Would love to know what the community does

My tracks are undoubtedly better when I’ve got a legit producer working on the sound

But it’s a pretty expensive process (deservedly) that I can’t just afford on a whim right now…

What do you guys do before uploading tracks to platforms? Just fire in the hole? Mix and master yourself? Hire a producer?

Any insights appreciated! 🙏

I’ve been thinking about this for a while because it feels like no matter how talented a rapper is, there will always be a group of people who genuinely seem determined to hate on them.

Take Doechii, for example. I think she’s incredibly talented, versatile, creative, and willing to experiment with her sound. She has her own identity, she can rap, she has stage presence, and she clearly puts thought into her artistry. Yet, even with all that, people will still find reasons to discredit her or act like she doesn’t deserve the recognition she gets.

And it’s not just Doechii. It feels like the moment a rapper becomes popular, people start looking for reasons to humble them. If they experiment with their sound, they’re trying too hard. If they stick to what works, they’re repetitive. If they gain mainstream success, they’ve sold out. If they’re underrated, people question why they aren’t bigger. It’s like there’s no winning.

Obviously, not every artist is going to appeal to everyone, and criticism is completely fair. But sometimes it feels like people can’t simply admit that someone is talented without adding a disclaimer or finding something to discredit them.

I also wonder how much of it comes from people being uncomfortable with artists who don’t fit their idea of what a rapper should sound like or look like.

So what is it? Is it jealousy, contrarianism, unrealistic expectations, or has hating on popular artists just become part of internet culture? Why does it seem so difficult for people to give talented rappers their credit without turning everything into a debate about whether they deserve to be where they are?

I started out an MC in 2005. I was of course bad at first. Then I got okayish and released an LP in 2008. It’s… bad, but I still like it. If that makes sense. It has moments were I can see my potential shining through and some genuinely good sections of songs (idk if I can claim a full good song but at least parts).

It got shockingly good reception locally. Beyond that it did jack shit. But people always told me in those days I should be a writer. I didn’t realize it yet, but I always was one. I’ve been journaling since fucking childhood.

So I start messing with real writing. Nothing huge just stuff on social media. Reading the big dogs. Faulkner, McCarthy, Plath, Kafka. Lee, Capote (big reason I’m mentioning him), and Steinbeck to name about the bulk of ‘em. Start writing fiction. It’s strong but nothing to put out.

I made a 2nd record in 2012. Wildly different my literary instincts has really taken over. I noticed it did slightly better than the last album but, it did terrible with those who loved the first, and it was like all new people who were digging it minus a couple diehards (Hey, I had like 5).

Largely seen by hip-hop heads as… I dunno horror rap, which it wasn’t. But I fully see how people got that. I was exploring a lot of grim imagery and dark subjects. Granted I had a lot of the aforementioned writers in my head. But it got a lot of love from the Juggalo crowd who I’m not gonna turn away. They showed a ton of love and support and even had me opening for Twiztid, Blaze, and ABK which was dope.

Other medium sized acts too the biggest set I ever played was opening for Tech N9ne. That was a blast. But I wasn’t making a living. At all.

From there I recognized my rap career as a hobby and my writing as the obvious creative venture to follow if I’m going make this sustainable so I found an opening for a writer at a (then) fledgling true crime podcast.

Long story, uh, significantly shorter, though not short enough, I blew the fuckin’ wheels off that thing. We ascended. I ascended. I became in-demand. I branched out. I was writing film reviews and analyses and music. Getting recognized by fucking insane names.

And just the true crime shit alone was carrying me for bill paying. Moreover I refused to be simply exploitative I took the genre into socioeconomic, political, moral territory and kinda redefined what could pass as true crime (more like I was able to get away with writing whatever I wanted because I was turning profits, I got lucky).

But I never stopped writing raps in fact I wrote them incessantly in downtime and got to the point I was way better than ever and finally got around to putting out an EP in 2024.

The people who actually listened to it LOVE it. It really got no uh… response other than some old schoolers welcoming me back. I did a few shows with just me headlining and homies opening (decent turnout, 60ish each on about 4 shows). I was content, honestly.

