| "The Ultimate Wack Emcee Guide To ILLNESS"- Concise I POSTED THIS EARLIER BUT THE TITLE WASNT AS ATTRACTIVE, ASO I FIGURED MORE OF YOU PEEPS WOULD PEEP THIS NOW! *Intr0* a good way to start a verse is with a nice smooth flow, that can be changed as the piece develops. "i'm the ravenous, reincarnation of lazarus..." ^^that has a smooth flow, and allows flexibility for the follow-up: "more disastrous than TNT strapped to a mattress" if your start your verse wack, the reader- or listener- may lose all interest in your verse completely. *CREATIVITY :: Challenge yourself mentally. Dig deep beneath your mental and unlock the knowledge that you never knew you're capable of. Trust me, there's more to your raps than you think there is. Words and phrases you never knew existed in your vocabulary will pop up if you think hard enough. Concepts with interesting twists will slowly develop in your mind. Just use your brain properly, and creativity will emerge. � IMAGERY :: Picture the image you're trying to depict concisely, and carefully describe every single one of its aspects in words. Just write down about what you're seeing, and don't worry about what words you use just yet; you can change them later. Keep in mind that all paintings have a pencil outline underneath it; this way, the painter has the option to change aspects of his piece later on. This is the same with your raps. � STORYTELLING :: Read a lot of books. By doing so, you will soon develop a feel for story structure and imagery (see above). � DELIVERY :: Good delivery almost always comes with experience. The key aspects of delivery are emotion and clarity. Once you have something recorded, listen in CLOSELY. Be sure that you say your raps with the feelings and emotions meant behind each line in your verse. Make it a point that you are never eating your words; in other words, ENUNCIATE. *Audio* Memorizing your verse before you record it is great for your delivery and cadence. This way, you don't just seem as if you're reading off a piece of paper. Listen to your favorite artists and listen closely to the way they rap. Notice the fine detail; how they say a certain word, their cadence, the way they sound, etc. Keep in mind that you cannot spit a battle verse like a love song and vice versa. In battle verses, do what boxers do and channel up your anger and lash it out at your opponent. Make sure the listener can feel what you're feeling inside when you're battling. The same applies to when you're rapping a love song. � FLOW :: The aspect of flow is all about rhythm. Let the kicks, snares, and hi hats guide your raps. Your recorded raps should not sound like you're trying to catch up or outdoing the beat. If you wish to add in the occasional tongue twister, first master a "regular" flow (not too fast like Krayzie Bone, not too slow like Bizarre). Freestyle each and every chance you get to; it doesn't matter if you're actually spitting or just saying gibberish. Point is, freestyling develops your sense of rhythm and the more you freestyle, the better you'll be when spitting writtens. � BREATH CONTROL :: Listen to M.O.P.'s "Ante Up" and you'll hear them gasping for air after each line. Big Pun tended to gasp for air too. Not only this doesn't sound good, but also in some cases it can get really annoying. Breathe through your nose and not through your mouth, and this would help you avoid making that gasping sound. � RHYME SCHEME :: Avoid long and drawn-out bars completely. In most cases, these types of lines are not spittable. Stray close to internal and multiple rhyme schemes. Meaning to say that not only you're rhyming at the end of each bar, but also midway through them. Multiples are repeating the same rhymes for four bars or more. A great example of internal rhyme scheme is Method Man, and turn to Eminem for multiples. Complexity of verse is almost always better than the Ja Rule type of rapping. Also avoid choppy bars that are way too short. Extremes are never good; just keep it an EQUAL level and you'll be fine. � VOCABULARY :: One cannot Force a deep vocabulary upon himself; instead, good vocabulary comes with time and experience. Read any and everything you can, and expand your lexicon by finding out the definition of each word then trying to use those words in everyday speech. � DIRECTION AND FOCUS :: There is not much to be said about this part, except you have to remain focused on your topic. Is your topic all about inflicting wounds to your enemy? Is it about how frustrated you are with the world? Is it about your declaration of love to a woman or hip-hop or a microphone? Whatever the topic might be, remember to stay focused and keep on going forward in your direction. � PUNCHLINES :: The key to punchlines is being witty. Keep in mind that the best humor is something that everyone knows exist, but not always something they pay attention to. In other words, it's pointing out the obvious. Continually read and listen to every battle verse available, and you will get a good sense for nice metaphors and punchlines. When recording battle verses, make sure that your voice captures the anger within each line you spit. Listen to 2pac or Eminem songs and you will develop a sense for an angry tone of voice. Battle verses don't always have to be spit angrily; Canibus comes out with the best battle verses, and he doesn't sound that angry. The key to this is believing in each line you spit and have confidence in your lyrical ammo #Forming Punchline# what i usually do is come up with a line..... like "you eat shit like a shit eater" (lol) and when i've decided that i want to use that line, i think to myself is that the "punch line" or the lead into the punchline"...either way it still needs another line to rhyme with it..... basically in coming up with that OTHER LINE to rhyme with it, you can go many different routes... you can go through ya head and think up different rhmying words and when you come up with one, ex. "WIFE BEATER", think of what you could say about a wife beater, what's different about it. PRESTO you have your two bars... "you don't wanna battle cause you eat shit like a shit eater, and you show off nuthing impressive like skinny kids rockin' a wife beater"...lol another way to come up with a punchline is this...and i use it often... think of words like "light" and "right" etc. that have different meaning and ue those "conotations" to your advantage... for ex. "even with the mic in ya "left" hand you still not even "all right"..." I'd add to that is a majority of punches you'd come up wit May have been flipped before...so, if you're gonna say sumtin' Redundant, make it interesting...example... Redundant punch: You ain't fat, you're low calorie New flip: Increase cholesterol intake to make up for lack of fat |