Is It Better To Write Your Raps On Paper Or A Phone?
There was a point in time where I really really considered what the best way to write lyrics was.
I considered if it was better to write on paper because I had seen rappers like Eminem do it. More interestingly, he still seems to continue to do it according to all of the behind the scenes footage he has ever released that I have seen.
If you are going to say “Well he is one of the greatest, if he writes his lyrics on paper, that means it’s probably best” but what you’re not understanding is that he writes on paper because that’s how he was writing lyrics for YEARS.
Eminem’s brain is wired to write lyrics on paper and also to find which pieces of paper he wrote the lyrics on. If he wasn’t born before writing on a computer was a thing, he would probably write his lyrics on a computer.
I’m just throwing that out there because I know a lot of people who read this article will probably say something about Eminem’s writing system.
On the side of writing your rap lyrics into a phone or computer, that is a system I see all new age rappers doing.
Drake is known for writing lyrics into his phone and ONLY his phone. It’s just his system of doing things.
I’ve seen rappers from Fabolous to Wiz Khalifa and tons of others using their phones to record songs as well as ‘Freestyle’ live.
Both methods work but I want to go over which one is truly best and why.
Benefits of writing your rap lyrics on paper
Memory And Slightly Improved Rhyming Ability
I feel a major benefit of writing rap lyrics on paper is that since you are writing out the words – which requires you to sound them out at a slower pace for writing – you are going to have a bit better assonance in your writing.
Which is going to lead to more fun sounding rhymes and a bit more wordplay.
Now this is from personal experience. This is why I look forward to doing it on a airplane and just seeing what I come up with.
Of course you can do this on a computer too, but when writing on paper this seems to flow more effortlessly for me.
Give it a try right now and you will probably see what I mean.
Memorizing Lyrics Easier
Another benefit is that since you are writing it all out as opposed to typing at 80 WPM (words per minute) it’s common sense that you are going to retain the lyrics more.
When you write something down it just holds in your brain a bit differently than typing it out. This is because you are literally writing out each and every letter and then reading what you wrote.
Benefits of writing your rap lyrics on a computer or phone
Writing Speed
You can write literally 4 times faster than you can on paper because you can type much faster than you can write.
Easier Back Up
It’s easier to catalog, back up, find and organize all of your lyrics. On paper there is no organizational system.
Negatives Of Writing Raps On Paper
Backup issues
The only way to back these up is by taking pictures of them or making photocopies. That just seems absurd to me for some reason.
It’s MUCH more difficult to find that ONE punchline you know was SUPER FIRE but you can’t tell which of your 8 notepads it is in. On a computer you can just click ‘Search’
Paper is weak, like grandmother knees.
A coffee spill could ruin an entire 3 month notebook. The words will blotch and get spotty over time as well.
Writing Speed
The benefit of writing it out is also a set back since you have to spend so much time writing the lyrics out. Your brain is moving fast when you’re writing lyrics and the last thing you want to do is lose a rhyme or idea you had because you had to spend another 10 seconds writing out the first idea.
Negatives Of Writing Raps On A Computer / Phone
Memorizing Lyric Issues
Lack of retaining the lyrics. But if you’re writing a song, the lyrics are right there in front of you so you don’t have to retain it, you can just read it or memorize it by consistently reading and re reading it or recording until it’s perfect. And chances are, if you spent enough time on that verse, you already read it 40 times while you were working on the verse and it’s already memorized.
Requires Investment Into A Drive To Back Up Your Lyrics
If you don’t back up your music on a regular basis, you could lose ALL your lyrics. I had a scare in 2008 where I almost lost ALLLLLL of my songs and songwriting from a computer crash. from that moment on I made sure I had something like this to keep my music backed up.
You need this anyways.
If you are writing songs on a regular basis, you better be backing them up.
Imagine YEARS of hard work all down the drain just because your computer crashes…. you have absolutely no control over that.
I personally have over 10 different back up devices.
Sure, you could use something like Google drive to back up your stuff… I don’t do that though because anyone who can hack your online account now has all of your lyrics and songs at their disposal to steal.
A hard drive is physical and password protected so good luck not only stealing it from me personally but then also hacking it. lol
How I Got Great At Writing Rap Lyrics
For anyone who is wondering what I use to write lyrics on a daily basis, I personally write daily on a computer. You can see my entire daily writing method in the How To Write Lyrics Course Here.
I also keep a pad in my phone where I keep individual pads for song ideas, lyrics and other notes.
I am super organized so that I can get ideas out of my mind and into a pad where I can organize it and then transfer it in a few clicks.
Then all my ideas and lyrics are stored in just the right place.
If you want to see how I thoroughly organize and store my lyrics and songs check out this awesome article I wrote that might really change how you keep organized.
The only time I really write lyrics on paper on purpose is when I’m on an airplane. I bring paper and pen just to write for 2 hours get a different style of writing down.
Let’s go over what I feel the benefits are of both paper and computer/phone lyric writing.
To be completely honest, I would recommend you spend most of your time writing lyrics into your phone and computer and just to mix up your neurolocal pathways and improve your writing from a different approach, you write on paper maybe once a week.
This change up could add a cool flavor to how you write your lyrics.
Shoot a cool unique pattern may come about if you do this long enough. Maybe even try 3 days paper 4 days computer or 1 day on 1 day off.
All you’d have to do after you wrote would be transfer the lyrics to the computer. It’s the same lyrics but a different approach to writing.
It may just be me, but I know if I did this it would add some flavor to the types of rhymes I wrote.
Good luck my friend.