The essential question I plan to explore: What are the common tools/aspects of music that place punk rap, emo rap, mumble rap, lyrical rap, and melodic rap all in the same musical category and how can one explore these many elements and create a song truly capturing the essence of rap?

Since the beginning of high school, music and specifically rap music’s been a big influence on me seeing as I spent about 3 hours on the train every day going to and from school. While I would occasionally do homework, a majority of the time I would listen to rap music that would make me think or make me hype for the sake of staying up, aware, and safe. 

As a freshman, my musical tastes revolved around Xxxtentacion and drake and music that was more mainstream and I put less thought into the complexity of lyrics nor the storytelling aspect of it.  My passion for rap music has grown exponentially since then seeing as rap music has become more popular and therefore all the different sub-genres are truly emerging. I’ve begun to listen to Kendrick Lamar, j cole, Lil uzi vert, future, Tyler the creator, etc., and overall expanding my music taste within rap music.

To answer and explore this essential question I would do modern-day research as well as historical research as well as working with the musical people in the high school to understand the production process and be able to identify instruments better in beats. By being able to break down production, I would definitely be better able to see patterns that way and be able to capture the essence of rap in a more efficient way. I  would listen to old and new rap (in all it’s genres) and discuss the various similarities and differences to create a sort of filtration for different aspects of what makes rap music rap. I would also reach out to different types of artists that I personally know and one in the LREI community and watch videos of producers making beats, the recording and writing process, and see artists break down their albums.