10 Easy Ways To Stay Motivated When You Write Raps

In today’s article we’re going to provide with you 10 easy-to-follow ways to stay motivated when you are learning how to rap.

As someone who has taught over a thousand rappers personally 1-on-1 over the last 5+ years, I’ve seen how struggling to keep motivation is a common theme of beginning rappers…

…And so I’ve decided to fill this article with TONS of different ideas so that you don’t have to feel a loss in motivation when going through your journey in rap music.

Intro: Staying Motivated To Write Raps

Before we begin, the easiest way to stay motivated when you write raps is to subscribe to our YouTube channel, “How To Rap” WITH NOTIFICATIONS so that twice a week you receive in-depth tips and tutorials on everything related to learning how to rap…

…And be sure to pick up your free course, “The Top 20 Songwriting Secrets of Professional Rappers” so that you can get 20 free secrets INSTANTLY on how to turn your passion for making rap music into a full-time career… pick up the course by clicking HERE.

With that out of the way… let’s start!

1. Listen To An Artist Who Makes Music Out Of Your Comfort Zone

One of the dangers with only listening to rappers who make music that you have heard before or KNOW you will enjoy is that you might end up becoming insecure as opposed to motivated when you hear their music.

This is because you will compare yourself negatively to a rapper who already believe is ABSOLUTELY amazing.

On the other hand, when you listen to a rapper who’s music you’re not familiar with or may even think you’ll dislike… you won’t have any preconceived notions of how “good” they are and you’ll take the music at face value.

I would suggest keeping a list on the notes app on your phone of rappers you’ve heard people mention before but never actually checked out their work… 

…And play some of their tracks when you’re losing motivation to get a fresh perspective.

Speaking of fresh perspectives…

2. Read Something Wordy

Now I’m not suggesting you read an entire book or even full-length article before you write your next rap when you’re losing motivation…

…But reading something that is very “verbose” or has a lot of different words and a BUNCH of unexpected words flying at you can help give your mind a workout for a batch of new lyrics.

A good place to start might be more “intellectual” article sites like Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic. Even if you don’t understand the whole article or even READ the whole thing, the vocabulary in those articles is a bit more high end and will help jog your brain for ideas.

3. Give Yourself A Low Impact, Week-Long Challenge

We as human beings are defined by our habits and usually when we lose motivation it’s because we’ve lost touch with that habit with doing the thing we want to be motivated by.

If you’re losing motivation to rap it’s probably because you’re out of the habit of doing it… 

…And you’d be surprised how just doing a LITTLE writing each day for a week can jump start your motivation to begin again.

The easiest low-impact week long challenge is writing 16 bars of rap for 7 days straight. Writing 16 bars, especially if you don’t over think it… should only take 15-30 minutes… 

…Which anybody can make time for if it’s only for a week. After you’ve completed your challenge come back to this website and begin reading other articles for more motivation.

4. Write A Rap As If It Was A Conversation With Somebody Close To You

A loss of motivation in rap is usually a loss in perspective. You’re not sure what you want to write about and you feel like anything you write is wack or inauthentic.

An easy way to have lyrics FLOWING OUT OF YOU is to simply write a rap with the mindset that you’re just recording a conversation or even “journaling” about a conversation you’d have with somebody close to you.

Because it’s on the subject matter of somebody you already know and it will be using words you’d ALREADY — USE… it will come more naturally. All you have to do is make sure it’s on beat and that it rhymes!

5. Write Your Version Of A Song Over The Same Instrumental

This is one way I used to create songs more consistently when I wasn’t sure what to write about or when I was struggling in motivation. 

The idea is pretty simple, just find the instrumental track on YouTube of a song you like (or a song who’s topic you’re at least familiar with)…

…And write your own version of the song based on the topic. This will take out the sometimes de-motivating burden of having to “think of a topic” AND you won’t even have to choose the beat.

I would suggest creating your own unique chorus to the instrumental, however, to make sure that you’re practicing choruses. 

NOTE: If choruses and songwriting is a big problem for you be sure to pick up that free course I mentioned by clicking HERE to get 20 ideas about how to structure a song properly.

