acrobats (uhh, lately, Lil' Wayne - anyone???)

I have been told to try freestyling. But aside from the fact that I don't know how to freestyle, I genuinely don't think that this helps. I feel that suggesting freestyling as a solution to learning how to rap-within-a-bar is same as learning to spit pre-writtens within a bar. Only, freestyling is harder cos you have to come up with words (that do or do not make sense) while paying attention to the kick and snare; and this is too much for my brain to handle.


Currently, I am trying to hum words or bunch of syllables and making sure to end on or before the snare. (if you are wondering what I mean by humming words, try humming to, say, Jay-Z's words in "Public Service Announcement"). I feel that with the rap-humming, I don't have to bother my brain about actually coming up with words. Then eventually, when I get used to stopping on or before the snare, I can start adding words to it (essentially, dividing and conquering). Then, of course, after I get it down well, I can start adding more complex rap-humming schemes.

I have only been trying the humming thing for less than 24 hours so I am not too sure if it works or not.

So, the main point of this post is, can y'all give me any more pointers as to what might help?

Thanks a lot lot lot.