The Official Flocabulary Ten-Step
Technique for Learning to Freestyle Rap
by Emcee Escher, esq.
Step
1. Start easy
No need to start off rhyming “the toasty cow’s
utter” with “most o’ my flow’s butter”. No need to even rhyme. Just forget
everything else and flow. The rhythm can be simple, the words might be
second-grade level, but you’re still freestyling as
long as you make it up. This was my first freestyle rap, which I spit when I
was 11 months old:
I am funny,
I
like bunnies,
Touch my tummy,
Mummy
wizard
lizard
scissor
miss
her
pins hurt
Pick one and then try to carve the second line
to lead toward that word. Let’s say you pick “wizard,” your next line might be:
I’m colder than a Dairy Queen Blizzard,
This is Lord of the Rings, you’re the hobbit, I’m
the wizard,
If you pick “scissor,” you might say:
I’m colder than a Dairy Queen Blizzard,
A rebel since I was five, went running with
scissors,
The real trick of freestyling
is to have your mind constantly racing ahead of what you’re saying. This isn’t
easy, but you’ll get quicker with practice.
Step 4. Write
Writing raps will help you freestyle. When you
write, rhymes become embedded in your head, and you’re more likely to be able
to pull these rhymes off the top of your head in a freestyle.
For the most part, you should never spit a long
pre-written verse at a cipher, but you can certainly use rhyming words and shorter
phrases that you’ve worked out beforehand. When Proof rhymes “Ewoks, treetops, and Reeboks” in a freestyle, you better
believe he’s thought of those rhymes ahead of time. He’s still freeing, but
he’s using rhyme words he’d already worked out.
Sitting down and writing every day will improve
your freestyles. It will expand your memory of rhyming words, and it will give
you experience working these words into clever lines. It’s also a good idea to
write a few multi-purpose bars that you can spit at a freestyle
in case you get really stuck. Put those lines in a “Break Out Rhymes In Case of
Emergency” box, and smash the glass when you need help. This isn’t cheating;
it’s shrewd.
When you’re writing these “in case of emergency”
lines, make them strong and interesting, but not too ridiculously amazing. In
other words, don’t do this:
Turn the beat up, it’s all that I need, (free)
Rocking
my pumas … and my white tee, (free)
Hit or miss, this penetrates
the uranium nucleus, (written)
Smoke crews like a hookah plus I’m
nuking your crib, (written)
You don’t want your “emergency” rhymes to be
that obvious. Try to write rhymes that generally match your level of freestyle
but are clever and smart.
Step 5. Rap about things
around you
This is definitely the best way to prove to the
crowd that you’re really freestyling and not just
spitting something you wrote in your room the night before. It’s also a huge
crowd-pleaser, ‘cause it’s impressive and it makes everyone real glad that
they’re hanging out with you. Rap about things you see. Incorporate objects,
actions, people, clothing, situations, and sounds into your rap. When I’m in
the shower, I’ll rap about what kind of soap I’m using:
Trying hard to get clean, maybe just a smidgen,
Make my Dove dirty, oh, now I call it pigeon
At a battle competition, this is crucial. You’ve
got to spit things specific about your opponent. These are the hardest-hitting
punches. Take Iron Solomon’s opening lines against The Saurus
in a battle on the streets of New York. He looks his opponent up and down, sees
that he’s wearing shorts, and then spits:
Maybe you should have come here rocking a better
flannel,
Or at least some long pants,
You
should have checked the weather channel.
One of the freestyle kings is a rapper from
North Carolina named Spectac, who can spit a rhyme
off the top of his head that sounds like it was pre-written. I’ve heard Spectac freestyle for 40 minutes straight over various
beats, and I’ve seen him in action at a show, getting some kid to walk around
the audience pointing at things and Spec rhymes about it. I asked Spectac what it takes to freestyle. Here’s what he told me:
“Honestly, first of all, you have to have a love
for the music and not just the hip-hop genre. You have to love the
instrumental. Once you have the passion for it, anybody can develop the ability
to freestyle. It comes down to how much time you’re willing to invest in
practicing that part of the art. When I’m freestyling,
I’m thinking ahead. I’m definitely thinking ahead. At the same time, I don’t
get too far ahead of myself. You try to enjoy it with the crowd. Enjoy the
punch lines, but keep yourself focused on the fact that the party isn’t over.”
