Made Wade is a Toronto artist who has a knack for dope delivery and classic boom-bap inspired music. I met Wade back in High School, but Wade has steadily improved since then. The download I have linked here serves as his demo disk and it sounds excellent; tracks like Just Rhyme, Slow Dat and Dope Shit are more than enough for me to recommend that you download Abunchademos… NOW! Oh, and it’s also FREE. You have no excuse now.
I introduce STEP YOUR GAME UP! Tutorials I have written to help you, the emcee/lyricist or whatever you’re aiming for, to become adept at the art of writing lyrics. These guides, while tailored for the Hip Hop heads, can pertain to those in many different fields. That means whether you’re reading this guide to learn how to write lyrics for rock music, heavy metal or even poetry, you can take something out of these guides when it comes to writing solid lyrics; Essentially the lyricism in any field is all the same, it just depends on what you want to do with it. I will post numerous chapters and have a Q&A aspect to each of these posts, and definitely feel free to ask questions in the comments!
And without further ado!
This Is An Introduction…
So you want to learn how to write lyrics? You crazy motherfucker. Lyric writing is an incredible art form and learning how to do so will take some time, but when you get better you will find the beauty in rhyming. Or maybe not rhyming at all? Doesn’t matter, it is up to you.
You see, there is this misconception in Hip Hop that lyric writing means having to follow things in a certain method. Arguably, any method is the correct method. Lyric writing does not equate rapping ability. Keep this in mind. Lyric writing can be formulated to follow beat patterns, such as those found in Hip Hop, but by writing good lyrics you are not dictating whether or not what you wrote is a rap or not. A rap is typical by it’s delivery. How it is delivered to that beat is what makes it a rap. If it is sung? Than it is not rapping, it is singing. Many people will have different opinions on whether or not lyricism defines rapping or not, but through the years I have spent writing lyrics I have found that the writing process can be minimal in many instances, and it is the delivery that defines the rapping.
So you may be sitting at your computer, eating your bag of chips and wiping off your keyboard from the last half hour or so ago of watching some films your mother would not approve of, asking yourself, “Why is Moniker saying, F&*% WMG?! They have never affected me in anyway, and so why be mad at them?”
Well my young internet-porn-minded sir (or possibly mam? haha… right), WMG seems to consistently – and I assume forcibly – delete classic Hip Hop videos because like the dirty snakes they are, they own the rights to the content and refuse to let other sirs enjoy the classic music videos.
If you haven’t noticed already, or if you even cared for that matter, videos I linked to from the gracious gentlemen who posted up the classic Hip Hop tracks on Youtube, are mostly taken down as a result of WMG. I was going to post up another video to the ever-so-brilliant “Sound Bwoy Burriel,” but not-surprisingly, WMG took it down.
“Some DT’s took my MPV, I was rollin’ with niggas wildin’, bucking up the block while we listen stop the violence!”
Criminal is a peculiar album in that, the album embodies everything that a classic 94′ album would, but the masses have barely any clue what it is or who it is by. Criminal is the debut album by Scientifik, and it is a shame such a great debut has been lost in the realm of obscure Hip Hop albums. So you would think Scientifik with such a strong debut offering would at least reappear with other works… right? Well, sadly there is not much known about Scientifik other than that he died shortly after releasing this excellent album; as depressing as Scientifik’s premature death is, he released one brilliant piece of work before leaving, and while Criminal is not the second coming of Illmatic–like some blogs may assert–Criminal is a great piece that did not get the shine it deserved due to a very subtle release and the death of it’s main star.
" Madame Butterfly let me in your house of pleasure"
“This is it, whaaaat, Luchin pouring from the sky, lets get rich, what!” Camp Lo seems to not be recognized for their lyrical output. Sure they had brilliant production handled by Jay-Z’s early producer Ski, but the actual content of their lyricism seems to be overlooked for what it really is. Certainly people will state they loved the style of Camp Lo’s lyrics, but those same people probably did not delve past the the flow that delivered those lyrics.
What I am trying to get at regarding their lyricism is that it seems to be forgotten. Camp Lo is not regarded for the brilliance behind their stylization of words and seems to have been forgotten by a lot of the newschool and even old school listeners. The style they use on their first album, Uptown Saturday Night, is probably one of the freshest styles of rapping I have ever heard from absolutely any rap artist or group. I have never heard any artist twist as many classic references and classic slang’s to provide a narrative. Their single, Luchini, is a great example of how they used different movie references and outdated slang’s to describe their
Mad Ammo is the single from Celph Titled’s gorgeous boom-bap filled album from 2010. The video in my opinion is even better than the actual track on the album because of the interviews between verses. The album Nineteen Ninety Now as a whole is completely solid, and Mad Ammo is a great example of what’s on it. In addition to beautiful songs like Mad Ammo, the whole entire album has similar boom-bap tracks like this one provided by legendary producer Buckwild.
