learn to freestyle

Acquire an actual metronome, download a metronome app, use a simple beat, or even just have a friend slowly, consistently, clap for you. Start by freestyling over the metronome with one syllable per beat. The object is to keep it simple and stay on the beat. As you progress, you can speed up a little, and eventually try doubles (two syllables per beat) and triplets (three syllables per beat). Then you can start to play with it. Try speaking on the offbeat (between the beats) but be consistent. Pay attention to the rhythm, not your own voice. If it starts to get boring, that’s good! You’re training your subconscious to just listen and develop an innate sense of rhythm. This is how drummers and other musicians practice their sense of tempo and learn to keep time.

Some people have a stronger innate sense of rhythm than others. They’ll really need this practice, but everyone can benefit from it. Some people are paying so much attention to their voice and what they are trying to say that it seems like they aren’t listening to the beat at all. This exercise can improve their flow dramatically.

While you are freestyling, slowly increase the volume of your voice until you are shouting into the mic. Then slowly decrease your voice until you are barely whispering. Take your time to make the change from normal to loud to quiet and back again, and repeat it a few times. To avoid blowing out your speakers, your ears or your neighbours, you will have to increase the distance between the microphone and your mouth as you begin to get louder or decrease the distance as you become quieter. This is part of good microphone technique.

Some people have louder or quieter voices than others, this is normal. What’s important is to know how loud your voice is in comparison to others, and adjust your voice and microphone accordingly. The whole crew should come through at a similar volume. It’s also important to understand that you can change your volume as you freestyle. Different volumes have different character, both in how you use your voice at a particular volume, and in how it is heard. Some people surprise themselves when they find out they really excel at different volume levels.

Get your crew to show you, hand you, or point to objects in the room. As the people present items to you, freestyle about them. If you run out of things you can point to pictures on a screen or words in a book. Point at a new item every few lines.

This is a great way to show people you are actually freestyling (sometimes you’re so good people don’t believe it’s actually freestyle) and to impress people with your skills. What they don’t realize is that they are making it possible!

Punchline: If you really want to win a crowd, you have to be clever. Don’t just say the name of the item and make a rhyme, like “a knife, a knife, hey, don’t take my life.” Build up a lyrical story about the object, and drop the name like a punchline: “People on my street are out making strife; Walking ’round with a frown or a fist or a knife”. Watch notable freestyle rapper Supernat use this technique. He builds his description, so much that the audience might think he missed the point of the exercise. Then he finally names the object, and pow! Big crowdpleaser.

When you get the mic, say your name, where you are from, and what you’re all about. Introduce yourself to your crew or your audience. When you’re done introducing yourself, try introducing someone else. Keep it positive — it’s a friendly introduction, not a battle!

This is a good technique to get you started when you don’t have much to say. Everybody is good at talking about themselves. People might want to know a bit about you too. Some MCs only introduce themselves, over and over. It’s a good practice to have in your repertoire, but we hope you’ll try out some new ideas too!

With a group of freestylers, go around the circle taking turns freestyling one or two rhymes. Keep it moving to the next voice. You can say your own thing, or reply to or continue on from a previous freestyler — it’s up to you. Don’t worry about being awesome, you’re just getting warmed up, and the mic is coming back around soon.

This is our basic warm-up exercise. The point is to get comfortable with the mic and the group, get a sense of everyone’s styles, and most importantly, have fun. If you’ve got two mics, make sure not to forget to pass your mic on after the new MC takes over. With two mics and three or more people, the mic cords will wrap around each other as the mics go around. That’s why we call it twister.

Try counting from one to 10 on the mic. Repeat.

Or try being like a computer, and just stick to ones and zeros, in any sequence you like. We call this variation “Binary” it can go something like this: 01001101 01000011. . .

If you’re having trouble saying anything on the mic this is something easy to get started on. You can play with how you say the numbers around the beat. Then mix up the sequence. Eventually as you get bored of the numbers, you can start adding words and phrases and rhymes. Before you know it: freestyle!

Make sure you have a partner and two mics. One person says a few simple things on the mic, and the second person repeats everything they say.

This is a great exercise if you’re having trouble getting someone to participate because they are shy or can’t think of anything to say. Shy folks won’t feel like they are saying something stupid if you say it first. Keep it simple and don’t go too fast. Pretty soon instead of just repeating, your partner will start embellishing what you’ve said, replying to you and adding their own lines. Freestyle!

Saying questions and statements are good, because it’s easy for them to forget you’re playing a repeating game and actually answer the question or personalize the statement.

When you get passed the mic, only say your name — preferably your MC name!

If you don’t have one, just make one up together with your crew and have fun with it.

This is great for anyone having a lot of trouble saying anything on the mic or who just wants to pass the mic on. Simply saying your name is easy and everyone can do it, so it allows everyone to contribute. It also lets you get a little more comfortable on the mic until you’re ready to move up to the next level.

Using an MC name also helps you create a new persona and style to freestyle with. (see “Choosing Your MC Name” p??)

Your freestyle skills and style can change dramatically when you are under the influence. Under the influence of what? Who you are with, where you are, what city you are in, the place you are standing, if you’re standing or sitting down, what you are wearing, how you feel, what different substances are effecting you, how comfortable you are, who is listening, who you think is listening, who you are trying to impress, what kind of beats or music you are freestyling over, what style you are using, what you’ve been reading or watching that day, whether you are being recorded, photographed or on video. Some people are good under some influences, and great under others.

