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How to Find Your Flow in Rap [ULTIMATE GUIDE]

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If you want to become a rapper, you need to nail down the basics. You may be able to rap along to a song on the radio, but rapping your own music is a different story.

To rap your music and make it unique, you need to find your flow.

To find the flow when rapping, it’s important to understand the beat structure below the rap lyrics. Doing that can help find the center of the music, which can improve the flow.

Then, it will be much easier to add the words over the beats.

When you write your first rap, you probably want to share it with the world. But if you want it to be the best rap it can be, you need to find your flow. So consider the beats and feel of the music before you start to rap over the drums.

Why Find Your Flow in Rap

When you listen to a rapper, you can probably tell they have a unique style. They may rap about certain topics or use a particular drum pattern underneath their raps. You can call all of those things a rapper’s flow.

If you want to stand out as a rapper and attract an audience who loves all of the music you put out, you need to find your flow in rap. You can find your flow in a few different ways, and you can combine them to make yourself stand out from other rappers.

It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, but everyone should have some sort of rhythm they follow when rapping. Consider a few reasons why your flow is so important, especially when you’re getting started as a rapper.

Develop Your Style

As you start to rap, you may want to experiment with your rapping style. Some people like to rap more quickly, while others rap slowly. You may know some rappers who incorporate singing, but others focus purely on rap.

Your rap style can and will change over time, but it’s a crucial element to growing your rap career. Like with any genre, there are tons of rappers on the scene, but they all have a place in rap.

You don’t have to already have an idea of your style, but you should work on developing it.

Try to rap along with a few rappers who do things a bit differently. Consider what you do and don’t like about what each rapper does. Think about the length of their raps, the words they emphasize, and how quickly they rap.

You want to make your style unique, but you can use other rappers as inspiration to help you craft a style that works for you. Don’t be afraid if this takes time, but once you get it, you’ll have no problem finding your flow in rap.

Make It Easy to Follow

If a rap doesn’t have a flow or rhythm, it can be almost impossible to follow as a listener. While you listen to and rap along with other rappers, consider how easy it is to keep up with the rapper.

Ask yourself how it feels to rap with the song, but take a step back and listen without rapping.

You should make the style one that you can follow yourself but also something that your fans can follow. Rapping can be a great way to express yourself and get your message out, but you need to be strategic.

If you write raps that have verses of different lengths and don’t follow a consistent beat pattern, it will be difficult to follow. Even if you can memorize a rap like that, you want to make things easy on yourself.

How to Find Your Flow in Rap

If you want to find your flow as a rapper, you should be open to experimentation. Rapping is all about being creative and working with rhythm.

A lot goes into creating your flow, but once you find it, you can do a lot with it. Consider these steps to make finding your flow a breeze.

Go Freestyle

One awesome way to find your flow in rap is to improvise. Freestyle rap involves rapping what comes to your head. You could rap about the room you’re in, the day you’re having, or the people around you.

  • Rapping freestyle lets you get creative since you don’t have to worry about pre-written lyrics. Instead of spending time on memorizing, you can focus on experimenting.
  • You should also work on articulating the different syllables, which can help you find a flow within that specific rap.
  • And don’t feel like you have to rap a mile a minute. Take it slow at first so that you can let the juices flow as you freestyle.

You won’t be able to find your flow as easily if you don’t give yourself a chance to rap. Even if you don’t know what you want to rap about, you can start and let the words come to you.

The more you practice freestyle rap, the more you’ll learn what you like and what you want to turn into a song.

Work on Your Confidence

Being confident is important when performing, whether you’re a rapper or an actor. You need to be confident in your ability to rap as well as what you rap about.

If you’re struggling with your confidence, you should take the time to build that as you find your flow in rap.

Without confidence, you won’t have the momentum to keep rapping during a freestyle performance or otherwise. The more you practice rapping, the more confident you can become, and the hardest part can be getting started.

If you need help with your confidence, picture yourself as a successful rapper. Think about what that looks like and how it feels. Then, start to believe that it will happen.

The more you believe it will happen, the easier it will be to feel confident about your rapping skills.

Practice Regularly

The more you work on your confidence, the easier it will be to practice rapping, and the more you practice rapping, the more confident you’ll get.

You don’t have to spend hours a day practicing your rapping skills, but you should set a practice schedule.

If you’re busy with a bunch of other things, try to set aside 15 minutes a day to rap. Find a quiet place, put on your favorite drum beat, and start freestyling.

Or you can use that time to rap along with your favorite rapper to see what they do.

As you start to get more experience, you may want to practice rapping for a little longer. Then, if you ever get to give a full concert, you’ll have the stamina that you need to make it through.

You can also practice rapping while you drive or as you cook dinner, which can be useful if you have a busy schedule.

Choose the Right Topics

Another thing you can do to find your flow in rap is to choose the things you want to rap about.

You can rap about everything from relationships to work to your daily life. Every rapper will prefer certain topics over others, and that’s okay.

If you don’t like rapping about the most popular topics, you can still rap. You may be surprised to find that a lot of people want to listen to rap about other things.

And if you can find the people that like you and your songs, you can be pretty successful.

Having a topic or two that you tend to rap about will make it easier when you begin writing raps ahead of time. You won’t have to worry as much about writer’s block, especially if the topic is one you like.

