[Flocabulary] Rapper's Handbook - Part 1A

Freestyle rapping (or freestyling or freeing) is improvising rap lyrics in real time. It’s spitting lyrics off the top of your head. While some frontin’ pseudo-freestylers actually just rap lyrics they wrote down and memorized, true freestylers make it up as they go. Not every good freestyler drops a good album, but in general your freestyle skills are directly related to your overall rap skills. So when you start out rapping, start out freeing. Soon you’ll be running ciphers like track meets.

The Official Flocabulary 10-Pronged Technique for Learning to Freestyle

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 2nd 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

Step 2. Keep Flowing
You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to sound stupid. Make your first freestyle rap verses your stupidest verses just to get them out of the way. Keep flowing. Can’t think of a rhyme? Keep flowing! Stutter over words? Keep flowing. It’s inevitable that at some point some of your lines won’t rhyme, won’t make sense, or that you will inadvertently diss yourself (I knew one guy who accidentally dissed himself all the time when we were freestyling), just keep flowing. If you make a mistake, do your best to incorporate your mistake into your next lines like this:

I drive you bananas, apples and oranges,
ah.... damn, nothing rhymes with oranges,
to make it rhyme, I squeeze it into orange juice,
flow’s tighter than small undies... yours are mad loose

Another technique to use when you find yourself in a bind is to whip out a quick filler. Fillers are just little phrases that you can insert occasionally to give you more time to think of a dope line. Every emcee has his own fillers. For example, Eyedea says “I grab the microphone.” Jin often says, “I’m (nasty) when I’m freeing.” I usually say, “you know what I’m sayin’?” Try to come up with a few fillers that you feel comfortable using. They’ll bail you out of some awkward pauses. As you get better, try not to rely too heavily on your fillers.

Step 3. Rhyme in your mind ahead of time
Here’s the biggest trick to freestyle rapping: as soon as you know what word you’re going to end line 1 with, your mind should start racing to find out a word you can use at the end of line 2. Let’s say your first line is, “I’m exhausted from doing summer reading.” As soon as you realize that you’re going to end the line with “reading”, you should immediately think of something that rhymes, and might possibly be related:
meaning, weeding, beading, ceiling, teething
Pick one and then try to carve the second line to lead toward that word. Let’s say you pick “weeding”, your next line might be:
I’m exhausted from doing summer reading, breaking my back digging holes, painting and weeding
If you pick “meaning,” you might say:
I’m exhausted from doing summer reading, my eyes skim the page but always miss the meaning
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 imbedded in your head, and you’re more likely to be able to pull these rhymes off the top of your head in a freestyle.
With that said, you should never spit a long pre-written verse at a cipher, but you can certainly use rhyming words and shorter phrases that you worked out before hand. When Eminem rhymes “Ewoks, treetops, and Reeboks” in a freestyle, you better believe he’s thought of those rhymes before. He’s still freeing, but he’s using rhyme words he’d already worked out.
Sitting down and writing everyday 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 canny.
When you’re writing these “in case of emergency” lines, make them strong and interesting, but not too ridiculously amazing. Don’t do this:

I’m too good for school I can’t sit in a chair, (free)
They pulling my leg, like they pulling my hair, (free)
Hit or miss, call it quits, rippin’ hits a little bit too fast to figure it, (written)
But I’m sippin’ it, too ridiculous the way I’m flippin’ it,(written)
That’s just the way that the rap goes, (free)
Appealing to your eyeballs and your nose (free)

You don’t want you’re “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 its 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,
I use ghetto Dove soap, also known as pigeon

Or at a battle competition, this is crucial. You’ve got to spit things specific about your opponent. These are the hardest-hitting punches. Take Eminem’s freestyle (not really a freestyle - because it was pre-written to sound like a freestyle) on 8-mile. He’s battling a guy named Lotto who’s wearing a tight, white tank top:

Lookin’ like a cyclone hit you,
Tank top screamin’,
‘Lotto, I don’t fit you!

If you’re rapping while driving around in your car, rap about how you feel or things you see.

I’m hungry driving in this old Volvo,
I think I’ll stop by Olive Garden and drink some olive oil