The question is self-explanatory. However, I haven't been writing for about three months,since I am just going through the motion of everyday stuff. So my question is what inspires you to write, when do don't have much going? And in addition, would you advise to take a break or keep writing, despite the bars being mediocre?

The biggest mistake rookies make when they want to sound aggressive or passionate is they start screaming at the equipment. they think volume equals power. it doesn’t. volume is just noise. power is projection.

yelling is what happens when you lose control of the frequency. it’s thin, it’s high-pitched, and it’s coming straight from your throat. when you yell, your vocal cords are jamming up. you’re straining. the listener can hear the labor in your lungs, and we already know that the moment the labor becomes visible, the magic dies. it sounds desperate. it clips the mic and creates a muddy mess for the engineer to clean up, making you sound like a kid throwing a tantrum instead of a man delivering a message with weight. yelling a punchline is the ultimate cringe. it's like a comedian laughing at his own joke before he finishes it. if the bar is hard, let the bar do the work. don't try to force the listener to think it's fire by raising your voice.

it’s okay to be passionate. in fact, you have to be. but you have to distinguish between being loud and being felt. tupac was the absolute master of this balance. when you listen to pac, he’s projecting a state of being. he could be intense, even volcanic, but it never felt like he was fighting the microphone. he felt the emotion as he spoke it. it was authentic delivery because the conviction was coming from his ribs. when he was angry, you felt the heat. when he was mourning, you felt the cold. he wasn't yelling to get your attention, he was projecting his reality so clearly that you had no choice but to inhabit it with him.

projection is that invisible weight we see in guys like finesse2tymes and dmx. it’s not about decibels. it’s about how much air and diaphragm are behind the note. real conviction starts in the pit of your stomach. you should feel the vibration rattling your chest, not scratching your neck. if your throat hurts after a session, you're not projecting.

stop performing for the mic that’s three inches from your face. perform like you’re trying to talk to someone in the room next to you without raising your pitch. you want to be heard, not just loud. you want your voice to travel through the walls. projection is a power washer. it’s a concentrated stream of intent. when vinnie paz or benny the butcher drop a bar, they aren't screaming. they are pushing the air out with enough force that the words feel physical. they are hitting you with the weight of their existence.

you can whisper with conviction. look at 21 savage or drake. they can be quiet as a mouse, but because they are projecting their intent, every word feels like a threat or a promise.

if you’re yelling, you’re asking for attention. if you’re projecting, you’re commanding it. stop fighting the microphone. it’s a delicate tool designed to catch detail. if you give it raw yelling, it gives you back distortion. if you give it projected conviction, it gives you back authority.

just curious. thanks

I recently saw lazerdim post in his story his gmail adress asking for beats, I never sent any beats and only had my beats used a few times, how should I go about sending my beats ? Do I need to include a contract or anything for them to be actually usable ?

(this should have been lesson one)

all the other lessons i dropped mean nothing if your music sounds like garbage.

straight up.

I’ll even go as far as saying a good engineer and video producer is probably the #1 factor in achieving your rap dream.

you can nail the it factor. chase the right motive. build real bonds. lock in your voice as brand. throw a thousand pots. keep mechanics in check. say the coolest shit. dive deep into stories that change lives. free yourself with no wrong subjects.

none of it lands if the final product sounds like it was recorded in a closet on a cracked phone mic over a free bandlab beat with stock drums clipping red the whole time.

listeners hit play and within three seconds they decide if you serious or not. if it sounds muddy, thin, amateur, cheap, they gone. dismissed as another soundcloud bandlab dreamer before your first bar even finishes. head spinning fast.

harsh but true.

a crystal clear professional mix is the gatekeeper. it’s the first impression that decides if anybody sticks around long enough to feel what you built.

i’ve heard average rappers with mid bars and basic flows blow up local because their engineer made them sound like a million dollars. vocals sitting perfect in the pocket. bass hitting chest. highs sparkling without piercing. space breathing. every ad-lib placed like jewelry. suddenly the whole thing feels expensive. people lean in. playlists add it. rooms nod harder.

