Choosing Flows: What Makes A Good Flow?
What makes a good flow on a song? A good rule of thumb for knowing if the flow is ‘good’ for a song:
- If you can bob your head to the beat and there is no type of interference that makes you want to stop bobbing your head, then it’s a good flow.
Choose the best patterns for that specific beat.
You are riding the beat. Say less if you need to. If you need to fit more syllables into a line for a word you want to keep, take out words like ‘I’, ‘but’ and ‘and’ as a rule of thumb.
Rapping Delivery
Rapping delivery is where there is less sung in the delivery of the lyrics. Where it is as if you are speaking the words.
Singing Delivery
Singing delivery is where you are literally singing the lyrics to the beat.
Combing Rapping & Singing Delivery For Perfection
Synchronicity of both rapping delivery and singing delivery creates a melodic flow that is the most liked in music today.
If you are looking for a great example of a ‘Sing Flow’ that combines rapping delivery and singing delivery, a great example is:
- Lil’ Wayne & Birdman, Stuntin’ Like My Daddy (YouTube)
Lil’ Wayne is rapping, but he is singing what he is saying. Therefore, it is creating a melodic singing rapping flow. Listen to that song a few times.
NOTE: In order to do this the best, you want to stretch your vowels out in the words to make them fill a bar line and only leave a breath where it is necessary to make a statement in your line.
What Makes A Bad Flow?
You don’t want to be generic or bland! The more common and generic a flow, the worse it is. It’s the same patterns repeated over and over again in the verses with slight changes.
If the flow doesn’t match the rhythm of the beat, it’s bad. Unintentional and awkward rhythms are detracting factors of a good flow depending on how they’re used.
Unless the melody is perfect, the more redundant a flow, the worse it is. But if the pattern is perfect, you can repeat the flow the entire verse. This is what 99% of trap rappers use as their style.
Here are some song examples that use the same melody nearly the entire song: