Note From Tongal: “How Listening to Hip Hop Makes You a Better Writer” is part of a series of Tongal Community-written blog posts that were originally sourced in the Tongal Blog Open Call Project. Read more Tongal Community-written posts here and then Pitch us a topic you'd like to write about for the Tongal Blog!
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Hip hop music has been the most dominant musical genre of the last twenty-five years. Poetry from the streets that vividly details the struggles of the past, present and future with intricate wordplay and complex rhyme structures. At its most melodic, it has the tendency to climb the pop charts; when it's stripped down serious and somber, it reports the unfiltered truth better than any news source. The artists who rise to the upper echelon of the art form are natural-born storytellers. Incredibly skilled wordsmiths who should be recognized alongside not only the top writers in other musical genres but across all written mediums.
The tenets of great storytelling and crafting a lyrical rap classic share many common traits. So much so that understanding one will help you with the other. Just like in a great rap battle, steel sharpens steel. The more hip hop you listen to the better writer and storyteller you could become. So log into the streaming music subscription service of your choice, click on an A-list lyricist and get to work.
Specificity.
"It was all a dream, I used to read Word Up magazine." Notorious B.I.G. told you the name of the magazine, and as the verse continues, which posters he had on the wall, what shows he listened to on the radio, what happened to his cassette player after he overused it, what he used to have for dinner and the names of all the DJ's who predicted his success. In Verse 2, he lets you know which two alcohol brands keep him inebriated enough that he always has to urinate and he starts Verse 3 off telling you that when he was broke he couldn't picture having both popular video game systems of the mid-90s, the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. And now he's playing both on a 50-inch screen while sitting on a money green leather sofa.
Whenever I'm called upon to give writing advice I point to specificity. A lack of details usually looks like lazy/lousy writing and an abundance of details (when well-crafted) can propel you into the great writer conversation.
The example I always start with is ice cream. "They went to get ice cream" is what you want to convey in the narrative. But who is this person? Where are they going to get the ice cream? Why are they going? What flavor? What size? What toppings? Cone or cup? To-go or eat there? Frequency? This is helpful whether you use these details or not, whether some stays in backstory or subtext or it all gets on the page because this is a story about getting ice cream. That's the kind of work that will inform the sentence, the sentiment, and the story. Be specific and you'll tell a better story.
Authenticity.
This is why the majority of rappers craft their own lyrics. If they haven't lived it, they are not going to record it. The rappers who went to college, brag about it. The ones with criminal records, talk about it. Married ones let you know and those still enjoying being an eligible bachelor definitely tell you all about it. How does this apply to writing? Easy. It's an alternative to the old adage "write what you know." You can research a topic until your eyes roll back in your head and you can dream up future utopias until your imagination causes a nosebleed, but nothing beats telling a story that is genuinely a part of you. Write what you know, be authentic, follow the successful blueprint laid out by the most popular authentic rappers out there today.
Extensive Vocabulary.
We've talked details and subject matter in regards to lyrical content, but what about the actual construction, the wordplay, the vocabulary and the rhymes? There are 171,476 words in the Oxford English Dictionary and I'm gonna guess that I know a couple more than you do, because I used to read a lot (sadly not as much these days) and because I’ve listened to A LOT of rap over the last two decades. The ability to rhyme well goes hand in hand with a strong vocabulary.
And if you need proof, I implore you to try rhyming as an exercise or put into practice and write a poem to a loved one. The activity of trying to get your point across with some amount of rhymes will force you to think of synonyms and alternative ways to express what you are trying to say. Try it and you'll see, you'll be so happy you did. Not only will it make you expand your vocab, but you'll see how your brain has to creatively problem solve in ways it's not used to. Be careful who you share this hot tip with, you might want to fly under the radar with this exclusive. At least until every creative writing course in the world starts an initiative or dedicates at least one week out of every semester to "how to rap.”
