Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Making up your first rhymes
• Part 2 of 3: Developing your freestyles
• Part 3 of 3: Developing a vocabulary
• Tips
• Warnings

Freestyle rapping may seem almost impossible at first glance, but with these simple steps you will be ready to start freestyle yourself in no time.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Making up your first rhymes

1. Listen to freestyle rap a lot. Freestyle rap is improvised on the spot and is therefore probably a bit rougher and less "neat" than tracks recorded in a studio. Freestyle is often a lot less predictable and much more gripping. Freestyle brings its own look and by listening a lot to rappers who can freestyle well, you will quickly understand the frequently used tricks.
   • Check out live rap battles or hip-hop freestyle competitions if held nearby. Go there and listen carefully. This can also be a great way to meet and connect with other aspiring freestyle rappers.
   • On YouTube you can find endless videos of freestyle battles from every era. You can find everything there, from Notorious B.I.G. who freestyled on the streets at age 17, to classic Eminem battles and underground rappers freestyling to a new Kanye West track. Watching and listening to many of these videos is a good way of doing research.
2. Start with a beat. On YouTube you can find enough beats and instrumentals of your favorite songs. Play one and get a feel for that beat. If you've already written down a verse, start with it or try writing new rhymes while listening to the beat. Repeat this over and over until you have developed a feel for the rhythm of the song and how your flow can fit in with it. It doesn't matter if you lose the rhythm the first few times.
   • Start with a downbeat. The vast majority of all rap is written in a traditional 4/4 time, also known as the "regular time". This means that each measure has a main accent on the first beat: ONE-two-three-four-ONE-two-three-four. So start on the first beat.
   • With tracks you often have an "empty" piece at the beginning, where the rapper waits to come in. If you don't have access to instrumentals or YouTube, play a song and use the un-rapped piece for practice.
3. Improvise. Once you have developed a feel for the beat and have gone through your rhymes many times, take very small steps towards freestyle. Repeat a line you already wrote down and make up a new, second line that rhymes with the first.
   • It doesn't matter if you say things in the beginning that don't make sense. You try to get a feel for the beat on which you try to rap short pieces you have in mind. After all, nobody listens in.
4. Stop thinking. If you think too much about your next line, you will make mistakes and stumble over words. Practice letting go of one thought after another. The best freestylers are relaxed and comfortable with the beats they work with. If it looks like it's not going to work, don't force it. Listen carefully to the beat and try to write some appropriate rhymes. That's a good way to start. If it doesn't feel right, just try a different beat.
   • Sit in your room, basement, garage or attic. No one needs to hear you practice if you don't want to. By practicing alone for hours on end, you will certainly create a spectacle for your first listeners.
5. Try to keep on rapping all the time. Train yourself to keep going even when you make a mistake. If it happens to you that you stumble over your words once or twice, try to "justify" it quickly by making up a funny line about it. This way you put yourself in front of a shake, but in a good way. Rap is a kind of comedy in that respect: it's all about accurate timing.
   • Experienced freestylers often have backup lines that can be used in an emergency. That means that you can pronounce that line when you have nothing more to say, so that you create a moment to think about a new line, without a pause. The better you get at freestyling, the shorter the backup line you will need. Really good freestylers use "Yo" or "Okay" as a backup line because they don't need more than a second to come up with something. Ultimately, applying backup lines will become automatic.

Part 2 of 3: Developing your freestyles

1. Convert your starterlines into punchlines. The best way to improve the speed of your flow and your freestyle game is to reverse the way you work. If you've always practiced starting with a line you wrote down, the punchline, and then improvising further, try improvising some lines first and then work your way up to the punchline, so that you build up to a climax.
   • It is useful to rhyme with that punchline as much as possible. If you've come up with a good punchline, try to rhyme with it as much as possible. By practicing that way you will have many possibilities when you improvise.
2. Play with words. As a beginner freestyle you often use words of only one or maybe two syllables, because they are easy to rhyme. However, this will soon sound very corny and clumsy when you freestyle in a row like that.
   • Besides pure rhyme you can also rhyme non-pure, which is also called cripple rhymes. Sounds do not match exactly, but it can still sound good if you apply it properly. The English words "Vowel" and "bowl" are an example of cripple rhyme.
   • In assonance and alliteration, vowels and consonants are repeated in a line, respectively. Edgar Allan Poe uses both in his famous poem "The Raven": "the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain". The s sound is repeated three times in "Silken Sad unCertain" (alliteration) and the ur sound is also repeated three times in "uncERtain rustling of each pURple cURtain" (assonance).
3. Use equations. In a comparison you compare two things in an unexpected and creative way. This is a pillar in both poetry and freestyle hip-hop. An example is the line of Raekwon (a member of the rap group Wu-Tang Clan): "I get deep like a baby seal".
   • Brainstorm a lot of different endings of equations so you can suddenly apply them in a freestyle. If you've made up the first part of an equation, make up a lot of things to compare that first part with. Drake can be taken as an example. He often makes comparisons in which he refers to famous athletes: "I ain't lyin" to the kids, like the dentist ain't scary / I'm what Lebron was to St. Vincent-St. Mary ".
4. Be yourself. You can have a hard time talking about your tough childhood if you grew up in a neat, rich family in which you lacked nothing. Rhyme about things that are appropriate for you and be honest. The most important thing (and what will be noticed by other freestylers) is that you substantiate your rap with facts.
   • Repeating the lines or mimicking the style of other rappers can be a great way to learn and practice, but in the world of freestylers it's a taboo. As soon as you feel more comfortable with freestyling, you should stop as soon as possible.
5. Freestyle for some friends. When freestyling on your own is a bit easier for you, you can invite some understanding friends so they can look at you to criticize you. This will help you get used to freestyling in front of other people. In addition, your friends will be able to make suggestions and encourage you.
   • Make it more fun by involving the audience. You can do this by, for example, having someone choose a beat. That way you mimic real freestyle battles, in which you cannot always choose a beat yourself. You can also let a friend choose a topic, an object in the room or a word that you then try to freestyle about. That way you are forced to stay sharp, because it is others who determine which way your freestyle should go.
   • If you have a friend who also likes to freestyle, the two of you can freestyle. One can start freestyling, continue until he loses his flow, after which the other picks it up. As soon as the other person stops, try to start freestyling right away and try to continue the subject and rhyme scheme. If this works out well and you notice that you keep getting better, you might be able to form a rap duo.