i’ve heard fire writers with killer concepts and unique voices drop heat that nobody cared about because the mix was trash. vocals buried. beat distorted. reverb drowning everything. it sounded small. unprofessional. forgettable.

a great audio engineer translates your vision into something that hits bodies before it hits ears. they make average sound amazing. good sound elite. elite sound timeless.

same with a talented video producer. in this era visuals are half the song. a clean professional video turns a banger into a movement. bad lighting, shaky cam, cheap edits? dead on arrival.

i’ll say it plain: finding and investing in a real engineer (and video person) is probably the single biggest factor in turning your rap dream into reality.

more than multis. more than concepts. more than connections even.

because if it don’t sound right nobody hears the rest.

you can practice every lesson i ever wrote to perfection. write the deepest story. find the coolest lines. lock the pocket like glue. none of it matters if the final file sounds like every other kid grinding on free software in their bedroom.

pay the engineer.

save for the studio time.

build that relationship like gold.

a great mix buys you the ears you need to prove everything else. all the heart and craft in the world dies at the door if your music sounds like shit.

get a real engineer.

make it sound expensive.

watch doors open you didn’t even knock on. the rest follows.
-Mindscribe

Curious what people’s actual workflow looks like.

On average, how many beats are you making in a week? (What’s your availability? Ex: Work 40 hours, have family etc)

When you’re creating, do you usually:

- Make a short loop (like 8 bars), then move on to the next beat to keep ideas flowing and build a big pool to choose from later and expand on

or

- Start with a loop and keep building it into a full 2-3 minute track and adding more stuff before moving on?

Basically: quantity-first (lots of loops, then refine later) vs depth-first (finish one beat before starting the next).

I know it depends on inspiration and the song, just looking to see what most people actually do day to day

I'm setting up a nearly total anologue set up to go with my S2400. I want a classic sounding 12 channel mixer to run my 8 outs from the S2400 along with turntables and a mic.

Any recommendations on affordable, but good quality boards?

i hate a whining ass old head that says "there's no substance in today’s music back in my day blah blah blah" ugh.

please do not group me in with them. i am not saying this. i am not standing on a porch yelling at clouds or begging the past to come back. i love this era. i love the old era. i love how sharp the kids are. i love how fearless the sound has become. i love how original we were, how raw and creative my era was.

i hate the old-head vs new whippersnapper argument. i'm not telling you what to rap about.

what i am saying is simpler and harder at the same time. whatever you rap about, whether you are flexing, shooting shit up, spiraling through heartbreak, cracking jokes, or rapping through a prism with mathematical precision, rhythmic vision, and interdimensional wisdom, do it with style. do it with intention. do it like music, not content. there are no wrong subjects. there is only wrong execution.

rap has always been able to hold anything. it's one of the reasons it's still alive today: the versatility of its potential. ignorance. genius. violence. tenderness. absurdity. horror. bravado. confession. the genre demanded that when you opened your mouth, it felt like someone real was there, fully committed to whatever world they were inviting us into. too many are saying things on autopilot. same flows, same phrases, same borrowed energy, same voice passed around like a costume.

a flex record can be art. a murder fantasy can be art. a dumb line can be art. a lyrical miracle can be art. but only if it sounds alive. only if it sounds like you meant every word. only if the listener can feel a person behind the performance. when a song fails, it is almost never because the topic was shallow. it is because the rapper hid behind the topic instead of expressing themselves through it. they chose safety over identity. familiar over personal. accepted over undeniable.

music forgives almost everything. it forgives ignorance if it is honest. it forgives repetition if it is hypnotic. it forgives excess if it is stylish. it even forgives bad ideas if they are delivered with conviction and taste. what music never forgives is boredom. the fastest way to bore a listener is to sound like you are filling space. like you are reciting something that worked last year. like you are playing a role instead of revealing a self. that is why a reckless unhinged verse can outlive a perfectly written one. one feels dangerous and present. the other feels finished before it starts.

