Author: Snacky

Before you start a freestyle, figure out your “talking points” — ideas and phrases you want to repeat to your listeners. You can freestyle about whatever you want, but keep coming back around to the talking points.

We learned this technique from politicians and spokespeople. They decide on the talking points for the ideas they want to promote and reinforce. When they are giving speeches or talking to the media, they keep returning to these points, no matter where the subject of the speech goes, and no matter what derailing or baiting question they are asked by a reporter. If you listen to them, they might not even be making sense, but they definitely communicate their talking points, and their message comes across loud and clear.

This technique is used by a lot of rappers to communicate their stage persona which is important to their whole image. You can use it if you are ever asked to freestyle at an event with a purpose, either a birthday or theme party, or more importantly, an activist event. Remember to learn their talking points before you freestyle, and use them. The promoters and organizers will love you.

Choose a letter of the alphabet and freestyle around that letter. Try to make all your rhymes based on that letter, or even try to get all your words to begin with it. This is a fun practice if you have a dictionary, picking words from one section of the book and joining them together live when you’re on the mic.

Pick a friend, a celebrity, someone you admire, someone you know about, or someone in the room. Freestyle about them, about the great things they have done and what you like about them.

This is basically the opposite of a conventional MC battle. Instead of bringing someone down, you are talking them up. It’s great positive experience to focus on someone’s good qualities, and because of that it’s a great hit at birthdays, weddings, and other events in honour of someone.

In jazz they have standards that every musician knows how to play. DJs know all the hits that people usually request. As a freestyler you will often encounter the same topics to freestyle about over and over again, so you might as well practice them so you really slay it. You’re not writing lyrics, but practice freestyling on these subjects so it’s easier to get your flow when a big moment comes.

These are some suggestions. The birthday one is super important.

It’s your Birthday
Thank you rap
Wedding
Flirt rapping with someone in the room
Great party/Party rockin’
Sexy dancing
Romance/Love is in the air/Toasting a couple
Holidays: Mother’s/Father’s day, Valentine’s day, Christmas, Halloween
Last call at the bar/Closing time
Missing a friend/Fallen hero
Funny people on the street
In the studio

Food

Police trouble

Politics
Sports game

When you are freestyling, move your topic around. There is no topic. No stories or narratives, no straight lines. If you notice yourself starting to tell a story, jump to something else. Go perpendicular, switch to a different idea, say the first other thing that comes into your head using homonyms/homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings: “flower/flour”), alliteration (repeated sounds: “pickled peppers”) and free association, even if just it’s some nonsense.

The point is to flow freely between and through words, sounds and ideas. Learn to do this well and you’ll never get stuck in thoughts and words. You’ll flow from one idea to the next. Some people like to tell stories and narratives when they freestyle. They can be really interesting and give you material, but when you reach the limit of the story, you can lose your flow, and then scramble to get a new idea out. With this practice you can avoid these moments or be ready for them. It doesn’t matter what you thought you were trying to say, what matters is the flow while you reveal new ideas and surprise yourself and your listeners.

When you are freestyling, tell a story. Follow one topic or one narrative. Tangents are good as long as they fit together. Stay on topic until you finish your story or idea.

The point is to actually communicate an idea while you are freestyling without getting distracted. Some people have a hard time doing this. They jump all over the place, or just repeat the same idea over and over. This is about building a more complex idea through story. The story can be anything: what you did last summer, what you did today, a book you read, something from history. Tell the story in a linear way so it has a beginning, a middle and an end, and you will hook an audience that will hang on every word you say.

You don’t have to be a slave to the story. You can use poetic license to embellish the story and more importantly to keep the flow. Also watch out, a narrative can have a slow spot or reach the end too soon, and you’ll get stuck and drop your flow. So make sure you also practice the complementary “Free Freestyle Style” (p??) technique to help you switch over once your narrative is finished.

You can use the theme or element of your story to create a chorus during your freestyle. Come back again to the same chorus again during the story. This will tie your freestyle story together.

