How do singers, especially lyrically dense rappers, memorize dozens or even triple digit number of songs?

Question

I’m notoriously bad at memorizing lyrics so it’s mind boggling to me.

In: 368

Answer 1

In addition to the comments others have made regarding chunking and how combining words and music together strengthens recall for both, part of it is just the way their brain works.

I have memorized exactly 0 poems, and don’t have a photographic or otherwise remarkable memory, but I have unintentionally memorized the words to literally hundreds and possibly thousands of songs. I don’t do it on purpose, it just happens. I would assume lots of musicians/singers who spend their whole lives playing, singing, and listening to music probably have similar or greater depth of recall for music and lyrics, especially their own.