Is Rapping Easy? - Performer Life

Starting something as new as a career in rap can be a bit overwhelming. There are so many different things to think about and plan for, and it can be stressful. Many people may think that rapping is as simple as speaking on top of a rhythm, but it’s not quite that simple.

Rapping is not as easy as some may make it seem. Staying on the beat, maintaining a consistent flow, staying in the key of the music, and coming up with catchy rhymes are all difficult tasks. However, with hard work and dedication, it is possible to become a talented and successful rapper.

If you want to learn more about how to become a popular and successful rapper, keep reading!

Table of Contents

The Difficulties of Rapping

Aspiring rappers are bound to face many challenges that may hinder their success. However, knowing about these difficulties before you have to face them can help better prepare you for these difficulties.

A lot of new rappers face one difficulty: they’re trying to make a career out of something they’re treating as a hobby. Careers take a lot of dedication, hard work, and time.

Your success when starting a career is directly proportional to how much time and work you put in.

This applies to rapping, too. You can rap once a week with your friends for fun, but don’t expect to be an overnight sensation. If you want to make a name for yourself in rap, you have to dedicate the time.

Some aspiring rappers work 40 hours a week, making music, recording, writing rhymes, and promoting themselves to try and become successful. Oftentimes they’re dedicating their time to rapping while also working a side job.

Career rappers are not faint of heart and are very resilient. When you pursue a career in the music industry, you have to be able to cope and deal with failure and rejection.

Most rappers will produce song after song before they find representation or a label that wants to produce their music, and this can be a very discouraging process.

Consistency separates the weak from the strong, where the strong become successful and/or famous rappers. It is easy to be a fan of rap or even pursue rap as a hobby, but rap as a career is a difficult feat.

Another struggle that new rappers have is finding things to rap about. Rap and hip hop are some of the most truthful and heartbreaking genres.

Rap originated in the ghettos and underprivileged areas as a way for minorities to express themselves and their frustrations with the social, racial, and economic injustices they were facing.

Sadly, some rappers grew up in similar conditions as some of the first rappers; therefore, they have a plethora of experience and inspiration to write music about.

However, it is not uncommon for new rappers to come from average middle-class families nowadays.

When this is the case, the typical pain and struggle encapsulated into most rap music is lost, which is why some people have begun to lose respect for the genre or the “try-hard” rappers they deem to lack substance in their music.

When beginning to rap, you have to find important things to derive the amount of passion needed to be successful. If you’re rapping about topics you don’t care about deeply, it will be obvious in your music.

You don’t have to grow up a minority to be a successful rapper, as long as you are still finding topics that you feel strongly about and that other people can relate to.

These are just a few of the difficult situations you may encounter if you are thinking about pursuing a career in rap or hip hop. However, this should in no way discourage you. For every difficulty, there are ways to overcome them to achieve success.

Tips for the Aspiring Rapper

Just because it may be difficult to break into the rapping scene, does not make it impossible. With the right tips and tricks combined with the required work ethic, you can take substantial steps towards being discovered.

Listen to a Lot of Rap Music

The best way to improve your rapping abilities is to expose yourself to the genre and really dedicate time to familiarizing yourself with rap as an art form. Too many new rappers begin writing rhymes far too early.

To start writing decent rhymes, you have to be able to identify the good qualities of other raps and find a style that works for you.

Practice, Practice, Practice

New rappers should be prepared to spend a lot of time practicing and honing their new skill.

If you’re trying to rap as a hobby, dedicate a hobby amount of time. However, if you’re looking to rap professionally and make a career out of this genre, you should expect to put 40 hours a week in like you would with any other full-time career.

New rappers practice writing new rhymes, experimenting with rhythms and flows, and creating new material as much as any other professional does in their jobs.

Create a Ton of Material

This is not to say quantity over quality, but the more songs you produce, the more likely it is that one will be the hit that gets you discovered. Plus, the more material you have out, the larger the fan base you can obtain—the more people who listen to your music and know your name, the better.

Many different platforms are excellent tools to expose your music to large audiences. Some rappers have found success using SoundCloud, Youtube, and other forms of social media to publish music and promote themselves as artists.

Make Connections

Show business and Hollywood are often places where people rely on connections to get ahead, much like any other workforce.

The more people you know in the business, the better the chances are that one of them can help you get discovered and become successful.

There are a lot of different ways to make these connections. Sometimes, it is as easy as reaching out to your community members or followers on your streaming platform.

You can reach out to other small artists and try to collaborate with them. You can also try to book smaller venues to perform, give demos to radio stations and club owners, or even take to the internet.

LinkedIn may seem like an extremely professional place where many rappers may not think to go. However, it is a place for professionals or aspiring professionals to find similar professionals and potential employers. This makes it an incredible resource for anyone, including rappers.

Getting on LinkedIn may help you find other artists to collaborate with, or you could even find a manager, a producer, an agent, a record label, or another version of representation.

The connections you could possibly make on LinkedIn could help further your career and help you discover. You can also make connections or get exposure to larger audiences through other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

Conclusion

Hopefully, by now, you are starting to realize that rapping may not be as easy as talking along to music whilst wearing cool clothes. Rapping is an art form, just like any other genre of music.

This is just the beginning of all the hard work and countless hours that rappers have to dedicate to become successful artists.

Being a successful rapper is very difficult, and it is not accomplished by those who are unwilling to put in the right amount of effort. However, with the right mindset and the right amount of dedication, anyone can take rapping from an interest to a hobby to a career.