The best way to start a rap career is to gain as much experience as possible through intensive writing practice and music rehearsals.
There is no degree required or formal training and this makes a rap career an appealing option for those who do not suit traditional careers and educational paths.
Becoming a rapper requires passion, talent, discipline and strong marketing skills. The salary made from a rap career can vary drastically due to the fluctuating nature of royalty payouts.
However, once you have established yourself with a strong reputation within the music industry, there are no limits to the amount that you can earn.
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How To Start Your Rapping Career
Whether you are looking to start a fully-fledged career or you just want to start rapping, there are many paths that you can take in order to establish yourself as a reputable rap artist.
All of these include the following key steps in order to successfully pave your way:
1. Create An Individual Sound
One of the first things that distinguishes a successful rap artist is their individual sound and style.
Some people have a naturally distinctive sound but the vast majority of people will develop their individual style through a lot of practice.
Your style may have been formulated as a result of the music that you listen to and the artists that inspire you may directly influence your own sound.
However, you should be careful not to imitate those artists that you love as finding your own unique sound is imperative.
A rap artist should have a thorough grasp of how cadence, timing and enunciation impact their own sound and it is incredibly important to practice your wiring skills in order to deliver unique and distinctive ‘bars’.
Becoming a great writer gives you an unshakeable skill base that will continue to serve you throughout your career and you should therefore study the rhyme schemes of your favorite rappers in order to understand the way that rap music is formed.
Watching documentaries on the history of hip hop is also notably beneficial in order to fully immerse yourself within the culture of rap music.
You should also revisit any rhymes that you write and see how you can improve them rhythmically, making the right adjustments where necessary.
Focusing on syllables is also crucial and you should ideally sense how easily this flows off of your tongue in order to make the relevant adjustments.
The vast majority of rap will include examples of internal and slant rhymes and you should study the different methods of rhyming in order to fully maximize your potential.
If you want to become a rapper purely for fame, then you should reconsider your career path.
Whilst rappers can become extremely famous, it also takes years of dedication to emerge victorious over the competition.
Therefore, you should focus your efforts on improving your writing and ‘pushing your pen’ to the maximum.
Performing at open mics is also a great way to build your confidence when you are first starting out and putting on a beat in your house whilst free styling will also help you to improve your cadence and sense of timing.
You should therefore approach your new rap career from the perspective of building your skill-set as this will ensure that you set yourself above the competition from the very start.
2. Build A Marketing Campaign
Rap artists can achieve fame by mixing with a variety of musicians as this will inherently provide them with the opportunity to work with different producers and industry representatives.
Word-of-mouth marketing is crucial to developing your fan base and is still considered to be the most effective form of marketing.
Word-of-mouth marketing is an important part of a rap artist’s strategy. If people like what they hear, they will tell people about it.
Another way rap artists can market themselves and their music is through their personal website, which may contain their biography, music files, and contact information.
Implementing digital marketing is also key as this can enable you to engage with new fans across your social media platforms.
Prior to standing up in front of other people and performing, you should have a stage name in order to represent your brand.
This name should be distinctive and memorable in order to intrigue your audience to browse through your online catalogue thereafter.
After you have chosen your stage name, you should have formed a playlist of your best songs in order to showcase your original material.
Once these have been selected, you should begin to play as many shows as possible in order to promote yourself.
Many rappers have started out performing on street corners and nightclubs. However, posting content online is the most proficient way to establish yourself as a reputable rap artist.
3. Hiring Support
The most successful artists will have built a strong team around them who are wholly committed to helping their career.
Once a rap artist has enough money to invest in marketing, they will need to hire an agent or promotional assistants who can help them to promote their work.
They will also need to hire a lawyer who can assist them in negotiations with record labels and a booking agent who can help them to secure gigs.
A publicist is also a key figurehead in a successful rap artist’s career as they have the capacity to reach out to all media outlets in order to promote you to a far wider audience.
4. Keep Recording Music
It can be easy to ‘fall off’ when you are just starting a rap career and you will need to maintain consistency in order to engage your newly found fan base.
Once you have accrued enough original material, you can begin to formulate wider projects. In order to do this, you should work with a trusted producer who has a firm understanding of your distinctive sound.
Once you have a body of unreleased work (as well as one or two released tracks that can demonstrate your popularity), you can begin to approach record labels via online submissions.
However, you should bear in mind that a lot of successful rappers are currently independent and they self-distribute through online distribution services that you can sign up for in a few easy clicks.
And it is uncommon for record labels to respond to unsolicited material unless they already have an interest in that artist.
Therefore, the best way to approach your rap career is through independent marketing so that you can negotiate record deals with the utmost leverage.
5. Continue Marketing And Improvement.
As a musician, you need to be continually involved and improve your skill set in order to maintain your popularity and remain relevant in a competitive industry.
Conclusion
To conclude, a rap artist needs to develop their skill-set, perform at a wide variety of events and hire support staff in order to establish a consistently successful rap career.
If you are aspiring to make a career out of rap music, you should have an understanding of your own distinctive sound and market it accordingly in order to capitalize on your distinctive brand as much as possible.
