Where can you learn to rap?

Or produce music?

Talked to a 14 year old who has decided he wants to be some kinda rap star .... rather than just dismissing this completely where could I direct him so he can look into this some more?

Is there any downloadable software that you can start to record on? Would you need a laptop for this and what would be the outlay? Any courses he could look at maybe when he's 16?

I'm just looking for some info to give back to him I guess.

Cheers

Ask eyezon imo

kid next door to here is singing and rapping all the time, he's only about 8

tell him to get auto tune, and Black Eyes Peas latest albums.

All he needs really.

Where do you direct kids like this? I think he might benefit from downloading some software that you can record and maybe play/mix music on. But, what's the cost of that?

The mean streets.

If you want something cheap and easy, you can download free shit to start.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

It's pretty basic, but might be a place to start.

There are courses you can do. MIT I think does them, I forget the name but there was an institute in the city where you can learn how to write music and produce, engineer, all that sort of thing. Or he cna go to Dawn Raid studios and ask to help out, eventually by hanging around he will make contacts and learn by osmosis until someone decides to take him under his wing or something like that.

The School of Hard Knocks!

Thanks split, that's just what I was hoping someone would tell me

Does he study or do any music currently?
Still at school?
Plenty of free to cheap software things he could be mucking about with if he has acess to a computer - or better one of his own, as he'd need loads of time to pactrice and play with software

plenty of courses for production and music generally... few of which would be much use to a wanna be rap star - though by trying out making tracks and songs he could easily get taken by the production bug...

but best advice to give him - is he lives in NZ - no 'rap stars' make much money here (huge understatement).... so make sure you've got a backup career plan cause he will most certainly be needing it

Cool, lots of good advise. Thanks all.

Dude, my son has been at this since he was 11 - he's now 16 and like most rappers (Id imagine) they learn at home

Dont bother with any software atm, tell him to youtube "hip hop instrumentals" and use those as beats/music.
As for lyric content, ask him what he loves/hates/gets mad at etc and write from there.
For style, tell him to listen to his faves and identify what he likes about them and try to emulate (for now) he will develop his own style. Practice non stop.

If he doesnt have a rudimentary sense of timing etc then you might have to help him out there.
Oh and get him a dictionary.

If he wants to be a rap star, he just has to do it and have talent. You can't really learn how to rap any more than you can learn how to sing. If you suck at it you can probably get better, but that's about it.

Software? Audacity does fuck all but record and let you edit a bit. If you actually want to make beats, you need something way better than that - honestly the easiest piece of powerful software there is is GarageBand on OSX or iOS. Yes, you can make real music with real samples on an iPad.

Actually, there's an even easier app: Loopy.

It always comes back to the overwhelming capabilities of the all mighty iPad with you, doesn't it.

It's a damn sight cheaper than buying real pro music software. NZ$260 for Logic (which needs a Mac anyway), US$700 for Ableton etc.

Buying software?? My friend told me about that once...

...and thats just the entry level version of Logic too, the Platinum version is still around a grand.

already the rap stars tastes carry a hefty price

bitches not riches

What software do you use?

As a host sequencer?
Cubase sx3

What's a host sequencer?

I'm learning Logic at the moment, what are your thoughts on it?

Quite good for making trance right? does it have whistle and horn plugins?

Platinum still exists?

download fruity loops demo from www.download.com and adobe audition same place a cheep mick from dick smith 29 bucks and a computer only need 512 megs of ram and mic input with these three things you basically have a home setup and for the rapping there are lots of websites that are rhyme dictionaries online for free that how i started minus the rhyme dictionaries

The very first thing he needs to do is pick a cool name. Without a cool name, you aint not rap starr.

Maybe if he becomes the reincarnation of Tupac. I hear reincarnation is going around at the moment.

I think reincarnation takes about 2 years, so the calculations are correct.

The main three are still Cubase, Logic and Protools.

Logic is mac only - I had to learn how to use it years ago when it was still on pc, but I didnt like it - I found it to be unintuative compared to Cubase.

Protools is the industry standard - purely because back in the day mac's didnt crash when processing audio (at 24 bit) and the interface was good. It's still the most expensive and over-rated.

Cubase I love because I know it inside out, the version I use runs beautifully with XP and the vst/vsti intergration is still the best.

Everything else is "music production for beginners" for various reasons - ie no/crappy vst intergration, cant record live audio etc.

Ableton was made for production, but ended up being better for live applications.

Heaps of good advise, most of it over my head though. I'll copy/paste this threat into a word doco and give it to him.

A host is exactly that - a host to house arrangements and integrate with vst(i)'s and live audio. Cubase, Logic, Protools etc..
As I mentioned above, I didnt like Logic as I found it to be unintuitive. But hosts are like shoes, you use the one you like the most. Everyone has their own opinions on why they like their preferred sequencer. (it actually causes major wars on the production forums) - and once you sort that you have to figure out what sort of interface you will need ie midi and audio, just midi, just audio - sample rate - latency etc...
Go and have a look at FutureMusic's site.

Nothing is good for making trance dude, and that's reflective in the quality of the music
but a vsti I use called Nexus has a patch called "For an Angel" which sounds like a glowstick dying.

Make sure when you copy it you correct the spelling of advice, or he'll learn that wrong.

I like Logic because i am familiar with the interface after using so many other Apple products.

I have heard good things about Cubase, i also have Reason but couldn't for the life of me figure out the interface setup.

For An Angel is a classic PvD track, probably one of the best Trance & well known tracks ever.

Shit man, way to take the sting out of my jab dude

Funnily enough, Reason is what I recommend to people wanting to get in to production from a ground level - simply because it bases itself in a real "virtual" studio environment. It's GUI is designed to emulate a real life rack. It teaches you how to patch and repatch synths and other virtual hardware just like you would in real life. The only reason (pun not intended) more people dont use it is because that last time I looked it still only operated within 16bit. Hence giving it what people now refer to as "the Reason sound". It seems to give it quite a sharp mid range resonance which when turned up loud it hurts like hell.
Reason also integrates with Cubase via a little piece of ware called "ReWire" which made it a lot more useable, but unfortunately it ate up pc resources to the point of it not being worthwhile. And the last bit of awesomeness for Reason was the ability to stream the very popular "Rebirth" 303 emulator - which in my humble opinion has yet to be beaten. (although not many people use 303's anymore)

Yeah, the whole patching thing is what threw me off!

Anyways, i quite like Logic so far... i got a whole DVD tutorial set "free" from the interwebz!