Tryna Catch the Beat

A Lesson I Learned from Hip-Hop and Dope Friends

I used to want to be a rapper.

A lot of people where I came from wanted to be a rappers. But, before SoundCloud was a thing, I was spittin’ into a mic—plugged into a 4-track recorder—using a pop-stopper made out of a wire hanger and a stocking. I was forreal when I said I was gonna be a rapper. 

One of the reasons I gave up on that dream is because… sometimes I could catch the beat and sometimes I couldn’t. Tryna find beats that were easier for me to catch and didn’t sound awful was a task I couldn’t maintain the energy for. 

If you’re a hip-hop head, you know what I mean when I say “catch the beat.” That ability to hear a rhythmic composition and add your voice and words to that sound as if they were made for each other. In a perfect world, they are made for each other. But catchin’ the beat ain’t easy for everybody. 

Rappers like the Notorious B.I.G. made careers off being able to rhyme in ways that made their verses sound like another part of the harmony. Other rappers, like Silkk the Shocker, became punchlines because they were either entirely disinterested in the words coming out of their mouth making room for the beats that played behind them, or they were incapable of catchin’ the beat. 

To catch the beat is to hit a stride with your cadence that makes a track go down smooth. Kendrick Lamar, widely regarded as one of the best rappers alive today, is a master at catchin’ the beat and riding it off into the sunset. It’s mesmerizing when you see it done well.

I haven’t wanted to be a rapper in a long time.  While I still love rap, I leave it to people who can do it way better than me. 

I still spend a lot of time making stuff I hope is dope. Essays, sermons, podcasts—I still got an active pen and mic. I realized recently… I’m still out here tryna catch the beat. 

Life has a rhythm that I can try to control. But sometimes? I don’t get to make my own beats. Sometimes, I gotta find a way to lay it down on whatever beat gets handed to me. When I do catch the beat? People can tell. It’s when I put out some of my best work. 

But when I can’t catch the beat? I lose confidence. 

Last week was a crazy beat. I had a lot going on, and no matter what I tried to lay down, everything just seemed off. 

I spoke to some of my closest friends and confidants about my dilemma. And, from almost all of them, I heard the same advice. Take a break. 

I put the proverbial pen down. I stopped trying to force rhymes on top of a beat I couldn’t catch. I let the beat shape the way I was movin’. And I found out that sometimes the best way to ride the beat is to do so with less output. Not more. 

The beat I’m rockin’ to this week is different. I can switch my flow up a little bit. I’ve found freedom in letting the beat dictate how I show up in the booth. 

The music hits harder this way. 

Slowing down enough to hear the beat is the best way to catch it.

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Bonus:

I’m gonna do something I’ve avoided at all costs in the past 15 years. I’m gonna let people hear a track I recorded back when I wanted to be a rapper. It’s mad embarrassing. So I’m gonna put it behind a paywall. This text is not the end of this post. If you don’t see an audio file beneath this message, you should consider becoming a paid subscriber. 🌚