My Hiphop Guidelines

Ok here I'm going to practice hiphop, simply because I can type faster than I can write, and the ideas come quickly when they come at all.

I have found that the best thing to do first, before creating anything, is to create the individual tools I'll need to create any particular work in that medium.

In hiphop, what are the tools? I guess there are many kinds of hiphop, many methods... a lot of hiphop artists maintain that you have to improvise on the spot for it to be your "real, honest to goodness spirit"... and I sort of agree but right now I have NO experience with this medium so I need to start slow.. like playing slow games of chess before graduating to speed chess.

So the tools *I'm* going to create are going to be logical frameworks for me to go about writing these lyrics.

Tool 1: The "beat".
I have no beat because I have no ability to make a beat... except my mouth I guess. I don't have music to sample or whatnot though. So I'm basically doing this silently... which does hamper what I can do emotionally. But I'm more mental than emotional anyway. I'm going to have to do my songs very methodically, like Eminem sounds... I mean that's one of the only influences I've listened to, anyway. So I'm going to have to sort of make the beat by the way I EMPHASIZE certain words, and the PACING of each verse... like most of the greats focus on anyway. The beat needs to be endemic... meaning, the fabric of the WORDS themselves... not leaning on any beat as a crutch.

Tool 2: The "vision."
I MUST stick to the vision on each song I do. I know from my pathetic attempts to sing "on the fly" (ad-libbed, "real" hiphop) that if I lose focus for even a fraction of a second it's like driving a car at a hundred miles an hour.. you can derail in a hurry.

Tool 3: The "thesis."
Every meaningful piece of prose or writing or song... has a thesis statement behind it. This is the "point" of the song. The reason to sing it, and the meaning the listeners will get out of it. The "theme." I am going to have to write this down beforehand each time, in detail.

Tool 4: The "rhyme structure."
I don't know how to plan for this. I think it's going to simply have to evolve over time as I gain more and more experience.

........

As I go I'll probably identify more tools I'll need. But this is a good starting point I think.