How To Freestyle Rap
Note: I’d like to point out that at some point or another I have used all of these techniques to up my skills, so I know that they work from personal experience and will help you learn ‘How To Freestyle Rap’
What You Will Learn In this ‘how to freestyle rap’ article:
1) How to massively increase your freestyle rap skills
2) How to massively increase your freestyle rap rhyme abilities
3) How to grow your freestyle rap word vocabulary
4) Secret tricks on how to get better at freestyle rapping punchlines and metaphors
5) How to massively build your confidence so you feel and act untouchable anytime you freestyle
Intro
Here is how the how to freestyle rap article is set up for you.
First, we are going to go over the huge tips and tricks that will show you How To Freestyle Rap and things that are going to build your freestyle rap skill set.
Then we will move into techniques you can use to guarantee you are motivated, ready, and confident when you are out in public freestyling in front of people.
1) Rhyme Zone Reading: Going Through Rhyme Zone Once A Day And Read The Words
Freestyle rapping using a rhyming dictionary
This is specifically for increasing your subconscious rapper rhyming vocabulary which is one of the biggest assets to a great freestyle rapper.
This is something that will take 5 minutes a day and increase your freestyling abilities to incredible levels.
If you are new to freestyling this is going to be the first freestyle tip that you are going to want to start using to get the best results for your freestyles.
This strategy for freestylers will ingrain more and more words into your subconscious rhyming vocabulary bank so when you are freestyling you don’t have to think nearly as hard to find a rhyming word to end a bar.
That in turn helps you spend more of those tiny milliseconds coming up with what is going to be said inside of the bar instead of at the end.
This is so simple but oh so genius. If you really really want to make sure that your brain has every single possible rhyme backed up in your mind to grab at any time, you just need to do this:
1) Ā Choose a word you tend to use very often when you are freestyling.
2) Go to Rhymezone.com
3) Type in a random word or your main rhyme word you use
4) Read every single rhyme out loud on the whole page in order 3 times. That’s it!
Create a routine
Do this every day and you will know every single rhyme word by heart in a matter of a month. Another Smart Rapper move!
Major Note: Make sure that you read the ALMOST RHYMES at the bottom of the Rhymezone.com page. Why? Because this is how you learn to stretch syllables and become an insanely good freestyle rapper.
Read the words out loud while stretching the vowels to make them rhyme. How else can you learn to make words rhyme over time that shouldn’t? You’ll be a professional freestyler rapper in no time by using this method.
Tip: In week 1 I would recommend just reading those rhyme words out loud to random words you use pretty often.
You can take this move to the next level by using the rhyme words to freestyle full out raps. Use the rhyme words at the end of the lines like you would in a real freestyle instead of just reading the words by themselves out loud.
You can even turn on a beat if you would like to help increase your timing and natural flow pattern.
For instance, Don’t just read the above “Art, Bart, cart, carte, chart” instead use each one as the end of a rhyme.
“This is my art, no yellow belly like Bart, super smart, got the heart check the chart” it doesn’t have to be HOT, it’s just learning to compile the lyrics easier and easier to be a better freestyle rapper.
2)Ā Word Generator: How To Freestyle Rap Better Using A Random Word GeneratorĀ
Turn on this baby and start freestyle rapping.Ā You will literally NEVER run out of words again while practicing freestyling because it will create 8 new ones for you to freestyle rhyme every time you press the button.
After you have done this for a few weeks your brain will be rewired and you’ll be able to instantly jump through words in your random freestyles around friends, at school or at parties.
http://creativitygames.net/random-word-generator/randomwords/8
You can make it even harder on yourself by just pressing 4 instead of 8 and having to freestyle about one of those words. Just keep going and going and going and you will be a better rap freestyler in a matter of days.
All you do is press the “8” button and BAM new words appear instantly to freestyle with.
What a Smart Rapper thing to do š
What is happening here is it is bringing up words for you so you don’t have to waste any thinking time trying to find a new word to use in your new lines. It also helps build up your internal vocabulary.