6. Take Your Favorite Storytelling Track And Narrate The Plot Points

If you have a particular storytelling rap song, such as “Blaze A 50” by Nas, “Stan” by Eminem, “Da Art of Peer Pressure” by Kendrick Lamar, etc. you likely are familiar enough with the song to tell it to somebody AS a story, with no raps.

If you are not or if you want to brush up on the track’s main storyline, a great way to gain motivation is to listen to the song in-depth and just write out the main story plot points.

For example, you could say something like, “Stan is writing Eminem that he is disappointed Shady hasn’t called him. Stan has been sending letters since last Autumn.” etc.

What this will do is help open up your mind to the possibilities of song ideas in story form that you COULD be writing once the motivation is back. 

7. Freestyle Rap By Yourself

While freestyle rap is well-known as a skill within itself, it’s not often mention as one of the best ways to get motivation back to WRITE raps.

The reason for this is that freestyle rap contains many of the “mindless fun” aspects of rapping without the sometimes de-motivated grind of writing a cohesive narrative.

Sometimes the best way to get motivation to write ironically is do a part of rapping that doesn’t require writing… freestyling.

Practice pushing yourself in the areas of overlap between freestyle rap such as vocal projection, flow, and rhyme choice… without de-motivating yourself by having to write a complete song at the moment. 

8. Watch A Rap Documentary

One of the easiest ways to get your motivation for rap back is to overwhelm your overthinking mind with evidence that MANY people have learned how to rap successfully.

A good place to start might be “The Art of Rap” the old Ice T documentary partially because it is specifically about the ins and outs of WRITING raps whereas many other documentaries might cover things in Hip-Hop history that aren’t about writing.

Let us know in the comments: What’s YOUR favorite rap documentary?

Visit the comment box and see what other people say and make yourself a list of documentaries to watch to help get your motivation back!

9. Impersonation Practice

One of the easiest ways to both improve your rap voice AND practice rap without losing motivation is to practice mixing the writings of an amazing rapper with VOICE of another.

In this case, I would suggest picking one of your favorite rap songs and then one of your favorite rappers WHO DIDN’T WRITE THAT PARTICULAR SONG…

…And then putting on the instrumental… THEN rapping the song you chose in the VOICE of the other rapper.

This will again help you practice ALL of the skills needed for good rapping without the PRESSURE of writing at the current time.

Some people might complain that this is only teaching you to RAP like everybody else, however this tactic is not meant for you to DO ALL THE TIME and ONLY rap like everyone else…

…It is meant as a quick fix for MOTIVATION which is what this article is about. Once you’ve done a couple of these you’ll be re-motivated to become a rapper and get back to writing.

10. Practice A “Rap Muscle Group”

This is a concept we’ve discussed before but I wanted to throw it on here to make sure not only that you’re doing it, but that you also understand it’s a GREAT way to get motivation back.

The concept here is that just like in the gym where on certain gym days you weight lift certain muscle groups exclusively… back, biceps, chest, etc.

On certain rap days you can also EXCLUSIVELY “work out” rap muscle groups. So if one track you are working on flow, you can use another track to work on rhyme choice and another on voice, etc.

If you decide that the next rap you write will ONLY focus on ONE of those… you will not feel so pressure to write the “PERFECT RAP” and lose motivation. 

For a video explaining this concept more in depth… click HERE.

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CONCLUSION

Let’s review the list so you know exactly what to do when wanting to get back into learning how to write raps:

• Listen To An Artist Who Makes Music Out Of Your Comfort Zone
• Read Something Wordy
• Give Yourself A Low Impact, Week-Long Challenge
• Write A Rap As If It Was A Conversation With Somebody Close To You
•  Write Your Version Of A Song Over The Same Instrumental
• Take Your Favorite Storytelling Track And Narrate The Plot Points
•  Freestyle Rap By Yourself
• Watch A Rap Documentary
• Impersonation Practice
• Practice A “Rap Muscle Group”

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COMMENT: What is YOUR favorite rap documentary? 

–Drew Morisey, @drewmorisey on Instagram and Twitter