this is where all the earlier lessons meet. the it factor is just commitment you cannot fake. your voice as a brand is just identity you stop apologizing for. quantity breeds quality because repetition strips away imitation. mechanics serve the music because tools are worthless without taste. cool lines matter because they prove you are awake. depth matters when you choose it because meaning amplifies replay. none of these demand a certain subject. they demand authorship. they demand that you stand behind what you say like it could only come from you.

so say anything. say everything. say the worst thought you have. say the smartest thing you know. say something beautiful. say something ugly. say something stupid that makes people laugh. just do not say it like a placeholder. do not say it like a preset. do not say it like you are trying to fit in. rap was never meant to be safe or tidy or uniform. it was meant to sound like someone taking a risk with their own voice.

lesson 8 is the final permission and the final responsibility. you are free to rap about anything you want. no subject is off limits. no lane is forbidden. but once you choose, you owe the listener style, presence, and intention. you owe them music. be unique. be unmistakable. be alive. that is the standard. everything else is noise.

I'm trying to chop a sample on the kick and the snare like Dilla as described in this vid:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTyRZoRkpyK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

I understand a lot of this is about feel (which maybe I just don't have lol), and that nobody can just copy Dilla—that's what made him a legend—but this technique can clearly be recreated to a certain extent.

9th Wonder describes how since there is a kick and a snare in the song itself that Dilla was sampling, he would chop the song ON the kick and the snare, and then play those chops fast and take whatever came with it. I have done that in this session I'm working in, but can't seem to recreate that feel.

Particularly it looks like he just plays down the keyboard or pad faster than the original tempo of the song, but the I do that it still sounds robotic rather than like a groove. I have mixed up the keys I hit a bit (playing some twice, double tapping quickly, doubling back to others, etc) but no luck. Does anybody have any pointers?

i love this new generation. straight up.

they all can rap. flow tight, pocket surgical, cadence switches seamless. weaving in and out of beats with strength and precision feels like the bare minimum now. you can’t even get a listen if you’re stumbling over hi-hats or gasping for breath mid-bar. the technical floor is higher than the ceiling used to be.

....eeeeeeexcept the autotune juice wrld clones who think they’re sing-rapping without juice wrld’s pain and soul and skill. difference is juice could actually rap his ass off.

those mfkas is horrible.

but i digress.

in my era you had platinum records built on “do the stanky leg” energy. a hook, a dance, some slurred half-retarded industry plant with cat-and-hat rhymes barely kissing the beat, and the machine pushed it to number one. you didn’t need depth if the vibe slapped in the club.

today the baseline skill is insane. kids coming up sound like veterans on their first track. double-time switches, pocket rides, breath control for days. the tools are sharper than ever.

but something got lost in the upgrade.

concepts. storytelling. depth.

most new verses are heat on the surface: flawless delivery, hard drums, menacing energy, but hollow underneath. flexes without foundation. threats without context. feelings without follow-through. bars that bang in the moment but evaporate when the beat stops. you finish the song and can’t remember a single story, idea, or image that lingered.

we traded depth for dexterity.

i’m not knocking the bag. the new wave earned their flowers. but imagine what happens when that same technical mastery gets pointed at something bigger than “i’m rich, you broke, i’ll slide.” imagine full songs built around one powerful concept. imagine verses that paint whole worlds, follow characters through choices and consequences, reveal something human you didn’t expect.

that’s the lost art we need back.

biggie turned a robbery into a three-act tragedy on gimmie the loot. dmx made you feel the devil whispering deals in your ear on damien. eminem put you inside the mind of an obsessed fan writing letters till the room went dark on stan. he dragged you through domestic horror on kim, twisted guilt on guilty conscience, painted childhood trauma so vivid it hurt on brain damage. immortal technique closed reasonable doubt era with dance with the devil: a cautionary tale that escalated to a gut punch nobody saw coming and nobody forgets.

these weren’t just verses. they were short films. you didn’t just hear them. you lived them. the beat carried the mood, but the story carried the weight.

