Facebook gave me the opportunity to ply my ruse to a much wider audience. Instead of my real-world personality of nebbishness and recalcitrance, I built an online persona that I thought would help me maximize my chances of losing my virginity. Part Ariel Levy and part experienced lover, I billed myself on facebook not as some timid freshman, but as some Don Juan de Dorm Room: an experienced sex-positive feminist who wanted to be both a sensitive lover and a man understanding to the plight of women. After making up this profile, I preceded on one night to get drunk, and try and “friend” every girl at Western on Facebook, who was from Ann Arbor. For awhile nothing happened, and it seemed that even without meeting me face-to-face women online could see through me.
Then, one day while doing my daily ritual of closing facebook then opening it because I got bored with school work. I received a series of photos similar to this.
And a message underneath: I love your views on feminism. Let me know if you want to discuss them sometime in person. FYI we’re in the same dorm it’s not a long walk for me to your room.
I couldn’t believe my good fortune. Through facebook, a woman hadn’t been able to see through my bravado to the scared little boy inside. I quickly sent her back and massage a and we made plans next week to meet in my dorm room and discuss sex-positive feminism in earnest
But in real life, I had no bravado. This was abundantly clear when a week later she came over to my room. She was a beautiful young woman, who really believed in the online version of me. But, when I actually had to “back my shit up” however, I found that I couldn’t become the person she thought I was. She left my dorm room that night as many women had, disappointed and seeing that when it came to women, I was completely “in over my head”.
Despite becoming actually “versed in feminism” I’m still not great with women, feminists or otherwise. But despite my foibles in the game department, I was able to take an important lesson out of that situation: DON’T GET INTO A SITUATION WHERE YOU’RE AUTOMATICALLY IN OVER YOUR HEAD. Being over your head is one of the worst feelings in life. And in terms of the hip-hop culture it’s usually the most common. So, based on my own experience I present a guide for how to succeed in one of the activities everyone loves about hip hop, but most people feel is over their head:
The free-style.
Beginning freestyler tips part one: etiquette
Etiquette is an oftentimes over-looked aspect of what it takes to be successful in a freestyle-session, but it’s still vitally important. You could be the love-child of Lauren Hill and Wyclef, but if you act like Pras in freestyle, no one is going to give a damn to how good you can spit. For an example on proper etiquette, I use the following video.
Mistah F.A.B, Zumbi (of Zion I), Kosha Dillz, & Others - Freestyle Video from MZ on Vimeo.
Rule 1: Don’t be premature: just like sex, it’s a bad thing to come in when it’s not your turn in freestyle. If you interrupt someone mid flow it fucks everything up. Ruining not only the potential of that rapper but of the freestyle itself. In addition for a lot of people they’ll just come right back and interrupt your overeager ass.
Examples :( 0:27, 1:24, 2:08, 2:30) mark.
Rule 2: Don’t be intimidated: Having said that, there is such a thing as waiting too
long. A free-style is a breeding ground for insecurity and arrogance, if someone is wacker then you and being rude, wait for them to finish, and try to go. If the wack freestyler(s) keeps interrupting, come in strong and if necessary deliver a quick rebuke to let them know that more than one person is in the cipher.
Example: (2:48, 2:08, 5-5:10)
Rule 3: Don’t be a mic hog: “always leave them wanting more” once said famous Greek freestyler Hiphoprates. The same is true in the cipher. When you’re feeling it, it’s alright to go into Kobe mode and hog the mic. But when you’re not feeling it, and you know it, just pass the mic over. The best way to make a hole bigger is to keep digging.
Example: (5:30)
Moving off of etiquette, let’s get into some more interesting stuff.
Free styling takes a lot of practice, there’s no doubt about that. Unless you’ve always been a regular bill Shakespeare freestyling is something that you should practice eat home or with your friends before you unleash it at a hip hop concert (unless young et off on being publically humiliated). That being said, there are several things you can do technique wise to help yourself succeed. Once again I’m using the same video.
