Resources and Inspiration for Rappers

A rapper said that he was experiencing a writer's block. He said he needed some inspiration and I thought about this question after we spoke. I listed some ideas below and hope that it can benefit rappers who need some inspiration.

قال  الرابر إنه كان يعاني من كتلة كاتب. قال إنه بحاجة إلى بعض الإلهام وفكرت في هذا السؤال بعد أن تحدثنا. أدرجت بعض الأفكار أدناه وآمل أن تفيد الرابرز الذين يحتاجون إلى بعض الإلهام.

He seemed to be balancing between producing, for friends and for himself. Yet his own work may become delayed. While these two activities may not always be in conflict, it is interesting to keep that in mind while rappers try to navigate their income and gain reasonable money returns to keep one's juices flowing, creatively and literally. So it is important to listen to the paths of former fighters who went through similar struggles.

بدا أنه يوازن بين الإنتاج ، للأصدقاء وله. ومع ذلك ، قد يتأخر عمله. في حين أن هذين النشاطين قد لا يكونان دائمًا في صراع ، فمن المثير للاهتمام أن نضع ذلك في الاعتبار بينما يحاول مغني الراب التنقل في دخلهم والحصول على عوائد مالية معقولة.


A lot of energy is surging from the revolutions of the consciousness in countries such as India's anti-CAA/NRC protests, Iraqi protests as well as Sudan protests. Those places have seen the outburst of creativity in 2019 as well as 2020. But not everyone can tap into such consciousness due to personal limitations.  So it is necessary to look at making music from a long-term perspective.

تتصاعد الكثير من الطاقة من ثورات الوعي في دول مثل احتجاجات الهند ضد CAA / NRC والاحتجاجات العراقية وكذلك احتجاجات السودان. شهدت تلك الأماكن ثورة الإبداع في عام 2019 بالإضافة إلى عام 2020. ولكن يمكن للجميع الاستفادة من هذا الوعي بسبب القيود الشخصية.
لذا من الضروري النظر إلى صنع الموسيقى من منظور طويل الأمد.

This producer gives a very interesting overview of his decisions for choosing to go to school to learn producing, even though some producers have the ability to learn by themselves.
He refers specifically to teenagers thinking about choosing a college, but I think this video is relevant to anyone who wishes to start a new creative path in their life.

Here, rapper and musician Jpegmafia is interviewed by Cambridge Union and he opens up about his start in buying music equipment with his stint in the military. He said that he was very determined to become make music rather than be a vlogger or producer, even when finances were difficult. He also credits the internet for a lot of his self-learning. He marks himself as distinct from current rappers with his experimentation and his courage in taking risks is very admirable. This is part 1 and in part 2 he answers questions from the audience, including the concept of free downloads and his experiences of starting up in Japan.

Bad Rap (2016)

This is a nice documentary I watched around 2 years ago. The rappers Dumbfoundead, Awkwafina, "Rekstizzy" Lee, and Richard "Lyricks" Lee speak candidly about their Asian American identity, their relationship to their city (often New York), their parents, and non-music responsibilities.

"These institutions are most violent when we are trying to figure it out." - Fred Moten talks about "figuring it out" in the broadest sense. In a way, it is about underground music: existing institutions of many societies either are indifferent or they try to steal and sell whatever the new music scene is trying to do.

Here in this English-subtitled video interview, Hindustani classical musician Kaushiki Chakraborty talks about music and the challenge to reach young people in the current stage of music in India. She is very visionary and forthright in her opinions. 

While it is not explicitly about rap, they face the same issues since they cannot be confined without a profitable record label industry and I am guessing that many of the music performers' income is from non-music sources.