"It’s on I’m packin weight like nina simone Piano flow It’s like a Michaelangelo painted a portrait of Maya Angelou And gave it to a sick poet for they antidote If music gets you choked up this is the tree and the rope” Kanye West - Get By Hello head-banging people. I woke up this morning as usual, poured myself a nice hot cup of coffee and got on Twitter to see what’s good. I noticed that I had a new direct message from someone who followed me and and who I automatically followed back. “Hey man. Check out my new video it’s called bla bla…” Being the good Christian that I am I decided to give it a listen. And now comes the part where I really become condescending. WHAT THE HELL IS IT WITH RAPPERS THESE DAYS THAT THEY THINK THAT CHEWING THEIR WORDS AND SPEWING THEM THROUGH THEIR TEETH MAKES THE SONG SOUND NATURAL? Ok, I’m calm now. So, let me give you up and coming rappers some advice. I don’t rap myself, but I spent 2 years working for a local radio station as an animator. I had to tell the news, the weather, the gossip, the utilitaries and be the DJ. I currently work part time for a local TV station where I make(copywrite, voiceover, audio and video editing) TV commercials. What I’m saying is that I learned the importance of DICTION. Diction is the difference between Jay-Z and Waka Flocka Flame, between Gucci Mane and T.I., between Soulja Boi and Kendrick Lamar and I’m not even going to mention Eminem. Even the latter sounding rappers from these examples have more diction than your average rapper. My advice to you start-up rappers is to get an internship at your local radio station, unpaid if necessary. What that will do for you is improve your writting skills, your voice and your diction. Then you can actually “bend”the words, as Eminem would put it, as an artistic choice and not because you have a speech impediment. “Yes Refbeats, but then I won’t sound natural and people will make fun of me for rapping like this one college professor I know!” No you won’t. Diction provides you with the opportunity of annunciating AS A CHOICE. It provides you with the linguistic tools you need to build an intelligent, natural and intelligible verse. And that, head-banging people, makes the difference between local success and international success. So get to your diction grind and to making some good music. Slithering Away, RefBeats.com