3) The Secret Noun Generator: How To Freestyle Rap Using A Noun Generator
This is an advanced freestyling technique I really didn’t ever plan on sharing with anyone but I want to give the most I can in every article on Smart Rapper so I am going to share this with you.
You can use a noun generator for freestyling instead of just using a random word generator when you want to build up your punchline/metaphor and word association ability.
What do I mean by that?
Well, when you create a punchline or metaphor it is typically built around a noun. A person, place, or a thing, right?
A random word generator may bring up words other than nouns so you won’t be using as much word association to build your punchline abilities up as much.
Let’s take a closer look at what I mean.
You can go to this site to use the random noun generator for freestyling your raps.
http://www.desiquintans.com/articles/noungenerator.php
Click to ten and 10 new ones will appear.
Now when you are freestyling you want to look for word associations with the nouns that are given by the generator.
This is going to start rewiring your brain to create word associations just like you see me doing in my How To Write Punchlines Like A Genius Course.
Simple Freestyle Example
First, let’s go over super simple freestyle tricks with nouns.
This is what I would instantly come up with as lines if I saw the words above.
Ape – Gorilla warfare no ape shit
Circle – All yall squares can’t be in my circle
Cork – Get it poppin like a cork
Guarantee – I’m nice with the lines, you can read it / Like men’s warehouse I guarantee it
House Boat – I weed by the pound smoke/ So I stay floatin at my crib like a houseboat
Judo – Skillset from pluto / Choppin bricks like Judo
Sideburns – Yall broke and gotta hide what ya earns/ but me… my money longer than Elvis Side Burns, etc etc. But you see where I’m going with this. I would have freestyled those lines. Let’s get more advanced to how I would WRITE a bar for a freestyle rap.
Advanced Writing For Freestyles Example
Let’s take a simple noun word and see how we can associate them with other words instantly.
This is how my brain works when I create lines
I see the word “Ape” and I think
Bathing Ape, Monkey, Monkey Business, Monky-ing around, Ape Shit, jungle, Gorilla, bananas, Trees, hanging from trees,
hanging on a tree…. hang in there…. apes arm
Bar:
They told me to ‘quit rappin’, so now I ‘make bombs’/
Cuz ‘shit happens’ butĀ I decided to hangĀ in there like some ‘ape’s arms’/
I thought monkeys hanging from trees which creating hanging in there which means keeping moving forward and pushing towards whatever you set out to do. “Hang in there”
What do monkeys and apes do? They hang off of tree branches, they literally hang in there.
People told me to quit rapping, so I did quit rapping…. and I starting making BOMB lyrics instead. But it wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t hang in there and keep pushing forward.
That all came out of my head just from seeing the word “ape” instantly.
The noun association starts helping you link everything associated with any word and start creating metaphors instantly.
4) Word a Day: Learn 1 new word a day using Merriam Webster as your home page
This freestyle rap strategy is what is going to help you learn 1 new word a day which increases your vocabulary, freestyle word reservoir, and your ostensible intelligence in day to day interactions with people through larger word utilization. š
I set the word of the day as my internet browser’s home page.
Every time I open a new browser on my computer, every single day every single time this site pops up.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/
I recommend you set yours to do the same. It will take you about 30 seconds and you will start becoming a better freestyler and smarter rapper.
This is what you will see every time your browser opens.
Like today’s word… What the fuck is a jackleg? I didn’t know before…. but now I do!
It also gives you examples of the word’s usage which will help you get better at understanding words more and more. Which in turn helps you become a better writer.
You can click the volume looking button to the right of the word and it will say the word for you. You can also see the stressed and unstressed syllable usage to the right of the word which you should really get familiar with if you want to be a great writer using iambs.
That’s something I get into in my How To Find Your Rap Flow Course which is finished but hasn’t released just yet. š
5) Come Prepared To Start A Freestyle Rap Anytime
When you see battle rappers going at it, they are completely prepared. That is NOT AT ALL a freestyle. It is heavily practiced and practiced so that they don’t lose and get embarrassed.
