How to Rap Fast – The Ultimate Guide

Fast-rapping requires years of daily practice to master. Implementing breathing and diaphragm exercises, practicing vowels and pronunciation, reading out loud, replicating other rappers’ techniques, experimenting with different speeds, you can achieve considerable progress in a short time.

RAP or rhythm and poetry is the art of telling a story while talking fast and rhythmically on top of a backing beat. While Rap is not just about fast-paced rhyming and is more about the content, the flow, and the delivery, fast-rapping or so-called chopper rap is one of the most appreciated and impressive rapping styles.

To rap fast like the great hip-hop stars like Eminem, Twista, and Tech N9ne, you should practice daily, as repetition and consistency are the keys to achieving speed. 

How to Rap Fast?

Although mastering high-speed rapping takes years of practice, there are some techniques to learn and practice which can create a big difference in just a month or two. By practicing these techniques and doing the exercises every day, you can get significantly faster.

Breathing Exercises

As with any type of vocal performance, breathing is a crucial element for rapping. You have to breathe correctly and increase your lung capacity to rap fast without going out of breath. There are various exercises to increase lung capacity and improve techniques to use each breath more efficiently.

One of the best exercises to increase lung capacity is rapping while jogging. Not only does this exercise increase lung capacity but also improves breath control. 

It may be too hard, and you may stop many times while doing the exercise. But, here, it is not about perfection but doing the best you can as it will significantly improve your breath control and overall performance when rapping in normal conditions.

Secondly, you can do some basic breathing exercises. There are tons of them, so I will give a few common examples you can go with. The first one is inhaling slowly for 5 seconds, holding the breath inside the chest for 10 seconds before exhaling with power. Stay with your lungs empty for 5 seconds before inhaling and initiating the exercise again. This is the practice of getting nice deep full breaths.

Another good exercise, this time for shallow breathing, is inhaling and exhaling while doing pushups. You start with your chest on the floor and your hands ready to push you up. While pushing yourself up, inhale, stay in the plank position for a few seconds with your full breath in your lungs, and exhale while bringing your chest back to the floor. 

You can do this exercise 10 to 20 times without stopping to increase your shallow breathing capacity. But do not hurry or rush it; this exercise is about quality and precision, not speed.

Learning To Use Diaphragm For Continuous Motion While Rapping

Learning how to use the diaphragm muscle is a crucial factor for improving breath control. We can’t directly control the diaphragm muscle, but we can influence how it moves with different techniques like posture and muscle engagement. To have better breath control for better vocal quality, flow, and speed, the diaphragm is the key.

For better diaphragm engagement, posture is crucial. You have to be straight without hunching back. You can observe your breaths in front of a mirror, putting your hand on your belly just at the end of your rib cage. When you breathe in, your belly should slightly expand, which shows the diaphragm engagement when breathing.

If you notice your shoulders are rising while you breathe, it means your breaths are too shallow. Imagine breathing down to your feet to expand the depth of the breath.

There are some exercises to practice diaphragm breathing. You can lay on the floor, putting a slightly heavy object on your belly, like a thick book. You can practice diaphragm breathing, moving the book up and down with deep breaths.

Another exercise is to inhale and slowly release the air blowing to a feather or a piece of paper, making the object move for as long as possible. This is a good indicator of your progress with diaphragm breathing. The longer the release, the better the progress.

Practicing Vowels And Enunciation

Vowels need more air release than consonants which makes them harder to rap with as they make you run out of breath faster. So practicing vowel pronunciation with the right breathing technique can significantly help you progress with your rapping speed. The best exercises for practicing vowels and pronunciation are the tongue twisters.

As vowel pronunciation is closely related to tongue movements, tongue twisters can help you get your tongue to move quickly and glibly. With tongue twisters, your rapping skills, tonation, and speed can be enhanced significantly.

First, choose a tongue twister and repeat it over and over again until your tongue gets entirely familiar with the movements. Later try to build up the speed as much as you can without sacrificing tonation and vocal quality. Practicing different tongue twisters for around 15 minutes every day will get you great results in a few weeks.

Reading Out Loud

To further progress with your pronouncing skills, you have to focus on speaking more while thinking less. To practice, you can read out loud anything you like with high speed, taming your mind to stay still while you practice your speaking and pronouncing skills. This is the reason why it is always advised to have the lyrics in front of you while rapping.

Experimenting With Different Speeds

Whether you are practicing with tongue twisters or reading different phrases out loud to progress with the quality and the speed of your pronunciation and speaking, you should experiment with different speeds to find the perfect spot. This spot is where you start to struggle, sacrificing quality for speed. It is this speed you have to focus and train on to get faster.

Although your training should be focused on the perfect spot, you must also experiment with different speeds. You have to start slowly and build up the speed to find the perfect spot anyway. So, during your training, try rapping at different speeds, gradually building up the speed as with practice, you will find your perfect spot at higher speeds. You can use a metronome to calculate your progression and stay on the beat.

Imitating Other Rappers And Their Techniques

There is nothing wrong with imitating other rappers and their techniques as a way of progression. Many rappers have different techniques, word plays, flows, and delivery. You should watch closely and study their styles to learn from them and use their techniques in your own rapping journey.

You can especially study the fast rappers to see what they do to rap fast. Some use long phrases, some use repetitive phrases, rapping with different breathing techniques. The deeper your rap knowledge is, the better you can use them as inspiration and your repertoire of rapping techniques.

So do not think with the limits of the style but try to learn as many different rapping styles and techniques as you can. For fast rapping, I suggest you check Busta Rhymes or Eminem, as they offer great techniques for any rapper.

