# data[].attributes.body
cover lesson
this week we were told to do an older pop song so I decided to the 60s hit 'stand by me'
I chose this song as i have performed it before in year 9 in a class music project so i basically knew the lyrics which is currently what i struggle to do.
again I struggled with the song as it is sung in a higher key than my range is best at. despite countless run throughs i couldn’t nail the song even the room by myself let alone performing in front of the class that’s why i didn’t perform it.

# data[].attributes.body
performance day
in the morning George and I were in room 4 as usual making a new beat which we decided to try out a new beat for the live session after lunch which was a bit off putting during my performance.
I started off the day by writing a new song and thought it was good enough for my performance. this was my main downfall, as I have previously discussed my performances aren't the best when I don't know the lyrics, this was the case with my performance.
I started my set with my new song in the hopes of getting it out the way and ending on one of my more well known songs so I could end my set with a better performance, sadly this didn't happen as my first song and my cover songs went so badly my confidence was knocked, evidently this effected my final song I put the verses in the wrong order and proceeded to panic and mess up.

# data[].attributes.body
11/06

in a group with Truman and Mel, performing 'you need me, I don't need you' by Ed Sheeran

though I already know the song pretty well, actually staying in time and just singing by myself was pretty hard because the verses of the song are sung but the lyrics are written as a rap and melodic rap is very difficult to keep a flow whilst still staying tuneful.

unfortunately we had no drummer just a guitar and a loop pedal, with the loop pedal you can't input an exact BPM and have to do it through tapping, for some reason the pedal didn't have both methods available.

this meant when we performed the song it was too quick, meaning I had to rush and being such a fast paced song originally making it faster made it very hard to be clear and pronounce every word audibly and correctly emphasizing all syllables.

As I find it tricky to learn lyrics quickly I had to use my phone during my performance as in the song through the chorus is very simple, just 8 bars of the same sentence the verse are very intricate with fast flows that depend on correct pronunciation and the lyrics having a tongue twister feel to them

# data[].attributes.body
started writing another original verse

'I merked the original why would I you to remix

come like Lethal car you should leave it

went to the room and layed that pipe

but now she won't leave man alone she catting on my line

skank and a dance then back to the hotel

she needs a prize that cat deserves nobel

time to get this place hyper

shell down the room car imma beat rider

strongly agrees when I'm inside her

got a big roll so pass the lighter

I'm getting more gyally attention lately

she threw it at me like her name tom brady

light bud with the mandem daily

straight facts the crew stay wavey'

the first line basically means, I killed the original why should you remix it? just leave it alone.
the term ' merked' is slang for kill it usually in a positive way especially in this context.
Lethal bizzle is a dreadful grime artist who is a very loud character that came up with the once popular phrase ' little bit leave it's he went on to make a song entitled it too and had a huge rant at 2 reality TV 'stars' for using it on TV. this is what the bar refers to as well as leaving my original track alone.

basically without getting too graphic or personal, last year a bird paid for a hotel for us, we went and had a great time but that was the end of it, but she kept calling me. The term 'catting' is a negative term for when someone craves something as usually used in slang to refer to drug addicts as 'cats' as the 'cat' for they're next fix (I have no idea how it started either) but this girl wouldn't stop ringing me and texting me the line is a metaphor as I was her dealer and she was the addict that wouldn't leave me alone.

'skank and a dance then back to the hotel

she needs a prize that cat deserves nobel'

'skank' in this context is a type of rave dance style with very little hip movement it's mainly upper body movements involving head nodding and repetitive back and forth motions with your arms. despite being a bit lad-ish I do love a good dance in a rave and despite the hotel being a one time thing it was quite fun.

'time to get this place hyper

shell down the room car imma beat rider'

to 'shell down a room' is another phrase to kill a show or a song and get the dance hyped up.

'strongly agrees when I'm inside her

got a big roll so pass my lighter'

this bar in reference to an old episode of the show friends where chandler is wary of his sexual skill as he dates the same girl after his friend Joey does, he explains to Rachel that when joey has relationships with women they tend shout out 'yes' a lot of in the bedroom as in to strongly agree with him, when chandler has relationships with the same girl, she still 'agreed with him' but not as strongly which I found quite funny. and I'm always losing lighters especially at parties so I always have to borrow my mates.