Yes, in some circumstances it is truly a freestyle BUT most of the time if anything it is only a part of it that is freestyled. That is why I want you to know that’s how it works and you need to have lyrics ready to freestyle at any time.
You need to bring the same approach to your freestyling. You need to have at least 8 to 16 bars ready to freestyle at any moment. If you are at a party and people are freestyle rapping, don’t you want to jump in that shit and show you are a sick emcee?
Don’t you want to be the life of the party and impress the f***Ā out of anyone there?
Well having the lyrics already prepared will give you the ultimate confidence to show off with! So BE PREPARED! That is the #SmartRapper thing to do.
Already having these freestyle rap lyrics adding to your confidence also makes you much more confident as you actually START freestyling in front of people.
That is HUGE!Ā
I always had bars backed up, and eventually, I had so many bars backed up I could jump into a battle and have bars ready for….. well shit let me add that to the list.
6) Have Freestyle Bars Ready For Any Occasion
Over my years of battle rapping, I got up to winning 54 battles and never losing a single one. Why? Because no matter who the fuck I randomly battled, I was prepared.
How? Well, this is how… I built note pads in my computer for specific bars to use on specific people.
If someone walked up and battled me that was fat… My brain went into the FAT punchline category and talked about how he probably gets in line twice at lunchtime.
If he was SUPER SKINNY then my brain jumped into the pool of skinny person punchlines and talked about how he looks like Jesus in the desert, hasn’t eaten in 40 days.
I always had lines prepared for clothes too. Especially shoes… It’s easy to eat at someone’s outfit. I always had a habit of literally getting on the floor with my face next to his shoe like I was examining that shit and asking questions about it to the audience and sometimes I would even talk TO THE SHOE which made people go crazy. There is a reason I never lost a battle.
The charisma, hand gestures, energy, and passion of how you deliver a bar is sometimes more important than the bar itself. I’ll write another article on battle rapping sometime.
7) Find Your Freestyle Rap ‘Stall Word’
This is a genius freestyle tip that most people never even consider having in their back pocket.
Find a word to pause on as your “go-to word” to give yourself time to think
You probably already have one of these even if you don’t know it, but you need to find the best one that gives you the most amount of time to think.
A stall or pause word is the word you use IN BETWEEN your bars you are delivering inside of a freestyle.
Some people’s stall word is “Ayo” or whatever they use to prepare going in on a freestyle. It gives you the time to think… and that’s all you need… So make it a long sentence that says something that any battle or freestyle can use and seem cool at the same time
Something like “Ay but maybe I’m too hot with it, yo!” it can be said without thinking about it after enough practice and subconsciously you are preparing another HOT LINE you had backed up to jump into your next start off.
8) If you get stuck… Prepare a handoff bar or bars for leaving the circle as a beast.
Most of the time it’s not just you rapping. It is a circle of your peers and not only do you want to be known as a dope freestyler from DURING the battle but you want people to remember that VERY LAST Bar you that you spit so you leave a lasting impression.
If you are so dope you don’t just rap but you actually hand off a freestyle rap to another rapper…. you look cold as fuck instantly. What do I mean? Well, I mean that you set up your OUTRO bars to hand it off to another rapper. Here are some examples:
“I can spit fire and go on and on and onnnnn/
But now it’s time to hand it off like a baton/
THAT’S YOU!/” *As you point at the next guy who had been studdering to get into the circle but you wouldn’t let spit yet*
I made it burn, so myĀ respect has been earned/
*YOUR RAP NAME* held it firm but now it’s your turn/ *point at the next rapper*
You’d be surprised how cool you look to that next rapper going AND the crowd listening.
9) Record yourself freestyling and see where you usually mess up at
If you want to know how to freestyle rap you need to know where you need the most work to get better right?
Was it the lack of being able to find a rhyme at a certain time?
Well, learn more rhymes for that word using the Rhyme Zone strategy above so it never happens again during your rap freestyle sessions!
Breaking down your freestyle rap issues like that will help you overcome any issues you have and make you a beast fast.
Was it that you ran out of words to say in general and didn’t know what to say next?
