Being the best rap battler you can be

I've done a few rap battles in person and they were terrible lol. My mind went blank several times and my rhymes were not as good as they could have been. For a long time i often wondered "What's wrong with me?" You may have felt the same or currently do. After much reflection and meditation, i decided that this method should work to help everyone be better at battle rap.

1) Before you do anything or even talk about rapping, you have to love yourself. Appreciate everything about yourself and love your voice. Love who you are as a person and accept that you are unique. Once you love yourself then you can trust in yourself to create awesome freestyles and battle lyrics.When you make the choice to love and accept yourself then you have taken the very 1st step to reaching your potential.

2) Know yourself from the inside out. Know your strengths and weaknesses. What are you good at? What are you terrible at? What do you love about yourself? What don't you love about yourself? What would you like to change? Take a pen or pencil and a piece of paper to write about yourself. Be genuine and appreciate yourself as a human being. Don't rap about being someone your not. This helps shape your identity as a rapper in general. Knowing who you are enables you to know the flaws of another person and expose them.

3) Freestyle - Start rapping outloud or write on paper. It doesn't even have to rhyme. Just start rapping whatever comes to mind. The point of this exercise is to be comfortable with flowing at a consistent pace. Look at your surroundings and rap about them. The key is to adapt to your environment.

4) Practice writing raps - Everyone has a unique way of practicing their raps. Personally, i like to write whatever comes to mind for about 5 minutes then i do drills. I write a limited number of similes, metaphors, bars of alliteration, merism, parallelism, word play, analogies, multis, internal rhymes, etc. I try to master various literary devices daily. It would be helpful if you familiarized yourself with poetry. Having a unique writing style dramatically helps you reach your potential.

5) Be passionate about rap - Love your work. Love your bars, voice, and talent. Don't make trashy lyrics then say "I suck at this.." Make every bar count.

6) Know your enemy - Observe them, What are they wearing? What flaws do they have? What are they rapping about? What do they sound like? This is your chance to incorporate what you already know about poetry.

7) Know what it takes to win a battle - Always keep in mind that there's always a way to win. Dissing your opponent's looks, personality, personal flaws, lyrics, reputation, etc. are key in defeating him or her. You may think that in order to win a battle, you need tons of clever disses. While that may help you win a battle, it is not the only way to win. Battles can also be won by who has the most clever lyrics or creative flow. Complimenting yourself is also a good way of winning. Be familiar with rebuttals or taking an opponent's verses and flipping them around. For example, people might want to diss my long hair by saying that i'm feminine. In response, i could say that their feminine in thinking of me as the opposite sex if they're male. One of the greatest strategies used by Eminem is to admit your weaknesses first then diss your opponent. It's also a great idea to With the quality of your raps, you can turn the tide of battle.

8) Have a developed flow - You should have a flow or a voice when you rap. Putting emphasis on certain words, having an aggressive or a light tone, rhythm, and melody in your voice are all essential to having excellent flow in a battle. It shouldn't stay the same, it should be dynamic. Try double time rapping in which you speed up the tempo or "rap fast." Practice breathing techniques daily and when you freestyle, try to  be fluid with your flow. Once you make the crowd go wild with flow, it's going to be very difficult for your opponent to win.

9) Be confident and energetic - Most of all, have confidence in yourself. Trust in yourself that you can win the battle. Never look defeated or frustrated. If what your opponent says angers you, don't lose control because when you lose control: you lose. Channel that energy to come up with strong disses to help you win the battle instead. Take deep breaths before the battle. If you need to come up with something to say, take a moment to do so.  