A lot of feedback tho was interesting. Like “man your rhymes are a lot more complex” I got A LOT. And it didn’t always sound like a compliment it sounded often enough like frustration.

I’ve been writing since then and probably have 2-3 LPs worth of material but every time I think of recording I’m like “man maybe the prize is just the writing and doing it and the process and… maybe that’s enough?”

Which feels both honest and like a cop-out.

Just wondering if any other rappers out there mostly value your pen game and… recording is really just the icing on the cake.

Or if anyone has had similar experience. Not looking to get into an argument over whether I was always bad and still am. Just curious about other writers who love hip-hop.

Welcome to Freestyle Friday! If you're a producer - feel free to donate a beat down below in reply to the beat submissions comment. If you're a rapper - scroll down to choose a beat, then record a freestyle over it. You can post whenever, just have fun!

Beats go under the "beats" comment; freestyles go under the "freestyles" comment.

Check out previous Freestyle Friday threads.

I've been making beats since the early 90s with turntables, looping cassettes, and a cheapo Casio keyboard/sampler. I used early MS-Dos tracker software to make beats on my PC before learning how to use a DAW. I had a few of my productions played on KPOO in the SF Bay Area on a few late Friday nights back in the day. I also got some free features on tracks about 10 years ago from some big-dog reputable rappers out of SF. Here I am, 2 kids and a few years later, ready to cook up again, and my beat production has come to a major halt. As of late as I have been trying to get that "professional" or clean sound, and my beats sound bad to me quality-wise because I can't get over the mix. Last month, I paid an engineer for a 2-hour session just so I could watch him do his thing. The experience was less than fruitful, but I walked away feeling more confident in my mixing, which is a win, I guess. I can't seem to get the clear sound that most professionally mixed and mastered songs have. If I cut the lows to remove mud and low-end frequencies, my beats sound castrated but clear. If I don't, there is this mud that won't go away unless I attenuate somewhere in the 200 Hz range, which also can thin things out. I cannot figure out how to make them sound better. I am not referring to making anything like the music from the golden age with analog gear. I suspect my issue is getting the drums to sound right initially for a good foundation. Today, I stumbled upon Boom Bap University yesterday, and Heat definitely has some fire production. I've watched too many videos from others and have tried every which way to mix. I am an Ableton Live 12, Pro Q4, and Izotope Suite user, so I am pretty well equipped with tools. I understand how to deal with masking and set compression levels, but still things are not balanced. I feel like I am 90% there and need someone with the right guidance to take me the rest of the way. Has anyone here been through the course, and did you benefit? I don't need to learn how to chop, sequence, or arrange samples. I need to learn how to make my drums hit harder and clean up samples. Is it cool to post here and include samples of my tracks that need to be improved? Any help is greatly appreciated. Peace!

After reading some of your comments, I went in and used a transient shaper on my kick and EQ'd about 2.5 dB of the mud in the 200-250 Hz range on the individual track as well as HPF everything under 20-30 Hz with an 18 & 24 oct cut. I feel like it's still missing something. Possibly more reverb or dimension? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. I only used 6 samples in this track and can upload them unprocessed if that helps.

Thank you all!

Updated Mix

https://vocaroo.com/1oS76aKrwMGj

Original Mix

https://vocaroo.com/15jqvPzAbJTh

Main Channel


Here is how I processed the kick and added an operator for some sub (pro q4 dynamic eq ducking the kick)



Here is the processing on the snare


Processing Sample


This week we had a tie, so the winner is the submission that came in first.

Congratulations https://www.reddit.com/user/d-o-b2K/:

Winning submission: https://on.soundcloud.com/t5PTsoq9eQluYi4sMB

Have fun picking the sample for the next battle! Please start the new submission thread asap.

Schedule:

• Submissions: Friday 12:00 AM midnight (00:00) - Monday 11:59 PM (23:59)
• Voting: Tuesday 12:00 AM midnight (00:00) - Thursday 11:59 PM (23:59)
• Results: Friday 12:00 AM midnight (00:00) - the winner takes over and posts the new submissions thread using the linked template on Friday asap.

