Write a Chorus for HipHop Music
- 怡媜 黃
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
19, May, 2026
Today, I had the honour of working alongside this incredible creative writer and teacher at Holroyd High School, together with Marcus and the other creative writing facilitators.
The lesson invited students to listen to a hip hop song by Australian Indigenous musicians and guided them in writing their own chorus inspired by the music.
Rather than beginning with slides or direct instruction, Marcus first engaged the students through a fun and imaginative game called “Either…or…” or “I would rather…than…”. For example, students were asked to choose between “having holidays anywhere in the world” or “owning and living in a huge mansion.” The activity quickly sparked lively discussions, with students sharing wonderfully unexpected and creative ideas.
After the brainstorming activity, Marcus encouraged the students to write down as many words and phrases as they could remember from their classmates’ responses. These ideas then became a shared word bank and creative pool for their chorus writing.
To begin writing, students first listened closely to the song while reading through the lyrics. Using creative writing scaffolds, they gradually built their chorus step by step. The first prompt asked them to describe someone unstoppable. The second encouraged them to use metaphors and vivid imagery to express that sense of unstoppable energy. The third prompt focused on using strong verbs and phrases to describe movement and action.
A chorus does not need to be long. Yet through the use of rhyme, metaphor, imagery, and anaphora, even a few lines can become powerful, memorable, and deeply catchy.
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