I introduce STEP YOUR GAME UP! Tutorials I have written to help you, the emcee/lyricist or whatever you’re aiming for, to become adept at the art of writing lyrics. These guides, while tailored for the Hip Hop heads, can pertain to those in many different fields. That means whether you’re reading this guide to learn how to write lyrics for rock music, heavy metal or even poetry, you can take something out of these guides when it comes to writing solid lyrics; Essentially the lyricism in any field is all the same, it just depends on what you want to do with it. I will post numerous chapters and have a Q&A aspect to each of these posts, and definitely feel free to ask questions in the comments!
Before you read this, don’t look at it like my tutorial posts that are to come. Unlike the later tutorials, this is not a technical guide on how to step your game up, this post is a philosophical one that is written to help you set yourself apart from other rappers; I suggest reading this even if you are already capable at all the elements presented within these posts. What I mean is, even if you can rhyme incredible, your flow is nice and your delivery sounds excellent, you may still sound generic. Skill does not equal creativity.
1.What Is Being Creative; Why Talent Isn’t A Factor
I’ve met a lot of my local scene, I’ve met a lot of other rappers from outside my scene, and I’m always told “this is a talented young cat.” So, I listen to their stuff, and they sound like underground versions of more successful artists in that they’re capable of rhyming and doing all the other lyrical feats that “GOOD” rappers are notable for, but they do not do anything to set to set themselves apart. On the other hand, I listen to other local cats who are trying to mimic past styles and push that as being creative because no one is doing that anymore. That isn’t being creative, that’s using a gimmick to try to sell yourself.
LM’s Mobile Minute is an on-the-go column that discuss Hip Hop ideas and elements . However, these articles are not meant to be large essay style write-ups, but smaller bite-sized posts!
Painkillers. “Sometimes you miss the feeling, of a never ending headache and a spinning ceiling, the sob story of an alcoholic, praying on his knees to that porcelain toilet.” I remember the first time I heard Cannibal Ox’s Painkillers, and I remember not getting the lyrics at first but loving the style of production. Prior to Painkillers I had not heard of El-P’s work and did not know Hip Hop of this style, the spaced out production to be particular, existed.
“Yo you ever have a day man where absolutely nothing goes right?”
Sex Education For Me?
Psychoanalysis is the under-appreciated, somewhat surreal and always eccentric album by Prince Paul. The album features barely any rapping, and chooses to focus it’s efforts on Paul’s style of skit-hop; Psychoanalysis is not for the average hip hop listener by any means, and if you are not willing to invest your time in it in a focused manner, you will not get much out of this album. However, if you are willing to invest yourself in this album, seasoned fans of hip hop will find one of the most unique pieces of hip hop music since Dr. Octagonecolegyst (which interestingly enough came out the same year as this album)
What Makes This Album So Unique?
If most listeners are like me, and most listeners are also fans of Prince Paul, they will probably scan through the album, pick out the nicest beats and latch to them. At least, that’s how I first listened to this album. On my second listen however, I listened from track one to track fifteen, and I was not sure what to make of it. The beginning track Introduction To Psychoanalysis (Schizophrenia) starts with bleak synthesizers panning in and out, with voice clips of what sounds like an insane psychiatrist; as the song progresses a break beat comes in and you hear someone, who sounds like what I presume to be Prince Paul, describing his music career and then it branches off into him talking about other topics.
“That girl is a monster, she’s a chicken grease whore, that girl is a monster, tell her I don’t live here anymore”
Dr. Dooom is back!
Dr. Dooom 2 is the sequel to Kool Keith’s “First Come, First Served” album, but less of a concept album than his predecessor and more of a traditional Keith offering. For those who may be unaware of the release prior, First Come, First Served introduced Keith’s persona of “Dr. Dooom”. He’s a cannabilistic serial killer residing in the bronx. The album’s content was unique in it’s satirical nature and horror focused stylization. While Keith has made a worthy sequel here the content doesn’t feel nearly as fresh as it’s debut did. Don’t get me wrong, as this IS the Dr. Dooom you remember and love from the 99′ debut, but there seems to be less emphasis on the character and more emphasis on standard Keithisms.
One of the problems with this album is the same problem with many of Keith’s other albums: The themes start off consistent, but become gradually awkward or feel out of place. The album starts off interesting (with the exception of Simon), but somewhere near the middle, the album starts to feel bland and off point. However, the last third of the album does come back to what makes Dr. Dooom interesting in the first place.
