I rap and I wouldn't use the term "study" other rappers' rhymes and stuff, I guess I'd refer to it as "conscious listening." Like I don't sit down and figure out where he is rhyming certain words and how he is laying out his rhyme schemes or anything. I just think that the more you listen to something, the more it kind of becomes ingrained in your head. The complex rhyme schemes just come more naturally and the more you listen to someone so creative like Nas, the more I feel like I'm pulled out of my box and given more of a creative mindset when I write. Usually when I write, it's in bunches. Like I won't write for a month, I'll just freestyle. In the shower, on long drives (I dont hook up an Ipod in the car), at work, wherever. I'm always freestyling and it never even makes much sense, but again, just the repetition of different rhyme schemes makes it SO much easier when I actually sit down and start to write something. So, I think sitting down and studying the greats actually is a pretty good idea. I don't think it'd work for me or for everyone, but it's not a bad idea. I think it's easier just to listen to something and really understand what the artist is doing. Like when I hear a rock song or something, it might sound good but I don't know what's complicated and what's creative, I don't know instruments. So all I can really comment on is rappers, and i try to take the creativity I hear that I don't think others hear (just small stuff like where a rapper sits his rhymes through a sentence structure) and use it when I write my own stuff.
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