In today’s article we’re going to learn a bit about the writing rap lyrics creative process by breaking down how Logic the rapper writes his rhymes.
This article is intended to both help give you a window into the writing rap lyrics creative process as a writer and prospective rapper yourself…
Or someone who is just a fan of Logic the rapper and would like to get some more in-depth info on how he likely creates his music.
As somebody who’s coached rappers full-time for over five years now, I believe that the insights we can pull from interviews and videos of Logic on his creative process can be of value to every fan of Hip-hop from artist to fan themselves.
Writing Tools
Now, we have seen several videos of Logic in the studio reading his rhymes from a smartphone, so it’s safe to assume that his go-to method of writing rhymes.
This may be simply due to his age, as many artists under the age of 30 grew up writing rhymes on devices with screens whether that be a phone or a laptop.
The advantage with writing on a phone as opposed to handwritten is that you can edit your vocabulary on the fly, even while standing in the studio recording the verse mid-take…
Which would likely be useful for a syllable heavy artist such as Logic who is consistently stacking many words “back to back to back” as he might say…
…And you can write rhymes pretty much anytime you think of them, even down to while you’re chilling on the toilet or waiting for an elevator to come down to your floor.
On the other hand, when you write on a mobile phone at times your brain moves faster than your fingers and you may lyrically not be as sharp or poetic as you’d like…
Or, you may feel like you’re out of touch with the classic Hip-Hop vibe of having a “book of rhymes” as Nas once named a song.
Logic himself has echoed this sentiment by mentioning as recently as late June of this year, 2019… that he is experimenting with physically handwriting his rhymes again:
“What I am doing for the time in 16 years, is I am writing all my raps down for the first time in a long time…I’m excited and there is something that is so different about writing on paper, you know what I mean?”
BobbysWorld YouTube Channel, June 26th 2019
Delivering What You’ve Written
In February 2018, Logic released a video of himself recording the track “44 More” while seemingly in a makeshift studio on tour.
If you’re interested in learning the writing rap lyrics creative process of Logic, this video is a goldmine.
The first thing to take away from the video is that while he probably has the vast majority of the lyrics and flow written down or at least “conceptualized in his head”…
He is actively directing people in the studio to rearrange some of the drum drops to correlate with the lyrics he’s dropping.
Additionally, he is constantly rehearsing the bars he is about to spit while pacing around in the room before performing the final take.
If you are an up-and-coming artist who’s stressed over the fact that you might not get your delivery perfect on the first few tries, or even after you’ve fully written it’s not sounding “SUPER ILL” in your mind…
…This video can help you to show that successful rappers constantly rehearse their rhymes even while in the “booth” before a final take…
Similarly, Logic performs what is known as a “punch-in” in this video.
The definition of a “punch-in” (which we’ll keep very basic for the purpose of this video) is where a rapper, rather than performing the ENTIRE verse all the way through in one take (or on one vocal track)…
…The rapper rather does sections of the rap at two, four, or even eight bars at a time…
…And then cuts together the best versions of those sections onto one long vocal take to make it sound clean as if it was all done at once.
A simple analogy might be how they shoot movies, where they shoot multiple “takes” of a scene and then they choose the best one when editing… put it together with the rest of the movie… and the final product is a seamless timeline to tell the story.
So, that’s the definition of a punch-in…
If you’re interested in hearing more examples of punch-ins, and definitions of other concepts professional rappers use to make hit records… check out our brand new free “How To Rap dictionary” by clicking HERE where we provide a growing list of 100+ definitions for words and phrases that the #1 rappers use to create hit records on demand!
How To Rap Dictionary
In any case, the reason you see Logic doing many, many “takes” of the same section of “44 More” is because he’s “punching-in” to get a good take of it, which he will later edit in to the final product.
Once you get to advanced rapper stage, you eventually even KNOW you are going to punch-in certain bars as you are writing it, and feel comfortable planning out your track that way.
Writing Rap Lyrics Creative Process: Influences
Another important aspect of Logic’s creative process is overloading his brain with influences in order to get his creative juices flowing. He does this both by filling his physical spaces with reminders of his influences AND filling his mental space… a.k.a. his mind… which reminders of his influences.
This is very important for you as well if you’re an up-and-coming artist… don’t be afraid to fill your studio, room, office, or any kind of workspace with even just a few quick reminders of your major influences…
…And of COURSE be sure to always be overloading your brain with high quality content that reminds you of what you’re shooting for creatively.
In the case of his physical space, we can see that his home is filled with nostalgic pop culture memorabilia with everything from Seinfeld and Star Wars to Kid Cudi and Quentin Tarantino.
Speaking of Quentin Tarantino, Logic (in addition to having one of his aliases by associated with director)…
Logic has begun writing movie scripts and books by infusing his brain with the style of writing that he’d like emulate.
As far as books, when comedian Trevor Noah asked Logic in an interview about how he went from being a very successful rapper to writing a novel…
Logic replied:
“You just read a bunch of books and you’re like ‘I can do that…Being able to write about my angst and what I was going through in my life through the perspective of this character allowed me to heal.”
Trevor Noah interview with Logic
Taking the “influence-infusion” even father… now that Logic is making movies, he was sure to pick up the EXACT same typewriter Tarantino writes all of his films on:
“…I decided to write another movie which is a comedy and then after that I decided to write another book, which is pretty dope which is about heists, and bank robberies. I was super into that and it takes place in the 90s. So, I got my Smith-Corona typewriter. Classic. Vintage. This is 1950? It’s either ‘50 or ‘60 or something. Yeah, this is what Tarantino writes all his sh*t on, so I just wanted to be inspired by that.”
Trevor Noah interview with Logic
Now, in your case as an artist you may not be fully ready to jump head first into movies…
But in my experience one of the best MUSICAL versions of this is to find the exact “rig” (or set of music gear) that your favorite artist is using and purchase that so you are using the exact same tone of the people who influenced you…
…One of the biggest steps for me when I first started recording was looking up what my favorite artists favorite microphones, speakers, etc. was and then saving up to buy those.
If you are curious about How To Rap’s recommendations for an affordable home studio that you can travel anywhere with and record on the fly, be sure to click HERE to get our free studio training along with a bunch of other free courses.
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CONCLUSION
Let’s review what we learned here today:
Logic’s Writing Tools
He primarily appears to use a smartphone to write, but has also been on record as saying he’s getting back into handwriting.
Logic’s Delivery in Studio
He uses the art of the “punch-in” to get the best take of written rhymes, and takes an active part in the production of the beat in relation to the vocals.
Logic’s Influences
He makes sure to surround himself with his influences from having his home studio filled with images of his favorite movies to buying the same gear his writing influences use.
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