Rap 101 Session 1- Free Flows

[SacredVerse]

Aight, I've noticed on the board alot of cats have trouble with they flow, they got potent ideas but they come across weak because of lack of what I call flowetry. I also noticed a post asking how to rap on a track without using multiz. My advice: Don't.

The key to getting ya flow right is having a vast pool of knowledge to draw from. While you end up switching up topics, it allows you to switch off a dying line and start from fresh. To do this, I cannot stress enough the following lesson: Absorb everything everyday. I read the daily paper, I read vast genres of books, from mystery to fantasy. I listen to all types of music, regardless of taste (though I must admit my girlfriend helps with this) and I look around at everything about me. If you have time and your writing a drop you really want to come across impressive, use a thesaurus. Swapping words will force you to expand ya rhyme choices and will ultimately make you a better artist.

Now that you know how, its time to put it into action. This is a trick I learned from Pac (not personally), but I give credit where its due. Whenever you got free time, freestyle. Just go on and on, don't stop, even if it sounds like jibberish don't let ya rhyme die until you can't go on no more. I mean even if you start repeatin an adlib, let it go and flow over it, try to recapture it and fix it right. Try and incorporate things about you. For example, I was chillin wit my peeps last night, enjoying my 21st, and they asked me to bust a flow. So Dub starts beatboxin, I catch a little stagefright, take a swill of JD and start rippin him a new one. I started at his faggot ass Soulja Shades and left off wit his mismatched strings in his janked ass chucks. I kept it going for about 3 minutes straight, stuttered a few and flipped it to sound like I was mocking him. In all actuality it was a weak verse, but when you flow right, to a crowd it don't matter.

Flow is an important part of rap, its what differentiates rappers from poets. Look at 50, his verses are basic as fuck, but he get's his checks cuz he knows how to rap and wrap them, prepare em for the masses.

[Lawgix]

This is a really good lesson. I can't stress enough about people that have trouble with flow. Your right, when ever you feel like u can't flow or u wanna learn how to flow but nobody will teach u... put a beat on... n just freestyle man... listen to the rhythm of the beat. Like, when you bob your head to the beat thats u bobbin to the bass, drums, and just the over all rhythm of the beat. Thats how i elevated... i used to suck at freestylin but now i'm "okay". But honestly... its not about freestylin. If your actually wanting to make it in the game, freestyling won't get u there. U gotta write. Even with writing, its similar to freestyling just only with writtens u can erase a line and add onto it to make it sound good. Freestlyin is just fun to do when ur with ur boys n kickin it n wantin to fuck around. But like Sacred said, when you freestyle it doesn't matter if u fuck up or how many times u fuck up, just keep goin. Even if u gotta re-use the same line that u just spit just make it sound tight. But freestylin a verse will help u gain flow so u can spit normally on a track if u ever record.

[MOEstradamus]

ive heard almost this whole thing before execpt your last thing about absorb everything around you that is a great idea man that will help me alot and ill start doin it thanks for da help

[SacredVerse]

No problem, I'm trying to find a way to put into words on how to multi efficiently, so it don't sound forced, but it's hard to write instructions on how to rap.

[-MenaCe-]

Just gotta make everything run smooth and fierce at the same time.

[BennyBones]

my fault but i gotta put just one lil in put on this aight?>>>>>>>>>>>ok u gotta have confedence in ya flow also u cant get discurege from other rappers or battlers cause then ull only hear them and not urself and thats a big key_I CALL IT YOUR CHI a lot of people have it but dont know how to use it< trust me its real

[-MenaCe-]

LMAO!

Yea bones tell em!

[Lawgix]

LMAO!

Yea bones tell em!

haha menace we have some ill ass Chi!!!!

[SacredVerse]

First off, Lawgix, the fact about freestyling was not to get drops, its to expand your comfort zone, increase confidence, and elevate wordplay. When you sit down and write, you will subconsciously look back at your earlier lines and draw from them, limiting the effectiveness of your memory by presenting trails that take away from the free spirited nature of rapping. Meaning, if you sit down and your end rhymes are Hammer/Slammer, you are more likely to use weaker lines that rhyme thinking that more Enders of the same rhyme will increase the effectiveness of your verse. This, consequently, could make you put off other ideas and have them degrade by the time you get back to it. Basically, the free-styling is to uncondition yourself from the textcee manner of writing and work on the overall base of rap.

Bones, I agree with you completely and cant believe I didn't mention the confidence, but that may be because I am horrible at stage fright. I have amassed a 13-2 freestyle record amongst my peers, my losses being due to stage fright. I personally have to smoke or drink to calm my nerves, or be smoking a menthol when I spit (the fag jokes ensue every time, btw) or I stutter, start concentrating on stupid shit or missing obvious disses. I have a homey who spits the shittiest lines ever but has got mad swag, and thus keeps up with my record (9-1) despite hit mainstream approach to battling.

[BennyBones]

tru ive had it before too but then i came to the mind setting of fuck it because the only person then that really has ya back is u.... im not a online textbattler or even an on stage battler but i do it for fun because at the same time ur testing ur skills and the way ur mind clicks...

[Çhåiñ$âw]

Sacred. You, my friend, explained this concept brilliantly. I don't think I have anything to add at the moment. Everybody who hasn't peeped SV's words of wisdom above, stop sleeping. Simple.


-$aw

[Riggz]

New comers to flowing may try to make their verses consistent with syllable counts, but it’s not something to live or die by. Think in terms of music – in 4/4 you will probably have 8 counts of music, two measures, for each line of the verse. So you could have 8 syllables in a line, maybe a 9th or 10th before the first beat.
In terms of music – 8 beats to a line. Count them off. Listen to them and sing or speak in rhythm over them. That’ll get you where you need to go.
After which you can move on to counting the beat and accents… that’s moving into the multi phase.

--take it or leave it, just advise from Riggz--
:construction3

[- Mutual -]

good shit riggz

[Deciple]

This is good advice from all you.. illest just one big happy family helping fellow mc's out haha

[FlipSide]

Whenever you got free time, freestyle. Just go on and on, don't stop, even if it sounds like jibberish don't let ya rhyme die until you can't go on no more. I mean even if you start repeatin an adlib, let it go and flow over it, try to recapture it and fix it right. Try and incorporate things about you. For example, I was chillin wit my peeps last night, enjoying my 21st, and they asked me to bust a flow. So Dub starts beatboxin, I catch a little stagefright, take a swill of JD and start rippin him a new one. I started at his faggot ass Soulja Shades and left off wit his mismatched strings in his janked ass chucks. I kept it going for about 3 minutes straight, stuttered a few and flipped it to sound like I was mocking him. In all actuality it was a weak verse, but when you flow right, to a crowd it don't matter.

Thats true.... but when i freestyled back in the day .. since i had so much written... i just allowed my self to blackout... And when i do..counting syllables and the other shit goes out the window... I guess since i had a wide vocab and a shit load of metas i just let it come naturally... we used to practive by freestyling about topicsa or object switching it by a fellow peer at will to keep your mind sharp... like water... a couple lines later... light pole...ect ect... i always found that the best way to practice my free... cuz when i wrote i used it for songs but u would hear some lines i wrote even if a long time ago find they way in if it was on topic... But for real... to not use multies u got to degrade ur fundamental skills...which does not make sence... if u write i mean... i have not written in 7 yrs so i suck now..but when i did.. and then made my audio my rhyme structure was never the same.. completely diff if u write to write or write to make a song... i might be full of shit idk but thats my view.. and when i was on i was nasty so it should count for something