Saturday, May 11, 2013

How And Why Do Rappers Count Bars?

At this point my single biggest goal as a rapper is to study and perfect my craft. I feel that in order for me to get to the next level in my career, I must master the flow.
People often tell me how much they love my rhymes but it sound more like poetry. This is something that bothers me a lil, but because I know that although rap and poetry come from the same family they are very different in one major way; the flow of a good rap song must be in perfect timing with the beat. Keeping all this in mind I've come to the conclusion that the best way to master flow is to master the art of counting bars. Bars are a way of measuring time in music. From my understanding, in almost all hip hop songs one bar is four beats. Fortunately, counting bars is a skill that can be learned. Here's a picture I took on my iPhone of a flow diagram from an awesome book called "HOW TO RAP" by Paul Edwards and the grand father of hip hop,  KOOL G RAP. The numbers 1..2..3..4 along the top of the diagram represent the beats in the music and each line represents a new bar. Remembering that every four beats of a song is one bar, you can see how being able to count them will allow mc's to better plan out lyrics and organize where the most potent punch lines will go. Still, all this is definitely easier to talk about than done, but I guess that's why we respect the great rappers so much. I hope this can be of some help to you and pls stay on the lookout for the evolution of my flow.





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