Keeping The Tongue In The Same Place For Every Word

To rap fast and pronounce the words clearly, you should avoid unnecessary tongue movements. That is what tongue twisters actually help with. They push the limits of your tongue’s positions in around the same place, so it helps to pronounce every vowel quickly and accurately without extra movements to slow it down. So, try to keep it in the same position while allowing it to slightly twist and move.

Shortening Your Words Or Changing Phrasings For Better And Easier Pronunciation

Many rappers shorten the words or change the phrasings for better, faster, and easier pronunciation. As a beginner, you can do the same, changing the words with difficult pronunciation with easier ones. 

Start with the easiest words with only one syllable. When you feel more comfortable, and your skills improve, you can add more complex words. Be careful with the words with the “h” sound, for example, as it requires you to exhale a lot which can slow you down or make you run out of breath.

Daily Practice And/Or Regular Performing

As with any skill, daily practice and consistency is the key to being a fast-rapper. High-quality fast rapping takes years of practice, and your best friend on this journey is consistency. To not lose your progress, you should practice daily and perform regularly if you can. This way, you will have the chance to see your progression.

Warming Up The Voice Before Starting

Another important aspect is to warm up before starting to rap. For rapping, singing, or acting, you should warm up your vocal cords to make them more flexible for the performance. There are various techniques for warming up, such as massaging the jaw, trilling lips with the “h” and ”b” sounds, and buzzing your lips up and down in your vocal range. 

First thing you should do as a warm-up is to massage the jaw to release the tension and make it more flexible. You can use the heels of your palms, moving them from the cheekbone to the chin with small circles.

Later on, you can trill your lips with the “h” and “b” sounds to get the lip muscles ready for rapping. And finally, you can buzz or hum descending to your low-frequency limit before ascending to the higher limits of your vocal range. Repeating this exercise at least 10 times will get you ready for performing.

Alternatives To Fast Rapping

Fast-rapping might not be suitable for everybody, and many rappers choose to go with different styles to express themselves. Ultimately, rapping is about the content as much as it is about the flow. 

Many put quality over quantity which is the true perspective. So, instead of the speed, you can go for a more lyric-heavy style, or you can choose to impress the audience with a different kind of delivery with intriguing pronunciation and tonation.

Why Do Rappers Rap Fast?

Rappers go for high-speed rapping mainly to be more entertaining and to impress the audience. As rap is more about the lyrical content than the music, at some point, rappers started to squeeze as many words into a song as they could, making speed an important factor in rap.

It is also about the 16 in Rap culture. The 16 in rap culture means the 16 bars in a verse which is the limit that the rappers take turns whale in rap battles or freestyle duets. To deliver the highest amount of lyrical content in a 16-bar verse and win the battle or impress the audience, rappers needed to be as fast as they could be.

Some other rappers rap fast as they find it easier to control their breaths this way. But, today, the fast-rapping is about impressing the audience and delivering more content in a limited amount of time.

How long does it take to start Rapping fast?

Fast rapping with proper pronunciation and tonation takes years of practice to master. However, daily practice for around a month can create a huge difference for beginner rappers. The key is consistency and dedication by doing the necessary breathing and pronunciation exercises each day. 

Notable fast rap songs To Listen To

Mista Tung Twista Song – Tung Twista

One of the fastest rap songs is Mista Tung Twista by Tung Twista, who is a chopper-style rapper with the Guinness World Record of fast rapping in 1992 with 598 syllables in 55 seconds.

Worldwide Choppers Song – Tech N9ne

Tech N9ne is an American rapper famous for his fast rapping style. His song Worldwide Choppers Song features parts of some of the fastest rappers all around the world, including Busta Rhymes, Ceza, Twista, and many more.

Rap God – Eminem

Eminem is probably the most famous rapper worldwide, having sold over 250 million records. His song Rap God is his fastest rapping song, which was viewed over 1.2 billion times on Youtube.

Break Ya Neck – Busta Rhymes

One of the most famous rap artists ever is Busta Rhymes, who was nominated 12 times for a Grammy Award. His song Break Ya Neck is among the fastest raps of all time.

New West – NoClue 

The current fastest rapper is NoClue, who holds the actual official Guinness World Record for rapping 723 syllables in 51.27 seconds in his song New West.

Good Fast Rappers To Listen To

Eminem

Eminem is one of the most famous artists and rappers globally, with over 250 million record sales. Marshall Matters or Eminem, as it is his stage name, is well-known for his great lyrical content, amazing melodic lines as well as fast rapping style.

Busta Rhymes 

Trevor George Smith Jr., known as Busta Rhymes, is one of the most famous rappers who was nominated 12 times for a Grammy but never won one. He is currently the most nominated artist without winning. As one of the best and most prolific rappers, Busta Rhymes is known for his Jamaican-influenced dancy rhythms, high energy, and quite fast rap.

Tech N9ne

Aaron Dontez Yates or professionally known as Tech N9ne is an American rapper known for his fast-rhyming chopper rap style. He sold over 2 million albums worldwide, and his songs were in mainstream film, television, and video games. His name comes from the TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun, which indicates his way of machine-gun-speed rapping style.

Summary

Fast-rapping is a great way to deliver lyrical content and impress the audience. Although it takes years of practice to master the technique and become proficient, daily practice can get you on the road and make a significant difference in a short amount of time.

Breathing and pronunciation training are the keys for fast-rapping as well as being patient and building up the speed with the proper technique.

Berk Oztuna

Berk Oztuna

Berk Öztuna is a handpan player, percussionist, and guitarist. He has been playing multiple instruments over the last 10 years. He started his music career as a guitarist, playing with several bands before putting his main focus into playing the handpan.

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