Babylon
11-19-2014, 03:51 PM
Welcome to Babylons BattleRap School, I created this series of threads so that, when expo'ing votes, I can not only point out flaws within ones verse, but also attempt to help them elevate their craft in doing so. So feel free to not only read through this, no matter how experienced you are, but to also comment below if you have any questions or want any private help with anything.
1- Rhyming (Multi's)
First off, I'd like to directly jump into rhyming itself. Every great building started with a sound foundation, your verses are in no way different. To have a hard hitting punch, it needs to be set up by some consistent AND complex rhyming to make it even remotely impressive. Even the hardest punches in the game would sound whack had they been rhyming with shit like "cat" and "hat".
Firstly, instead of writing your verses in a way that you're always thinking of one sentence of lyrics right after the last, you should first list your multi's. For example, I have a line that goes:
All my dreams are lucid, this is heathen music, make ya fuckin' deacon lose it, I'm up in Eden eatin' off the damn trees with judas, so If there's a party in heaven, I'm bringin' demons to it.
Instead of constructing this one sentence at a time, firstly you would think of either the ending line, or any supporting multi word. For this line, the first thing I thought of was "if there's a party in heaven, I'm bringing demons to it."
So since that is the foundation of my line, I want it to be the end point so that it holds the most weight. From here, I'll reverse-engineer my bar. What rhyming set do we have so far?
The scheme "demons to it". So first off, you'd brainstorm on what rhymes with "demons to it."
Then, you'd make a list containing those rhymes you came up with. For this bar, it would be:
dreams are lucid (this rhyme is kind of broken, I'll get into that.)
heathen music
decon lose it
trees with judas
demons to it
Now to know that these rhyme, you HAVE to break them down syllable-wise. To do this, you just coun the syllables.
dreams-are-lu-cid
hea-then-mu-sic
de-con-lose-it
tree-with-ju-das
de-mons-to-it
So as you can see, each rhyming word HAS to be four syllables to match up with the others. To test and see if your multi's perfectly rhyme, you need to see if each syllable rhymes with the next. Take "dreams-are-lu-cid, hea-then-mu-sic and de-con-lose-it for example.
Does dreams, hea, and de rhyme? Yes.
Does are, then, con rhyme? No.
Does lu, mu, and lose rhyme? Yes.
Does cid, sic, and it rhyme? Yes.
Now as you can see, we have a broken multi. When one of these sets don't rhyme with the next, you need to either scrap that part of the bar or attempt to revise it. Now we could just change "dreams are lucid" to "dreams is lucid," but then it becomes grammatically incorrect. So we would just cut it, usally.
Once you have this method mastered, you can essentially just do it in your mind & never have to write hardly anything to tell if your multis match up perfectly.
2- Flow/Fluidity
Flow is almost wholly about connecting rhymes, but also holds a semi-pertanent hand in syllable structure & the placing of filler words that compliment the general sound of the bar, rather than make it sound rigid & uneasy. Usually, people who fall under that "intellectual" style never have a good flow (Take Aesop Rock for an example.) The use of these "bigger" words, not always, but often tend to hinder the conceptual fluidity of the line, UNLESS it is a part of the rhyme scheme itself. So instead of implementing shit that you think is dope because it will add complexity to your verses, simplify it a bit so that you don't sacrifice that fluidity factor.
Babylons BattleRap School - Index
Rhyme-ability (Multi's, flow, fluidity): You are here.
Concepts (Punches, setups, concept ideas): Under construction
1- Rhyming (Multi's)
First off, I'd like to directly jump into rhyming itself. Every great building started with a sound foundation, your verses are in no way different. To have a hard hitting punch, it needs to be set up by some consistent AND complex rhyming to make it even remotely impressive. Even the hardest punches in the game would sound whack had they been rhyming with shit like "cat" and "hat".
Firstly, instead of writing your verses in a way that you're always thinking of one sentence of lyrics right after the last, you should first list your multi's. For example, I have a line that goes:
All my dreams are lucid, this is heathen music, make ya fuckin' deacon lose it, I'm up in Eden eatin' off the damn trees with judas, so If there's a party in heaven, I'm bringin' demons to it.
Instead of constructing this one sentence at a time, firstly you would think of either the ending line, or any supporting multi word. For this line, the first thing I thought of was "if there's a party in heaven, I'm bringing demons to it."
So since that is the foundation of my line, I want it to be the end point so that it holds the most weight. From here, I'll reverse-engineer my bar. What rhyming set do we have so far?
The scheme "demons to it". So first off, you'd brainstorm on what rhymes with "demons to it."
Then, you'd make a list containing those rhymes you came up with. For this bar, it would be:
dreams are lucid (this rhyme is kind of broken, I'll get into that.)
heathen music
decon lose it
trees with judas
demons to it
Now to know that these rhyme, you HAVE to break them down syllable-wise. To do this, you just coun the syllables.
dreams-are-lu-cid
hea-then-mu-sic
de-con-lose-it
tree-with-ju-das
de-mons-to-it
So as you can see, each rhyming word HAS to be four syllables to match up with the others. To test and see if your multi's perfectly rhyme, you need to see if each syllable rhymes with the next. Take "dreams-are-lu-cid, hea-then-mu-sic and de-con-lose-it for example.
Does dreams, hea, and de rhyme? Yes.
Does are, then, con rhyme? No.
Does lu, mu, and lose rhyme? Yes.
Does cid, sic, and it rhyme? Yes.
Now as you can see, we have a broken multi. When one of these sets don't rhyme with the next, you need to either scrap that part of the bar or attempt to revise it. Now we could just change "dreams are lucid" to "dreams is lucid," but then it becomes grammatically incorrect. So we would just cut it, usally.
Once you have this method mastered, you can essentially just do it in your mind & never have to write hardly anything to tell if your multis match up perfectly.
2- Flow/Fluidity
Flow is almost wholly about connecting rhymes, but also holds a semi-pertanent hand in syllable structure & the placing of filler words that compliment the general sound of the bar, rather than make it sound rigid & uneasy. Usually, people who fall under that "intellectual" style never have a good flow (Take Aesop Rock for an example.) The use of these "bigger" words, not always, but often tend to hinder the conceptual fluidity of the line, UNLESS it is a part of the rhyme scheme itself. So instead of implementing shit that you think is dope because it will add complexity to your verses, simplify it a bit so that you don't sacrifice that fluidity factor.
Babylons BattleRap School - Index
Rhyme-ability (Multi's, flow, fluidity): You are here.
Concepts (Punches, setups, concept ideas): Under construction