Five Things Writers Can Learn From Rappers
Two different career paths but both have some common points.
When you look at the title, you may be curious and ask: “What the heck this guy is talking about?”
Well, I have been a fan of rap for nearly a decade (though I started listening to this genre a few years before). The more I listen, the more I learn from rappers for my writing even if I don’t ‘play’ rap.
Based on what I see, I can say that being writers and being rappers are not two parallel roads. They meet each other in several intersections. And the point is we, as writers, can learn a lot of things from rappers.
How to play with words
Rap is a game of words. Rappers use a broad range of vocabulary to create their songs. Their talent is that they can turn words into the rhyme, use punchline and metaphor. They make words and sentences consistent in the whole song for their purpose of delivering their messages.
Writing is the same. Writers should learn to use which words in what context. We need to have a wide range of vocabulary to play with our writing, to mix words in our article to express an opinion. At this point, as writers, we can learn from rappers to make our writing to be written in the ‘rhythm’ that we want.
Improving the range of vocabulary and expanding it into different topics are excellent ways to help writers to have great words to play with and show off in their writing.
How to change the flow
Rappers are good at this. In a rap song, an artist sometimes doesn’t use the same flow for different pieces. Even in one song, they can change their flow. They start the song with a slow flow, focusing on making clear of lyrics in the first verse. In the second verse, they make the flow faster with a stronger emotion. They do it to make their song more catchy, exciting and impressive.
What can writers learn that from rappers? Well, writing with the same style, same sentence models, same structure every post will make our stories boring. We should use a different technique and sentences to attract readers.
For examples, in some posts, writers can use more complex sentences than previous articles to make themselves different. For some posts, we may use the tactic of “one sentence one paragraph” to emphasize our points. Using various ways to write can help us to experiment with what we should do with our articles. It can help us to have different directions to touch the feeling of readers.
Variety of topics
Topics in rap songs are various, including love, society, family, life, to name a few. Some artists only make songs on a specific topic. Some test themselves with as many topics as they can. That helps them to have various “colors” in their musical career. They compose in different subjects to see how their fans like that and how successful they can reach.
Many writers write about the same thing in a long period. They keep writing about that over and over again without changing topics. It is proved to be a promising approach for readers to know about the writer and make them differentiate from the others.
However, sometimes we should challenge ourselves with a new topic, the one we have never written. That can be an experiment for us to see if we can write about things outside of our expertise.
For me, one of my favorite rappers tries several topics in his songs. That inspired me with my writing. I have written on different topics: business, law, travel, book review, a bit about technology, life, myself, or even writing. I test myself with each of them, partly they are topics I like to write the most. But I don’t hide my intention to write about more subject matters in the future.
That will be an excellent way to see how far you can go with a topic. You don’t need to be an expert on that topic. What you need to do is to write about what you know, how you feel and what you understand about it.
Observation
The last destination of both writers and rappers is to deliver your message to readers. To do so, they need to be good storytellers. But the journey to get there requires a skill that many people may ignore: Observation.
People performing rap music are good at telling their own stories. However, sometimes they don’t tell us their stories. They tell the story of someone else whom they meet on the street, or simply, a story of what they see when eating out. Those stories have their meanings to make us feel and understand what messages the artists want to deliver. To do that, the artists need to know how to observe and assess what they see around them. I respect their observation with deep feeling and different angles in a story.
Writers, in nature, are artists. Although self-stories are always the most convenient ones to tell, we can try to write about someone else. That can be a story about a successful neighbor that inspires us so much. What writers need to do is to learn how to see the world, to put ourselves into the others’ shoes to understand what other people are feeling.
For example, we can think of homeless people to write about them, how their days are, and what they have to do to survive based on what we see on the streets. Everything can be our content if we open our eyes to the whole life around us. That will be an excellent way to improve our skills and broaden the topics of writers.
A good storyteller is the one who can have a broad view of a story, to see it from different angles.
Build Own Styles
Each rapper has their style. Every time I listen to rap songs of different artists, I can see the difference in their styles. For example, Eminem is unique with his voice and astonishing tricks to create memorable lyrics. Snoop Dogg is famous with the “whispering” style, while T-pain is the master of auto-tune. Each style has made the name of the rapper.
So do writers. The first thing writers can think about writing is how to show off our characteristics to readers. For example, I like to add a bit of humor to make the piece more interesting. Some writers like a comparison in their writing to produce their articles to be convincible. Some like the way to give an adverse opinion and rebut to that one to defend their argument.
Each writer should learn how to create their style to help the audience to differentiate them to others.
Final Thought
Many people may not like rap. But, I have to say that rappers, with their skills to play with words, can deliver their messages to listeners. They utilize several skills like changing the flow and their observation skill to create their piece of arts, which writers can learn from to apply in their writing career. With their own styles, they play with their lyrics, turn words into messages to us and tell us meaningful stories about their lives or what they see around them.
Rapper and writer — two careers seem not to have things in common. But, as we can see, to be better writers, we can learn different things from rappers.
