How To Write A Rap Punchline In 5 Simple Steps (Tips + Examples)

If you’ve ever heard the expression, “he got bars” or “wow, she came with the bars on that track”…

The person describing the rapper who “has bars” is usually referring to the artist’s ability to write a rap punchline in a creative and unique way.

In today’s video, we’re going to show you how to write a rap punchline in 5 simple steps.

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Overview
1:20 Rhyming Course
1:46 #5 The Sound Effects Punchline
3:21 #4 The Step-By-Step Story Punchline
5:03 #3 The Stacked Similes Punchline(s)
6:30 #2 “Soundalike” Punchlines
8:31 #1 The Double Entendre Punchline
10:14 Comment

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From the very first mainstream Hip-Hop song in 1979, “Rapper’s Delight”, to the latest 21st century release from your favorite lyrically minded rapper…

…The capability to build witty and original punchlines is essential to separating a rap artist from the literally millions of hours of “put you to sleep like NyQuil” predictable bars available on streaming services to a global audience with a scroll of their phone.

Sure you’ve seen a few videos on wordplay and punchlines that tell you to just make words have two meanings… or brainstorm a little bit.

But you haven’t seen something like what we’re about to explain, using examples from some of the greatest rappers of all-time in each era of rap so that you can both see the progression of rap punchlines AND expand your ability to know how to write rap punchlines in minutes by using the RIGHT punchline at the RIGHT time…

…So, without further ado, let’s show you how to write a rap punchline in 5 simple steps.

I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard “Rapper’s Delight” at least once, and are familiar with the “hip-hop, a hippity-to-the-hop” verse.

While to our modern ears this sounds like some nursery rhyme type of stuff, part of the reason it was considered witty at the time was the use of vocalized “sound effects” within the rap bars in order to product a creatively unpredictable set of lyrics.

Don’t be fooled that this hasn’t been used by more modern top rappers when they want to think of a witty punchline. Consider this hilarious bar by Redman on “Cereal Killer” from 1999:

Don’t shoot, out the phone booth
I aim at your party, hit the wrong group
Happpppyyy birth – oo! Oo! Oo!

The use of a sound effect as a word that can be rhymed both adds to the hyper visual nature of the lyrics (something Redman excelled in and even influenced Eminem to do)…

…And it seen as an unpredictably creative way of writing a “punchline”.

Kanye West used a similar sound-effect punchline to end his verse on Cruel Summer’s “The One” In 2012 when he said:

‘Cause everything around me got me underwhelmed
Best way to describe my position is at the helm
Best way to to describe my new whip? Yewwwwwn

Pretty clever.

So one unexpectedly original way for you to start thinking outside of the box when writing a rap punchline is seeing if you can rhyme a sound effect to make your point the way rappers have been doing for literally 40+ years.

As we moved down the history of lyrical creativity in rap, we would be remiss to not mention a rapper like Rakim who introduced the idea of “This will happen and then THIS will happen” into punchline development.

See before Rakim, most rap “punchlines” were kind of like what you heard on rapper’s delight, very dry “I have a new Cadillac” or “Biggity bang bang” type of bars…

…Rakim introduced lines like, “Take MCs put ‘em all in a line, and add 7 more brothers who think they can rhyme, it’ll take 7 more before I go for me, and that’s 21 MC’s ate up at the same time”…

…Which would help sew the sees not only for battle rap, but also the more hardcore or gangsta rappers to describe in detail what they will do if somebody messes with them.

In your case, never understand estimate the importance of being able to “tell a step-by-step story” in your punchline like Rakim, going all the way down to Eminem did in 2000’s “Criminal” in one of my favorite schemes of all time:

“Windows tinted on my ride when I drive in it…
So when I rob a bank, just run out and dive in it
‘Cause I’ll be disgusted in it, and if anybody identifies the guy in it
I’ll hide for five minutes, come back shoot the eyewitness
Fire at the private eye hired to

(That scheme never gets old)

The combination of stacked rhymes with a hyper-visual step-by-step story helps demonstrate how you don’t need to always have a double entendre in order to make a fire punchline…

…AND you can make it rhyme in a seamless way. pry in my business”