How To Rhyme Better In Rap… Your FIRST Lesson

In today’s article, we are going to give you an introductory how to rap for beginners guide to the basic rhyme patterns you need to know if you are interested in learning How To Rap. 

I’ve been coaching artists from around the world on how to go from amateur rappers to full-time professional rappers for over the last six years…

…In addition to my own experience of over 15 years as a rapper… 

So if you are passionate about learning how to rhyme better in your beginner rap videos, this step-by-step article will be PERFECT for you. 

Before we begin, I assume if you’re reading this you’re interested in improving your rap skills to a high level, so why not subscribe to our YouTube channel, “How To Rap” with notifications by clicking HERE because we drop weekly videos on how to start rapping…

…And while you’re at it, pick up our free How To Rap dictionary which comes with over 100 of the top words with definitions that every beginner rapper needs to know… you can get that by clicking HERE. 

“Perfect” Rhymes

Now let’s start the most basic fundamental building block of rhyming in rap form – the perfect rhyme.

A perfect rhyme is where two words rhyme EXACTLY the way you were taught in school. 

Each word ENDS the exact same and is pronounced in the same manner so that the words sound just alike, except the beginning of the word is slightly different…

So, for example, “bill” and “will”. The only difference in those words is the first letter.

You can also think of something like, “black” and “jack”. The only difference in those words is the beginning of the words.

Now, when you pick up a rhyming dictionary, you often only find these kinds of rhymes, which limits you creatively, so I suggest from the very beginning to not use those as a crutch. 

If you want to become a WORLD-CLASS rapper with the likes of Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, or Jay-Z, you need to be able to think out of the box with your rhymes… 

“Slant” or “Stretch” Rhymes

Which leads us to “slant” or “stretch” rhymes. You’ll hear people use either of those phrases to describe the same thing depending on where you’re learning from. 

“Slant” or “stretch” rhymes are “near perfect” rhymes in the sense that while they SOUND very close to the “perfect” rhymes we just described when they are pronounced out loud… 

…They are not quite “perfect” sense the word ends are different. 

Going back to our example, “bill” can be perfect rhymed with “will”, but it can be STRETCH rhymed with “deal”, if you change your pronunciation. 

Similarly, “black” can be perfect rhymed with “jack”… but it can be SLANT rhymed with “mad”. 

When you begin to experiment with not only perfect rhymes but SLANT or STRETCH rhymes, you will begin to open a new world of possibility of the stories and punchlines you can deliver with your raps.

“Multisyllable Rhymes” 

Now that you know what perfect rhyme and a stretch rhyme is… you can also “STACK” rhymes together to give the impression of more COMPLEXITY in your rhyme vocabulary as you rap, using what is called “multisyllable rhymes” or “multi’s”. 

A multi syllable rhyme is one where MULTIPLE SYLLABLES rhyme together in a stack. 

So, going back to our examples… 

Rather than just rhyming,

 “If you don’t pay me… hurt you I WILL”… “Give me my money, I want to see the BILL”

You can rhyme… the syllables BEFORE “bill” and “will” to make it sound more complex… 

“If you don’t pay me… we gon’ have ILL WILL / Give me money, or I’ll go KILL BILL” 

Notice how now we have two perfect rhymes back to back… and therefore we are rhyming multiple syllables.

Now, don’t think you only have to do multisyllable PERFECT rhymes. You can also rhyme multi syllable STRETCH rhymes.

So for our other example… 

You COULD rhyme multi syllable PERFECT rhymes like… 

“I just hit the JACK POT / More money than a CRACK SPOT” 

You could also say, “I just hit the JACK POT / ‘Cause my rhymes got MAD BOP”. 

“Mad” and “Bop” are SLANT rhymes of “JACK” and “POT”… BUT because there are multiple syllables being rhymed, it sounds more complex. 

Internal Rhymes 

The last concept we’ll discuss today is “internal rhymes”, or rhymes that come in the beginning of each “bar” or “line of rap”… and give the feeling of even MORE “stacking” within a rhyme. 

So, going back to our “will / bill” rhyme scheme: 

Instead of just saying, “If you don’t pay me… we gon’ have ILL WILL / Give me my money, or I’ll go KILL BILL”… 

You can say, “Give me a REAL DEAL… or we gon’ have ILL WILL / Give me money, or I’ll go KILL BILL” 

Notice how by adding the “real deal” rhyme scheme in the beginning, the rap sounds ten times more ADVANCED and LAYERED? 

One more example: 

Instead of saying… 

“I just hit the JACK POT / ‘Cause my rhymes got MAD BOP”

You could use INTERNAL rhymes and say something like… 

“I’m BACK with ten RACKS now I just hit the JACK POT / The STATS that I STACK are ‘cause my RAPS got MAD BAP” 

Using the concept of “internal rhyme stacking”… I just took a very basic bar and turned it into something that many people would consider advanced rhyming. 

Show Us Your Skills! 

Now that you know the secret methods to improving your rhymes from beginner to more advanced… 

Comment with a very basic line of rap with only a perfect rhyme… and then in the same comment, improve that line of rap to have some of the more COMPLEX ideas we taught you today. 

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–Drew Morisey, @drewmorisey on Instagram and Twitter