Learning to rap: a new appreciation for rhythm and rhyme

A while back, my friend started learning to rap “Godzilla” by Eminem, and I was genuinely impressed. On a whim, I decided to try to learn rapping too.

 I’ve never rapped in my life, so my first step was to learn some songs with a moderate difficulty level. After a quick consultation with my friend, a rap fanatic, I narrowed my search down to “Lose Yourself” by Eminem — a classic, relatively non-explicit rap.

Reddit research: How to rap?

To become a rapper, one must first understand hip hop culture. With no one to help me, I turned to the Reddit community, which encouraged me to listen to “Lose Yourself” and develop a sense of how Eminem sings his rhythms. Gaining flow was the key to rap, they touted. 

Online guides also recommended rapper-wannabes LEARN the history of hip-hop to understand the subgenres and the field, which goes back more than 50 years ago. Hip-hop scholars classify hip-hop as six elements, some of which are: DJing, the handling of beats and music; MCing or “emcee-ing,” which is rapping; and Breaking, which is hip-hop’s dance form. 

Another important element in hip hop culture is graffiti, where young artists in the 1960s wanted to create something new and fresh. According to the Kennedy Center, when New York was ridden with low optimism of the 1960s movement and crime, they turned to hip-hop to reveal their thoughts and feelings. Many times, rappers drop f-bombs and other explicit language in their songs to express their strong feelings — a practice that draws in some listeners and alienates others.

Practice and repeat  

I listened to “Lose Yourself” on repeat, studying the rhythm and Eminem’s delivery. While doing so, it amazed me to see how artists like him utilize off-beats and rhyme to weave an intricate story. Sometimes, Eminem also uses syncopation, where the placement of the words are offset to the beat. 

I then analyzed the rhythms of each line, trying to emulate Eminem’s flow — the combination of rhyme and rhythm to create the rap’s desired effect. In “Lose Yourself,” for example, the rap uses an AABB rhyme structure and also some internal rhymes like “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.” 

After listening to the piece 20 times, I started to feel confident enough to start rapping it out loud instead of just tapping to the beats. Tongue twisters were inevitable and painfully everywhere, but I sectioned the lyrics off one by one, and practiced slowly before attempting to spit them out again. I mainly focused on the first verse and the chorus, parts of the song that are non-explicit.

As an inexperienced rapper wannabe, this entire process of listening to the song on repeat and stuttering through lyrics to an undisrupted take took a week and a half.  

Rappers: masters of poetry

If it wasn’t already clear to me earlier, it was now crystal clear that hip-hop is an art, and it’s a lot harder to rap than it seems. Rap artists have to create a poem with a catchy rhythm that takes the listener by surprise. 

Real rap geniuses are able to open up a metronome and start improvising in a live setting, without any stumbling. Try it for yourself — it’s deceivingly hard. I attempted to do so, and ended up creating a nursery rhyme when I rhymed “flower” with “shower.” Add in rhythm and syncopation, and it’s unbelievable how even the legends can do it. 

Pro-tip: Learn from the masters, and maybe you — unlike me — will become a rapping sensation.

Video by Ruiyan Zhu

Video clip of me rapping the first verse of “Lose Yourself.”