'I'm getting more gyally attention lately

she threw it at me like her name tom brady'

despite not being very tall or big I grew quite a bit in the year 11 summer holidays and my gym gains are apparent now, so I've been seeing more 'gyally' (female) attention lately, and when a girl throws it at you she basically being very easy, I extend this in the simile and talk about the best quarterback of all time Tom Brady who hold 11 records for the quarter back position the most of any player to play.

this week I performed a new tune where I wrote a chorus and two verses but performance didn't go as planned the backing track was much louder than my mic, the graphic on the PA was set up to emphasize low end frequencies thus destorting my voice, also George and I when practicing had the beat set up for 148 beats per minute but the original beat was made at 130 BPM and when George opened the beat up it played back at 130 instead of the intended 148 thus meaning my track was a lot slower than intended and the performance suffered from this.

# data[].attributes.body
started off the session with a standard grouping
nathan, will, troy, jade(not present) & kirsten
The group had already been organised and so had the cover song, ‘Are you gonna be my girl’ by Jet (2003)
i was set to sing the verses and kirsten was singing the chorus.
after a couple run throughs it was clear what was needed to improve the performance. Again i have to learn the lyrics and listen to the original song more as the verses are strange in the song there are occasional bars that are just instrumental bars where on a different song there would be singing but in this one the vocals just stop then join in a bar later, this was hard to grasp at first but after a couple more plays through and a nod from nathan’s for when the vocals were needed to come in we managed okay in the end.
overall the group needed to keep timing together and understand how long intros, instrumental sections and outros last.

# data[].attributes.body
after taking everything into consideration about your performance evaluation I really wanted to show you what energy and passion I could put into my performance I did this for the majority of the morning with George getting really gassed in practice room when I tried rapping faster and faster over increasing mad instrumentals, this didn't bode well for my performance as my voice was rather damaged in practicing so much 😬.
One key issue I still have but I'm working on is when I rap really quick over a reasonable period of time hen I really start losing my energy in my performances as I tend to run out of breath but I've doing a lot of cardio training to increase my lung capacity so I can rap for longer, also when rapping quickly I don't have a lot of time to breathe in I'm also working on this by rapping the song slower and noting the best places to breathe, I did note the best places for me to breathe on my main song ( off my head) but I didn't do it in my second song and the song turned out really badly but with the correct analysis I can change it around easily.
the second song is linked below.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

# data[].attributes.body
I continued to write for my song as the end of term was approaching so I needes to get another verse done.

'sneak in the rave cuz I've got no ID

fuck sets up like my names wiley

spot two tings in the rave I see them eye me

I know wanna get lips.  but that's unlikely

don't try n stop man becar I'm on one

gyal want the feels shame I've got none

drop another one want this feeling for longer

coming the waves get stronger

more time can find me in rave

more time I'm wearing my shades

look at mans eyes pree imma state

just time for a whine no time for date

link up all my Donnys and drinks were mixing

come yard for pres in the kitchen

get out the credit card n sort lines

i’m buzzing mans on a mental vibe'

Wiley is a 39 year old grime MC who is notorious for having is shows shutdown as he plays his sets over the legal sound limit and the police used to get his and similar shows shutdown before they even started as they believed they would insight violence, also he is a great performer so shuting down shows like wiley would be a dream come true ( to shut a show down is different to having your show shutdown, if you shut it down then this is a term of endearment as the show has gone so well but if it's actually been shutdown then that just sucks for you tbh)

'dont try and stop me when I'm on one'
constantly at parties (less at raves) people will video you or take the piss when you're out of it and loving it and bare people just try and talk to you when you're on the madest vibe and it's so annoying.

'gyal wants feels but shame I've got none'
I know no relationships ever last from a teenager so why bother in the first place being a single is a lot more fun as a young person.

'time for a whine no time for a date'
time is limited and as I've stated I dont date but I have enough time for a whine (suggestive dancing upon one another common in the rave scene)

'link up all my Donnys and drinks we're mixing
so come to the yard for pres in the kitchen's

to 'link up all your donnys' means to meet your mates basically and this is done before a rave/ show for pre-drinks or 'pres' as my mates n I are too young to buy drinks you get hammered at home before you go out and anyway drinks are way too expensive on a night out.

# data[].attributes.body
after having a pretty unproductive couple weeks I couldn't really think of anything new to write about but I really liked this hook so I gave it some time to think of some bars that were different to normal but still maintained a similar style, as the last word in my hook is emphasized and lasts multiple notes I don't have as much time on my first line as you can see it is shorter than the rest, this was done to change up from what I normally do, when I start a verse I normally come in on the first beat of the bar as it shows energy to come in straight away but I come in on the third beat of the bar, this technique is known as 'missing the drop' and isn't seen very much in rap anymore except Aj tracey (young UK rapper) who has been known for doing this for a while and got quite a lot of attention from it.

