Hip-hop Songs

Many who know me personally would say I have several personalities and in this topic I will show a different side of me that I haven't really shown the boards.

Warning: Explicit language.

Hip-hop was my first love and still is to this day. Sometimes I'll create my own beats and other times I won't. I will seperate a few songs I've done by the year and hopefully you guys would enjoy them.

Fun fact: My parents nearly disowned me for making hip-hop music. I was raised in a middle class family and didn't necessarily live the type of lifestyle I rap about. My family literally hates rap music so I done mostly all of these in secret lol.

Also a lot of these are in a hyperthetical sense; they're just words I thought sounded cool at the time.

(Note: There are time skips in between but here is the link to one of my mixtapes I've done between 2012 and 2014. Some classified it as my best work.)

http://mixconnect.com/listen/Rasheem+the+Guru+-+Poetic+Backstory-mid11891

Year 2009:
I Refuse
Solid

Story of a Dope Fiend

Year 2012:
Yung & Blaq
Exchange

Year 2014:
Waisting Time (My own beat)
Falling Down (My own beat)
Tried to Tell Me (My own beat)

Year 2016:
Pushin' On
Remember
Just Wanna Be Heard

"Waisting Time": Intro is a bit long and distracting? i, III (V) gets repetitive too without a track that elevates or lowers along with it to always be developing. The voice is never enough. Also, is that title supposed to be spelled like that?
"Falling Down": Really awkward chords in the beginning just because how low they are. The voice is very hard to tell the beat on. When the "song" part comes in it's mixed weirdly loud. Same note about track developing. Unless you were trying to be minimalistic here, which I would understand considering the subject matter, but if not, it would be a really good opportunity to develop in emotion like the rapping part does.
"Tried to Tell Me": The saxophone line in the beginning over those chords is really bizarre. Ab v. A natural clash. Also D naturals, and C naturals. I never got used to it. This track actually develops and it was really nice to hear, especially considering the relatively similar subject matter. 

My opinion is worth almost nothing for this, so take things with a grain of salt, I suppose.

Your opinion is always worth it and I highly appreciate it.

When the beats were made on the three you reviewed they were done before I knew anything about well...everything lol. So a lot of instruments didn't mold well at all. I didn't use actual chords, progressions, or scales just notes I put together. 

Thankfully I have more insight into things like that and will make something better at a later date.

" I REFUSE" is a solid banger.  heck, everything I heard is a banger.  Your issues is on a different level.

It sounds like the mic or the way you mix your vocals are flat.  One issue is it seems that you are breathing through your noise.

Therefore, it's coming of as a nasal sound with some diction issues.  This can be fixed by 1) breathing correctly; 2) take time to articulate your words.  3) The room that's recorded is not treated.   Too much room sound when you recorded. EQ your voice to find the sweet spot and bring your voice.  Example: Jay-Z.  Dead Presidents.  Sounds like they recorded his voice in the middle of banquet hall.  See if you hear that. Now, the album is SO MUCH FIRE they can get away it AND his rhythm is flawless.

4) Watch your rhythm.  The accents of your flows need to ACCENTUATE the beat and the word. You ride the beat, the beat doesn't ride you.  Example: ATCQ on "Keeping it Moving."  Notice Q-Tips delivery. 

5) The double is a clever technique; however, for your voice, I would the lower timbre technique.  Plus, you HAVE to articulate so it can be clear. Great example: Ludacris. "He-man"  Luda has THE BEST DICTION in hip-hop.  Notice the octavo basso double.

Last engineering trick.  Smack a hall reverb on your vocal or a Med Delay on it. Make sure it's controlled from a bus.

Don't believe it?  Biggie did it! He has that with an echo on certain words for emphasis.  "FALLING DOWN" has too much reverb on your voice. Got to find that right flavor for that good mix.

Overall, you got some good stuff here. Hope these critiques help

Thanks Maestro it really does help. I never thought of the vocals like that before but those are extremely good to know for any future projects.

Have you ever taken any voice lessons, Samurai?  The material you study is opera arias and things like that, but the techniques extend to any kind of singing or speaking you do.  Good diction is good diction, and good breathing is good breathing. It doesn't matter what style of music you're working in.  Might be helpful for working on some of the ideas Maestrowick is talking about.  (Although a lot of it is in the mixing and recording too.)  (:  

Hahaha thanks pateceramics! :)

Actually I never knew there were certain techniques with rapping lyrics honestly but that just goes to show I have much more to learn and I thank all of you guys for taking the time to listen and giving me some pointers.