(March 2011) | Interviewer Paul Edwards

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Previous "How To Rap" Interview Installments

Week One: The Lady Of Rage
Week Two: Bishop Lamont
Week Three: Shock G
Week Four: Yukmouth

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Questions Asked By: Paul Edwards in March 2007

How To Rap: How did you learn to rap?

Omar Cruz: I guess it was just part of listening to artists at an early age, I grew up in an era in the ‘80s where hip-hop was really hitting the streets hard and it was something different. I grew up in the only Latino family in a predominantly black neighborhood and that’s what they was playing. So early on I took a liking to the rhythms and beats and what they was saying. What I would do is, I would pick up a certain song that I would like and I would play it and I would start writing down the lyrics to those songs. That’s my early memories, I think that’s how I probably got the structure and shit, because you start copying down the lyrics and you start to figure [everything] out. I mean, I didn’t know what 16 bars was, I didn’t know what a hook was, but I knew what I liked and the songs that I liked, I would write down NWA, shit like that.


How To Rap: Is there a set process you go through when you’re writing lyrics?

Omar Cruz: It varies now. An ideal situation for me is to get a beat from a producer ahead of time and to sit with it for a few days and kinda stare at the speakers and see what comes out. I don’t like to be rushed or forced or anything like that. Of course there are times where, for example I was out working with Cool and Dre in Miami and I had 5 days to do as many songs as I could, so obviously when I heard a track I liked I would just lock myself up in a room and see what I come up with. But there’s not an exact way of doing it, for me it’s always depending on the mood you’re in. I guess some MCs are able to do it, like Hova (Jay-Z), he’s able to get in there and just kinda freestyle over and memorize, he writes his songs in his head, that’s the way he does it. But I have to write my shit down, I have to actually write and see the words.


How To Rap: Does it usually take a long time to write your lyrics?

Omar Cruz: No, no, sometimes they come out in like 15 minutes. I’ve written songs in like 15 minutes, sometimes it takes a couple of days. It depends on different variables—there’s the beat, there’s the mood you’re in. I kinda write better at night, when most people are going to sleep, my antennae is out… I’m able to write, I guess I’m clearest at that moment to be able to create. There have been songs that took me altogether half an hour, beginning to end, and there have been songs that have taken a long time. Sometimes I’ll write a verse for a song, and I’ll come back to it later on when it comes, when the mood is right. It’s not something where you just sit down and be like a conveyor-belt writing songs type of thing.


How To Rap: Do they tend to turn out better if you write them quickly?

Omar Cruz: Nah, not necessarily. I think more probably they were able to catch that moment, and obviously there are parts where the fluidity of the song is a little better maybe, but I don’t think someone can tell if someone took 20 minutes or someone took a couple of days, I don’t think people can really tell, so the answer to that is probably no.


How To Rap: How you come up with the flow and rhythms for the lyrics?

Omar Cruz: Well I come from the school of Nas, Big, ‘Pac, Big Pun, Jay-Z, those type of cats that are very big on cadence, almost like instruments on a track, not just rapping. I take into consideration every instrument that’s already in the track and I wanna blend in and be another part of that, I wanna marry the track better than just rapping on top of it. Those cats that I mentioned before were like the fucking best of the best in terms of being able to fall into the track and just really become an instrument. The voice is an instrument and I really pay attention to that. I think that really separates a lot of MCs from just rappers, the fact that you’re able to actually listen to a track and know where you belong in it, and know how to approach the track as far as rhythmically. I don’t even think a lot of people think about that, I think they just want to come up with the hottest punch-line. I’m not a punch-line rapper, for me it’s a cadencing thing, it’s a quality thing, I want to become an instrument, an additional instrument on that track. So I listen to the track, I stare at the speakers, do what it tells me.


How To Rap: Do you think the flow is as important as the content?

Omar Cruz: Hell yeah, ‘cause they can be saying some fucking phenomenal shit, telling people the secrets to life and shit, but if on the song it’s not in the pocket, it’s not there, people are gonna be like, “this is wack, this is garbage.” I mean you’ve heard bad rappers before, you don’t care what they’ll say, you just go onto the next song, they can be saying some beautiful shit. I think as of late there’s an overall low quality control in hip-hop nowadays, people are just happy with whatever is fucking catchy or whatever, but I think the cream rises to the top and if you know who is really blessed on the mic and who’s not, you know who the MC is and who’s just the rapper. I think to me anyway there’s a huge difference, and people that I know who listen to music, they’re checking for that.


How To Rap: Do any of the producers that you work with ever have any input into the lyrics?

Omar Cruz: Maybe not what I’m writing about, but I’ll take directions in terms of how they want it, maybe try something a little differently, I’m open to that, but I write my own shit, I don’t except anyone else’s changes, you know. They may not like a verse, maybe people that are real, in my camp might say, “yo, why don’t you write this one over and see if you come up with something that’s different,” but for me to change my content, that’s not happening. As far as producers, if I’m working with a producer it’s because I respect him as a producer, so obviously I’m gonna take direction for how they want it. They have probably a way of how they want it to sound or maybe they want a little more energy, things of that nature, but not in the content...


How To Rap: Just in the delivery…

Omar Cruz: The delivery, exactly.


How To Rap: So do they suggest how to say things, or tell you if you haven’t got something in the pocket?

Omar Cruz: Yeah, they’ll be like, “yeah, do it again, do it over, you’re almost there.” I’m really into getting the song right, so I’m not trying to get it in one take, that’s why we’re in the studio, I’m trying to get the best possible take in the least amount of time.


