Rapping and singing are two skills that are usually pinned against each other. You have rappers on one hand saying rapping is harder while you have singers on the end saying singing is one of the most difficult skills one can ever learn and pursue.
So then which of the two skills is harder than the two?
This is exactly what I’m going to discuss in this post and I hope I can clarify this debate for you.
Without wasting a lot of time, let’s jump right into it…
Is rapping easier than singing?
Singing is considerably harder than rapping because it involves more complex training to become a good singer.
With rapping, you don’t necessarily have to stretch your voice to hit specific notes. You can rap in your natural voice even if you’re not melodically inclined. However, rapping lyrically well is not easy and does require huge effort from the person. But learning how to sing is considerably harder whether the lyrics are simple or complex.
Let’s get into the reasons why singing is harder than rapping.
The learning curve
Rapping and singing are usually compared by most musician’s.
In my years as a producer, I’ve found this comparison to be self defeating.
Rapping and singing are two different skill sets and they both have their complexity.
With that said, singing could be considered a harder skill because it requires more effort to actually learn.
There’s a lot of intricacy involved in singing and let’s face it, you don’t necessarily wake up today and become a great singer next week.
Singing takes a lot more effort to actually learn because it is more melodically and musically specific.
You could think of singing as learning how to play the piano and rapping as learning to play drums.
Both require a decent amount of effort but learning the piano requires more specific knowledge about how exactly music theory works.
With learning how to rap, you could maybe practice for a couple of months to get your “flow” together and know how to basically rap and stay on beat.
Singing may take you a year or more to just learn the basics or the foundations of singing.
Rapping involves using your voice naturally in a “spoken word” manner while singing involves using your voice to hit specific notes using your vocal cords.
Easier to mimic rappers
If you like listening to rap or hiphop, I’m guessing you have a record that you enjoy a lot.
Let’s face it, we all do.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that you can mimic it really easily without straying too far away from the words.
And it’s pretty easy because all you have to do is say the words like you speak while following the rhythm of the rapper.
But think of your favourite singing song.
You could of course get the words right but it’s not easy to match the singing melodically.
My point is, it’s easy to copy a rapper and perform their record to almost near perfection than it is to copy a singer and perform their record to even half perfection.
Its easy to copy rapping than it is to copy singing.
Think of how many rappers are coming on the scene these days that sound like other rappers that you’ve heard before.
Now think of how rare it is to find a person that sings as well as Luther Vandross.
Singing is certainly a challenging skill to learn because you’ll spend more time learning how to sing before you even start worrying about writing the lyrics.
With rap, lyrics are often more important because rapping itself isn’t difficult.
Natural inclination
Almost anyone out there can learn how to rap but not every one is born with the natural inclination to sing.
Some of the greatest singers in the world like Micheal Jackson grew up singing their whole lives to become the best at it.
Some of the more classical rappers like 2 Pac didn’t have to start rapping at a very young age to become good at it.
Rappers like him learnt how to rap, write well and became good at rapping in adulthood.
Singing requires more bodily effort
With singing, a person has to know how to handle their breathing, make sure they sing from within, master notes and know how to use their body to sing well.
There’s a lot more intricacy in singing because it takes knowing how to sing with your body.
Rapping however doesn’t require the same effort.
This is why it’s much easier to learn how to rap than it is to learn how to sing.
Final Thoughts
Singing is a harder skill to learn than rapping but knowing how to rap lyrically well is challenging as well.
