Transcripts
1. Course Intro: Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome back to another course
with yours truly, my name is Kiara
and I'm the man who is obsessed with
making great music and teaching you
how to make your own in today's course
is coming to 11. I write from my parents house
because it's the holidays. And I've been wondering
this course forever. Finally got the time to do it. The setting might be a
little bit different, but I'm still going to bring the knowledge that I have
about this subject to you. What today's topic is, how to rap like Drake. So he released his newest album, certified Loverboy recently,
a couple of months ago. I've been studying
it, analyzing it, really falling in love with a
couple of different tracks. And I felt it goes
about time for a Drake wrap update because
I love analyzing artists. I'm an artist myself
and I just love when I think certain
artists really nail it, especially on certain
songs and I feel a drink. He's one of my
favorite artists and I feel like he's really nailed it. And a few of these songs,
I don't want to go over with you what
we're gonna do. We're gonna break
down certain things like the structure
of how he robs. We're going to talk
about the content, what he raps about. We're going to talk about
as well, his rhyme schemes, the way that he buries rhymes, and what makes it kind of
like a signature Drake style. We also switches his style up. These are different things
that I'm fascinated with and I hope you
are too, if you are, I assume that if you're here, you're also equally
obsessed with these things. If you're having
trouble writing, if you aren't ours yourself, and you want to step
up your pen game, or if you are someone who's interested in Drake and learning
how to wrap in general, this is going to be
the course for you. If you're curious
about who I am, you can check all that
out at key Orion.com. I'm not going to bore
you here with my credentials or what
I do or all that. I'm super into music
of American music over ten plus years and also obsessed with Drake,
I'm a drink stand. So this is one of those courses that I always look
forward to doing. And I hope that you are ready to level up
your pen game too. If that sounds fun, set aside 30 to 45 minutes. It gives you a
beverage of choice, get locked and loaded, and
I'll see you on the inside.
2. Course Structure: Okay, so before we
jump into this, I want to break it
down into each song. We're going to songs and each one is going to
have two sections. These are sections that we can do at the same time
simultaneously, but I want you to keep
these two things in mind. What are those two things? The first one is content. Thus the actual, the subjects
that he's rapping about, the actual content of
his Rams, of his songs. And the second one is cadence. This is gonna be
the actual rhymes. He's gonna be the
pieces of the song that make it a rap song. So it actually has to rhyme. It's not just wouldn't be some sort of a
spoken-word poetry thing. I think Drake is really
good at doing this. If he talks a lot
about the same things, but he does it in new
and creative ways. And I also think that
he stays really trying to stay sharp with this pen and having interesting rhymes coming up with different kind
of rhyme schemes, switching up as flow,
that sort of thing. So the cadence is kind
of rhymes and flow under the same piece and then the content is what he's
actually rapping about. So I wanted to preface this
song with that upfront. So you knew what we were
getting into and I made them both see that
easier to remember. But I think keep that in mind as we won't do this cadence, rhymes and flows and then content what he's
actually talking about. So with that said
out of the way, let's jump into seven
AM on brittle path.
3. 7AM On Bridle Path Song Breakdown: This first one is I
got the clean version because I don't want to
offend anybody out there. And we're going to read
along these lyrics. The, I was gonna
say the show notes. I'll have these in the
description below. And we're going to
kind of read along as we go through
this and as there are different ideas
and concepts that I think are cool that
I've made a note of. I'm going to walk
through those with you. So let's get started. This is seven AM. Let's jump into it. If we wanted to tell
me exactly what they need for me to for a
second and speak to me. I'm not without its secrecy secretly before me
behind closed doors, but plan a peacefully footage
streets to see my thesis. Right there, I'm going
to stop it already. So right now he's just
kinda talk in his talk. This is this is kind
of typical Drake. He's he's just kind
of on his boss tip. But what I wanted to dial in here that I thought was
really interesting is he just starts off this song. If you don't know about
his timestamp songs like 9AM and Dallas or five AM in
Toronto or this one? Yes, another one kilobases and a
few other ones there like these timestamp
freestyle is where he just kind of let it rip. He gets everything
off of his chest. So this is just kind
of his in therapy in a way so that
you can expect on these timestamp songs
is drink just going at it and letting it rip, just kind of get in whatever
is on his chest off of it. But I wanted to talk about
in this piece, his cadence. So check this out.