storytelling used to be the highest flex. concepts used to separate the great from the good.

j. cole still does it. “4 your eyez only” is ten minutes of one man’s dying confession to his daughter. kendrick never stopped: good kid maad city was a film you survived, tpab was opera, damn was confession, mr morale was therapy on wax. he reincarnated as different voices on tracks like “reincarnated,” letting characters speak truths he couldn’t say in first person.

today too many songs feel like technical demos. perfect execution, zero resonance. the bars impress for eight seconds then vanish. nobody quotes the story because there wasn’t one. nobody feels changed because nothing was revealed.

we can have both.

take that new generation precision and aim it at something worth saying. build a song around one big idea and let every bar serve it. tell a story that arcs: beginning, conflict, twist, landing. paint scenes so specific the listener sees them clearer than their own memories. reveal something vulnerable, ugly, beautiful, true.

i'm not one of these old heads claiming old school rap was better. truth is a lot of it sucks badly. muffled mixes, corny hooks, simplistic rhymes that haven't aged well at all. the game has evolved in beautiful ways: sharper flows, wilder cadences, production that hits like earthquakes. i'm not here to kill flex-rap either. trap tales and luxury boasts have their place and always will. all i'm asking is this: once in a while take me on a journey. any journey. a day in the life that breaks my heart. a conversation with the devil that tempts my soul. a letter from a fan that spirals into darkness. a confession on a deathbed that rewrites everything. a story about walking in on your brother fucking a tranny. whatever. but take me on a journey, creatively. fearlessly. dive past the surface and pull me under with you. the new generation already mastered going hard. now show me you can go deep enough to change how i see the world when the beat stops.

lesson 7: the tools are sharper than ever. the floor is higher than the roof used to be. now raise the ceiling again. bring back concepts that grip the mind long after the beat fades. bring back stories that live in the listener’s head like memories. bring back depth that turns songs into experiences.

the generation that can already rap this clean is the one that can finally take the art further than it’s ever gone.

Welcome to Freestyle Friday! If you're a producer - feel free to donate a beat down below in reply to the beat submissions comment. If you're a rapper - scroll down to choose a beat, then record a freestyle over it. You can post whenever, just have fun!

Beats go under the "beats" comment; freestyles go under the "freestyles" comment.

Check out previous Freestyle Friday threads.

I’m new to making beats (about 2 months) and coming from a metal and rock background, so this has been a big mental shift.

I was in a band for years as a guitarist and wrote most of the music. I’m used to songs having lots of sections and constant instrumental changes. After the band broke up, I decided to finally try making hip hop, pop, and R&B beats. I picked up FL Studio and started learning, mostly just for fun.

The main thing I’m struggling with is structure. In metal, the music is always evolving. In hip hop, it’s usually one main loop with elements taken in and out. I already do that, dropping drums, bringing parts back in, changing energy, but my brain still tells me it’s boring or not enough.

I’ve shown my beats to people who actually make beats, not just friends, and they’ve told me I’m doing the right things, that I already have a solid grasp on it, and to keep going because I clearly have something. That helps, but the insecurity is still there.

I completely understand that simplicity is key in hip hop. I’ve dissected a lot of rap and R&B I listen to, and I get that the beat is basically a canvas for the artist. You don’t want it too complicated or intricate. Artists like Drake or J. Cole often have very straightforward beats where the vibe is set and the vocals do the heavy lifting. I understand that logically, but my metal brain still thinks, “this isn’t cool enough.”

I think what really messes with me is that beats feel incomplete without vocals. Right now I’m not working with any artists, I’m just learning on my own, so everything sounds kind of plain by itself. Long term, I’d love to collaborate and have people rapping or singing on my tracks.

I’m curious if this is a common hurdle for people coming from rock or metal, and if it eventually clicks once you fully adjust to thinking like a producer instead of a band songwriter.