Gangs and rap music

When i was in high school, there were a lot of kids who were very fascinated with gangs and being a "thug." This typically tends to come from rap music more than any other genre of music and i find it very disappointing at how young teens are given many opportunities and a future are being influenced by the lives of Chicago rappers such as Chief Keef, Fredo Santana, lil Reese, and by the media in general. Many people i knew in high school were still young, immature, and most probably depended on their parents. They think being a gangster and fighting is cool, but they are in reality posing a false appearance. The most likely reason they act tough is very simply because they are easily influenced by a "gangster" attitude. They don't have a strong mindset or attitude of their own. People like this don't realize how gangsters actually live and especially rappers like Chief Keef. When i hear people holler "GBE", "Oblock", "Three hunna", it makes me think they speak in ignorance. From what i hear, gangsters really have no regard for human life and truly do kill in cold-blood. The personalities that young high school teens show are too fabricated and if they truly saw exactly how these rappers live, they wouldn't support that kind of life-style because they never grew up in that kind of environment.

The media tends to glamorize sex, drugs, violence, and most rappers i listen to tend to make gangs seem cool and they're your "friends" when nothing could be further from the truth. Perhaps i'm wrong, but from what i hear from some former gang-members, they won't help you progress as an individual and if you are honest with yourself, you would not want to live their kind of life-style. Honestly, i was a bit shocked to learn that Chief Keef was actually a gangster rapper ever since he released his famous song "I don't like" and a bit surprised that many high school teens were listening to him, already behaving as if they were gangsters by saying things like "Free my n-gga such and such.." When they weren't even imprisoned. A simple word of advice, don't throw up the blood sign if you have never killed anyone or went to prison, don't act like your in prison if you've never been in prison, and don't rap about being a gangster if your not a gangster. I know of a couple of real gangster rappers and they are nothing like many people who use the label "O.G" like a fashionable trend.

At the end of the day, gangs really have nothing to do with any kind of music, but i think you should always rap about your life experiences, struggles, and inner emotions. Don't ever rap about being someone you are not because people will appreciate you more for who you truly are.

What makes you a good rapper?

It seems like nowadays, people who listen to rap would rather listen to lyrically, well-versed rappers such as tu-pac, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Eminem,tech nine, etc. at least from my personal experience. While i do agree that rappers today have utterly terrible lyrics and more creative verses are preferred, i do not agree that having great lyrical skills is the only thing which essentially makes you a "good" rapper.

For example, many people I've encountered dislike rapper "Chief Keef" because of his horrible lyrics and flow. First of all, I've watched one of his interviews and he clearly stated that he is not a lyrical rapper. He hardly uses metaphors, but prefers to literally "get to the point" which is fine by my standards as long as there is some creativity to it. He's not necessarily a bad rapper, his lyrical content is repulsing to me, but i do give him credit for creating catchy songs such as "I don't like", "everyday", "Love Sosa" etc.

He did have a smooth and very rhythmical flow in many of his songs. Even in his latest album, although it wasn't as rich in creativity as earlier works, in some songs, his flow was still smooth and a bit melodious. I don't think it's sound judgement to dislike him just because you simply don't want people to think you have "bad taste" in music.

Which brings me to my next point, art has become more of a fashionable trend than an actual practice and beautiful expression of the self. Often, people criticize more than appreciate artwork and see it as an achievement to be made by "positive" people who are good role-models for citizens advocating for humanist values. Many have criticized him for his lifestyle and hence they dislike him as an artist. I find it to be quite absurd. Music is music, it's an art, not a lifestyle that deals with gangs, drugs, sex, women, etc. A person's art should not be ridiculed by their "negative" values, but you should look at it as their story, their way of expressing themselves through their art.

Comparing it to rappers such as Tu-Pac and Eminem, they have great lyrics and more quick-paced flow, but at times, i can't enjoy some of Eminem's songs since they sound a lot more like he's talking than actually rapping. Variety of flow is just as important as lyrical creativity.

What makes a good rapper? It's when you have an agenda to be heard, to have your own unique character reflected by your rapping voice and lyrics. Success is the key focus in expressing your life, beliefs, and values, even if your from the hood. From that point on, it doesn't matter if your a fake "gangster" or real or even what you rap about as long as you stay real to the art of music.