Obviously, this is an uncomfortable time for the world and America as it should be. I’ve been keeping up my practice of being uncomfortable and have paused on posting anything, but I’ll put up this one now though it happened weeks ago.
As for rapping: I love rap. It can be poetic, profound, and pretty tough to do well. Given that I can’t sing nor have any interest in recording anything that will be listened to by anyone in this art form, I had this one my list. Next level: I’d record a rap for my team about BAM and let my employees judge me, which I did.
Like many of these experiences, you need a teacher or guide with a crap ton of patience. I needed a really patient one given my complete lack of skills in this area. Fortunately, one of my best employees, Ramel, has been rapping for 14+ years and agreed to run me through his 6-week course and help write and record a rap. He has a great non-profit as well, which I’ve included here and donated to. This was a good little reminder: when you share what you’re looking to accomplish or do, someone is usually in your midst who can help, be hired, or get you to the right person.
One thing we had to ask ourselves though was this: is this cultural appropriation for a white woman to record a rap, even if taught by a Black man? Or just cultural exchange? My teacher decided it was cultural exchange as I’m not looking to profit, demean, or use my power in any way to take this art form away from the Black men who have created and performed it for decades. You can look into this further on your own, but I wanted to include the consideration here because it is relevant and something I consider in doing any of these uncomfortable experiences.
For the coursework: Week 1 started with a word exercise. This included by personal persona, brands I liked, phrases my family has used (or in this case, BAM uses), colors and more. Pretty fun and easy. Week 2 dealt with rhymes which include Syllable rhymes, Macaronic rhymes (rhymes words from different languages), oblique rhymes, and end rhymes. Sometimes, you gotta reach to find any phrases that could plausibility pass. For “crisis” as in a PR crisis, I found a syllable rhyme, “acantholysis.” Not sure how I would weave that in so that was a clear pass.
Week 3 was an exercise of figures of speech. These include hyperboles, eggcorns (a word or phrase that results from a mishearing or misinterpretation of another), Malapropisms (the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with unintentionally amusing effect, as in, for example, “Dark Vader ”), Acronyms, wordplays, and Paraprosdokians (figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part). After putting down a few dozen figures of speech, then we worked on week 4 which is about writing 16 count bars. This is the part where you’re now taking the phrases, words, and sayings and fitting them into actual beats.
Up until this point, the coursework was fun and a bit challenging as I love words and writing. But the actual beat making, even though I was doing it with just myself, had that element of ridiculousness, the moment you’re saying to yourself, “well, this is wildly, amusingly ridiculous.” But then you get over that, laugh a lot, and keep on it. I picked Megan Stallion’s Savage song for its simple beat and wide appeal, which I knew some of my team would at least know. The remaining weeks are about perfecting and fitting the 16 bars.
Eventually, Ramel put all the phrases, words and so on together in the whole rap (he’s the true writer, creative director, and producer here), and I went to his studio (socially distanced) to record the whole thing. Ramel is brilliant and knows his craft. He ran me through several recordings, some harder, some less aggressive, some more carefree, one after another. Given his cool and directive approach, I didn’t have time to fret about how well or not well I did. It was pure reps. Perhaps this is what studio recording is like? I can imagine Nicki Minaj and 6ix9ine recording TROLLZ and talking about their rainbow matching outfits for the music video between takes. Of course, there’s millions of dollars on the line in those convos. For me, it was an experience of playing with personas in a way I don’t usually do.
For our “debut,” Ramel and I surprised the BAM team and dropped the rap in a speech I gave for our Toastmasters club. We’re keeping it in the BAM Slack for now, but if you’d like a full listen, just shoot me your email. Full lyrics are below. Highly recommend this uncomfortable experience to expand your creativity and expression.
Queen B(BecK)
You can't fuck with me.
Balenciaga Sneakers and a cold one piece.
My Emmy at the house, he don't really hit the streets.
My haters want my paper; they don't really want no beef.
So let's talk about it, let's walk about it, let's be about it, let's eat about it.
We ain't even gotta IG we ain't event gotta tweet about it.
Don't waste my time. I'm always on my grind.
PR don't sleep, rain sleet, or shine.
Got an office full of bad bitches I mean bad women.
And we running like we lappin them no cappin them.
We have meeting after meeting cause we out to get the bag.
We just closed an MSA on that ass.
Yo I'm a BAMf
I only want the mail if it's checks
Whip the Corvette to the Cortez.
BAD ASS MOTHA FUCKA
BAMf, im a BAMf!
Yo I'm a BAMf
I only want the mail if it's checks
Whip the Corvette to the Cortez.
BAD ASS MOTHA FUCKA
B-A-M-f, I'm a BAMf!
Yo I traveled round the world, fact I just got back from the dr.
Read between the lines tldr
my inbox full of email keep that on the DL
im bout to do some fly shit but I can't tell the details.
(Pause) Splash , that's the way it sound.
When you got so much drip you can make'em drown.
I can make you better than you are right now.
We don't play around we will turn a WAMf around.
Yo I'm a BAMf
I only want the mail if it's checks
Whip the Corvette to the Cortez.
BAD ASS MOTHA FUCKA
B-A-M-f, I'm a BAMf!
Yo I'm a BAMf
I only want the mail if it's checks
Whip the Corvette to the Cortez.
BAD ASS MOTHA FUCKA
B-A-M-f, I'm a BAMf!
I'm Proactive with the Purpose
my soul can't be purchased.
And there ain't no such thing as perfect.
I'm Positive I'm Powerful all my Partners Magical
Radical
Candor
Venture
Capital.