In today’s article, we’re going to give you a little rap motivation by telling you what I believe to be the biggest LIE ever told to anyone who wants to be a rapper…
…Look, I’ve been coaching rappers from around the world for more than six years now in addition to my own 15+ years experiencing rapping…
..And SO MANY ARTISTS get discouraged and lose the motivation to rap because of THIS VERY “lie” that we’re going to debunk… right here, right now.
Now, if you don’t like being lied to about your rap career and want the God’s honest truth every time, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, “How To Rap” because we drop weekly videos based on real-life experience as a professional rap artist…
…AND be sure to pickup our free full-length book, “Self-Made Classic: How To Drop A Great Project on A Tight Budget” so that you know how to release your next album, mixtape, EP or single, even if you don’t have alot of outside money to spend. You can get that free book by clicking HERE.
The Biggest Lie They Ever Told You (Rap Motivation)
Now, I’m sure the suspense is killing you, so I’m just going to give to you straight…
First we’ll tell you the LIE you’ve been told, then we’ll give EXAMPLE after EXAMPLE after EXAMPLE of truth on how it’s not true…
The biggest lie they ever told you…
Was that…
YOU HAVE TO BE “BORN WITH IT” IN ORDER TO BE A REAL RAPPER.
What “Born With It” Means
Born with usually rears its ugly head in the several forms:
LIE #1: If You Are Bad When You Start Rapping, You’ll Be Bad Forever
There seems to be this notion that if when you start rapping, if you aren’t good, you’ll be bad forever.
Now, while nobody uses this ridiculous notion when it comes to other skills you can master in life…
…Nobody is actually thinking Michael Jordan was dunking at age 12, and in fact he famously got cut from his basketball team in middle school…
…For some reason people think that people like Eminem were ALWAYS good…
…But funny enough those people don’t even include Eminem himself.
Recently on Mike Tyson’s Hotboxin’ podcast, Eminem said as much when discussing his early progression in rap:
“LL Cool J was the one who first made me start writing rhymes… I was like 12, 13 maybe… and it sucked, you know… I wasn’t good… but I had to keep practicing, practicing… I gave it up for a little while when I was like 15… then I was able to put songs together… and then I wasn’t really good at much else”
Eminem, Hotboxin’ Podcast
(You can watch that full interview by clicking HERE)
Here we seem Eminem, one of the greatest rappers of all time not only admitting that he SUCKED when he started… but that he had to practice AND then he even gave it up for a while before picking it back up…
LIE #2: You Don’t Have To “Practice” Rap, It Should Just Come Naturally
Inherent in Eminem’s quote is also the fact that in order to improve, he (and you) had to practice.
On a channel like our “How To Rap” YouTube, we get the occasional negative comment that says things like, “Rap just needs to come naturally” or you’re not good.
This is a falsehood usually perpetuated by people who either don’t actually rap OR are quite bad at rapping (and most things in life)…
So they have no idea about how to progress in a skill and assume everyone better than them were just “born with it” and didn’t practice.
Eminem on the other hand, like most good rappers, are aware that they needed to and STILL need to practice in order attain mastery at this elusive art known as rapping.
LIE #3: You Can’t Be “Taught” How To Rap
Probably the most consistent complaint we get from people who don’t know what they’re talking about on this channel is that you can’t be “taught” how to rap.
Again, even major artists don’t agree with this.
In a video titled, funny enough, “Mase Taught Me How To Rap”, Jim Jones explains in no uncertain terms that he was taught how to rap by Mase himself:
“Mase was the first person that showed me how to rap. That’s how I learned how to rap…”
Jim Jones, VladTV
Funny enough, he continues on this train of thought to ALSO disagree directly with lie #2, “You don’t have to practice rap, it should just come naturally”:
“It’s like anything in life, some people are talented artists and some people can work hard at being good at that craft. THAT was what rap was for me… it wasn’t natural for me.”
Jim Jones, VladTV
…And even MORE interestingly in the same interview, Jim Jones mentions the connection between Eminem himself and Harlem’s rap history:
“In Harlem, the way that niggas from Harlem rap was kinda different from everybody else ‘cause our compounds were so precise… this what people hear Eminem do… but Eminem kind of took our shit and went all the way to the extreme that’s why you always hear him talk about Big L and all these rappers is because the compounding element of our music was kind of special”
Jim Jones, VladTV
Now, in this case, Jim Jones is talking about “compound” or more commonly these days known as “multisyllable rhyming”.
If you’d like to learn more about how to do multi syllable rhyming yourself, I have a video called “How To Write A Rap: Beginner To Eminem Rhyme Schemes In 11 Minutes” which you can view by clicking HERE.
In any case, as you can see Jim Jones AND Eminem have both spoken directly to the fact that you CAN improve at rapping, that you CAN be taught it, and even if you SUCK at first, you CAN get better.
What Order Should You Learn How To Rap In?
Now, I want to end this video with a little bit of an action plan if you’re interested in learning how to rap…
…Now knowing that you don’t need to have some kind of God given natural talent straight out of the womb to do it…
…Because that’s what this channel is all about.
The first thing I would suggest is starting small and then working your way up much like you would start with smaller weights in the gym, get consistent, and then add weight as you get stronger.
We have a video called, “How To Start Rapping In 10 Easy Steps” which has almost half a million views which will walk to step-by-step through the initial process which you can access by clicking here…
…And we have an Instagram page, @howtorapnation that specifically gives rapping tips multiple times a day which you can follow by clicking HERE, so be sure to follow that as well.
The last thing you should do is be sure to NOT GET OVERWHELMED BY “FLOW”.
For many people, what scares people away from rap is the aspect of “flow”.
Flow seems to be for many beginners a “mystical force” that they believed can only be attained by luck and that there’s no way to “learn” it.
I have also included a full-length free playlist on YouTube called “Rap Flow Techniques” (which you can access by clicking HERE) that will help walk you through the basics of flow all the way down running free drills with you counting out to the beat so you can master the rhythm of your words.
Have faith in yourself that like anything in life, if you work hard and take the expert advice given by people who’ve been where you’ve been… you CAN learn how to rap.
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