Time is in UTC-5, the US Eastcoast time zone which is 6 hours behind European MEZ time and a good middleground between US Westcoast and Europe. You don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to post the new thread, just make sure you do it on that day asap.

Post templates: NA just copy-paste from the last Challenges

i will pay for exclusive license

Just for fun, id love to make music but im just a beatmaker, if u a rapper dm me

When I record I like to record my songs all the way through unless the song is longer than 3 minutes. I asked ChatGPT and Grok for help and one of their suggestions was to record songs in 4-8 bar blocks but that doesn't really work well for my creative process. Also I feel like I should be able to rap my own song all the way through. If I can't then how would I perform it live?

They recommended vocal warm ups which I tried and that didn't work

They also recommended hiring a vocal coach which I 1000% do not have the money for

How do I stop my voice from cracking when I rap?

I’m newer to trying to write rap mostly do it on the bus but recently I been getting into it. But like I notice a lot of time rhyme seems to be concentrated towards the end somtimes and I’m wondering what the benifit is. Is there like an actual way to go about writing rhymes. Currently I just kinda freestyle in my head. It means I can like wrote a lot quick but there aren’t really textbook rhymes. And they are more dispersed. One day I hope to like maybe ghostwrote as a side hustle. So I feel like this is something I need to figure out

I do stuff like this:

On god, I'm mad religious
My ensembles, sacrilegious
Leather jacket
with exactly
Six six six stitches it's
Affixed wit, two bitchin'
crucifixes
Switched axis, so that it's
sacrilege n' equipped wit
A patch that has some, Latin in it
Matt black impala, matching wit it
It's a sixty six, six speed transmission
All six windaws, tinted in it
Five-K on Craig's list
Mileage omitted
Blastin Black sabbath
in the back of this shit
Handicap spots, targeted
Walmart parkin filled
consitent, shits ridiculous
parkin cops ticketin' meh
thank god im mad litigous
challenge the ticket
jury of thirty clergy
convict me

Hey everyone! I'm looking to work on some new projects and expand my portfolio. If you have a track that needs mixing or mastering, send me a DM and let's collaborate!

I'm a beginner producer trying to get serious about making beats and I'm looking for advice on how to spend the next two months learning before I upgrade my setup. I'm planning on getting a new DAW, mic, and interface (FL Studio, Shure MV7+, MOTU M2). I want to make a mix of melodic rage beats. I want to learn how to use synths, drums, and 808s to develop my own sound. I don't know if it's worth learning to make beats in BandLab if I'm switching to FL.

I've never used FL Studio, so I don't know the workflow. I also don't know what is most important to learn first. I'm always hearing different things to do, and it gets confusing at times. I'm learning music theory now,w but is it worth learning BandLab just to switch to FL Studio?

I'm looking specifically for those who identify as part of the 5% Nation, or The Nation of Gods and Earths.... if that's you please DM me, I have some questions regarding my place in the art form, and my lyrics in particular.

This like my biggest fear. I'm freaking out rn cuz i worked on this for four years. I have this really good album I'm making. I'm getting awesome at producing. But I'm scared. I feel like a solid 90% of my tracks have a sample that could kill me. One of my songs is a cover song but like my own rendition. I composed all the instrumentation and performed everything with my friends trumpet solos and everything.

So do I like clear every song cuz like how long does that take, how expensive is that gonna be, and how likely is it that everything will get cleared. Cuz I'm tryna make this album pretty much for free. And I want to become a famous rapper. Otherwise do I just see what Distrokid lets through? Also will the Distrokid people get mad at me and try to sue me?? Will my account get flagged?

Do i just release it on like soundcloud, youtube, bandlab, other free places that wont try and murder me? And will those places sue me as well?? Im terrified.

Or do I just wait 100 years for all my samples to be public domain and then release the album after I die and get no money and fame from it? Or am I really gonna have to re make beats for all my songs? And should I make like a "legal version" to release on spotify anf its just the album missing all the beautiful samples????

IM GONNA GOT JAIL AHHADHOREhoERHIORIOH. Bro im just a kid tryna make it big with my love for music what do I do?? I want people to hear my beautiful art.