Mic Twister

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.