'bare gyal catfish

bare baggage but ya boy bare backed it

car shes all curvy but shame all plastic

like natural girl but man I'd still mash it

so stick the plan and tactic

when I spit too much I dribble like spastic

that gyal give hat three times

call dat one hat trick'

in the first bar the B sound is repeated 7 times in just 2 lines again with the tounge twister style of rap, bare is used for two of its meanings and is slang for a lot and it's used in the phrase 'bare backing' which I'm not going to go into ....

'man's on WARRRR

don't chat shit you dont want bars

going to the dance if it’s close or far

man'll get string man out jus like guitar

control + c still can’t copy me

lick a show down with a V I P

take bare food but not a C A T

got a jezzie in front she’s B A D'

'going to the dance if it close or far'
this line shows desperation of wanting to go out raving as the vibe you get from it is so addictive.
But the best part of this section of the verse is the last two bars as it takes a very old garage characteristic of spelling out words in rhymes and it brings it into a modern day style.

control + c is probably the most well known keyboard short cuts as it allows things to be copied, this line is very ignorant as it's saying not even a computer can copy what I do to a song especially not a wannabe MC.
'lick a show down with a V I P'
to 'hit a lick' is US slang for either a robbery or a similar crime, if something/ somewhere is 'licked down' it means it's now a crime scene, stating that my V I P has the stage locked off because the vibe must have been a illegal.
to have a 'jezzie in front' means there's a girl Infront of you usually whining on you which is nothing to complain about and especially if she's ' B A D ' or bad which is another strange use of negative words to mean something positive.

# data[].attributes.body
took my hook for my second song and tried it over a couple instrumentals until one fit then wrote a new verse to go with the beat, when writing to a set instrumental you tend to write better sounding verses as you have melody’s in the lyrics that match that instrumental, in any song you can you just insert rap lyrics but for you to really connect beat and lyric, the flow of the bars has to match the precussion and the melody of the song with the lyrics too if written correctly words can be used as a type of precussion if the correct syllables are rapped at a certain time on beat which creates drum like sound.

shown in one of my verses

' dig 'em on a riddim I won't hit 'em with the bitten.
These sons are really silly of they're already smitten'

the 4 rhymes on the first line that match up with the beat to create a precussion like sound this is due to the first syllable in each rhyme being quite a hard/sharp sound like a drum.

also the repeated 's' sound in the second line is an example of sibilance, this was included to increase the difficulty of rapping these words quickly as it is very similar to a tounge twister

the hook
'I'm off my head right now

so I'm going her yard to get some

bare man  chat about skengs

but we all know they have got none

the way she eyed man

knew she catting for length

so go back yard at 7 am

and get that drenched'

as I make the majority of my songs for partying and raving the opening line is important to hit the right topic and raving is commonly known for not really being a sober act. so the majority of people listening to the song would be in a rave and resultantly off their heads which is slang for being drunk/waved etc.
But the second line is a play on words it works on a couple levels, initially it would seem that I'm actually going to her 'yard' (slang for home) to sober up, but in reality head is slang for something else I imagine you're aware of...

'bare man chat about skengs
but we all know they have got none'

a common trend in UK rap right now is to rap about guns, knives and violence this has come from a sub genre called Drill, a violent genre taking influenced from Chicago's violent rap scene (Chicago the murder capital of the US) and influence from grime.
drill has exploded due to acts like Giggs (self proclaimed originator) 67 and Harlem spartans all doing very well in music through this genre.
As they rap about things too inappropriate, violent or contraversial lots of kids are drawn to listening to it as it's a way of rebelling, but sadly now 1/10 kids in the UK wanna rap now and the amount of 14 year olds releasing awful drill songs on soundcloud where they go on to say they do drive by's, shoot people, stab people ect. and frankly none of these things are done.
That's why the following line is
'but we all know they have got none'
because half the people who rap in drill and throughout the UK in every song are chatting about guns and gang crime when none of these people have a gun let alone seen one.

the hook ends with
'so I went back yard at 7 am
and got that drenched'

this is because raves normally go on all night and resultantly I would only be getting home early in the morning.

# data[].attributes.body
started to finalise johnny b goode with the group and everything was coming together nicely, nathan and jack were keeping in time & i was remembering the words but it wasn’t quite finished as it hadn’t been played through enough times for everyone to know where the verse is, the chorus is, how long an intro is, how long an instrumental lasts these all needed straightening out with time

finished writing a second verse for my first song and wrote a hook for my second original song.

# data[].attributes.body
I performed my near finished song for you. you said I have to rap with aggression / passion as it seemed like I was telling a story but I was so focused on telling it I couldn't express it correctly.
so I went home and learned my lyrics inside and out as I believe the key to performing with energy and passion is knowing your content fully so when performing the Lyricsncome naturally and you can focus on bringing energy and performing correctly.
I also practiced performing in my room, experimenting with different dynamics in different sections I.e. on the first hook being quiet so when the beat fully kicks in and the verse starts I can up the volume to make it more impressive and sound better.