Step 6. Include metaphors
Metaphors and similes are an advanced but
important part of freestyle rapping. They are often found in a rapper’s
funniest and cleverest lines, and they really differentiate beginners from
skilled emcees. A rapper like Lil Wayne lays down verses that straight-up drip
with similes and metaphors. He’s the one who is balling like “Rawlings and
Spalding,” who is a giant like “fee fi fo fum,” who is counting (money)
all day “like a clock on the wall.” Not only does he drop lots of similes, he
drops clever, original similes. So do like he does. Don’t just say “sharp as a
knife.” Say:
I’m sharp as Samurai swords…
I’m extra
sharp like cheddar…
I’m sharp as a Schick Quattro…
Metaphors and similes are really the backbone of
an advanced rapper. Learn how to use metaphors correctly. Your rhymes will not
only be funnier and smarter, they’ll sound better too. Take these lines from
rapper Chingo Bling: “I’m
fly like Big Pun on prom night with a cummerbund.” You know that is fly!
Step 7. Reference current
events
Just as good as referencing something nearby is
referencing something timely. Let’s say, for example, that you are at a cipher,
rapping with some of your friends (dissin’ each
other, just goofin’ around), and the day before you
remember reading that Star Jones recently lost 200 pounds. How dope is it if
you throw that in your rhymes:
You big now, but you ‘bout to get cut down,
Faster than Star Jones dropping 200 pounds
I recently heard an emcee reference soaring gas
prices:
Fast? Son, that ain’t
fast—
I’m rising faster than the price of gas
Whether it’s related to sports, politics, music
or celebrities, if it’s in the news, reference it. As Wordsworth told me
recently, “I just try to think of what’s important to the people in my
surroundings and try to speak on it.”
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Step 8. Pass the mic like it’s contagious
Rap in ciphers—groups of two or more rappers
playing off each other, trading verses. This is a great way to improve, and
it’s definitely fun. One of your friends can beat box, you can throw a beat on
the stereo, you can search on YouTube for the
instrumental version of your favorite song, or just freestyle over nothing.
Take turns, cutting in whenever you want or when someone “passes you the mic.” (You probably won’t have an actual mic.) Never drop the invisible mic!
Pick it up and pass it!
Work off other people’s rhymes. If they throw in
something about the Bible, pick up that theme and run with it. Try to stick to
similar topics, or riff off topics in creative ways. Expand on or reference
their lines. When my friends and I cipher, we like to kick about random stuff
that we all know about, like our personal lives.
Me:
Got no girlfriend, and girls are
good for your health,
Know what I mean? Uh, at
least I work for myself,
You see me here, kid,
and I rhyme crazy,
Used to have a job reading to a rich blind lady,
Zach:
You
rhyme crazy, and sometimes you rhyme lazy,
But I love this rap game,
‘cause rhyming is my baby,
Visually, lyrically I’m known as a
mystery,
Y’all couldn’t even see me on HDTV,
It’s always good to pick up the rhyme scheme of
the person right before you. In a great freestyle between Brooklyn rappers Mos Def and Talib Kweli (back when they were together as Blackstar),
Mos Def ends his first verse asking Kweli if he’s with it. Kweli
responds, “I’m always with it…” Later Kweli spits
rhymes about some emcees looking wack, then he passes
the mic to Mos who
continues the rhyme, saying that they always look wack
“cause look at the way they dress.” These are the best freestyles: raps that
connect with the rhyme sounds and topic of the rappers around you. In the
best-case scenario, the rhymes intertwine like the fibers in a Shredded Wheat
biscuit.
Step 9. When you’re in a
cipher, think ahead
One of the great things about rapping in ciphers
is that after you spit one verse you get a break before you spit again. This
break is your best friend. It’s during this break that you’ll be listening and
responding to your friends’ verses. But you’ll also be planning out your next
verse.
Whenever I’m in a cipher, I never like to get
back on the mic until I’ve composed four to six
quality lines in my head. To be most impressive, these lines will be about
things around you, or they’ll be about something your friend said in his verse.
Let’s say your friend is wearing a shirt that has Daffy Duck on it. While he’s
spitting, you can write a line like this:
I know you’ve had a tough year and had some
crappy luck,
But why you gotta
wear a shirt with Daffy Duck?
That’s not an amazing line, but I guarantee you
that in a cipher people will go nuts over that. (Make sure to point at his
shirt as you say it.) I always try to think of two or three of those rhyming
couplets before I spit again. Usually I’ll drop one right away and then use the
other two later in the verse.
Step 10. Listen and practice
Freestyling, like sculpting or shooting three-pointers, takes an insane amount of practice. Practice as much as you can. Freestyle with homeless people, with your friends, and with your family. Listen to pro rappers who freestyle and try to analyze their styles. Rap all the time; practice all night and day. Practice might not make perfect, but it makes real good. Oh, and pick up The Rapper's Handbook for more lessons like this one. With examples from the pros, the book covers battling, wordplay, flow, recording, song-writing and more.