Well, you should already have backed up lyrics to use in any freestyle anyways. You want to come in swinging with those memorized bars we mentioned above and you want to have the confidence too.
I’ll mention that more below.
If when you are recording you don’t like your rap voice, you need to see my Rap Voice Trilogy Set to find your best rapper voice fast.
10) Build Your Confidence: Get comfortable freestyle rapping in front of other people
This section is THE most important section for learning how to freestyle rap.
It is not only going to help you get better in your rap career but it is going to help you with:
1) Your networking with other major people and rappers to grow your fan base.
2) Help you get better with women
3) Help you get better with family and friends.
4) Help make everyone believe in you and respect you more.
People see you with how you carry yourself. The saying “Act like a king to be treated like a king” is a HUGE saying and something I truly believe to be something you especially need before you truly have your own confident legs to stand on.
In the meantime, you are building up your confidence subconsciously until it catches up with your own perspective of yourself. This is how you fake it till you make it and believe in yourself when no one else does.
Trust me… I know the pain that comes with being scared and too timid to freestyle rap in front of other people but loving to freestyle when I’m just by myself and around friends.
You need to build your confidence.
Why?
You may not know my story, but let me give you a quick rundown so you understand I have been where you are today. I was in a behavior school and I was literally the only white kid in the school.
I used to get my ass kicked every single day since I was a little fat kid with a big mouth. Getting beat up made me scared to do anything at all. But when I saw kids battling, I was like “Wow, You can talk shit to each other and get away with it?” I was all for it lol.
I started rapping to stop getting beat up and that kind of pressure forced me to get good and forced me to come outside of my comfort zone. I had to start jumping into the middle of battles in a place where I wasn’t even wanted at all. But when I jumped in and it was like “Whoah….” they started respecting me.
The Psychology OF You
You have to get over your fears and boundaries and push yourself. No one is born scared of public opinion and being outgoing. Those are all traits we learn in our childhood.
That’s why there is the big confident jock kid and there is the timid nerd kid.
It is about how the person was raised and what environment they come from. That is not in any way MY OPINION, that is 100% PURE FACT.
You need to realize and understand that any fear you have of freestyling in public and speaking in front of people… Is something that YOU have built inside yourself in YOUR childhood from the experiences you went through.
For that reason, you need to understand that you can completely turn all of these characteristics around and become a better speaker and more confident freestyler by just getting outside of your comfort zone.
Here are some things that I actually did and still do to make sure that I have no problem speaking in front of other people and I am always confident. Listen closely and apply these:
How To Build Your Confidence
1) Rap and talk to yourself in the mirror every day.
Sure at first you’ll feel stupid. GOOD! You are uncomfortable… you want to break passed that! I also read to myself out loud knowing people can hear me talking because it makes me uncomfortable, but I got passed that.
2) DM 3 Random Hot GirlsĀ on Instagram just to do it.
Who gives a f*** if they respond or how they respond. Talking to girls is something most guys are petrified of doing. Doing it will show you that there is nothing wrong with approaching a girl ONLINE or in person. Over time you learn what gets their attention and what doesn’t.
I inbox ANY GIRL that is cute. I love establishing relationships with people either way. If she responds cool, if not, who cares. I’ll live lol.
Get out of your comfort zone!!! This stuff ALL ADDS UP to get you out of your comfort zone and into a confident zone. Trust me.
Just to show that I do it, here are screenshots of me randomly inboxing a girl today and getting her number within a minute.
It’s not to brag but to show you it wouldn’t happen if I didn’t initiate the conversation. Nothing happens in life if you don’t take action!!!
3) Purposefully make eye contact with every single person you come across
Eye contact is the big dog way to gain confidence fast. Don’t ever break eye contact with someone, but also don’t mean mug someone. Just keep eye contact as long as you can.
With males AND females never break eye contact, let them break it first. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how cool you feel after applying contact to your life.
4) Anytime you have the ability to do something you KNOW would make you uncomfortable… DO IT!
Eventually, you instill a thought process that these things you THINK will make you uncomfortable really aren’t even a big deal.
