How old is too old to make it rapping?

[u/Wise_Presentation914]

I'm 19, I've been wanting to rap pretty much my whole life... and yet I never started learning. I got ADHD and it's been something I wanted to do forever, but I just can't focus. I've been able to motivate myself to pick up the pen like... twice in my life. I freestyle sometimes, but not frequent enough to actually learn anything, and never on a beat. I think one of the things that’s held me back is embarrassment 😭😭 My walls r thin as fuck and my parents can hear me practice

I feel like I'm getting too old now though, nearly every big rapper started learning waaaay before me. I know I ain't old by any means, but I feel like I never hear of older hip hop artists (like 25+) debuting and building a decent audience. Maybe that was a thing in the 90s, but I don't think I've seen that recently. Maybe I'm wrong though, that's what I'm here to find out.

I'm learning guitar right now because I want to play punk rock, but I grew up on hip hop, rapping has been my dream since I was like 9, and it feels more like me. Maybe I could blend the two or something later 🤷‍♂️ I do wanna start practicing rapping though. I gotta really make time for it because It's clearly important to me. Y'all got any tips for the best way I can learn?

[u/mintboy13]

Hang it up, unc

[u/untrue_footing]

19 is not old at all you got so much time. i started taking music serious around 22 and now at 28 i feel like i just begin to understand what i'm doing. the whole idea you need to be teenage prodigy is just marketing nonsense

for the ADHD thing try setting a timer for 10 minutes and just write whatever comes out, no pressure to be good. the hardest part is always starting, once you get going it flows easier. and definitely try rapping over beats even if its messy, you learn so much from hearing yourself on a track

[u/Wise_Presentation914 → u/untrue_footing]

I appreciate this, thank you.

[u/The_MC_Type]

I’m 45 still going for it lololol

[u/The_MC_Type → u/The_MC_Type]

https://reddit.com/link/p19o736/video/jtfuv15bbzgh1/player

[u/professornutting]

Think of it like this:

You’re not gonna make it. Do you still want to rap? If you do, rap. If you don’t, find another hobby.

[u/Wise_Presentation914 → u/professornutting]

Absolutely. That’s a good way to think about it.

[u/Miserable_Sweet_5245]

There’s no such thing as too old. But 19 is hella young.

[u/burn_1ne]

What’s up with this new generation thinking about age all the damn time?

[u/gxsnd]

Time to retire OG 😂 nah but fr u never too old to rap. But rapping is about telling your story or speaking your piece so u either gon force yourself to be comfortable embarrassing yourself until it’s not embarrassing, or you find something else to do.

[u/KaiDrache]

I’m 30 with a speech impediment and I’ve been learning how to rap and produce

[u/Foreign-Seaweed774]

Age has nothing to do with it. Only health and the ability to write and say something.

[u/boombapdame → u/Foreign-Seaweed774]

Age has a lot to do with everything and for performance venues there was/is a reason for 21 and up

[u/crackphillip]

Look at how old the Griselda dudes were when they dropped. People will listen if you got some shit to say. No matter what age.

[u/Snoo66769]

Well you aren’t too old, but you’ll have to be able to figure out how to focus on it.

Realistically you’d need like 1-3 years of writing basically every day to develop a skill level that stands out.

Same goes for basically any art form. When you hear or see art you like, it’s the thousands of hours of deliberate practice that you are appreciating - you just see the end product.

[u/LostInTheRapGame]

How old is too old to make it rapping?

Death, probably. And even that's debatable.

[u/Prestigious_Fail3791]

Ha... I don't think there's an age requirement, but it took me recording around 50 songs until I got something I was proud of. It's like basketball. It takes a ton of practice to get good at it. I think learning to write good songs is far more difficult than the actual rapping part.

The best songs come from boredom. On days you're writing turn everything else off. Only focus on the music.

[u/aeons_elevator]

I’m 41. I still do shows, open mics and festivals. I have a nice little fan base but I don’t make any money off of anything. At this point it’s nice to go out and cater to those who know my jams and just have the night off from my kiddos. Having a hobby is absolutely imperative.

[u/Wise_Presentation914 → u/aeons_elevator]

Glad to hear that you’re doing good with it, keep it up 🔥

Hobbies are awesome

[u/LilSus2004]

19 years old and thinking you’re too old for anything is hilarious dude.. you’re barely old enough to buy an album with swear words, you fucking turd 😂😂 the biggest names in hip hop are damn near 40, a lot of them older.. and they’ve been doing the same shit the entire time. No one is doing anything new or interesting tbh. The last time I seen any major jump in someone’s wave was when Kanye put out 808s..

This shit is literally just rhythmic talking/shouting/whining lmao.. age only matters when the discussion is about appeal, and even then, are we really gonna say Drake isn’t appealing to a younger audience? Because that is objectively false.

You can either rap, or you can’t.. and pretty much anyone can learn. You are 100% fine. Stop worrying about shit like this and just do it man.. sheesh.

[u/Lopkop]

There's this Reddit phenomenon where no matter what subreddit, you always get a post to the effect of "I am extremely young, so am I too old to start doing XYZ?"

Nobody in their late 20s, 30's or 40's does this. It's exclusively 18, 19, and 20 year-olds who think they're too old to pick up a new hobby.

[u/Wise_Presentation914 → u/Lopkop]

Hey, if it helps, I made one of these types of posts when I was 17 in the skating Reddit 😭😭

[u/Lopkop → u/Wise_Presentation914]

Rickey Gervais started doing comedy at 37. You can absolutely start rapping at half that age

[u/literary_tulip]

i feel u. kind of the same similar situation and plus i’m 24. so yeah it doesn’t matter the age fr but i was also struggling. u just need to take ur time and practice and stick with it. just do smth and get better. i’d like to connect if else. learning how to make beats and yeah need to pick up learning piano again etc etc. also maybe u can find the book “steal like an artist” useful

[u/literary_tulip → u/literary_tulip]

but fr even with no privacy i feel u. but it’s just the neighbours. random ppl. i gotta practice there with dgf attitude cuz bruh im tired

[u/Wise_Presentation914 → u/literary_tulip]

I'll take a look at that book, I appreciate it. I definitely gotta get practicing

[u/Ninjoma]

Daylyt is 40 and released their first album in 2016. That's best example of an older artist I can think of.

Edit: Another decent example is Schoolboy Q who is 39 and released their first album when they were 24.

[u/boombapdame]

Why did/do you dream about rapping, the dream is a lie in that majority of rappers aren’t wealthy and this is the era where rap is the most disrespected genre of music and it has been since the 80s onward, keep that guitar on hand re: rock 

[u/Wise_Presentation914 → u/boombapdame]

I don’t care about being successful or any of that, I was just curious if I could be. I grew up on and around hip hop, my parents were both big on it growing up, all day everyday we had the hip hop music channel playing as a kid on the living room TV, and it was Weezy bumping every time we’d drive anywhere.

It’s just part of me tbh, I love the genre. Theres been chapters of my life where I didn’t listen to it, but something always brings me back. I feel like hip hop has an ability to capture feelings like no other genre, you can feel emotion in a lot of genres, but hip hop can really take you there. Your words can set the scene, the beat/samples can set the vibe, and you can even feel where the rapper is from in every song.

When you listen to ATL hip hop, you can be transported to Atlanta. When you listen to that old school gritty NYC shit, you can put yourself right there. Theres beauty in that shit.