How To Rap: Do you ever go into the booth and just freestyle?

Omar Cruz: No, no I don’t.


How To Rap: Do you think freestyling is an important part of hip-hop?

Omar Cruz: Yeah, it definitely is, but I’m not what you would call a freestyle MC. I mean, I can do it, and everyone’s done it, but my main concern is more being able to write 16 bars that’ll knock you out and blow your fucking mind. I'm a writer, I like well thought out lyrics. Freestyling to me is just part of the art form, I’ve heard some incredible freestylers, I know a lot of them, but my main concern has always been able to just write the content. I’ve heard that’s a new style, what cats are doing nowadays, they’ll go in and they’ll freestyle a few bars, stop, punch-in. I won’t name no names, but I’ve heard that’s what cats are doing. And that’s cool, whatever works, there’s different techniques - I’m fucking with a technique that I don’t really want to talk about, but there’s different techniques as an MC that you grow as an MC, you gottasharpen your skills daily, hone your craft, and definitely freestyling is a part of that too.


How To Rap: Do you memorize your lyrics before you record them, or do you read from the paper?

Omar Cruz: I read them from the paper.


How To Rap: Have you been through them a lot before you record them?

Omar Cruz: Yeah, I do, I like to get it down good before I go to the studio, but once I get it down good wherever I’m writing at, at my place or wherever it is that I’m writing at, I just get it down first already on paper, reciting it to the point where I’m comfortable, then once I’m in the booth, I’ll make adjustments.


How To Rap: Do you ever do a guide vocal, learn it from that and then redo it?

Omar Cruz: Sometimes what I do is, I’ll lay the first lines, I’ll go as far as I can, and I have... I used to have asthma as a kid, so I have breath issues, so a lot of time I’ll just run out of breath. So what I’ll do is, I’ll go as far as I can until I’m losing my breath. And yesterday I remember doing it, I think it was my first take of this one song and I pretty much went through the whole verse and dude was like, “dude, that shit was hot, keep it.” I heard it, I was cool with it, let’s keep it, except a little punch on the last line or whatever. So it’s like a lot of the time you don’t have to do a rough take, because you’re just rapping it out and you’re gonna do it until you get it right, so once you get it right [that's it]. Some people can get it right right away, some people might take 4, 5 or 10 takes, whatever it takes. So those ones prior, those were all wrong takes! I mean that’s how it works for me anyways.


How To Rap: Do you decide where you’re going to breathe in a verse before you perform it, so that you don’t run out of breath?

Omar Cruz: Yeah, I have a way—my style of writing how I need to separate the breath. My breaths are commas, commas in my writing, I’ll put a little comma, that’s how I know that’s the end of a breath, or that’s where I begin another. That’s almost like an inflection, if I’m gonna say something in a certain way, I’ll maybe darken it in a little bit, or if I’m gonna put a little adlib I know I want there, I’ll put it in parentheses, that means it’s an adlib. These are the things that you pick up as a writer, everyone has, like when people were in school they had different note-taking styles.


How To Rap: So you have your own system...

Omar Cruz: Yeah, I definitely have my own system, and I think it’s a solid system—a comma is pretty much in a sentence a kind of pause, it’s kinda the same shit.


How To Rap: Do you prefer doing a verse all in one take or doing punch-ins?

Omar Cruz: Of course you want to get in as much as you can, but like I said for me there’s breath issues. What I’ll do is, I’ll do as much as I can and make it sound right without making it sound like I’m running out of breath, that’s my thing.


How To Rap: Do you ever go and research things specifically for when you’re writing content?

Omar Cruz: Yes, yes I do sometimes. Sometimes it’s just speaking on a certain subject, you wanna make sure you got a certain date right or a certain number right that you’re mentioning. For example, for a certain song I was making sure what the population of Latinos was in the United States, because I wanted to make sure before I use the number that I thought, because that number grows every year. So I was like, let me go ahead and go online real quick ‘cause my number might be updated. So you know, things like that... as an MC you’re also a teacher to a certain extent, and if you’re a teacher and you don’t have your fucking info right, you’re just the blind leading the blind. So for me it’s important to mention that if I am spitting something, it’s at least accurate in terms of what is facts and not what’s my opinion.


How To Rap: Do you find it helps to have a large vocabulary for rapping?

Omar Cruz: Of course, because if not, every other word is motherfucker, motherfucker. I read a lot, I mean I’ve always loved reading, just reading period is gonna help your vocabulary. The more you read, it doesn’t matter what you read, just as long as you’re reading, your vocabulary expands and it allows you to [do more]. There’s rappers that like to pick up a thesaurus, shit like that, but if you read, you don’t have to do that, you don’t have to go through shit like that, you just use your own vocabulary. There’s hood ebonics out here too, so then you have your own slang, West Coast have their own slang, East Coast have their slang, you mix it all in together and you fit it in right. That’s what separates MCs from all sounding alike—dialects and slang.


How To Rap: What advice would you give to people who are learning how to become an MC?

Omar Cruz: Just write and keep writing—you’re gonna write a hundred bad songs before you get to that good one and after that you’re going to be alright, so don’t get discouraged. Study... study the greats, go back to the Rakims and the Big Daddy Kanes, motherfuckers like Kool G Rap, Big Pun, these cats that were lyrical geniuses really. MCs are few and far between these days. If you want to be a rapper, go ahead and don’t worry about it, just take a little fucking catchy beat and just rap about exactly whatever the hell you want to do, do a dance... nothing wrong with that if you want to be a rapper, but if you’re gonna be an MC, you gotta respect the culture, you gotta respect the mic.

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