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Rap voice. Vocal delivery. Raspiness. Tone.
All of these words describe that mysterious alchemy of skills required for a rapper to dominate the music with charismatic inflection the second you hear them on the track.
In today’s article, we’re going to tell you 10 secrets about rap voice that nobody is talking about.
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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Overview
0:57 #10 You Shouldn’t Just Have “One” Rap Voice
1:47 #9 Technology Has Opened Up More Lanes For Rap Voice
2:38 #8 New Rappers “Under-Rap”, Old Rappers “Over-Rap”
4:14 #7 Engineering Is 75% of The Battle In The 21st Century
5:19 #6 “One-Take” Verses Aren’t Really A Thing Anymore
6:05 #5 “Write With The Breath In Mind”
7:12 #4 The Best Rappers Adjust Individual Words
8:44 #3 Ad-Libs Can Add More Than Over-Rapping
10:11 #2 Rap Voice Changes Over Time
11:02 #1 Rap Voice Can Be Improved
11:40 Comment and Pick Up Your Courses
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Sure, you’ve seen videos that list the best rapper voices, that tell you how rappers should layer their vocals like Pop Smoke, or simply press a “special sauce” button on ProTools and every voice issue will be fixed…
…But few videos have provided an easy-to-follow list, based on a near decade of rap coaching analysis and working with artists from around the world…
…The 10 secrets to rap voice that will resurrect a bad rap voice or explain to someone with a fantastic delivery exactly what they’re doing right.
With that being said, let’s go in countdown order when discussing these rap voice secrets and begin right here, right now.
Now, you have to realize that in 2022 and beyond, the best rappers in the world don’t just have “one” rap voice that they stick to.
Whether it is the recent multi-voice symphony of bars delivered by Kendrick Lamar on 2021’s “Family Ties” where he says “New flows coming be patient, brother”…
…When he really could have also said, “new voices coming, be patient, brother”…
…Or that moment where you realized that every single voice - from the on Drake’s “No Friends In The Industry” was still Drizzy himself - from the trap like first verse all the way to drill sounding third verse.
From the woman’s point-of-view voice on the third verse of J. Cole’s “Lights Please” to Eminem’s many vocal characters on songs such as Ken Kaniff, sticking to one voice isn’t just “not the wave”… if you’re sticking to one voice you’re behind the ball.
Part of the reason for this is our #9 rap voice secret:
Recording technology has expanded the possibility for rap voice beyond what 80’s and 90’s rappers even thought possible.
Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, Hip-Hop delivery and rapping in general had not progressed to a point where there was even technology available to manipulate the vocal palette to a considerable degree.
Rappers honed their vocal skills on the block, in the cypher, and at best in an analog studio where they had to project more to get a good sound.
This is why rappers like 2Pac, DMX, or even Run DMC were so straight up LOUD when they rapped. They learned how to project their rap voice on the streets of Oakland, Yonkers, and Queens, respectively.
In 2022 up-and-coming rappers don’t have to do that. They have amazing technology at their disposal they can and should be using to expand the possibilities on how to find their rap voice.
By now understanding how and why rappers use their rap voice in different ways due to technology, we can explain why newer rappers sound so “relaxed” on the track and older rappers think they need to overpower the track to make a point.
This explains why new generation rappers like Lil’ Baby don’t project their voice very much on the music and yet they can still sound in sync with the music. They let the technology do the work for them.
However, this is not to say that beginning rappers should not master how to project their voice properly. We’ve found that many artists who have been writing for let’s say two years often are not projecting their voice ENOUGH or using their vocal emphasis improperly.
One quick pro-tip to utilize vocal emphasis properly is to go into the notes where you wrote your bars and put the words you want to emphasis in BOLD, italics, or underline in order to remind yourself you want to say them in a different way.