I agree with Jay Z's "20 minute" rule...
 

Anyone here who raps knows how tough it is to write when you have block. The last track I made took me almost 3 hours to write 2 verses. That's an abnormality to me. And, to be truthful, my best verses seem to be the ones that flow easily and naturally. I've written some of my best verses in 5-10 minutes. Jay Z says that if it takes more than 20 minutes to write a verse, nix it because "it's no longer music."

I agree with him 100% Don't force it. Let it flow naturally.








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Thats from Fade 2 Black

but ya i agree 100%

Hmm...I remember that...And now that I think about it, I wrote 3 verses and recorded em last night, and I can't stop listening to em. I wrote em within 35 minutes too..But, I wrote some other verse last week that took me hella long, like a day and a half and I didn't even like it.

^^Exactly...

And, I think if you go back and analyze all the verses people said were "dope", those are the ones that you didn't struggle to write.





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I dont agree........

nah, thats bullshit imo...it takes different people a different amount of time to write verses, just because he writes them quicker doesnt mean he should put a time limit on whats music and whats not, and maybe he writes them so quick cuz the verses are raw ass

Jay Z has never been on, the 'cutting edge' of lyricism man..

Theres always been emcees out there that would make him look like a fool if he was put in comparison...

And he says he never spends more than 20 minutes on a verse.. Who woulda figured...

Jay-Z is not lyrical? :cussing: What the Fuck you smoking?

I ain't even gon' get mad at that, because I can tell you ain't heard 1/4 of his shit. All you probably hear is his Commercial single songs...Fuck outta here...Jay is lyrical to the fullest.

Crack apparently




But, this may not apply to EVERYONE. It applies to me though, and a lot of people. I write through inspiration. If I'm blocked, I'm not fittin' to sit there and force anything. That's like tryna crap out a wooden block.






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^(to m-eazy)not when comparing him to chino xl, canibus, the older eminem, nas, kool g rap, and rakim...but thats just my opinion i guess

i agree and disagree........... some of my better verses were wen they came naturally and flowed well without tryin..... but the best song i ever wrote took me almost 2 weeks to complete..... i mean, it wasnt like 2 weeks straight..... but i kept gettin blocked and couldnt think of which direction i wanted to go with the song.... and finally after weeks i finally completed it the way i wanted to and like i sed..... it has been prolly my best song to date...... atleast solo track wise

ehhh. jay is lyrical. but hes NO where near the best when it comes to lyrics. but like nos said,

he not on the cutting edge of lyricism lol. else hood cats wouldnt give a fuck about what he says. you dont see cats on corners bumpin some talib kweli ROFL. or some mosdef., or some tondeff, or some crisis, or............


you get the point.

but yea i agree with him tho. your best shit just comes to you. if you force it, its sounds forced

lol

are u fuckin serious

wow.....

For real

Jay could beat 1/2 of these emcees with his flow alone.








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Jay z is one of the Best 3 Lyricist Of All Time

lol..Nos u jus lost like 67 Cool Points

fucker never had cool points with me anyway

so...guess that puts him - 100000000000000000000


:thefinger

It's not comparing him to anybody else. (Which I think JAY will dead them lyrically). It's just that he said Jay aint lyrical period. I'm apauled by that post. When Obviously he hasn't heard Jay-Z's real lyrical content, album to album, Reasonable Doubt to Black Album, Front To Back. It annoys the hell out of me when people say someone doesn't have "something" and they haven't even heard at least half of their work. Nas, Rakim, and Eminem are lyrical heads in my opinion out of your list. I can voice an opinion on them because I heard over half of their music, but it's out of my place to voice opinions on Chino XL, Canibus, and Kool G Rap because I haven't heard at least half of their work.

And I know he hasn't heard half of Jay-Z stuff, because I remember him saying he never listens to Jay.

So, answer me this Nos, what makes Jay-Z a non-lyrical rapper?

this is why he's not lyrical

"i dumbed down for my audience, doubled my dollars
the criticized me for it, yet they all yelled holla
If skills sold, truth be told, id probably be
Lyrically, Talib Kweli
truthfully i wanna rhyme like common sense
but i did 5 mil, i aint been rhymin like common sense
When your sense got that much in common
And you been hustlin since
your inception, fuck perception,Go with what makes sense
Since, I know what i'm up against
We as rappers must decide what's most important"

he admits it right here that he knows he aint the most lyrical and that he dumbed down for money........ now, its kinda ironic cuz those lines are very lyrical.... but he basically admits he gave up on lyrics for money

okay first of all yall are all misinformed, becasue Jay has a magazine artical out describing the whole creative process of his best an only classic album "reasonable doubt" where he admits to punchin in his verses...he would come in the studio record 4 bars then leave an comeback to it two or three days later...so that would make it the 36 hour rule.

It really depends on the depth of what your writing, for me personally I can write club/brag tracks all the way thru in 20 to 30 minutes, 3 verses, hook an all. But something of substance i.e. a story, or a social issue, introspective shit...may take a week or even a month, nobody's writing any thought provoking shit in 20 mins. When this lyrical God comes into existence let me know.

Jay was only truly lyrical on reasonable doubt...hard knock volumes...he had his spots...by the time we get to the blueprint era its all gone...nothing after the hard knock volumes was even remotely lyrical. They were highly entertaining, very catchy an commercial successes but not lyrical.



^^^Huh? who's talking about flow? what does flow have to do with lyrics?

^^^^^^ thank u triple..... u hit the nail on the head with the "to write somethin that has a real meaning or somethin inspirational in it, it could take weeks"

my feeling exactly..... i can make somethin that sounds nice and gets u bouncin in 10-20 minutes....... but i cant make anythin that is true hip-hop and lyrical that quickly unless im on some MAD creative rush

^(to triple)thats exactly what i think of jay-z, he had some shit on the rest of his albums like here and there, but reasonable doubt was the only album i was really feelin and still think its classic

moment of clarity 2nd verse, dope shit i posted it up for nos to see once n he said that it was wack i was jus like right ive given up wit u now

^lol he didnt post it to prove jay was extremely lyrical and shit he showed to prove jay sold out his top performance for money

^exactly....... but i will admit that THAT verse is pretty raw..... but he's basically tellin the world he sold out and called it hustlin

I said he wasnt lyrical?

Learn to read you dumb cunt...

Royce da 5'9 > Jay-z

and thats a fact...

but i don't know about the twenty minute thing..becasue i don't keep track of how long it takes me to write my verses......

^^Possibly...that's why I modified my stance on this...

This "20 minute rule" doesn't apply to everyone because everyone doesn't create the same. I happen to fall in this category though...my "best" verses, the ones that are the most memorable are the ones that seem to just "flow" from me, and aren't forced. Everyone experiences block. This thread is mostly referring to those cases, not when you purposely take time to go back and revise lines.

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Word I agree, hands down.

Flow can be the most nmatural thing in the world...if you just say whatever comes out first and dont actually think...too much about what you wanna say in your lines, ya know?..

Also you can see why Jay is technically a biter these days...because Obviously if he just rhymes and doesnt even think about it...then other peoples raps are destined to pop up somwehere because ya listen too rap so often...ya know? :confused:

^^^ that makes alot more sense now.......

I once took less than 20 minutes to write a song. It sucked. I took like an hour to write a song. It still sucked. I just finished a 4 month long song. Suckiness to be determined.