Becoming a rapper / hip hop artist with a sizeable online following is still an achievable goal in 2019 and beyond.
You CAN build yourself up from scratch without someone backing you.
You DON’T need thousands of dollars for a marketing budget.
The internet is a hugely powerful tool — it gives you more control and creativity than any rapper in the 90’s could’ve ever imagined.
It allows you to take your music and marketing into your own hands.
As long as you’ve got realistic expectations and you’re in it for the right reasons — a love of making music, sharing a message that will resonate with listeners — becoming a rapper can bring you meaning, fulfillment and a chance at getting your voice heard by millions of people worldwide.
THE RIGHT MINDSET
Becoming a famous, widely-known musician in any genre is challenging.
There are no ‘shortcuts’ to fame and recognition.
There are very, very few overnight successes.
Becoming a successful rapper takes time and perseverance.
Having money to invest in marketing your music helps expedite the process, but it isn’t completely necessary.
An organic fan base often
takes 6+ months to grow
Case in point: the image below is a screenshot of an up-and-coming artists Soundcloud stats after one year of consistently releasing music.
See the “red circle” in the image above? Even though this artist was releasing music consistently from the very beginning, he was barely able to get any plays and engagement in the first 5 months.
Yet he was STILL able to finish his first year as a rapper
with 675,000+ plays on Soundcloud alone.
Simply put, you MUST to be willing to play the “long game” to grow your fan base organically. You have to put effort into your rap career with NO expectation of immediate benefits, recognition or returns.
This process takes TIME.
How many artists do you think ‘give up’ or massively reduce their efforts after hustling for a few weeks and seeing no noticeable results?
What would’ve happened to this artist if he had gotten discouraged at some point during those first 5 months?
PLAN, THEN EXECUTE
A lot of rappers find themselves ‘spinning their tires’ / not gaining traction online because they lack a coherent plan and strategy. They never leave the “red circle” in the image above because their marketing efforts aren’t deliberate or consistent enough.
Anyone can start sharing their music online, but only those who have done their homework stand to see positive results from doing so.
This is why we’ve put together this blog post - to help you become a rapper with a better-than-average chance at seeing success. And because you are most likely financing your musical aspirations out-of-pocket, we will focus on free or inexpensive options where possible. We’ll start with the basics and progress into advanced tips that rappers of all skill levels can employ.
CHOOSE YOUR
RAP NAME
Your rap name is what will help people to associate with your music, so getting this right is vital.
You want something catchy, memorable, and relevant. That’s no small ask, and it can leave plenty of rappers stumped from the get-go.
The biggest piece of advice we can give here is:
MAKE YOUR NAME AS UNIQUE AS POSSIBLE!
When potential fans go to search your name in Google, they should be able to find your website / social media profiles on the first page of search results.
It should be THAT unique.
This can be tougher than you might think. Rappers have gone to great lengths to make their names as unique as possible. They will stylize the letters in their name, use weird/unfamiliar spellings, etc.
Good examples of this are XXXTentacion, Tech N9ne and 6ix9ine.
Don’t Compete With
Established Brands
Before you settle on your rapper name, look it up in Google — if the search results contain exact matches from a big company or established brand, save yourself the headache and choose a different name.
You need to be easily findable online with a simple Google search.
No exceptions!
Stumped on picking a name?
No problem. Just keep it in the back of your mind and play around with ideas. The perfect moniker will come to you eventually.
There are many rap name generators that can be found online. The results can be a little corny / predictable, but they’re still worth checking out — they may spur some ideas for you.
Username generators might help as well.
Consider your potential fans and what names they might resonate with.
Ask your friends to brainstorm if you’re truly stuck.
Just make sure you are 100% happy with the name you choose, because for all intents and purposes, it’s permanent!
GET A NEW EMAIL ADDRESS
If you follow this guide, you’re going to be signing up with a lot of different websites and services. You’re also going to need an email address that you’re willing to post publicly (and risk getting spammed) on your social media pages.
This is why we advise you NOT to use your personal email address.
Make things easy on yourself and sign up a new one instead.
Ideally, your new email address would feature your newly-chosen rap name. Try the free email services like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc. and see if your rap name (or something close to it) is available.
Lock Down Social Media Pages
Sign up all the relevant social media accounts using your newly-created email address. As a rapper, the main ones you’ll want to focus on are: Soundcloud, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
When it comes to choosing a username / creating a permalink, try to make it as consistent as possible across all platforms.
Ideally it would look something like this:
https://soundcloud.com/ArtistName
https://www.youtube.com/c/ArtistName
https://www.twitter.com/ArtistName
https://www.instagram.com/ArtistName
You Need Eye-Catching
📷 Pictures / Graphics 📷
Look around on Soundcloud and you’ll find an inexcusable number of artist accounts that don’t even have a picture uploaded.
Would you check out the music of a default avatar social media user you’ve never heard of?
Most people wouldn’t. First impressions are everything.
If you want to give your music a fighting chance, a professional-looking picture, logo or graphic are a necessity for your social media pages.
Even a selfie taken with your mobile devices’ camera can do the trick.
Just make sure it’s well lit and shows you in your best light.
Don’t want to go the selfie route?
There are plenty free / inexpensive options available to you.
