A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that rapping is easy (which it is not). The flow and rhythm involved in rapping can take years to master, and that too if you have the aptitude or the talent for it.

Nevertheless, these are 5 tips every aspiring rapper should keep in mind:

1. Become acquainted with all rap styles: East Coast, West Coast, South. Listen carefully to rappers from with different styles and note their rhythm, flow and lyrical structures. A good ear for different rap styles is probably the number one thing you can have to be a good rapper, and will eventually help you create your own individual style.

2. Invest in a dictionary. While this may not sound very “hip hop”, but a strong vocabulary can really set you apart from dozens of other aspiring rappers. If you don’t know a word, look it up, and learn to use it in appropriate situations. Cleverly rhymed words that depart from the norm are the best weapons in the arsenal of any rapper.

3. Don’t be very strict about your song structure. You don’t have to start from verse to chorus to verse and so on. Experiment with different writing styles, and let the tune come to you naturally in whatever order it appears. If you get the chorus before the verse, or the outro before the chorus, don’t worry about it; the song structure can always be modified and tweaked later on.

4. Record yourself rapping as often as you can. This is the best form of feedback you can get. How you sound in person may be very different from what you sound like in your records.

5. Practice your timing. Rap is all about rhythm, flow and timing. Note how rappers like Eminem will accentuate the the lyric at the end of a beat. Little tricks like this make all the difference and really sets you apart from the crowd. Get a few beats (or make your own) and practice rapping to it using any random words that pop into your mind (it doesn’t have to sound good or professional), varying your timing to see what sounds the best.

1. Rap Beats And Hip Hop – How To Set Yourself Apart From The Rest Of The Aspiring Rappers And Singers
2. Tips for Rappers – The Case Against Rap Dictionaries
3. How To Rap Like Lil Wayne
4. Rappers – How to Hone Your Voice to Become a Great MC
5. The Official How To Rap Manual For Aspiring MC’s

There has been a big conflict brewing up lately ever since the launch of the iPhone. iPhone users can get a song through iTunes for $.99, add on a few pennies, and eventually get a ringtone for under $2. This is great because iTunes has tons of songs from every artist imaginable, and converting songs to ringtones is just as easy.

But other mobile operators such as T-Mobile, Verizon, etc. currently charge upwards of $2.5-3 per ringtone. With the lower costs that the iPhone offers, you can be sure that there isn’t a lot of love lost between At&T (iPhone’s exclusive carrier), Apple, and T-Mobile, Verizon.

The idea, they accuse, is to force the loyal Verizon and T-Mobile user to the slower, more cumbersome AT&T network. The feature packed iPhone was one big reason for the switch, but with cheaper ringtones, the reasons appear to have increased manifold.

If you look at the American music market, you’ll find that the share of ringtones in the revenue of music companies has been increasing steadily over the years, even as revenue from album sales goes down. Some pundits even argue that over time, musicians will derive revenue only through concert ticket sales, while music companies get their money from ringtone and MP3 sales. The way the current trends are going, this doesn’t sound very inconceivable or difficult to achieve.

Coming back to ringtones, paying for each and every ringtone on a per ringtone basis seems counter-productive and terribly expensive. Most people like to switch between ringtones from time to time. Therefore, many companies are coming up with monthly subscription models that let you download as many ringtones as you want without bothering to pay per ringtone. For heavy users, this can lead to savings of hundreds of dollars an year!

1. MuchMusic Rap and Hip-Hop Ringtones
2. Rington Rapper Soulja Boy's iPhone Remix App
3. MP3 ringtones are not the artist’s original recording
4. New Hip Hop Music: Resources For Discovering the Best Hip Hop From Around the World
5. Lady Gaga – Just Dance Video