How To Improve Your Rap Voice Instantly – Tips And Tricks
It has been a long road rapping since “Dear Mama” by 2 Pac to Kendrick Lamar’s All the Stars or Lil Pumps’ Gucci Gang. The rapping phenomenon is raging like fever and many new day rappers are trying their best to improve their rap voice.
However, it is not so easy to master or improve your rap voice. You need constant practice, and try out different tips and tricks. Here are some tips that most pro rappers suggest for improving your rap voices.
How To Improve Your Rap Voice
If you want to improve your rap voice, you can follow these tips.
1. Don’t Have A Rap Voice
If you are wondering about How to improve your rap voice, you should focus on having multiple types of rap voices first.
The best rappers don’t have the same type of rap voice in all of their raps. You can take Eminem, for example. He is one man, but he keeps changing his rap voices in most of his songs.
Partly, the reason behind this is his transition from Slim Shady to Eminem to being Marshall Mathers. His voice in A** Like That is different compared to his voice in “Not Afraid”.
Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and J Cole can also do this type of transition from song to song. No Friends In The Industry by drake has a trap-like first verse and drill-sounding third verse.
2. Use Technology
The 80s and 90s rappers did not have the tech available to manipulate their voices to the degree currently possible. Rappers back then had to change and hone their rap voices while cyphering. They also had to be loud when they rapped inside an analog studio. Legends like 2Pac and DMX (RIP) were loud when they rapped.
You can now use some amazing technology and tuning mechanisms to change/ improve your rapping voice when recording. Thanks to the new technologies rappers in 2022 don’t have to project their rap voice all that much.
The good side of it is that you can make good rap voices easily. On the downside, new rappers are not developing their rapping vocal skills that much.
3. Identify Where To Emphasize
You should identify the notes where you wrote your bars and highlight the word you want to emphasize. You can follow Lil Baby and Drake, who use under-rapping with technology if you are looking for more of a 21st-century rapping style.
But if you want the style of old-school legends like DMX or Ice Cube, you need to learn to project your rapping voice and rely comparatively less on technology.
4. Sound Engineering
If you have heard rappers like Dax and Travis, you know how magnificently they have merged pop and rap. This type of music perfectly mixes good sound engineering, voice projection, and autotune.
The reach of your rap voices extends to a certain degree when you have a good sound engineer.
5. Mix It Up
It might sound like blasphemy to rappers who follow the old-school legends. But you don’t have to rap a verse in one single take anymore. In fact, rapping a verse in a single take does not do much good nowadays.
You can rap some lines the way you want and then mix them up in a complete song where it sounds like a finished piece. Recording your song this way also improves your voice in the track’s final take. You can separately emphasize certain lines where you want them.
This way, you won’t run out of your breath, get to explore different voices, and will also not sound windy.
6. Change Word Pronunciation
You can also improve your rap voices by using the variable pronunciation of the same word in different lines of your rap. This is no new technique. And rap legends like 2Pac and Lil Wayne have all done it and it worked for them. You can do it while freestyling.
2 Pac used words like Heenneesssyy and Ennemmiees, making his voice sound iconic and unique. Lil Wayne also changed his voice by using the word Monneh For Money and similar word variations.
Also, sometimes changing your accent does a great trick. For example, Eminem’s A** Like That has a different accent than his usual, making him sound completely different.
7. Take Inspiration
Tracking inspiration from different types of rappers from different times can help you improve your rap voices. It will also help you when you find your rap style.
For example, Snoop Dogg has a consistent flow but he sounds like he’s under rapping. On the other hand, rappers like DMX and 50 Cent are loud.
You may also check the modern-day mumble rappers and draw certain elements you see helpful for your rapping voice. Once you start working on your rapping tones and understand which word to put emphasis on, your rapping voice will improve.
Frequently Asked Questions
The tips that I mentioned should help you improve your rapping voice. However, here are some popular questions and as a beginner rapper, you might want to know about them.
Technically, you don’t need a good (melodious) sound for rapping. But a firm and confident voice will always help you to be better at rap. You don’t need to develop a sweet and melodious sound like a singer to be a rapper.
Rapping is technically easier than singing since it does not require you to develop a lot of vocal skills and undergo vocal training for years. But, there are certain skills like understanding your flow, bars, controlling your breath, and voice projection that take some time to master.
Your flow is the process according to which your words fall onto different snares and kicks. You can see it as a way of aligning your words with different (1-2-3-4) beats. You can change this and bring a variation to your rapping flow.
Final Words
Once you follow the tips that I have mentioned in this article, you will be able to improve your rap voices. All of these tips are practical and many professional rappers follow these techniques to improve their rapping voice.
I hope that this article was helpful to you. If you need any further help, you can ask questions in the comment.
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