Today we’ll look at why rap lyrics are called bars.
Why Are Rap Lyrics Called Bars?
The bars to a rap song are simply the section of lyrics that make its spot on the beat on a 1,2,3,4 measure. They’re also used as an adjective that acknowledges the talent of the emcee. They’re very important to the perception of a good artist. You can break down any song and identify where the bars are at on a project.
They’re a divided sequence
In a rap song when you look at the lyrics you’ll find that the bars make up the part that’s separate from the chorus or hook.
When they’re in order that’s unique to that track it follows a pattern that goes 1,2,3 and 4.
If you speak them over a metronome then the lyrics should fit every time to sound sonically pleasing.
If you’ve heard of the term to spit a quick 16 then you’ll recognize that this a part of what the person’s looking for when they hear you.
A 16 is a pile up 4 separate bar counts.
Encouraging words
When you compliment a rapper in a song on any major hip hop news outlet could confirm that they’re recognizing bars.
It’s one of the things that keep you relevant long as an artist.
You have points in life where each meaningful group makes a highlight of your career.
There’s actually a discussion that mentions them often and use it to credit the artist whether it’s a song or entire project.
I’m pretty sure it’s the 7th or 8th episode of a podcast that I was a listener of called Hear Me Out With Wayno.
I’ll link it but to keep it super simple it’s just a good thing to have and be acknowledged for having them in your creations.
There’s more life stories shared through growing up in various boroughs in New York.
Why Are They Important
They’re highly criticized and broken down because of the impact they put on the quality of the song and skills of the artist.
A good 16 can make or break a record according to experts.
As much history and culture hip hop has its still pretty new so measuring quality of lyrics could be considered a developing skill.
If you follow battle rap which I personally consider a sport of words it’s heavily focused on as an expectation of the battler.
This is heavily thought of when putting on a show for any emcee.
That should give you an idea as to why it’s a must have for any artist that plans on having longevity in their career.
Counting Bars In A Rap
I’m playing Sirius Radio and they’re playing this record from finessetwotimes called Back End.
If we were to play this song and listen together it’ll be easy to identify where the bars are on this track.
This song is all bars that occasionally uses the title name in the verses so it’s easy to confuse it with a hook.
If I were someone that was looking to recruit talent to a label, I would keep track of the artist’s average of bars used in their songs.
This just gives me a gauge in their output expectations and would give me an idea of how much money to push behind them.
Dissection Of Current Song
You should know by now that I really like this song that I made recently called Troubleshoot.
“Only links I care to know are ones that’s plugged externally.”
“Firmware might be out of date.”
“Wi-Fi change picked up the pace.”
“Those drivers you kept in that box, works better if you changed the case.”
“That Bluetooth might just be the problem.”
“Signals might get crossed today.”
“Told you, what I do, to beats.”
“I’m Chucky, call this Child’s Play.”
This is actually 2 sets a four count.
The snippet starts with the end of another group but it’s still used as the first part that’s introducing the song.
Kanye West’s Bar Tier
One of my favorite emcees that paved the way for my generation in rap and in terms of their lyrics is Kanye West.
To understand where he was in his run when listening to music was a part of my day would take us back to a 2007-2012 era.
Off hand I could remember it being projects from Graduation all the way to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
I personally was a bigger fan of the joint album he did with Jay-Z.
Watch The Throne
This came out August 8th, 2011 and was one of the first times I was ever introduced to the concept of a joint album.
If I could describe the feeling when I was aware it would be best to say a fusion in the Yu-Gi-Oh card game.
If you played the game you’ll understand.
What made this a special mention is the heavy use of bars throughout the entire project.
It’s heavy on the use of actually rap instead of using fillers to carry the song.
When you combine the talents of both Ye and Hov that’s consistently rapping on every song makes it a fun collection of songs.
Final Thoughts
Let’s look at the reasons rap lyrics are bars again:
- Sequence of 1,2,3,4
- They’re used to describe talent
We even dissected the song Troubleshoot that I dropped officially.
Pointed out inspiration for bar usage with Ye and Jay-Z.
To find out more of my profile as an artist click here to go to my About Me page.
RealTalkAJ 
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