While you are freestyling, the other MC comes in on a second mic, cuts you off, and takes over.

This is similar to the exercise “Handoff,” but practices dominant mic confidence and graceful exits. You won’t always be with an MC who is working with you to make a smooth, exciting transition between two mics. When one MC has gone on too long, is saying jerk-like things, or is oblivious that it’s time to pass the mic and bring in a new voice, you may have to cut them off. The audience is probably bored with them anyway. If this happens and you control the mixing board, you can just cut their volume, but the cutoff technique has more style. You must come in on the mic with confidence and power so that the other person realizes their time is done and stops freestyling. It’s a combination of timing, volume, confidence, power and flow. Come in when their flow is at it’s weakest point, at the end of a phrase or during a rambling segment. Your voice needs to be loud enough to be heard and rise over the other person (although it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to shout). You need to come in sounding good, strong and with amazing flow. If you’re confident and strong the other person will realize it and concede to you. This is some pack animal, behavioural psychology stuff.

When you practice this, one person is the ramble-on while the other person cuts in. They should keep freestyling until the cutoff comes in with enough momentum to hold the mic. If you have two people freestyling over each other for more than a few words, either one person is a total jerk, or the other person didn’t come in with enough conviction.

With one mic, take turns freestyling and then passing the mic to the next person. Part of the objective is to learn about coordinating how long the first person will be on the mic and when the other person is ready to take over. This means holding onto the mic long enough that the other person has a chance to get ready for it, but not so long that they get impatient. You will develop style and skill at passing a single mic between two rappers so the pass doesn’t look or sound fumbled, and the lyrical gap between freestylers will be minimal or non-existent. Both people need to be ready and cooperate. Ideally, the end of one freestyle and the beginning of the other will be complementary as well.

You can practice with two or more people and one mic, but it’s also useful to practice with two or more mics. With two mics, the goals are the same, but it’s a little easier. You don’t have to physically pass the mic before the other person can begin, but you still have you pay attention and cooperate.

While you freestyle, have another person take video or photos of you as much as possible. The photographer should use lots of different angles, from far away to right up in your face. Especially right up in your face.

Whether you’re doing something interesting or not, you’re probably on camera. Cameras are everywhere, so learn to get used to them — even use them to your advantage. At first you might feel self-conscious with a camera on you. With practice you’ll soon get comfortable being filmed and it won’t disrupt your flow. Be aware that the photo or video (and you might not know which one it is!) represents an audience, so you are relating to that audience by interacting with the camera.

Have a look at the photos. Do you look uncomfortable and scared? Or do you appear dynamic, confident and larger than life? Practice making yourself look good to the camera while you freestyle. Be aware of how you present to the camera in the way you hold yourself and move while you rap. Sometimes you have to slow down long enough to create a good shot, particularly in low-light conditions. We’re not talking simply posing or mugging for the camera while ignoring your audience. You also have to remember to engage with people and look natural.

Photos of you on the mic might be seen by many people later and could define your performance or create opportunities. It might seem like this isn’t a freestyle skill, but in real world situations your freestyle skills will suffer if you don’t have this important performance practice.

While you freestyle, have the DJ or another MC periodically cut the beat (mute the beat track) while you continue to rap a cappella until the beat comes back.

Keep your time and rhythm with the original beat, so you’re still on time when it comes back. When the beat cuts out, all the audience hears is you, so make it sound tight, punchy, and memorable. If you’re working on some narrative story or other idea, it might be best to drop what you were saying and insert some amazing hype line. When the beat cuts out, a lot of people will mumble something or just trail off. If you’re going to win people over — if they are going to remember one line you said all night — this will be it.

This is a very important skill if you’re freestyling over a DJ at a house party or club. At a party, most of the people listening won’t be able to really hear what you’re saying anyway, but they will when the DJ cuts the beat. Practice visually communicating with the DJ with a look or a nod to create setups like this. Ideally, everything you say is amazing enough to stand alone. If you know the music you can predict when this might happen. In real situations, anything can happen, so be ready for this move anytime. Be flexible with your flow.