If you decide you want to rap about something else, you can do that, but make sure you focus on something that you enjoy so that you can find your flow.

Focus on the Beat

Most rap songs have four beats in a bar, and they can have as few or as many bars as you want. But you should focus on the repetition of those four beats throughout your song.

Then, you can fit your lyrics into the beat when it comes time to do that.

If you’ve never studied how music works, it can help to understand a bit of music theory. The first beat of each measure is usually stronger than the other beats.

However, the third beat is a little stronger than the second and fourth beats but not as strong as the first.

You can use that standard beat pattern to determine where in a bar to start a verse or chorus in your rap. It can help you figure out the rhythm of your lyrics and what syllables or works you have to accentuate.

While every song you write should be different, you can use the beat structure to determine where to place certain parts of your rap.

Feel the Drums

To help you focus on the beat, you can use the drums to back your rap track. In most cases, you can expect a drummer to play the kick drum on the first and third beats in a bar.

They’ll usually play the snare drum on the second and fourth beats.

If you prefer to use a drum loop, that pattern is relatively easy to program into your music software. Either way, the kick-snare-kick-snare pattern can help you feel the beats as you rap.

You can feel the drum beats through your feet if you stand, and the volume of the drums also makes them easy to hear.

The better you can feel the drum pattern, the easier it will be to find your flow in a particular song. You won’t have to worry as much about the rhythm if you can feel it. So you can focus more on the lyrics and other aspects of your rap.

Know When to Breathe

You may not be singing different notes, but you still need to work on your breathing to improve the flow of your rapping.

Almost nothing is worse for a rapper than getting into a rhythm only to have to take a breath in the wrong place. Think about breathing like you would when speaking normally.

Odds are you wouldn’t breathe in a random *breath* place. Try reading any sentence aloud, but instead of pausing after a comma, you *breathe* later or earlier in the sentence. It doesn’t feel right, and that applies to the flow of rap.

As you write a rap, try to figure out where you can breathe within a verse or chorus. Make sure you practice breathing in those places when you practice the rap.

And before you begin rapping, try to get a deep breath so that you have enough air for the first part.

You can use breathing exercises to improve your lung capacity, which can help you go longer between breaths. Breathing exercises can also help you prepare for the act of breathing while rapping since it can feel unnatural at first.

Then, you can make sure you won’t get lightheaded or pass out from a lack of oxygen.

Add the Rap on Top

Now it’s time to use your lyrics to help add to your flow in rap. Once you have a drum pattern, either from a drummer or a music program, you can combine it with your lyrics.

Use your breathing exercises to prepare, especially if you know you’ll need to rap a while before you can breathe.

Feel free to experiment with where you place certain lyrics in a bar. You don’t have to rap super slow, but you want to clearly state each of the words. And while rapping quickly can be a stylistic choice, it’s not for everyone.

Play around with different ways you can rap your lyrics. You can rap the verses with one rhythmic pattern, and you can use a different pattern for the chorus.

Now’s the time for you to get creative about pairing your rap with the backing track.

Record Yourself

After you get the flow of a song, you should record yourself rapping it. Before you finalize the recording, listen to it and follow the same process as you did with other rappers.

Analyze what you like about the flow of your rap and what you want to change.

You don’t need any fancy equipment to record yourself because a lot of smartphones have excellent recording apps. But try to record yourself at least once for every rap you write.

It may be hard to listen to yourself at first, but you should make sure that you’re proud of your song and the flow.

If you find that you like it, great, you can edit the recording and release it on a platform like Spotify. But if you notice something’s a little off, you can determine the problem and fix it.

You can focus on that specific part of the rap and record it in a few different ways. Listen back and find the option that you like the best.

Change It Up

If it takes a while to find a flow that you like, that’s okay. You can experiment with the flow of a single rap to find something that works for you. If you don’t like something but can’t figure out how to change it, ask a friend for help.

You can rap live or play a recording for your friends and family and ask for feedback. Ask your friends about the flow of the lyrics and how they fit in with the beat.

If there’s a particular spot you don’t like, have your friends focus on that part.

You may have a friend or family member who comes up with an idea that you wouldn’t have thought of. But if you like it (and your friend approves), you can make the change.

Then, you can record that version and listen back to see if you like it.

Know It Will Come

Finding your flow in rap can take time, and it may change over time. Even if you like the flow of one rapper, that same rhythm may not work for you. Try to remember to stand out and do what works with you and your style.

Finding your flow in rap can take time, and it won’t happen at the same time for everyone. Some rappers may find it more quickly, while for others, it will take more time.

You may need to record a rap over and over to get it right, but once you do, you will know. The feeling of getting the right flow is one you will start to crave, and that can make you want to write more.

Then, you can create new music that you love and want to share. And you can use that momentum to further develop your style and flow in rap.

Conclusion

Rapping can be an excellent way to express yourself and perform for others, but you need to find your flow in rap.

You need to understand and be able to feel the beats of any backing track that you use, and you should be able to breathe where it makes sense. Then, you’ll be able to rap like you’ve never rapped before.

If you are a budding rapper, you may also be interested in our full guide to writing rap verses. You can read that article HERE.

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