Article 44: Swinging in the dark

In the quest to find real!

It is a very true story that we have a lot of rappers out there. Rap is the one element that most people choose to explore when they delve into hip hop. While this keeps the music alive, most rappers cannot distinguish between being a lyricist and a word player. Now I’m no expert but I expect to hear your style as soon as you step on the mic.

We have asked this question on our social network accounts and very few so called rappers did not even attempt to answer that question. Those who did answer the question correctly were those who really have found what it means to be a rapper. Now I’m going to give you the most common example I can think of which is Tupac and The Notorious BIG. Pac is an all out lyricist, he did not play around with puns and humor so much in his tracks. He was more of a spiritual rapper who expressed his daily experiences in his lyrics through rhymes and hardcore truth. He did not use so many metaphors nor numerous gestures. He just wrote a story and managed to tell it in 4 minutes of a track. Now I consider that lyricism. The Notorious BIG on the other hand is well known for using humor in his lyrics, he could play with any word thrown to him and make a song out of all that. He used his daily experiences to write his music too but expressed it in a way that made people be able to laugh and really look deep into the environment they live in. he did not ridicule the struggle, he just simply dissed those who did not understand the true definition of what rap should sound like.

Bringing it back home and to the new school of rap, artists could care less about these signatures you have to have in your music in order for people to identify with you. Some people are not hip hop fans, some don’t even care about how you express yourself on a track, but if you look at the tracks that are most loved by none hip hop heads, you will discover that they either love the message in the track or the puns and jargon in the track.

Just saying know your style, don’t just rhyme, don’t just say your 16 bars are lyrics. It takes a whole lot more than just rhyming and writing a catchy hook to say your track is dope. You have to know that not everyone is interested in your rhyme scheme. Not everyone is happy when they listen to your track and not everyone who listens to your track has money or material things.

The question here is “Are you a lyricist or you a wordplayer?” 

TheNASHmag Ed.
Thapelo Chauque

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