What's the peak age for writing lyrics ?

[zooruka]

I was think about Cypress Hill and how some of their earlier lyrics, were kinda lame, then they dropped, Temples Of Boom. Then I got to thinking about The Clan and how they were in their late 20's, when they dropped Forever. So that got me thinking about when is the peak age, for writing lyrics (If there is such a thing) ?

[check two]

[The Hound]

In hip hop it's about 18-22

[noel411]

Age has nothing to do with it. It's about what point in your life you're most inspired to write. So you could typically expect it to be early on in a rapper's career, but then a rapper might find inspiration when he gets older.

The technical aspect of hip hop lyrics can be mastered by any layman within months.

[claaa7]

^ exactly!! +rep

for a good example - look at Nas last album, "Life is Good", the writing on that is exceptional throughout. you can tell looking back at his life, the ups and downs, really inspired him to create a beautiful piece of work.

[The Hound]

And yet nothing Nas ever wrote topped Illmatic so he peaked as a teenager.

[ShaDynasty]

Age has nothing to do with it. It's about what point in your life you're most inspired to write. So you could typically expect it to be early on in a rapper's career, but then a rapper might find inspiration when he gets older.

The technical aspect of hip hop lyrics can be mastered by any layman within months.

There isn't a technical aspect to writing lyrics or poetry etc. You write what you want.

[claaa7]

And yet nothing Nas ever wrote topped Illmatic so he peaked as a teenager.

if we're only talking writing and discounting anything else i'm not sure "Illmatic" is Nas best work

[noel411]

There isn't a technical aspect to writing lyrics or poetry etc. You write what you want.

Well if I tried to rap this sentence I'm writing right now it wouldn't sound very good would it?

I'm talking about structuring a verse. Syllable count, rhyme schemes etc.

[Rev Jones]

Age has nothing to do with it. It's about what point in your life you're most inspired to write. So you could typically expect it to be early on in a rapper's career, but then a rapper might find inspiration when he gets older.

this

The technical aspect of hip hop lyrics can be mastered by any layman within months.

from a writing point of view I agree with this too. but when it comes to flow some artists remain a painful listen deep into their career from a technical point of view. there's off beat flow that works just fine (an art in itself) but then there's rappers who keep on ending up on the wrong part of the beat

flow is a matter of taste obviously but some flows are just really grating to my ears, to most ears I'd guess

[zooruka]

IMO......It's late 20's - 30's

[The Hound]

if we're only talking writing and discounting anything else i'm not sure "Illmatic" is Nas best work

As a whole body of writing then I don't think Nas wrote anything to top off Illmatic. I think individual verses here and there that weren't on Illmatic were his best though.

Besides, I don't think it's the age as much as it's how much work the rapper has done. Rappers seem to peak at debut or second albums.

[Rev Jones]

often there's a lot of content in a debut album

it's the hunger artists go in with knowing that they will finally be heard on a larger stage (major label debuts and the like)

also their whole life up till then can be boiled down into one album. think about it : 19 years worth of life in 10 to 15 songs

they have not been influenced by success either so you don't get sob stories à la my homies are just hangers on now, I can't find my eighth watch anywhere etc