Beginner freestyler tips part 2: technique
Mistah F.A.B, Zumbi (of Zion I), Kosha Dillz, & Others - Freestyle Video from MZ on Vimeo.
Technique 1: don’t be afraid to not make sense: We’d all love to be Immortal Technique or Mos Def and have an agenda when we freestyle, but for most rappers at any level this is an impossibility. Free styling is hard enough as it is. But any normal freestyle does have the ability to go the opposite way and: be nonsensical. When you’re really struggling for a coherent theme or identity within your freestyle, your best bet is to stop struggling and go with the flow, and start playing around with the words as they come into your head. If you stop damning up all your words because they don’t fit, usually you can get into a flow.
Example: (1:41)
Technique 2: remember who you are!: (I know it’s cheesy but) I love that line from Hellboy) but it’s definitely a handy tip for when you’re running out of things to say, start talking about yourself. Go with ANYTHING that’s uniquely distinct to you and visible to the rest of the crew that you’re with so they’re in on the line.
Example: (2:02)
Technique 3: “say my name say my name”: Eminem does a number of things well as a rapper, but one of things that he does perhaps better than anyone else is to “name-drop”, to include other people in his free-style in order to make his rhyme-scheme fit. Concepts can be expressed much more simply if you express them using archetypes rather than try to explain the concept in and of itself. I mean, what sounds better rolling off the tongue: “quicker than Usain Bolt” or “quicker than a really really fast guy”?
In addition if you’re in a famous place, and most large U.S. cities are, that’s an excellent source to fuel your hip-hop fire. If you’re in Detroit, you can rhyme about anything to do with cars. If you’re in Chicago, anything to do with Obama. Georgia: peaches or Ludacris. The setting alone of your freestyle should be able to provide you with source material, if you’re paying attention.
Ex: (0:12)
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Alright now, here’s where it gets a bit trickier and a bit more advanced. I’m a firm believer that once you get fairly comfortable with freestyling; you need to move onto expanding and honing your craft. The way that I’ve strived to do this is the ability to hold a semi-coherent narrative within my freestyle, so it becomes more akin to storytelling than the rapid firing of random sentences. I truly feel that when a free-styler becomes advanced enough they’re able to move onto the ability to have a “narrative.” In this last section I’d like to share two techniques for achieving narrative using my own freestyles.
Narrative method 1: me vs. you/us vs. them: Hip-hop’s traditionally been a genre of music where people typically cast themselves as the voice of the outsider, fighting against the forces trying to oppress them. Indeed the “underground” has long been a colloquial term MCs have used to refer towards their honesty and integrity, those who refuse to sell-out to the “mainstream”. Because of this history within hip-hop, the “us vs. them” or “me vs. the world” have always been fertile ground for MCs to explore.
While not a good to attack your fellow MCs, it’s a great way to bond O within a freestyle session. When you rap like this it gives the impression that only you and those in the circle know the truth about hip-hop.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ipreferfighting#p/a/u/0/XcO65UPkOsQ
Narrative Method 2: "Who am I?” Freestyling is in essence, just saying whatever pops into your head, what the who am I method does is ask the freestyler to expand on that. By giving an autobiographical overtone to your freestyle, you allow people the chance to talk about themselves. Freestyling is essence, just saying what you think. By using this method you can take it to another level, as people are forced to question why they think what they think.
(I've had some trouble getting this one up, should have it figured out by next week)
In the end until we make it, we are all just Prometheus trying to steal some of the god’s fire. While I feel confident to offer tips and technical suggestions towards freestyling, I’m constantly trying to get better. There are MCs out there who can recreate their entire bilge du roman out of a freestyle cipher. Even though I know that when I step into a cipher, as long as I feel I have something to say, I say it. Otherwise I’m always content to sit in the back to listen, and learn.
2009 BET Awards Cypher #3: Mos Def, Black Thought and Eminem. from Douglas Rogers on Vimeo.