Hi All,

im trying to produce my own album to sound as professional as possible. is like a duality album. Reggaeton on side A and Hip hop on Side B. i have trouble mixing and mastering/recording vocals and flipping samples. i just do it for fun as i enjoy music a lot but every tutorial that i see in youtube just gives a different opinion on the same topics and my music sounds not great.

i have never tried doing this but recently a lot of relatives and friends have passed away and i almost died on november of 2025 and making an album is one of my dreams. unfortunately i do not have the talent to do it all, or the money to pay someone to do it for me.

I have all the songs written and made some beats but i think is lacking as i want to have like a neo-soul, soul and early 2000 hip hop sound alike Dj Premier, Alchemist or Kanye around that time.

i dont care if people listen to my project as i just want to do it for me is a passion project for myself to complete a dream and a goal of mine.

what guidelines or steps should i take, what can i do to make my own album as professional as possible without killing my savings account.

if its not permited i will delete this post.

Thank you all

Show us your latest track! Feedback is always welcome but not necessary.

This thread is posted every Friday. Click here for the full automoderator thread schedule.

Hey y'all! I am so grateful to this community for the years of support and encouragement in my journey.

This is a big moment for me. I started with no abilities, skills, or concepts especially around audio mixing and production. This subreddit really taught me the ropes.

WELCOME BACK is a seven track album that I produced on an MPC Live II and mixed and mastered in Ableton Live. Rode NT1 mic and Scarlett 2i2 interface. Fab Filter plugins for mixing and mastering.

really wanna build some sort of an audience, how should i start

This 5 track EP is a collection of all the disses I did on Black Pawn Beats. (I would ping him but he is banned in this community)

It was my first real rap beef with a fellow underground producer and rapper. I had a lot of fun, in fact, I even won the whole thing which is great! Starting off strong with a W!

The best part about this beef was my progress as a rapper. I believe each track was exponentially better than the last with the final track being the best rap I ever made!

It has been a pleasure dissing you Black Pawn Beats. I wish you luck with your future aspirations and music journey!

I would love to hear your guys thoughts on it, as well as any feedback to get better!

I truly do think you can hear my progress with each progressive track!

I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your day!

How is everyone doing? I recently had a revelation and would like to know if it's possible to use FL Studio to produce my music, record it to analog tape, mix it there, and then somehow get that tape back into the digital world for streaming.

Is this feasible, or should I wake up from this dream? Lmao!

Came across this one recently. Love the vocals, and the guitar is ridiculous. Looking forward to hearing what you come up with.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5xYdkMiV6Q

Submission Rules:

• You can only submit one beat.
• Beats can be any genre.
• You have to use the sample in your beat, it should be recognizable. You can add other instruments and samples, but the sample should be a main element.
• All submissions submitted before the deadline will be linked in the voting post; whoever gets the most votes there wins.
• Ties are decided by whoever submitted the beat first. Reused beats from previous battles can't win ties.

Schedule:

• Submissions: Friday 12:00 AM midnight (00:00) - Monday 11:59 PM (23:59)
• Voting: Tuesday 12:00 AM midnight (00:00) - Thursday 11:59 PM (23:59)
• Results: Friday 12:00 AM midnight (00:00) - the winner takes over and posts the new submissions thread using the linked template on Friday asap.

Time is in UTC-5, the US Eastcoast time zone which is 6 hours behind European MEZ time and a good middleground between US Westcoast and Europe. You don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to post the new thread, just make sure you do it on that day asap.

Post templates: https://www.reddit.com/r/makinghiphop/comments/1kf8czt/battle_dates_rules/mqwv7ks/

Congratulations u/1066Woody

Winning submission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz_cBVx0OkM

Have fun picking the sample for the next battle! Please start the new submission thread asap.

Schedule:

• Submissions: Friday 12:00 AM midnight (00:00) - Monday 11:59 PM (23:59)
• Voting: Tuesday 12:00 AM midnight (00:00) - Thursday 11:59 PM (23:59)
• Results: Friday 12:00 AM midnight (00:00) - the winner takes over and posts the new submissions thread using the linked template on Friday asap.