# data[].attributes.body
I got to writing more bars this week first a hook

'vibe from sun set til rise

I touch the riddim and glide

pass the zo*t and get pied

from notts so you can get tied

up and out

love music don't need no clout

all in till clear out

just spark the zo*t then bounce'

to make a hook stand out it either has to be catchy or be different to the verse (speed or flow) and I love having fast paced verse like the majority of my hooks it is slower and easier to flow.
the opening line stands out the most as it emphasizes the 4th beat in the previous bar with 'vibe' being emphasized as well as 'rise' also on the 4th beat, this key double rhyme makes it obvious where the hook starts
normal lyrics in rap especially modern rap strictly stay in between the 1st & 4th (sometimes 8th) beat as it's easier to follow along with and the majority of the time it sounds better.

'DJs killing it so he make a man screwface

beat bangs gives the ravers toothache

play this too loud still pinging on tuesday

be humble man cus I  don't like no two face

don't think about work just think bout weekend

when I'm in the rave I'm up all evening

back to the room n gyally hold a beating

give extensive piping just like central heating'

The first line basically means that DJ is so good he makes the ravers screwface, an expression on someone's face when they hear the naughtiest of tunes this is an expression of inderment, this comes at the start of the verse as it sets the pace for the verse (being quite quick, coming in on the first beat and it sets the feel of the song, meant to be played at 3 in the morning everyone in the rave is still going strong and the DJ is just killing their set.
'beat bangs giving all the ravers toothache'
if a beat 'bangs' it's hard/ good, and there is a stereotype around people who go raving as people who abuse drugs, if the song is good it would make anyone hearing the song in a rave gurn harder which would happen when they have completely lost themselves inside the beat and are enjoying it.
'play this too loud still pinging on a tuesday'
everyone knows that a live shows music is loud so you can really get emersed in it but this line really emphasises how loud our parties are that you're still buzzing on a Tuesday (as parties usually are on Friday/ saturday night this show show good the show was for people to still be buzzing days later)

'make the most of tonight cus it prolly won't last

gyally know the drill shake that ass

lose yourself up inside the function

loosen up don't be stiff like trunction

partys gas so f*ck the neighbours

share the love give a toke to a stranger

get in the off white and get in the grade A

go all in in cus yesterday was pay day'

the first line in the second half of the verse is there as a reminder to have fun as moments never last no matter what you do to try and preserve them they are always fleeting so just enjoy it while it's here
'lose your self inside the function'
- another line dedicated to having fun (function is slang for party or rave)
'partys gas so f*ck the neighbors'
when my friends and i ever have house partys we always get the feds round at the door with noise complaints from the neighbors as we turn most living rooms into a rave playing dirty riddims into the night which doesn't go down with the neighbors very well but as the theme of the verse is all about enjoying the moment before it goes I say screw the neighbors were gonna have fun.

# data[].attributes.body
week 4 was a week very much based around trial and error, i spent 2 hours with george C trying to play ‘when you love someone' by James TW as an ensemble piece as the guitar section is rather tricky it took George a while to learn it and eventually we have up as George would only play it the way he wanted not the way it is actually played in the song which off put my singing. Also we only started to play the song in 4th & 5th hour which left us with very little time to learn lyrics & a guitar chord progression and intricate melody. every recording attempt failed exhibit A (first video) but eventually after several failed attempts and the clock being 2:55pm and we had already been told to clear up we managed to get a reasonable take but neither of us thought it was the best we could do but we ran out of time.

# data[].attributes.body
the group with nathan, will, troy and jack was coming okay nathan and jack kept the speed up quite in run throughs but i still have to read the lyrics which doesn’t mean i could practice properly without being able to enjoy the music aswell as  perform it.
continued writing my verse and finished a chorus which complimented the speed of the verse.
the verse (being written) is rather fast on the relatively slow 128bpm of my backing track, the slower hook gives the illusion of the verse being faster than it is.

# data[].attributes.body
I organised group with Nathan, will, Troy and jack to play Johnny b Goode we played it through a couple of times but it was a very patchy start as throughout the song the tempo would slow from 168bpm to closer to 140 as the song is very fast paced jack and Nathan couldn't keep up with the faster playing at the start for a period of 3 minutes.

also my signing wasn't great either as I struggle to learn and memorise lyrics quickly this meant constant restarts where I would blank lyrics and ruin that play thoughs.