Get Sorted and Inspire Rotherham have been working with young people, writing and recording rap songs to achieve an accreditation. They explore the way lyrics are written and have produced a book which will include their completed raps, lyrics, poetry and thoughts, a full profile of each rapper and a CD that shows off samples of their best work. This article is taken from the Inspire Rotherham website.
H is a 14-year-old rapper and lyricist. He began the Inspire project by taking part in the Shakespeare Sonnet exercise.[1] He had many questions about the text and wanted to make sure he fully understood what was required of the exercise in order to emulate it. He was very keen to create a positive rap and wrote out different ideas.
When working with H we discussed the use of language within a poem or a rap and identified the effects for and against when using colloquialisms and vernaculars. Whilst identifying errors and misspellings, we agreed that as H was expressing himself in his lyrics, he should keep the ‘Urban Language’ that he had developed through his social circles and utilize these in an effective and creative way. As he had identified some of the errors he made, but wanted to keep them consistent within the text, he demonstrated how he was writing his rap almost phonetically, using words like ‘Wiv’, ‘Sum’ and ‘Wanna’ to keep the articulation as he had intended, much like a music composer will express on the sheet music how a certain bar is to be played.
H was given fair criticism from the other group members and took these on board well when redrafting his lyrics.
Once H had written and preformed the ‘bars’[2] for his Shakespeare exercise, he then set about creating rhythm that he was to rap to. He did this using the software available to him. He would sit with a member of staff looking at the different methods and options available to him to use when creating his beat.
In between working on his own rap, H became involved in other ongoing activities, such as working with other group members to perform or help with writing the lyrics. In doing this, he was given more ideas and more techniques to use for his own material that he would then begin using the Internet and researching different artists and styles of rapping. He developed an interest in rhyming schemes[3] and how they can be taken from poetry and used in rapping.
H spent some time looking at excerpts of poems by some classic writers and poets and compared these to some of the more contemporary rap artists to see if he could identify any similarities or differences. He used simple literacy exercises to improve his skills as a writer and a rapper.[4] He would look up lyrics for songs on the Internet and read through them. H wrote several lyrics and performed a number of raps as well as appearing on other group member’s raps to demonstrate the versatility and unique style and approach he had.
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Notes:
[1] This was an exercise that the entire group took part in individually whereby they were given a Sonnet by Shakespeare and asked to study the meaning of the text and use it as a foundation for lyrics to be performed for a rap.
[2] ‘Bars’ - Local dialect term for lyrics. Used commonly in Rap social groups.
[3] Different styles and methods for using rhyming effectively.
[4] Some of these exercises included taking a rap line and rearranging it into a more grammatically acceptable sentence and vice versa.
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