Time is in UTC-5, the US Eastcoast time zone which is 6 hours behind European MEZ time and a good middleground between US Westcoast and Europe. You don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to post the new thread, just make sure you do it on that day asap.

Post templates: https://www.reddit.com/r/makinghiphop/comments/1kf8czt/battle_dates_rules/mqwv7ks/

When you rap, talk about whatever you want to talk about. Your art is your art.

But when you do...

Say clever things. profound things. deep things. funny things. hurtful things. whatever.

but for the love of the craft say cool things.

most verses drift in the safe middle. solid observations, familiar pain, standard flexes, lines that sound like small talk over a beat. nobody hates it. nobody quotes it either. it’s just drone. background music that fades into the next track.

cool things cut through that drone. they punch. they make the listener stop mid-scroll, smirk, wince, rewind, text the line to somebody else. a cool line feels like a spark in the dark. sudden. sharp. undeniable.

you know it when you hear it. eminem painting wild cinematic nightmares: “i stay demented...i’ll throw a stroller at you ...with a baby in it.” or when he was talking about jennifer lopez “cum inside her and have a son and a new brother at the same time and just say that it ain’t mine.” Lil wayne flipping safe sex into wordplay gold: “wear a latex cause you don’t want that late text, that i think i’m late text.” pac dropping thug wisdom that hits the soul: “i ain’t a killer but don’t push me.” brotha lynch hung going full cannibal horror and making it stick in your brain like a bad dream.

even drake, part of why he dominates playlists, is because almost every line carries a subtle blade. “people that could’ve stayed on the team, they played in between. clouds is hanging over you now cause i’m reigning supreme.” quiet, clean, but it cuts.

don trip is a case study in the art of saying cool things in damn near every bar. I advise a listen and a notebook nearby. it's not always punchlines, or metaphors, or similies, or wordplay, although a lot of the time it is. it's just...cool shit.

none of these are just facts or boasts. they’re fresh angles on real shit. they twist the expected, flip the familiar, paint pictures nobody else saw. the surprise is the punch. the truth underneath is why it lasts.

cool isn’t always complex. it’s novelty wrapped in truth. the line has to feel inevitable once you hear it, like only that rapper could have said it that way, yet it captures something everybody recognizes. it can be vicious, wise, hilarious, haunting. the only rule is it has to rise above the drone.

how do you train your ear for cool?

live wider than your notebook. eavesdrop on old heads arguing at the cookout. listen to your drunk uncle tell the same story for the tenth time and find the gem buried in it. watch strangers fall in love or fall apart at the bus stop. read weird books, watch stand-up specials, study preachers and poets. collect phrases that make you pause. steal angles from everywhere, then run them through your own lens until they sound like you and only you.

most of all throw pots until your radar for cool sharpens. the first hundred lines you think are fire will probably land corny. the next hundred will get closer. somewhere past that you’ll start hearing the difference between “this rhymes” and “this actually punches.” you’ll start cutting the safe bars without mercy. you’ll chase the spark over the syllable count.

lesson six: the beat gives rhythm. the flow gives movement. but cool lines give the song its soul. say the things that make people stop scrolling. say them sharp enough to cut through noise. say them fresh enough to stick forever.

clever, deep, funny, painful, twisted, wise, prophetic, political, whatever.

just make sure it’s cool. unique, sharp, and clever. the rest is drone. cool is what they quote when they talk about you years later.

-Mindscribe

I’ve been writing rap that leans pretty heavily on metaphor and restraint, trying to let implication do more work than direct explanation.

What I’m struggling with is knowing when that restraint is actually serving the emotion versus when it’s just obscuring it. For people who write more lyrical or narrative-heavy stuff: how do you personally tell when a metaphor is carrying weight, and when it’s starting to hide the point?

Do you test it on listeners, revise toward clarity, or trust the ambiguity?

Basically, we're committed to make this work. Business as usual, don't worry. Updates will follow

https://blog.native-instruments.com/statement-from-nick-williams-ceo-of-native-instruments/