How do you make beats and add music to rap lyrics?

Do you think I can make a much better song then this kid in my school?

• This is him http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXKGenlPj… I don't usually listen to rap/hip-hop and recently I've been getting into it, I usually listen to alternative stuff and modern jazz, blues, pop, rock, and instrumentals. This kid in my school is making rap music but he's making rap and hip-hop, but he' just so cocky, and so many people thing he has potential but he just lacks theory and passion. This one song he sings about drinking, girls, and getting famous, and his parents are rich so they payed for him to make a music video. I can play a few instruments and I can sing, although I am not sure if I have that "rapper" voice I can always practice, I know I am close to one artist though that I like... I have taken a basic theory class and advanced theory class, and I only made instrumentals, and I tried making lyrics before. I do have a good singing voice. I made a song in that class before, and I was nervous because I had to improvise in front of other kids to make a song so my teacher helped me, although I didn't really need it, it was nice for the help, and she said she really liked the orchestra piece I made, and she really liked my a section(which was the part she helped me with) and it was in the form of aba...short piece but still good, I liked it too, I was surprised lol I thought it wasn't going to be good... Do you think I can make a better song? This kid doesn't even know what a sharp or flat is...and doesn't know that an E natural is the same thing as an F flat. I am going to have piano, violin, lyrics, and maybe a guitar, and I am going to try to add drums for a beat. Also should I make the instrumentals and add lyrics basing it off the chords? I want to use my piano to help me match pitch with a chord, and it will be kind of hard starting with pitches on the piano...seeing as I don't know what notes I will be singing and I am not to good with intervals so what I write might be different then what I sing...but I feel like I should start with lyrics and then make a melody of that...but again I also feel like if I start with the instrumentals I can make a cool instrumental part that the lyrics will also sound cool and I am pretty good fitting lyrics in a specific melody...I do it all the time to songs I listen to when I am bored... What do you think? How should I start? What instruments should I add and what sound should I add? This kid is annoying, and I want to show him what real music sounds like, something from the heart. I hate how he has so many supporters as well.

• Answer:

  I think you should just do your own thing and not try to upstage him. Trying to do that very seldom works, and you won't prove anything to him and he won't learn anything from your efforts. You will look like a wannabe imitator. In addition, you sound rather jealous of his current success with his supporters. Really, just ignor him and do your own music. PS: Are you aware that quite a few professional musicians who are howling successes cannot read music? It's not an approach I would recommend, of course, and never works in the classical field, but it certainly works for them. And some of them laugh all the way to the bank, get from performance to performance in their private jets, collect extremely impressive royalties for their recordings, and have wonderful lives.