One thing that I see a lot of immature rappers
doing that I believe from our perspective is kind of crappy songwriting is that the rhymes will be very simple and the always be at
just the end of the bar. What I think Drake does
a really good job of is he continuously rhymes. M&m will do this two really well throughout the bars.
So check this out. We has exactly what
they need from me. Also, this is another
cool thing that he's doing is it's not just one word. He's not rhyming. Spiritual, lyrical, miracle. Need for me. It's like it's three different
words that he's then going to be rhyming
with other words. What kind of around those
same amount of syllables. So check it out. He
does need for me. Secondly, speak to me. Secrecy. Secretly beef in
me behind closed doors, but playing a peacefully
for the streets to see. This is also interesting to
kind of do the need for love. They kinda hard Iran
need from me secrecy. And then here it'll say
secretly be for me. And then he lets
this other bar rock behind that doesn't rhyme with anything behind
closed doors, but playing a peacefully
for the streets to see. It's cool. It's kind of like
these two are at the end of the bar and then he doesn't want it
at the beginning and then another one at the end. So that's, I think
that's super cool. I incorporated a lot of
that into my own stuff. And then my man
have some decency. That I just wanted
to point out is this is already he's already getting into his drink bag of
just like a bunch of complex rhymes that I think
are rat. Let's keep it going. Domo, like a pool dog could at least keep it in one
leg. Answer to call. Both are made not for
the water like Vito result DOM parties in Miami de la Nina is mucho
without ratio. I'm like David Caruso. There's a massive shortage
of people give him a kudos in doing this as
TPA was pulling us know, You tell him I run a
country it essay Trudeau, puppy and chew low
grip and cooler. And I got to flows steel. I told you, check this out. This one I thought
was interesting. We'd have to spend a
ton of time on it, but it's just a bunch of names, shout-outs, boom, boom, boom. Loved us mucho, David Crusoe, veto resume TO T Pain
**** us Nouveau. And so there's this sort of incorporating some Spanish name, which
is pretty cool too. And this is just
him on a punchline. I got the flows. People
still like boot tos other. That was pretty cool. Cool. Yeah, so just keeping
that in mind. So in terms of content, this is going to be one super crazy. Whereas like really tell
me anything emotional if I have another song for. But just in terms of
rhymes and ideas, I think is just
something cool that he did hear that I was like,
Oh, that's pretty rash. Like a bunch of
names, shout-outs, keeping a movement that
is reaching new laws. Letting me take the
rap for that cash. But while you find an audit loopholes to go see to watch
collection and assume a little Ruby Rose
switch instead of one I call because I swear to God the bezel got
68 and blue stones, maybe I'm getting some stuff. I loved this rhyme scheme. This is such a
cool rhyme scheme. I loved the loopholes to code. Here. This is
another thing Draco, due to that I love is hold, just take one bar to
not run right here. He's like Just see
the wash collection. I assume I got Tom. So
this has no rhymes in it, but then he's just kind
of continually pushing the bar so that he can run later because of the
Ruby Rose to tone, such as the one I got
IP NFC because I've already got the bezel guys
60th them blue stones. And if you don't know, There's a cool kind of
hidden Barney air, nifty hustle, RIP NFC. He was a rapper,
really rad rapper. I'm pretty sure he's with the
gaining, the rolling 60s. This is kind of like a bar. This is if you really are like nerdy Yana wrappers and
all that sort of stuff. This is a cool like hidden,
hidden punchlines in here. Maybe we get into stone, Kolkata marble data
for my tombstone. So this is another one too, is he gets descriptive
songwriting. It's not just giving
me a tombstone. Like this is you can tell
Drake I was like on his boss, he's in his boss bag
because this is like a very expensive type
of stone type that like he knows about and he's, he, he does that a lot of strong to look
for another one in here. The more descriptive
you can be, the better. So what I'm saying, okay,
let's keep it going. Lakota model for my
tombstone. He allows it. They're never lad
and his new song, any of his old songs, they sing folk songs, cool my job, boom, buy a house. They all mean bad. Cop to a lay on trying to
get a Earl Grey on me. But I really enjoy
talking names only till you game for me is
one but a walk of shame. So check this out.
