How To Improve Your Rap Voice In Under 9 Minutes (Tips + Examples)

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FREE RAP COURSES:

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TIME STAMPS:

0:00 Overview
0:36 Free Songwriting Course
0:54 The Main Components: EET
1:30 Energy
2:21 Vocal Energy Exercise
4:10 Emphasis
4:31 How To Change Your Vocal Emphasis
6:31 Tone
7:15 Focus On Vocal “Muscle Memory”
8:06 Review
8:14 Comment

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In this video, we'll show you how to rap better by using rap tips that help teach you how to improve your rap voice. If you've wanted to learn how to start rapping, are searching for a great rap tutorial, or even just want to learn more technical aspects of how to improve your rap voice, this is the video for you. Our channel is designed to teach you how to rap for beginners, how to write a rap song, how to start a rap career, and much more. Enjoy!

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The Fundamental Components of Great Rap Delivery: “EET”
The first thing you’ll need to understand is what the main components of a great rap voice are so that you can identify which part you are lacking in or would like to improve on and focus on that.

I’ve created an easy to remember acronym for this which I call, “EET”. EET stands for…

ENERGY
EMPHASIS
TONE
All of the components of EET comprise what is commonly known as vocal delivery in rap… or for causal fans, simply, “rap voice”.

Now, let’s breakdown what each of these means and what to focus on to improve your rap voice.

90% of beginning rappers are simply TOO quiet when they first start off rapping and it comes off very insecure and amateurish.

Now, when you get more experienced and know how to project your voice properly and get enough air into your lungs…

…You’ll be able to tone it back and get a more relaxed, chill amount of energy and still sound confident, much like rappers such as Nas, Snoop Dogg, or even Drake are able to do.

But as a beginning artist I would suggest your first priority to master rap voice is to learn to project your voice LOUDLY so that you know how to “dominate” a beat when you hear it.

Visualize How “Far” Your Voice Is Traveling
Let me give you a quick exercise to help you improve your vocal energy if that’s an issue.

The first thing I would suggest is begin rapping your verses, project your voice, and try to visualize how far your voice is traveling.

If you are a beginner and nervous, I would bet your voice is only landing about one to two feet in front of you.

Imagine there is a red line on the floor in front of you and push your voice out more to try to make it land as far as five, six, or even ten feet away.

Imagine you are trying to yell at someone in another room in your house. While you may feel like you are sounding over-the-top…
How To Improve Your Rap Voice ENERGY
When someone first decides to become a rapper, one of the first things I usually have to tell them is that they simply need to be LOUDER.

Vocal energy refers to the actual VOLUME of your voice when rapping.

…This exercise is simply to get you used to rapping at a high volume, and then with the other tips we’re about to give you, we’ll train you how to avoid just sounding like you’re screaming.

Even better, if you can get a friend or fellow rapper to stand six to ten feet away from you and listen, let them tell you how you sound from that distance. In person references are always better than just by yourself.

Practice Getting Louder
The most important thing to understand with this section is that your current IMPRESSION of how loud you are is not necessarily the actual FACT of how loud you are.

Much like you might record yourself and think you sound good but then when you listen back to you don’t like…

…You can’t simply think that you’re actually at full vocal energy volume just because you initially THINK you are.

[HowToRapOfficial]

Which part of a great rap voice are you going to work on first?

[SmokHealthy]

Energy, I do rap like I’m in a library

[jl]

“Get a friend to stand 6 feet away from you-“
*He knew- he knew didnt he*

[Bunny-jbns]

I'm actually a quiet person, kinda shy but when I start rapping it's like I dont even care about that anymore and become really loud, this is one of the reasons I love rap it gave me alot of confidence from the first freestyle I ever did.

[musclememer]

Rapping loud is difficult when you live with your parents

[yvypdpl]

I’ve been practicing rapping as a new hobby at home since quarantine. My mom has been thinking that I’ve been having arguments with myself at 3am lol

[k.o.kyouknowit]

3 days…. Dramatically improved flow, found my rap voice, WAY more emotion, and VOLUME thank you How To Rap

[skessisalive]

I have a problem finding a place to practice being loud without people around me telling me to shut up

[darshnikdeep]

1. Loud energetic way projection of voice
2. Chill way singing
3.visualize how far your voice is travelling.
4.Vocal emphasis on specific words(enunciation)>> hack>> change the way u write your rap.
5.Used capitalization, italics...intentionally misspelt word( make em longer or shorter).
6. Vocal tone: muslce memomry, focus on your muscle.( not clearly explained in this video)

[Speed_Racer.]

This video reminds me of my cousin. That dude could rap all day but couldn’t spell to save his life. I remember my aunt found his rap book and started cursing saying she was gonna call the school district cause they wasnt teaching kids nothing in there.

[usthefolksmusic]

Great tips and video breakdown. Definitely, went through that for about 6 months until I figured it out. My epiphany was when I implemented this:
-write in a format & structure that is easy to read off, with emphasis on specific moments/words
-record with the mindset that you'll perform this song one day and it needs vocal energy to match the instrumental
-record each verse like it's last time anyone will hear your voice

[sfsmilitary]

The reason I don't rap loud is because there is always someone around

[williammontgomery]

Definitely energy and tone. Those two are my weakest parts.

[bobopatchnosuke]

Hov's delivery is insane. I believe having your own swagger is just as important in order to have a great rap delivery. Great video BTW

[shmooptifloop]

Another thing that goes with emphasis is pronunciation. When I started (and it still happens sometimes), I would slur my words either without noticing or to fit a particular sound. A great example of this is El-P's voice. He doesn't slur his words, but he raps so casually that if you attempted to sound like El you might do it without realizing. I've found that opening my mouth more and actively pronouncing each word in an over-extending way helps to make better pronunciation more casual.

[bryannunez]

u sounded like tupac when u said the hennessy

[MikeTheMGTOWMonk]

At 5:50
I had a lot of confidence once he gave that advice because I already naturally hand write my lyrics a certain way that I'm able to know how to spit it vocally...
I stretch out words all the time...
I been doing this b4 I got the advice...
Now I 100% know this channel is 4 me.
I'm subbing...

[medvarnusdeshamrmundys]

Drew u really have brought me a long way in this art sir, I'm basically rewatching ya vids to refresh my memory. 2 years ago I was flowing thru my stumbles, a year after that u challenged me to write, this year vocals refreshes and writing tips u r a god send my g stay blessed

[oscarperdomo]

Soo crazy how I was talking about how to improve my voice and boom your video pops up on my feed thank you

[calbrandell]

Changing how I write lyrics makes a lot of sense actually I feel like when I’m rapping I don’t know which words to emphasizes this actually helped me a lot!