When laying a verse...

[S O F I]

When as a rapper, you stumble upon a beat that you want to lay a verse to, what specific things in a beat do you look for to guide your verse so that it will flow proper? Also, I'm not really up on terminology so in layman's terms?

 

[Casey]

It's just vibes, man. Everyone is different. Some people pride themselves on being as tight as humanly possible, for example Eminem's flow is generally completely tight with the beats, i.e the stressed words will always sit exactly on the snare drum and whatnot.

But then you've got folks like E-40 who are never on the damn beat. E-40 sort of flows randomly around and in between the drum patterns in no particular set way.

It honestly can be anything and it depends on the person and on the beat. M.I.A, as another example uses very tribal beats sometimes that are based on rhythms not generally used in contemporary music, as a result her flows are sometime so unique that they just sound nonsensical to your average person.

 

[7 Syns]

how the beat itself flows and then how quick the patterns are, if they're slower I tend to write longer bars, use more syllables and be able to talk about something more defined. if the beat is quicker then i tend to write using more multi's and internals. but like mili said the vibe really dictates the rhyme.

sometimes the beat might be on some tribe called quest/dilla ish laid back as a mutha so i tend to experiment with the flow change it between rapid fire to slower delivery. when ish is more hyped up on a beat: think anything out atm really i'll just use a more stable delivery which flows the same through out the beat.

if that makes any sense?

peac3.

 

[GhettoStar]

I like to be on time with the beat. If slower, my lines are longer. If faster, they either are shorter in length or syablles

 

[Hymnz]

variety... within unity.
some producers try to do too much with a beat. vary the little things as the song progresses, not the big things.

 

[Bigg Limn]

U dont look 4 anything...u Jus listen 2 the verse and basically mesh 2gether with it. U and the beat become one and U mirror eachother's feeling. lol really doe like Mil said its all on the person and their style.