There's a kumbaya, boom ba, I'm pretty sure
this is a sneak disk to yea, I don't exactly know what it is. I was looking it up
on genius, genius. And there may be something
there in terms of like it's going to make
sure we were recording, is that he he's doing this. I think there's a sneaky sneak, just the A14 exactly
sure what it is. But anyways, loved this line. So bad. Badge, I was trying
to come through the Army about girls, right? Trying to get the Grammy
or waking up early, but don't need to get for me is from the walk
of shame. So it's cool. I like that little T
connection t shout out. Drake has got to
kind of like making references to his other bars. And here's another one
that I thought was cool. Kind of like on his
brother Theo bag like our pass in
time, 100 thousand. But let's keep it moving. Wanted to this is a really
cool and so I like this. Try to label them.
So I'm going to play the music for because I don't want to take too
much of your time, but this is not like this. They tried to label the
mean, say, but I mean, people that could have stayed
on the team they played in between clubs hanging over you now because I'm
reigning supreme. Somebody's mad and
say what they mean. I didn't let it seems had to
pull out people at the mud. Look, I'm training marines. Hard to them little kids
when a famous to me, I'm not aiming to please. I don't care, but who designers, sneakers and t. So
check this out. I loved this one here. How about this is a cool line. Clouds are hanging over you
because I'm reigning supreme. I love those kind of
double entendres. I think those are rad. Also like the way the whole
kind of just keep that one, that one rhyme going and
then just expand on it, reigning supreme and also headed people, poor
people at them. Whether I'm training
marines, that's a cool kind of visual punchline as well. Please come see to believe, yeah, he runs with our
scheme for a hot minute. But I just thought that
that was super rad. Something I think as well. Like I'm saying, look at this, he's famous to me, amen, please train them marine
sneakers and T's play with my C. These aren't
just single rooms, are thinking about rhyming. If you are an artist yourself, think about how can you make
your writing more complex and not necessarily
super spiritual miracle, but just to rhyme with
multiple words at a time. I think is come see to believe. I think these are good
things to keep in mind. Let's see how we're doing on time. Where do we go in that? But I wanted to try to keep these about ten minutes
each piece of this. Let's keep it going. This is another
one I liked a lot. Okay. Check this out. That's why you buy in at a
height and oppressed feeding, you know what a fourth level
of jealousies com media, isn't that an ironic revelation? Get at addressing that's
running awhile when dysregulation,
what a peacemaker. But let me digress on
behalf of association. I loved this bar, I didn't catch this
until two days ago after I heard the song a
million times, play it cool. Would you Denmark that black
Copenhagen seat again. Open cages and allow
for ARIMA motions, race and dance, not a client. Ocean basin tax and Brava, we're not close relation. This, I loved this. I'll play it cool with Denmark. A man like Copenhagen.
I thought that was rad. That was just a cool
punchline that I didn't take for I didn't pick up on that for ages and
then check this out. Again, I was talking
about being descriptive. He's not just like I'm in
the car hanging out dancing. He's painting this vivid
picture for Ferrari. Feeling some type of way. He's dancing out in
the ocean bathing like that's pretty rad and
it's also super descriptive. I think that these
sorts of things we miss a lot in terms of I
tried to really work on this. My own writing is how can
I be more descriptive? How can I really put
the listener here? Because we often talk about senses of feelings and
maybe what you're seeing. But we also have what
does it sound like? What does it smell like? What do you tasting in
that moment that I think we often miss out on or just
don't take advantage of. And I think Drake does
a good job about that. Good job with that is that
he is He's good at putting you into that moment and
you can kind of visualize what he's feeling or thinking. And then I also loved this was just to finish up with a cool, cool punchline was if
we're talking top three than it had been sliding the
third lay, stolen bases. Toss. Remember always with
the frozen phrases like this is just cool, cool, cool, cool imagery here. Cool punchline kind
of sneak does here. Rad song, I love this song. And I think in terms of content, There's nothing super deep in this one. It's
pretty straightforward. It's just Drake token this talk. But I think there's
a lot to learn. I, myself was thinking about
in terms of just the flows, the cadence, the rhymes of
how I can set my game up. Because these songs I
find really inspiring me. It really inspiring to me
also in terms of details like he had that whole piece
about the watches in here. The thought was really cool
that makes me interested in describing parts of my
life more than my own songs. So typical Drake song, but still a lot to learn. I hope you picked up a
thing or two from that. Don't forget more
complex rhymes. Multiple word rhymes, being
more descriptive if you can. And then maybe some subtle
punchlines here and there. Just keep the little gems for the listener that I pick up on. That was cool. I didn't hear
it on the first lesson, so maybe some cool buried goodness in there
once in a blue moon. Hope that was helpful
onto the next one.