Suddenly the pressure of all of this stupid s*** fades away and you do everything with confidence.
For instance, I go to bars and clubs ALONE, no friends or anyone with me.
Why? Well because I can’t f*****g stand in the corner and just chat with myself… I have to go and mingle with people. It forces me out of my comfort zone and builds my socializing skills.
This is a bit extreme at first, I know, it took me a long time to get to this point.
You don’t NEED to do this but I am giving you an example of things I do that are uncomfortable so that you can use them to become more confident and outgoing.
These social skills are going to help you get more rap collaborations, extend your network, meet girls, be the cool guy, and much more.
I literally do this kind of stuff to expand my mind and grow as a person.
Here is a true story of my 100s I could tell.
True Story
I went to a bar I have never been to before, I sat in the corner by myself for about 15 minutes and scanned the entire bar watching who went to what table from the dance floor… then I made my move and sat down next to 3 cute girls saying:
“Can I join you? All of you look like you are the fun people making things happen in here haha.”
Then they say “Sure! Did You come by yourself?”
Because no one goes out alone.
I said “Yea but now we are all best friends forever” in a joking voice.
And BAM, Kiarra, Kate, and Jennifer were now my buddies for the night as well as the 2 Kyles and the 1 Jeff that was part of their group.
I now made 6 new new friends and increased my social interaction skills. Imagine if this bar was a hip hop event and I just made friends with 6 new rappers.
Have you ever made 6 new friends and gotten 6 numbers in 1 night that you still keep in contact with? I have, numerous times.
I’m just giving you real-life examples of ways you can build yourself! Break through your boundaries!
5) Practice your body languageĀ
Stand up straight, chin up… You will be AMAAAAAZED at what fixing your body language will do for you… I mean… I can’t even explain it in words.
What most people don’t realize is that their body language is subconsciously read by every other human on this planet as soon as they see you. They don’t even think about it! The human brain automatically categorizes someone using the reptilian brain to tell us whether someone is a friend or foe and if they pose a threat.
Then we make judgments based on our biases and past experiences, summing up the person we see based on their style of dress, hair cut, overall image, and of course body language.
So the better your posture and confidence are, the more confidently you are seen, so subconsciously once you fix your body language you KNOW others see you as confident. Once you are held to a standard, you abide by that standard to show other people they are right. It’s all psychology my villain.
Physiology
You standing up straight affects what is called Physiology. Your posture actually tells your brain the current way you are feeling.
This is why if you start smiling really big right now, your brain will instantly feel happy. But if you frown or slump your shoulders your brain will feel depressed and sad.
Carrying yourself like a king will make you feel and act like a king. Especially when you really get good at it.
If you don’t believe me, Google it! I’ve read 100+ books and 30+ of them are self-development books š
You may be asking “What the fuck does any of that have to do with rap?”
Well…. Ā it actually has everything to do with rap. Being a freestyle rapper and or battle rapper is actually mostly built on confidence.
If you don’t have confidence….. It will show in your delivery of your lyrics and body language.
Don’t Forget
Don’t forget I have an entire course on how to write Lyrics, Punchlines, and multis where I go through and show you how to write verses from scratch to come up with insane wordplay and change normal verses into professional verses.
You can check that out here, but warning, it’s not cheap and it’s not for amateurs. It is for serious rappers who want to be amazing rappers fast.Ā
https://smartrapper.com/writelyrics
(W)Rapping Up
Now you have all of the keys and tricks on how to freestyle rap.
These things will put you ahead of all the other freestyle rappers you know that don’t have a strategy or plan. Most rappers just rap and think that is all there is too it. Well that’s not even close to the truth.
The honest truth is that it takes work and dedication.
If it was easy everyone would be absolutely amazing at rapping. Yet you’ll notice only 1 out of 10,000 rappers actually ‘MAKE IT’ anywhere and only about 1 of 100,000 make it anywhere near the level they want to make it too.
SmartRapper.com is here to help you make it as far as you can by keeping you smart.
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I wish you the best of luck my friend!