How I teach freestyle rap
I teach groups of beginners how to freestyle rap. The lessons can be from 20 to 60 minutes. It's good at parties, festivals and other group events.
You might wonder how one does this.
Well... wonder no more.
At the start it's worth taking 2 minutes to teach everyone to beatbox. The most accessible is "boots-and-cats". One a lot of people find fun is "born to be clever too clever to be too clever". To teach this keep looping over the phrase in rhythm together, moving through these stages as everyone gets it:
- All say the phrase
- Emphasise the "b"s and the "c"s - the beatbox noises
- Take out the words, leaving just the beatbox noises
And you have a beat!
The #1 principle: rap is about confidence as much as rhyming. Glorious confidence.
Confidence works for you in several ways:
- If you say a rhyme which half works, or you don't rhyme at all but bring all the swagger of your favourite hip hop legend, people are much more likely to accept it. Rather than judging you, they think "oh, I wouldn't have expected that to work but it did"
- People love confident energy. When they listen to hip hop much of time that's what they want, not just clever rhymes
- You're less likely to flop or fear messing up. Messing up bars is preferable to choking
- It's the funnest!
The first exercise is walking about, starting at 1/10 confidence. I prompt folks to feel what 1/10 confidence is like, how they move, how they hold themselves, how they interact with others.
Then we slowly ramp it up to 3/10, 5/10, 8/10, 10/10, and finally 100/10. In a cramped room people can get entertainingly territorial in the latter stages.
The mathematically competent always struggle with the 100/10, bless them.
Having found their 100/10 selves, everyone must channel them for the rest of the session.
We then say noises in a tune. "Bla bla bla blahh bla bla blahh blahh blaahghhhg, bla bla bla blahh bla bla blahh blahh blaahghhhg". Poetry like that.
The noise or sound isn't important. Keep the confidence and the tune. Hype up each other - you've all got confidence to spare and share after all! If it goes well everyone will be dancing around to the rudimentary tunes.
We each take a few turns doing that. Then more, but this time everyone has to jump into the middle to do their bit. They have to self-nominate, to back themselves. An atmosphere of raw hype gets even the timid quite into this, though some people might still need a little nudge.
At this point someone can start beatboxing if you taught that.
We continue with the self-nomination and the tune, and this time they have to say words. They cannot under any condition rhyme. They should be in tune, on the beat and delivered with 100/10 confidence.
Often this will sound good even though we have no rhyme.
Once this is all going well, we introduce the rhymes. Present rhyming as an option, that we're continuing the round, however now rhyming is permitted but not mandatory.
Some people won't be sure, and some will be hyped enough to go for it.
I tell people they can rap about anything. It can be about nothing at all. I find it helps to rap about something you feel strongly emotional about, whether good or bad. This is only an option as some won't feel comfortable, while for others it can unlock killer bars.
Continue the rounds. Often having a few people try encourages others to have a go. Keep hyping and reinforcing people for trying, however the rhymes go. Keep the energy amazing.
For anyone who hasn't had a go at rhymes, give them a nudge to try.
Try dissing someone in the group who can take it, see if you can start a beef. Push people into the circle. Have fun with it.
Keep rapping and jamming until you feel the energy is waning or it's time to stop. Make it end on a glorious crescendo. Leave them feeling amazing and wanting more.