Part 3 of 3: Developing a vocabulary

1. Always write everything down. The more raps and rhymes you write down, the more raps and rhymes you will eventually know. Try to write down as many variations of the same rhyming words as possible. These rhyme clusters will come in very handy when you start freestyling, because then you will be able to quickly come up with things based on previously made up rhymes.
   • Try out different exercises. For example, you can choose five random words that you process in a rhyme structure consisting of a few lines.
   • Don't worry if the things you write don't really look like "rap". Just keep writing. Getting into good jotting and writing habits will ensure that you are disciplined with words and with thinking in terms of composition, which is something you need to be able to do very quickly if you want to freestyle well.
2. Read a lot and increase your vocabulary. If you really want to be able to freestyle, it's all about words. Just like a painter uses paint, a rapper uses words. So you will have to familiarize yourself with as many words as possible, so that you know how to apply them at any time. Increasing your vocabulary is a matter of reading a lot. Therefore, read many different types of books, comics, internet articles and magazines.
   • Read biographies of rappers. You catch two birds with one stone when you read about hip-hop, as you simultaneously increase your vocabulary.
3. Look for a rhyming dictionary. You will be very happy to have it. You should see a rhyming dictionary as a creative source of inspiration. It is not "cheating". In fact, it will help you activate your own imagination, so to speak, so that you can come up with good ideas yourself much better than ever before.
   • Online (synonyms) dictionaries can also be very useful. As you learn to use different words, your rhymes will become a lot more interesting.
4. Be active in learning new words. If you're listening to rap music and you hear a word that you don't know what it means, look it up right away and try to remember the word and its definition. The language use in hip hop is difficult for many people to understand, as it uses many regional words, locations and expressions. So it is very useful to search for meanings online. Chief Keef's "Love Sosa" doesn't make much sense when you think it's about baseball player Sammy Sosa.
   • Make a glossary of definitions and post it somewhere in your home that you visit regularly, such as your bedroom, or put it in your phone. Go through the list daily until the words and definitions are really in your head. Expand the list regularly or create completely new lists.

Tips

• It's all about confidence. Be yourself and be sure to rap about things you like and are familiar with in the beginning.
• In the beginning, try to master the smaller, simpler rhymes. Better to have good flow and moderate rhymes than bad flow and good rhymes! This means that you should try to rhyme with words with common sounds and few (maximum three) syllables. Words such as "strive" and "experience", "square" and "betrayal" offer endless possibilities to rhyme. Don't make it too difficult for yourself in the beginning. Complex rhyme structures will come later!
• Practice daily. Do not give up. As long as you practice often and consistently, nothing will get in your way.
• Wherever you are, try to see things differently. This will help you get inspiration for writing lyrics.
• If you can't come up with anything, start with something you randomly read somewhere, WikiHow for example: "WikiHow, shoutout to you, I wasn't good at rapping but now give my mouth a dew. Improvement in vocabulary, poetry and concentration. All that leads me to this improvisation. "
• Use the times when there is nothing to do to practice, such as when you are sitting in the waiting room at the dentist, when you are walking home from school or when you are on the bus. It is helpful to have your phone with you so you can put your raps in it if you find it a little embarrassing to grab a notepad in public.
• Use places where you can think carefully and where you feel comfortable. The shower is perhaps a good example. Play a good beat on which you can try out (in your head) the ideas you come up with.

Warnings

• Rap battles are meant for everyone to enjoy themselves and to diss each other is part of that. Respect other people's space and avoid confrontation.