Canva is a free online graphic generator that allows you to easily make a professional-looking logo with no Photoshop-skills required.
If you want more customization than Canva offers, try using GNU Image Manipultor Program, or ‘GIMP’ — a free Photoshop alternative.
There are plenty of great tutorials for GIMP on YouTube.
My personal favorite is Logos By Nick.
Fiverr has thousands of freelance graphic artists you can choose from. Just be careful who you go with here — make sure they speak English (or your native language) fluently, so there are no communication issues when it comes to discussing the details of your graphic.
Make sure they have a good rating — ideally 4.5 stars or better.
BEATS & INSTRUMENTALS
Download some some beats / instrumentals before you begin writing lyrics. Really good instrumentals will often evoke phrases and ideas you may not have come with writing lyrics in silence.
There is no shortage of high-quality royalty free beats on sites like YouTube and Soundcloud — these are a good place to start if you are trying to be budget-conscious.
This is also a perfect opportunity for us to shameless plug our website!
😄
FreeBeats.io has a HUGE catalog of royalty free beats you can use for your projects. Take a minute and browse through our music; if you’re looking to become a rapper, there is definitely a beat or two on here that’ll suit your needs!
Write until you have your topic
Generally, every song you write will need a topic or a theme. Your music can be diverse as you like, but to make it relatable and palatable to listeners, it helps if a song has a coherent message / vibe.
Not every song has to be a grand statement about life / society, but it can’t be aimless either. Many aspiring rappers just spit random braggadocios bars that happen to rhyme, but they don’t paint a bigger overall picture. Giving your song a theme - even if it’s broad and not always referenced by your lyrics - can help it become more digestible to a listener.
2Pac was all about the societal impact of hate. Eminem raps mainly about his struggles as a white rapper and estranged dad. Snoop Dogg was all about chilling, Westcoast living and smoking. These topics work because they’re clearly close to their creator's hearts. Plus, they’re things we can relate to in our own ways.
Perhaps the best thing about our ‘topics’ as artists is that they’re always there waiting for us — we just have to find them. Most of us already have a driving force that we care about or know more about than other people. To find yours, start writing. The more you write rap lyrics, the more you’ll begin to notice that you keep going back to specific themes. While they might need a bit of shaping up, those are the topics that will see you through.
Find a unique sound
Nas has a famous underground song called No Idea’s Original. While there is some truth to that sentiment, you should still make an effort to differentiate yourself from other rappers. You don’t want to be labeled “generic” or “unoriginal”.
Listen to the artists you love and keep an ear out for the sounds they use often / other ways they create recognizable music. Some artists use specific notes, for example, while others will use specific rhyme schemes or melodic patterns in their rapping. Some artists only rap over certain types of beats and that gives their music a coherent sound. Some artists go as far as to only use one producer — a great example being Talib Kweli’s album Train Of Thought, which was produced entirely by Hi-Tek.
Once you get some idea of what goes into a unique sound, seek some free beats online that can help you to start developing for yourself. These can help you play around with your style, and you might soon find that you start tweaking them to fit with your lyrics or your personality.
Record something
You can’t be a hip hop artist if you don’t record anything, so that’s your next step. We’ve got a whole blog post on this topic.
Sending EPs out to big-name labels might not be the only way to success anymore, but having music in the bag is vital if you want to look like a professional. This way, you’ll always have something to send out if (and hopefully when) the right people ask for it.
Even if you start recording on home software, make sure you have something that you can hand out to people who ask for copies of your songs. If things go according to plan, these homemade first recordings could well lead you into a real studio one day.
Brand yourself
Perhaps the hardest thing to get your head around as a budding rapper is the need to brand yourself. Yet, this is probably the most essential thing for success. In reality, you've been working towards this ‘brand’ with your efforts to find a sound and topic that fits. Even your rapper name plays a part here. But, once you have those basics in place, you need to work out how to develop a brand people want to buy.
It can seem strange to think of branding, especially if you’re in this for love, but this side of the business is often as crucial to success as the music you make. Your brand will help you to stand apart, as well as proving there’s an audience for your stuff.
Really, branding can be what you make it. It might be that you have an image you’d like people to associate with your name. Perhaps you want to wear a lot of jewellery, or keep your face hidden during videos. There’s an unlimited different directions you could go in when branding yourself — just make sure your look is consistent with your music.
Take care of marketing
When your brand and your songs are ready to go, becoming a successful rapper is a lot to do with your marketing. This might seem like a boring part of the business, but it’s also the tool that could help you shoot to the top.
In the modern age, of course, no form of marketing is more vital to success than social media. These free platforms open you to find an audience for your rap music even if you aren’t able to appeal to the big labels. And, once you’ve developed some form of following, it should be much easier for you to land that all-important record deal.
While all social platforms are essential for building an audience, video-based websites like YouTube are probably the most important from a music point of view. By uploading songs and video content, you can literally get your music to the fans. If you manage high enough subscriber numbers, that effort alone could see you becoming a successful rapper before you know.
Becoming A Rapper
No one said that becoming a rapper was easy. If it were, you can bet a whole load more people would do it! But, as you can see from these pointers, it’s by no means an impossible goal. If you have a love of hip hop in your veins, then NOW is the right time to get started on your journey to becoming a rapper.
