When I made my first blog about my experiment on who was the “fastest rapper” I was noticing a lot of the comments suggesting to try to understand why or how theses rappers “spit dem bars” so fast. As a result I am creating this second part of that blog to talk about how these rappers say their lines so quickly.
Rapping is an art that takes many years of practice to become good at. Since it is an art there are different forms that cater to different types of people. First off you have the generic rapper that can rhyme his or her last words fairly well to the beat. Next you have the story teller who, in my personal opinion, shows the most skill while rhyming. By being able to twist words well enough together to rhyme them and tell a story all at the same time. Then you have freestyle rappers who is able to do what the generic rappers can but on the spot. Quick thinking and a massive vocabulary helps these rappers succeed. Lastly, we have the fast rappers who use a form of science to benefit themselves while writing their lines. (Note: many rappers fill more than one of these types, making them a more dynamic rapper)
Anyone can write down their bars and rap them as fast as they can, but that will only get you so far. There is a science behind rapping fast and it starts with the syllable count. A basic guide was created by the people over at Rapping Manual on how to rap fast. The video displayed, Vital Tips on How to Rap Fast, describes, in nice detail, on the specific techniques to rapping fast. One can call it the two syllable technique. The basis of it is that you want to put two syllables between each stressed syllable. Some of you might be like, “what in bikini bottoms name does that mean?” let me explain. Let us take a bar like “In SC200 you know we gon run it”. So the words in this sentence that we are going to stress are: In, two (first part of 200), you, gon. As a result the sentence will look like this if we stress the words, “IN sc2oo YOU know we GON run it”. With that said we must have two “filler” syllables in between the stressed words in order for it to flow off the tongue as smoothly as possible. This technique is used by all the top rappers if they want to display their speed on a track. And simple exercises like tongue twisters and long takes off of one breath will only help improve one’s rapping speed. In the end, fast rapping is not genetic or naturally given it’s earned through a lot of practice and with the help of a reliable equation.
I love this topic! I have sadly spent hours upon hours trying to learn Busta Rhyme’s part in look at me now but fortunately I succeeded! I think that along with mastering syllables, something that helped me conquer this was muscle memory. After practicing again and again, the muscle in my tung learned how to move that fast. As a singer, I am aware of the muscle movement in the tung, and it is the same thing during rapping. Here is a link that further describes muscles while singing! Great post!
I believe the equations and technique that was presented in the video I linked and the example I tested is scientific even if its a mathematical based theory its still a scientific study that benefits those who want to improve their rapping speed.
I find this topic to be very interesting and I am disappointed that I read this one before your first blog on fast rappers so I will definitely go check that one out after this one but I have a few comments in regards to this one. First off, I’m not quite sure what the scientific part of rapping fast is. Genetics is one thing, and if in your last blog you proved that to be wrong than understandable; but it looks to me that you’re talking about stressed and unstressed syllables and putting them together, something along the lines of literature and Shakespeare who did the say thing that these young men and women are doing today in the rap industry. If I were to conduct an experiment on rapping fast, it would consist of measuring the speed of the words, monitoring the vibrations of the voice box and its components (comparing those of all fast rappers) and seeing what the fast rappers are doing vocally that other rappers aren’t.