Eps 9: Do you ever want to write songs like Eminem here's how
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Jane Nelson
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Make sure that when writing your rap, you are not sounding outdated in cadence, flow, and lyrics, if you are trying to get mainstream exposure nowadays. You can find rap songs using all kinds of different beat patterns and structures, but if you are starting out, stick with the basics. There are just a handful of different types of rap song structures heard in Spotifys best-played hip-hop playlists.
Try using complicated rhymes when you can -- rhymes of multiple-syllable words together, or rhyming of a single-syllable word with multiple-syllable words, etc. Eventually, the lines that you enjoy come together to form an entire song, which can be a great way to practise your rhymes. This is what Eminem does, and just like using ad-libs, it really lets you get into what Eminem is saying, making it a lot more satisfying music.
On top of this, he uses ad libs, in which he inserts references to characters in one of his skits in his songs. When Eminem writes the verse, Eminem will put accents and slams into the final words in a verse -- and then he will leave space for the next verse. You will also notice he uses a few multi-syllable rhymes within this sentence: Hall, Alcohol, and Wall are rhyming, while Fame and Shame are both rhymed.
Eminem frequently raps about his childhood, his infidelity in relationships with others , his pain of losing himself on songs , or both . Eminem has released over 250 singles and albums, and is known for his hip-hop rapping skills with powerful lyrics tackling delicate subjects. Eminem can rap, he has things to say, and the media used does not necessarily demand him to be cautious with words, so he just does.
Eminem is simply capable of mastering the basics well enough to not have to rely on tricks to do a good job of rapping. He loves showing off his human side for the people who like his music, but for other rappers that have been critical of him, he chooses to be the God. Through Rap God, Eminem responds to all of the people who have been critical of Eminems style and trying to downplay his importance as an artist.
For instance, on his song Rap God, he says that the only hall of fame that I am in is alcohol fame, shame to wall. These are all pretty hard to grasp without a few examples, so I am going to provide a few examples of Eminems songs below, so you can get an idea of how he does this. Another trick that Eminem uses to make his raps more fleshed out is creating recurring characters throughout his songs, which helps to fill in the universe that he wants his listeners to inhabit.
Another common tactic Eminem uses is having recurring characters appear over in Eminems lyrics. This works very well, as long-time fans know both characters, which makes it seem very smart, as well as recalling memories from his earlier songs. When I say roleplaying, I am specifically talking about Eminems willingness to let characters speak things and insert themselves in his songs in order to help create the narrative, rather than simply explicitly describing what people are being described by.
One of the first things Eminem does to help his lyrics connect is use a narrative format that we will call the struggle-success narrative. One of the things that makes Eminem so polarizing is his flow of messages from his head to his microphone, only thinly-filtered between. When listening to his raps, consider the story it is telling, what kind of mood it is going to set people in, and the rhyming that is required.
A verse on the page might be rich in visual metaphors, but when writing rap, you have got to make it sound good. Great rap lyrics are personal, flowing like water, and they blend in to a song, making a point or theme just as well as an excellent essay or short story. The primary role of the rap chorus is to provide you with an overview of the songs feelings, emotions, and ideas in an overarching fashion.
Rap God might seem like a song that Eminem boasts his rapping skills and rants against everyone else, but Rap God is so much more. Rap God is one of Eminems most critically-acclaimed tracks and, overall, one of the best rap songs from the past decade. Another example, on Rap God, when he says, All I do is drop the F-bomb, then the explosion sounds.
With the characters that Eminem has been featuring a lot, Eminem does not just reference them in songs, but even apes them, sometimes having them do the whole bars in the song, like with the paralyzed actor Christopher Reeves on the song Relapse. Unlike some rappers today that share similar styles, like Migos and Future, that produce what is called trap music, Eminems style of rapping is uniquely Eminems.