Hip hop music is a non-deniable worldwide phenomenon when it comes to music genres. It has the ability to captivate the listener and evolve throughout the years in fast and fierce ways like no other music genre, and this is mainly how rappers become famous.
As a form of art, rap is a powerful way for rappers to express their feelings, anxieties, dreams, struggles and street experiences easier than they would if they used any other musical genre.
That is why rap is so widely chosen by people and especially younger generations, as their choice of music creation, because it gives the hip hop artist the ability to directly communicate with his audience, and the audience to directly empathize with the artist’s feelings.
Rap verses include everything, from violent street tales which most of the times tend to be real facts that are described by the rap artists as the struggles they have been through, to the most romantic and sensible tracks that talk about love and social messages.
No matter what the topic of each verse is about, the final purpose of every hip hop song (and the ultimate bet for every individual artist) is to engage his audience, compete with other rappers and distinguish his unique style and technique to build his name.
How do rappers become famous
Understanding the origins and beliefs of Hip Hop Culture is a step most rappers avoid or even think about. Knowledge and understanding of where it all started, the purpose of hip hop music as a movement will help you build a stable base and mentality.
Looking at what went wrong in the past, gives you the ability to make the right choices in the future, improve your disadvantages both as an individual person and as an artist and help you evolve and become famous and successful eventually.
Hip hop is much more than a musical genre, it has its own history and there is no luck involved when it comes to why it is one of the most powerful and stable genres, with thousands of artists and millions of fans around the world.
Improve your rapping skills
The first thing you need to do as a rap artist, is to practice a lot daily and improve your rapping skills. Hip hop is a very competitive genre and it won’t be easy to compete with other great rappers at all, especially when they have similar dreams and motivations to you.
No matter how much practice, it never really is enough and you should take advantage of every moment you can to write a verse, test your technique and showcase your skills to your friends so that they can commend and tell you their opinion.
Positivity and enthusiasm, although they may not sound important, they are. You need to keep your personal strength in high levels, so that it helps you build a stable mentality and improve your aesthetics and technical skills.
Create songs
Next and very important step, is to create your own songs. After knowledge and practice, action takes place.
Write lyrics
To start with, do what you practiced for, make a plan for your song and write your lyrics. Decide on the topic you want to write, make a draft for the verses and choruses and try to create as captivate and interesting lyrics as possible.
Find beats
You must look for the right people to create beats for you. You can always address to friends to help you, buy beats according to your starting budget or make your own beats. Whichever way you choose, focus on high quality beats to enhance the final results.
Record your song
Final step is finding a studio to record your song. Nowadays, there are a lot of professional studios in affordable prices even for artists with a minimum budget, that can offer high quality services. Prepare your lyrics, practice your verses, bring the beats with you and if possible the producer of the beat so that he can help you with his own perspective and record your song.
Make the right choices
Like everything in life, when launching your career as a rap artist you need to focus on making the right choices. All of us realize that this is not possible every single time and we can learn from our mistakes, but it is always good to give it a try.
What you must do, is take your time and think thing carefully.
Think about the quality of your lyrics and the message you want to spread to your audience. Are you a battle rapper or do you write conscious lyrics? What is your purpose? Is your message clear enough for the people to understand?
When you define your own goals and know what is it that you want to achieve, things always seem a little bit easier. If money is your goal, then be honest and share your feelings with your listeners. If you want to stress out a social message be direct and communicate it openly.
Live stage performance
A very important step is to book your own live performances. Like Rap Battles, an on-stage live performance gives you the opportunity to show to the people your skills, demonstrate your songs and eventually satisfy the audience and connect with them.
You need to pay attention to the audience, see what they like and what they don’t and try to improve your image so that you keep them satisfied and engaged to your music.
Be as expressive as you can, try to communicate personally with the listeners and be authentic. Originality and honesty are the main virtues that are usually appreciated by the vast majority of the audiences worldwide, and you have to be able to use them to your advantage.
Print T-shirts, have your CDs available, flyers and posters and sell them to the performances, so that you can invest your income back to your career.
Connect with the right people
In addition to all of the above, making the right connections relevant to your field is another aspect of significant importance concerning your career.
Pursue connections with sound studio owners, agents beatmakers singers and of course other rappers, especially the ones similar to your style and genre. Collaborate with them, so that you can build strong stable relationships which will be for the best interest of both sides, as this way you can both expand your network.
What is more, having an established rapper as a feature on your album can be very beneficial for you, as your brand name will be considered an authority when an important name of your musical genre decides to trust you with his lyrics or beats.
Online presence
We live in the digital era, so having an online presence is as crucial as every other point mentioned in this article. All artists should take advantage of the large number of social media platforms available, and use them to their benefit. Some social media networks you should consider using are:
- Tumblr
- Google+
- StumbleUpon
All of these platforms are used by millions of people daily, and they consist of target groups of people for every musical genre. What you should do as an artist, is to approach the right groups, share your opinion, talk and connect with the people to see what they like or don’t, what their needs and requirements are and try to adjust.
Some social groups you should consider as a hip hop artist are:
- General hip hop discussion groups
- Rap battle groups
- Freestyle battle groups
- Lyrics exchange groups
- Lyricist lounge groups
- Songwriter groups
- Artist connection groups
- Artist promotion groups
- Artist management groups
All of these groups consist of people with the same interest as you, so you can discuss with them and exchange ideas in order to help and inspire one another.
Get help – Hire a manager
When you have done everything else, last step is to search and hire a manager that has some considerable experience in the field of hip hop music. It is highly recommended that you stick to the creative part of your career and let someone more experienced than you operate your connections and business matters.
You will always be in control, but having some important help when it comes to marketing will help you considerate and focus on what is more important for you, the music part.
If you are thinking about you are going to pay the manager for his services, you should know that there are managers and agent that instead of getting paid up front, they just take percentage (usually %10 or %20) of every job they acquire for their client, which is very convenient for artists that are just starting launching their careers.
Never stop trying
Sky is the limit and the option available are numberless. Remember that failure is part of the game and no matter how many times it happens, it doesn’t mean that you do not deserve to be a successful and famous hip hop artist.
Unfortunately, there does not exist a specific time frame that indicates where and when an artist will achieve his goals and fulfil his dreams. Many people even fail to see their dream become true.
You have to keep your head up and your eyes open for opportunities and grab every chance available to promote your name and showcase your skills and techniques.
Hip hop music is a beautiful and complex genre with more than enough benefits for the rappers that decide to express themselves through it and launch their careers, although a long and competitive path, which requires lots of patience and hard work to distinguish among thousands of other skillful artists.
Brace yourselves!