4. Race My Mind Song Breakdown: Okay, we're back for
the second song, the second run through of
this piece of the course, if you can tell a
different location, different facial hair,
I'm leveling up and this one is going to
be erased my mind. That's what we're
going to tackle because I want to get to different kind of
tracks for you. So you've got one that's
mostly kind of wrapping bars, just drink, talking to stalk. This next one is a little
bit more kind of sing-songy, still has some rat bars in it. But there are a couple of key concepts and I was going
through these that I wanted to show you guys
and I think he does a really good job of
that in these tracks. I'm not going to talk
about it a ton upfront. I'm gonna tell you about
it as we get into it. Again, two things to keep in
mind, cadence and content. The actual things he's rapping
about are singing about. And then the way that he's
delivering the actual rhymes, his lines, all that stuff. So keep those in mind.
Let's jump into it. Race my mind not to come in. That's one thing
I wanted to touch on already from the jump, is listen how much he is. He talks about he makes
these sound effects. These aren't even real words. He says she's using sounds
to create a feeling. I loved that, to
keep that in mind. Him a psalter, me. That's another
thing I want you to check out that he doesn't
disown that I love is how he almost has a duet with himself through these ad libs, he has a colon
response to himself. And every time he does that, in this sort of context, the vocal effects
will be different. So it even sounds like a
different someone else's voice. There'll be filtered
different though a flanger, there'll be quiet or
whatever it is paying. They sound different,
which is really cool. So check that out too. How he's almost,
he's in conversation with himself
throughout the track. He's doing his own kind of colon responses if he was
singing a duet with himself. My case is another thing
I want to show you. He does that please. I can't sing, drink, but
you see what I'm saying? Look at how he uses space. How much of this track, at least in this part
when he's singing, It's not like he feels
like he has to fill every single bar with
wraps or with lyrics, how much he's just really
letting it breathe, especially when it has
that high note that please he just lets it just listen to how much he
lets it breathe unless the reverb kind of rock is
creating a feeling here. It's not like he
feels like he has to fill every single moment of
the beat with his lyrics. Should come in. Leicester beat rock for a bit. If he does it again,
just the sound. Check this in case somebody who's doing here
too as he's coming back, he's reusing the same tropes that we talked about
before taking time. I was hoping that it's not like he's kind of coming back
to a similar concept here. That is, there we've already established in similar rhyme. So it's almost like a bridge, even if it isn't
exactly the same, even though it is where
he's like Where's please before and now it's plead. It's the
same sort of thing. He's re-using this sort
of technique of similar, not exactly the same, but similar kind of bars
here to make it easy to, one to latch onto his listener
and two, it's easier. These are easier to write because you already
have a theme, you already have a
rhyme structure. You have a lot of
things kind of already, foundational pieces already in place there that you
don't have to recreate. This entire next
verse from scratch, you kind of already know
where it's going and kind of similar themes and
rhymes that you can just tweak a little bit so you
don't have to come up with a brand new whole second verse. Really helpful. I did sell out to. It's
almost like you create a bridge even if it
isn't exactly the same. From me. Before we get into this,
look, listen how many times he runs with the paid-for
for a lot of bars, how many times in here? Just pay attention that pitcher me rally downtown and a pitcher, my signature on a pass
some shade falls, pitching me care would say No, I needed to push
towards things that are afraid for
retrograde energy shifts to what I was made for. And don't you dare hit
the bag went okay Sean, That's how you would
execute one apple weight. So real quick, we know A4, J4 if these are things that rhyme very directly,
but check this out. So he also has these
kind of internal rhymes. It's kind of like soft. A. This pair of some
J4 is pictured me, Karen, what they were saying, some Wi-Fi, they don't pay for. Think of value. They hate more pushed towards
