Rap or Rap music (a music genre which associates with rapping) have components;
what makes rap RAP, what makes rap music RAP MUSIC.A rapper should be equipped with these weapons to be highly recognized and to be tagged DOPE/SICK/ILL, without which a rapper is nothing short of a yapper. Many rappers have been called out on these for awful utilization of these components, the lack of it etc Manifest called out Sarkodie on it and that even gave birth to their short-lived beef;the winner??i guess we all know who won. Nas and Jay-Z both went at each other on this at the height of their beef,not forgetting Krs-One vs MC shan, Lil Kim vs Nicki Minaj etc.
If you want to hit legendary status as an up and coming rapper or a rapper already in the industry,you ought to master these components/elements of rap.Before you proceed,fetch your pen and paper and lay these essential elements down.
*CONTENT/MESSAGE:In rap,content comes first before everything else.Its a pathway for your audience/listeners to connect to the artist.It personalizes the lyrics and makes songs more subjective.Content allows a listener to comprehend what rapper wants to say.The content/message is what an emcee is talking/rapping about in a song.More or less, you can refer to content/message as the topic or the theme or the rap song. Having a content is one thing,sticking to it in the entirety of the song is another thing.Most rap artists digress from their content most times,even the very best of rap artists do that at times.A rapper will start rapping about police brutality or how corrupt the government is in the first verse of a song and start rapping about how his mother added too much spices in his food that he suffered from dysentery the whole night in the second verse.Does a rapper comes to mind??I hope it's not Gucci Mane,Young Thug, Kwaw Kesse,Captain Planet,Soulja Boy etc Some rappers content/message doesn't even correspond with their chorus.Content can be conveyed in a poetic form with all the assonance,alliteration,metaphors etc all up in the mix.
Also since people listens to what to you say , a rapper has to choose his content carefully.You have to scrutinize yourself and figure out the image you are going to portray in your music and make sure you make it permanent;something people can associate you with. What do you associate Nas with, 2pac, Obrafour, M.I, Common,Mos Def etc what do you associate all these rappers with!!!!?????At least their songs make you think and can inspire and impact the entire communities.
What's ya favourite rapper's message???is it conscious,inspiring you or impacting your life in any positive way or its still party songs,sex etc and still rhyming over lipstick or how he steals the shawties g-strings and wears them on his birthdays etc.
Part two will be in soon with the rest of the most essential components/elements of rap or rap music.
STAY TUNED!!!!!!
~C.E.O
