This course only deals with verse writing it has nothing to do with battle lyrics. Don’t get upset if u already know wat im saying.
o.k lets start with the basics, I think the key to a good mc is to have the basics mastered. If u already know this, and u have gone above this level, then wait for the more complex lessons latter on. But this lesson is for the beginners to step up their game. I will be explaining the backbone of all verse writing, linxs and sublinxs.
Linxs – words that rhyme with each other perfectly.
Sub-linxs – words that slightly rhyme with each other. - Cuts - vowels
--Linxs--
Wat is needed, is to have a memory of all words that rhyme with each other. The best way to accomplish this is through a thesaurus. How I learnt by taking a thesaurus (not a dictionary) and start from A and go through all the pages to Z, read each word, then say about five words that rhyme with it. Make sure u set up a regular timetable and keep to it. As I said before, the key to being the best, is mastering linxs, bottom line, forget the rest, if u don’t know linxs. Freestyling is also an excellent way to make sure these words form connections inside ur head (hence the name linxs). It took me about 4 months before I could even claim to master the basics, so it does take time, if u don’t get it at first, keep practising. U can also check out rhymezone.com and learn that way.
e.g of linxs:
Hell, tell, well, spell head red dead bed, man, can, pan, van,
and so on...
--sublinxs--
There are two ways to do sublinxs, one is cutting the last letter of a word, the other is highlighting the vowels in ur wordings when u say them. But on the main concept Certain letters sound like others and certain endings sound like other endings. Below is a list of these, u can add to it as u find new ones. The best way to learn these is to check through a thesaurus, practice makes perfect.
Here is a list of sublinxs V,w,f,h - d,t, - p,b, - n,m - g,k,q,c’, - s,c’,z
Ean, eam, im, een, eem Ape, ate, ake, And, an, ent, ant, Ous, ess, ust, est, Ic, ick, eck, En, ing, in, tion, El, al, Et, it, Upt, ped, ef, (h)ive, agh, ath, iff, ift, (g)ive, ith as, ass, ast, iss, ist, east, oss, ost, own, ound, on, ond, one, un, orm, orn, od, ort, ard, ains, one, ome, eat, eet, eed, ork, erk, ide, ied, ite’, ight or, ore, aw, ute, uit,
--Cuts--
The point of this is that words can be made to sound the same once they don’t have the consonant, this enables u to use a lot more vocab then u’ll be allowed by just perfect linxs. The best mc’s for this r jay-z and big pun, both built their careers on that. I advice u listen to them for this, pick up on the way they drop the consonant (mostly jay z)
--Vowels--
The idea behind this is making the vowels at the end of a word more important then the consonant after it(only for words with consonant at the end), also u can make ‘rib’ rhyme with ‘dim’ or ‘mid’, so search out words with vowels that dominate the word. One of the best mc’s for this is tupac, listen to the way he stretches words with the vowels,
Homework,
Make one verse of 8 lines with lots of linxs in it, then other 8 with lots of sub-linxs in them,
U can do more if u want. Just keep practising.
Let me remind ppl wat this is for again, its for writing verses, it has nothing to do with battles, its for ppl that want to spit real verses not all those beef lyrics we r getting invested by,
--Multis--
multis are one of the real techniques in rhymes, one of the most simple and well used. Very effective when all varieties are used in one verse. Basically it is two separate linxs/sub-linxs repeated again, there are three types of multis, each one, is effective. the best way to explain multis is through examples, below is a list of examples and a little explaition of what they are. Nas and biggie and eminem are the best rappers to listen to for this, they give all three multis on most of their tracks,
Normal – this is the most used in rap, and the most obvious that it is a multi. i.e flaming gats, aiming at, sitting in hell, ringing the bell, choke yo' ass out til your 'face blue' 'Make you', open the 'safe too'
Static – u keep one linx and change the other, wiely(eski boy) uses this a lot. I.e ‘one ring’, ‘one king’, Rhyme a ‘few bars’, so I can buy a ‘few cars’, for your ‘re-up’, Wipe the ‘pee up’, mixed shots, woke your ‘seed up’,
Broke – when you take a linx and brake it up, into a two or three linxs, i.e ‘daylight’, ‘spray right’, ‘action’, ‘pack guns’, ‘ridiculous’, And I'm, ‘quick to bust’
most ppl will say that it’s a waste of time to know this, but as far as I’m concerned, this is to show ur abilities, to me if I listen to one of ur verses and u aint got a good distribution of all three multis in them, then ur coming short,
the best way to learn multis, is by force, take two words, and string them together, and make another linx out of them. Or for broke multis, take a 3 or more sylable word, and split it up into other linxs,
Homework
just keep practicing, there really isn’t any proper way of doing this, keep writing
--Flow--
This is a very easy, I found out about flow listening to biggie, there are I would say 3 ways to flow, one is biggie flow, nas flow, basic flow, all three u can vary,
Biggie flow, this is 3-5-7 sylables, using a combination of them, on each beat of the snares, break up ur lines into 3, 5,7 syllables,
Example
3, snare, 3, snare, 5, snare, 3, snare, 7, snare,
nas flow, this is like the biggie flow but u have to ignore any snare and u must continue to get ur point across, really just give them hell, without pauses, and don’t worry how its coming out.
The basic is just the old fashioned poetry, its obvious were the next linx is, and it just gets monotonous, u can tell I don’t like it. lol
Here are some examples of each.
It’s better explained if u just listen to biggie, and nas, u will see what I mean,
For this u got to listen from biggies –last verse of, last day, whole track “your nobody till somebody kills u”
--Imagery--
This are nouns, names and things like that. The point of this, is that you have to make ur verse interesting, as eminem says “listening to me is like a mind trip” that’s what u want as a mc. To do this, u need to call up things that people can visualise, like for example, if I say a bed, then ur mind has to do some work, and it sees a bed, but if I say a load of verbs, or adjective, then your mind can’t visualise it that well. But im not talking about just basic nouns, like ur every day once, I try to go for nouns that not everyone has heard off before, It gives it that sense that you know way more then then, (which u obviously need when ur talking to so many ppl). Plus on a rhyming side it makes ur linxs more complex, cus u can say linxs in your verse that don’t repeat on anyone elses verses. Here is a list of areas that you can search for nouns in.
Nature,Utilities,Companies,People,Food,Locations
Like for example, from nature something like a scientfic word, lets say “osmosis”. Another from food lets say ” rhubarb”
Then u can look for words that rhyme with them.
--Merge--
Merges are linx lines that repeat with each other. Like for example. Biggies lyrics: The rings and things u talk about, Bring them out, cus its hard to yell, When the barrel is in ur mouth.
The first line had the linxs ‘rings and things’ and then ended with about. Then on the second line it had ‘bring’ and ‘out’, with rhymed with the top two linxs And then, another set of linxs began with ‘yell’ and ‘barrel’ and finished with ‘mouth’ so that the whole line, merged with the other two previous ones.
10/6/2006 4:49:48 AM