like there's this kind of soft a dare, pair. Care, tore, all kind
of have all kind of, he has a lot of internal
rhymes going on in here. More than just made for
hate for pay for whatever. So think about that when you're
writing your own lyrics, like how you can have more
rhymes inside the bars, not necessarily just that
hard rhymes at the end. And this is really cool too. He uses a piece
of dialogue here. Don't get me back
in. Okay, Sure, This is really cool. This is almost like, you know exactly what
this text is with. This text was like putting real dialogue in here makes us feel more
likely conversation. Saucy. Dof me R2P, but just not in a mood
bossy maybe I disabled so softly enough boys got no police enablers of
your heart wasn't in it. I know a piece of it was posted epic you send me it
was a recent enough. Ok, So Check this out to look at how how these are
multiple word rhymes. So right here it's
moved bossy too softly. And then this, this bar
just comes out of nowhere. No rhymes. Know it just, it just
it's own bar standalone. But then it's like an ollie
loop and it sets him up to then move into a new
rhyme scheme down here. Now we're doing a piece
of it was recent enough. Piece of it was, that's a forward rhyme
with these two words, same kind of syllables. But eat it up, heating up like
none of them are like a4, G4, they aren't
exactly hard rhymes. They're more like those slant rhymes has a lot of character. I loved these type of
lyrics and type of rhymes. Maybe I'm jaded, but I
think these are some of the best ones because
they don't know exactly. You can't guess
it. You don't know exactly what's
going to come next? The wife, they do not touch in around as soon as
this heated invited you all be you said that you showing up out of spelling mistakes. I noted you draw this mistake, misled it be what it wants
you to change my mind. I'm praying real quick. I love this autumn
spelling mistakes. All those other
mistakes. This is cool. This is like he's using the
play on words on mistakes, which I think is
rad to kind of have an idea or a concept and
then use the same word, but kind of have a
different concept for it. This is very literal
spelling mistakes. And then all of this is like
very kind of metaphorical. Maybe I'm going too
much into this here, but drink does that a lot kind of using the same word
with a different context. And I just think
that's super rad. Know who you be around. I've noted a team and you're
better off leaving me in wanting to come in. That is pretty much this
track in a nutshell. And I hope that that kind of helps break down things
a little bit more in terms of what I appreciate about drink
songwriting again, it's not, this whole first
piece isn't super complicated, but he creates a feeling with
this kind of sound effects. He creates a feeling by
putting conversation. He has conversation with
himself, with his ad libs. He lets a lot of beat
just kinda ride. It creates this space, this kind of desperation
just in the reverb and you don't know if you're going to get a response back. It's just the whole
metaphorical piece of this track I
think is super rad. And then he comes on with
the bars at the end, which I love as well. They do kind of switches that
up. So just the beat up. Really cool track. Hope you learned a thing or two. I'll catch you in
the next video.
5. Conclusion: Okay, This is just a
quick conclusion to say, thank you so much for
taking the course. I appreciate you tuning
in following along. He wanted the lyrics,
everything already you should know It's all down
in the description below. I'll link it all up. I also just wanted
to give a shout out to my other courses. If you are curious about
songwriting drinks, other courses, if you're
curious about the weekend, I've done some other
song breakdowns, got a ton of other courses. Those are all under
My Instructor Dashboard and have
those linked up in different sections that said I really enjoy doing
the song breakdowns. So please let me know
if there is an artist that you guys want to see or
that you're curious about. You want me to dive
into their songwriting. There's some structure there showings in general
and break them down. I would love to do that,
so please let me know, drop it in the comments below, you can slide it into the dm. I'm at key Orion
everywhere online also KIA at key Orion.com. Let me know what kind
of content you guys want to see what song
breakdowns you want. I'd be happy to jump in there. So thank you again
for tuning in. I'll catch you in
the next one piece.
Kia Orion, Artist & Music Producer
