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Where can I really start. Acoustic Rap and/or Acoustic Hip-Hop has been growing in popularity in recent years and with the music industry moving back into simple sounds and simple chord structures, it looks as if acoustic rap may become a new genre. It is exciting to pick up a guitar, play some basic chords and play a top 10 hip-hop song. Most of the new hip-hop songs are very basic chords and they usually have the same chord structure throughout the intro, verses and chorus. They sometimes trail off into unchartered waters for the bridge of the song but for the most part it usually stems from the notes the songs are stemming from. Either way once you have the basic chords for the songs figured out you can work on the timing, strum pattern and lastly the vocals. I feel the order is very important when learning these songs. Do not get ahead of yourself and try to sing the song too early as this will cause the timing and the chord structure to fall apart. If you can figure out the chords and then the timing, your strum pattern will come a lot easier. When you put your vocals in, it will flow easier and make the learning curve shorter for each song. There have been many times when I was learning a song that I would start singing right away and it made my life difficult. I would get the tune in my head the way I was singing it and then try to fit my chord structure, timing and strum pattern to my singing. This does not make sense and especially when learning an acoustic rap version of a song, you need the vocals to stand out. Acoustic rap is such a fun way to play the guitar. I enjoy playing all kinds of music but when you learn an acoustic rap song and can feel the rhythm of the song, as it relates to the genre of hip-hop, it is such a great feeling. I recommend working on some of the songs that are on this site as I am sure you can find a host of songs in video form that will show you different ways to play some of the most popular songs in the hip-hop and/or rap industry. I hope you enjoy learning and playing guitar as much as I do. The greatest thing about guitar and acoustic rap is that you can always learn more and improve on every song you play. Until next time…Keep Strumming.