How to Rap & Freestyle

You have heard the greatest freestyle ever and you thought I would love to do that. Are you training to be the next big thing well start now? Here are some points to help you become a better freestyler but ultimately a better rapper.

Rhyme
Not every line in your ridiculous freestyle rap has to rhyme, but most of them probably will. Words that rhyme form the foundation of 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 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.

Rap over beats, rap over anything.
Flow over instrumentals or pop in one of your favorite hip-hop cd's and drown out the 'real' rappers. Rap over classical music, jazz, rock, techno. Rap in the shower, on the bus, before you go to school, during your lunch break, and after dates. Freestyle rap while you're out on a jog, rocking out your iPod. Yeah, people will think you're crazy, but they won't think you're crazy when you go Platinum!

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.

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. Take Talib Kweli's lines:

"We're like shot clocks, interstate cops and blood clots,
my point is... your flow gets stopped."

Metaphors and similes are really the backbone of an advanced rapper. He'll spit more comparisons than a door-to-door salesman to sink the competition like a leaky submarine. Learn how to use metaphors correctly, and your rhymes will not only be funnier and smarter, but they'll sound better too. Take Kanye's line:

"Ooh, girl, your breath is harsh,
cover your mouth up like you've got SARS."

Reference current events.
See what Kanye did in that line above? He snuck in the cultural reference.

Other than amazing in-rhyming and dope metaphors, the most impressive thing a freestyle rapper can do is make timely references to culture and current events. 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 Oprah 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,
smaller than Oprah Winfrey 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.

The sooner you can reference it, the better.

Pass the mic like it's contagious.
Rap in ciphers - groups of two or more rappers playing off of reach other, trading verses. This is a great way to improve and it's hell of fun. One of your friends can beat box, you can throw a beat on the stereo, 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 of others 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 of topics in creative ways. Expand / reference their lines. When my friends and I cipher, we like to kick it about random stuff that we all know about, like our personal lives.

Me:
Derek's life is tough, his job is rough,
plus Suparna took all his dopest stuff,
for her apartment in NYC,
'cause that's where she be,
holding down a job at a publishing company.

Derek:
Yeah, my life is tough, but not that hard,
'cause I spend all my nights watching Sponge Bob,
Blake you the one with the job that sucks,
asking people if they want more pepper on their halibut.

Or take this example from Eminem's battle with Lotto from 8-Mile. Lotto starts off references the old 50's TV show, Leave it to Beaver. Eminem picks it up and spits it right back, references all the characters from the show.

Lotto:
Screw 'Lotto,' call me your leader
I feel bad I gotta murder that dude from "Leave It To Beaver"

Eminem:
Ward, I think you were a little hard on the Beaver
So was Eddie Haskell, Wally, and Ms. Cleaver

Listen to great hip hop and learn.
The best rappers know how to freestyle rap. Listen to your favorites and copy (not permanently) their styles to see how they do it. Check out our best freestyles page (coming soon) for Common, Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Mos Def and others, freestyling.

Listen and learn.

Practice.
That's all there is to it. You've got the learn how to freestyle battle rap tips. Now its time to take it to the streets. Rap all the time, practice all night and day. Practice might not make perfect, but it makes damn good! Good luck and godspeed.

Never stop is the key. Not matter how mad it sounds you can pull it off if its with confidence. You have to get over your fear to mess up. It helps you get better by making mistakes. On the way home look at things around you to freestyle about and just have fun. I cheat a little always have a few punch lines that will get you out off sticky jams. I would write them down on a pad everytime you create one and remember them just in case.