Best Rap Apps for Android and iPhone: Record Over Beats

A rap app does one of three jobs. It gives you a beat and records your voice over it, it helps you find rhymes while you write, or it plays other people’s rap. Going by what people type into Google, most mean the first, and for that you can start without paying on either kind of phone.

We went through the Google Play and App Store listings of every app here. Of the eight this article listed in 2019, six are still on a store, one of them under a new name, and two no longer turn up.

What your phone already does

On an iPhone, Apple gives you two free tools. GarageBand has a Beat Sequencer and Live Loops for building a beat, records a performance through the microphone, and includes a notepad for lyric ideas. It is free with nothing to buy inside, and it is on iPhone and iPad, not Android. Voice Memos is quicker for catching a verse before you lose it. Apple’s listing says it can record a vocal layer over an instrumental without headphones, but only on the iPhone 16 Pro models.

On Android there is no GarageBand. Google’s Recorder and Samsung’s Voice Recorder record sound and have no beats, which is fine for saving an idea. For a beat and a voice together you need one of the apps below.

What these apps can and cannot do

The beat is usually not yours. This matters the moment a song is good enough to release. Rapchat’s licensing agreement, the one its beat producers sign, lets you share what you record over a beat inside the app and, for personal and non-commercial purposes, on your own social accounts. The beat remains the producer’s, while the lyrics and vocals you record are yours. Rapchat’s summary of that agreement says commercial releases should be checked against the producer’s terms before distribution.

The other apps differ, and their listings say how. Offtop sells commercial licences in its beat store. Rap Maker describes its beats as royalty-free and says you own the copyright in the tracks you make. BandLab’s App Store listing offers one free beat licence a week on its basic plan. AutoRap offers beats credited to artists such as Drake and Eminem. Its listing talks about sharing on social media and is silent on commercial release, so treat those as practice.

Free means free to start. Every recording app in the table shows in-app purchases. Rapchat sells Rapchat Gold, AutoRap a VIP subscription and BandLab a membership. Rap Fame asks for a subscription before you can rap over a beat you uploaded yourself.

You will want headphones. If the beat plays from the phone’s speaker, the microphone hears it too. Apple presents recording over an instrumental without headphones as a new feature of one iPhone range, which tells you what the normal case is. Offtop’s listing offers live headphone playback while you record.

Take the fame talk lightly. Rap Fame’s listing says rappers use it to get signed by the world’s biggest labels, with two exclamation marks and no names. Enjoy the contests and the feedback, and judge the rest for yourself.

Rap apps compared

All ten are on both stores. The links go to each listing.

Recording over beats

Rapchat is where we would start. Its Google Play listing describes a multitrack studio on the phone: record verses, hooks and ad-libs over one of more than 400,000 beats, keep your lyrics beside the session, then mix and export. You can import your own beat as well. It carries no ads label on Google Play, and its App Store listing says creating and sharing music is free, with Rapchat Gold as the paid upgrade.

Rap Fame is the app this article used to call Battle Me, and its Google Play address still says battleme. It has a beat library and a recording studio with effects, and its App Store listing adds a rhyme finder. The rest is a community: weekly contests with cash prizes, charts, and tracks rated by other users.

Offtop pairs multitrack recording with a lyric notepad that has a rhyming dictionary built in, so you can write and record in one place. Its beat store sells commercial licences. The App Store edition is listed under Deep Thought LLC, and both listings point to Offtop’s own website.

Rap Maker from MIXVIBES is the one to read if you plan to publish. Its listing calls the beats royalty-free and says you own the tracks you make with them. The Android app is the one being kept up. The App Store page shows it has gone years without an update.

AutoRap has a trick the others lack. Speak into the phone and it turns your words into a rap with pitch correction, matched to a beat. It also has beats to rap over and battles against other users. Its Google Play page has gone years without an update too, and it shows ads. Install it for the fun of it.

Full studios

BandLab is a general music studio, and the closest thing on Android to a free GarageBand. Its listing covers multitrack recording, six free pitch-correction effects, a drum machine and a sampler loaded with royalty-free sounds. It can also send a finished song to Spotify and Apple Music from inside the app. There is more to learn here than in Rapchat, and the Android app shows ads.

Voloco starts from the voice. It applies effects and tuning as you record, detects the key of the beat so the tuning matches, and includes free beats from the BeatStars library. Importing your own beat is free.

Music Maker JAM works the other way round. You assemble a beat from loops, across trap, hip-hop and plenty of genres that are not rap, then record a vocal over it.

Writing and freestyle practice

Rhymer’s Block is a notepad for lyrics that suggests rhymes as you type, near rhymes included, and colours the rhyming words so you can see the pattern of a verse. Its listing says it works offline, and an optional account backs your writing up.

RapScript is for practising off the top of your head. It shows you random words at a speed you choose and you work them into your bars. On Google Play it is free with no ads label and nothing to buy. The App Store edition, listed under Michael Huelfenhaus, shows in-app purchases and adds instrumental loops and video recording.

You may not need a separate writing app. Rapchat has a lyrics pad, Offtop has its rhyming dictionary, and GarageBand has a notepad.

If you meant apps for listening to rap

Audiomack puts hip-hop and rap first in the list of genres on its Google Play listing. Its App Store listing says the free tier lets you stream full songs and download them to play offline inside the app. SoundCloud, on Google Play and the App Store, is free with ads and leans towards new artists. It is also where Offtop, Rap Maker and Music Maker JAM offer to send your finished track. Both show in-app purchases.

Which one to pick

• Your first song over a beat: Rapchat.
• You want contests and feedback: Rap Fame.
• You plan to release the song: Rap Maker’s royalty-free beats, a licence bought through Offtop, or a beat of your own imported into BandLab. Read the terms before you upload anywhere.
• You have an iPhone and want to make the beat too: GarageBand. It costs nothing.
• You are stuck on a rhyme: Rhymer’s Block.
• You want to get better at freestyling: RapScript.

If you outgrow the phone’s own microphone, see our guide to 3.5mm microphones.

What happened to the old list

Rap Wars Free and the Android app called Rap To Beats no longer turn up on Google Play. Rap to Beats for iPhone is still on the App Store, but its page shows it has gone more than a decade without an update, so we have left it out.

Tape-a-Talk Voice Recorder is still on Google Play, free with ads and in-app purchases. It is a general voice recorder, and the recorder already on your phone does that job.

Quick answers

What is the best app to record rap over beats?

Rapchat for most people. It is on both stores, has a large beat library and a lyrics pad, and shows no ads label on Google Play. BandLab is the better choice if you want a full studio.

Is there a free rap app?

All ten apps in the table are free to install, and every recording app among them sells extras. GarageBand on iPhone and RapScript on Android are free with nothing to buy.

Can I release a song I recorded over an app’s beat?

It depends on the beat’s licence. Rapchat’s agreement covers personal, non-commercial sharing and tells you to check the producer’s terms before a commercial release. Rap Maker says its beats are royalty-free.

Which app helps you write rap lyrics?

Rhymer’s Block suggests rhymes as you type. Offtop builds a rhyming dictionary into its lyric notepad, next to the recorder.

Do these rap apps work on both Android and iPhone?

All ten in the table are on Google Play and the App Store. GarageBand is on iPhone and iPad, not Android.