It’s important to practice your skills under all sorts of influences — particularly if you frequently freestyle under the same influences again and again. You should diversify the influences under which you have practised and are familiar with, because you never know when you might be called upon to freestyle. Improving your skills in one area will help you and inspire you in others. Putting yourself outside your comfort zone will expand your skills, and no matter what the situation or condition, you will always be ready to freestyle!

Places: your bedroom, your shower, your car or bike, a studio, a club, a house party, a stage, a street, a hallway, a park, a forest, a cold place, a hot place.

Audience: An audience that is pumped! An audience that doesn’t care. An audience that’s bored. An audience that loves you. An audience that doesn’t like you. People that know you, people that don’t. A small group, a large group, a single stranger, someone you care about. A house party, a busy street. Young kids, your own age group, and your elders.

Substances and mental states: Straightedge sober. Coffee, tea, alcohol, cannabis, other substances. Hungry, well-fed, tired, awake. Physically comfortable or uncomfortable. Nervous or relaxed.

Music: hip-hop, Top 40, jazz, lounge music, Afrobeat, dancehall reggae, folk, classical, opera, rock, house, breakbeats, dubstep, trance, meditation records, talk radio, white noise. Instrumentals and songs with lyrics.

This is a book about improving your rap freestyle skills.

Everyone can freestyle. When you have a conversation with your friends or family, or even when you talk to yourself: you’re freestyling. You don’t have a script, you don’t have anything written down. You’re telling your stories, sharing ideas and expressing yourself. This is when some of your best material comes pouring out: when you are comfortable, when you feel natural. What we’re going to do here is build up your confidence when other people are listening to you; when you’re on the spot; when you’re amplified or being recorded; when you’re actually being heard. As you get better at freestyle, your new skills will help you express yourself to friends, family and strangers — as well as in job interviews, at work and giving speeches. You will be better at thinking in the moment, sharing your ideas, projecting your voice, and  you’ll tell your story with more confidence.

Freestyling in particular develops these skills by channeling your expression using a framework of beats, rhythm and rhyme. It’s dynamic improvisational poetry. When we freestyle, it feels like we open up a gateway into our subconscious. We don’t have time to think it over so there’s no self-imposed filter. New rhythms and tempos catalyze new ways of communicating. Sometimes what comes out is embarrassing, sometimes it’s scary or sad or hilarious, and if you’re lucky, sometimes it’s brilliant. We also might get to know about what’s lurking under the surface of our consciousness and how to channel it better. We keep things positive, supportive and peaceful. If oppressive viewpoints emerge, we take a moment to assess and respond to any racism, sexism or other negative mentalities that could derail the safe space we are working to provide.

We can’t teach you how to be a rap superstar, make records, make money, or get famous. That’s not a path we know or follow. We hope this book will help you to improve your freestyle, and you will be able to bring those skills to improve any game you play, whether it’s performing on stage, busking on the streets, building community, public speaking, business meetings, peer counselling, interpersonal communications — whatever. You will be better at getting your thoughts flowing freely, and be able to share them in diverse contexts. What you do with those new skills is up to you.

Acknowledgement

Consider: Freestyling is a crucial part of hip-hop culture. We respectfully acknowledge all the people who founded, created and built it. We are indebted to those visionaries and those who continue to steward the hip-hop culture we love. This book doesn’t hope to teach you about hip-hop. We are not hip-hop authorities and we do not claim to have invented anything regarding freestyling. We produced this book in order to give something back and share the insights we have had while collaborating with hundreds of MCs during our weekly drop-in sessions over the years.

You can read more in the last section, “Taking it to the Next Level”. If you really want to learn about hip-hop, there’s music to listen to, great books to read, documentaries to watch, people to meet and lives to live that can teach you. This is just the beginning.

How to use this book

This book is divided into three main sections. We’d like it if you read the whole book, but we also encourage a non-linear approach, so feel free to jump around to any page you like at any time.

In this introduction you’ll read about what the Freestyle Focus Group is all about, and how we approach freestyle. If you are interested in starting you own freestyle crew and hosting your own freestyle sessions, the second section is for you. If you already have a crew and just want to get going, jump ahead to the section on freestyle exercises for you and your crew. They’ll keep you busy and challenge you to improve your skills during freestyle sessions. Finally, after a great freestyle session, you’ll want to deepen your understanding with further reading to inspire your practice and take it to the next level.

You can try our practice exercises by yourself, but it’s a lot more fun and more powerful to get a group of people to practice together. We see freestyle as a social activity. So find a space, invite some friends, and try out some freestyle exercises together.

If you’ve never freestyle rapped before, we hope this book gives you the confidence to get started. If you’re already an experienced freestyler, we think this book will help you share your creative talent with more people. It can even improve and diversify your skills.

The content in this book represents the ideas, methods and practice that we use every week in our drop-in freestyle rap workshop, and we’ve used it to introduce a lot of people to freestyle and share their thoughts and ideas in a positive environment. Of course, it’s not the only way to do it, but it works for us. We encourage you to try out our ideas, but don’t be afraid to experiment and try out your own.

Ready? Let’s get started.