Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme

"Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme" is a creation that was seven years in the making with a large-scale collaboration including a variety of original, passionate and active Hiphoppers. This thought-provoking and intimate documentary takes a closer look into the world of freestyle emceeing, providing a unique, honest, and accurate representation of true Hiphop and rap culture; its roots and art forms, and a fleeting moment where the spiritual force is manifested in spontaneous verbal outbursts. Quantum Leap

Background

The roots of emceeing can be traced back to the Africation tradition of oral story telling, to Southern preachers elaborating on gospel teachings, to the 1970s with DJ Kool Herc throwing a party for his sister, "Jamaican toasting" (shouting random things into the mic to hype the crowd) to music that was popular to the crowd at the time. The artforms of emceeing and deejaying evolved simultaneously along with graffiti art and breaking, leading to the birth of the Hiphop culture. Fly Wit Me feat Project Pat

Emceeing (MC) is composed of two artforms: freestyle and written rhymes. Usually people who are good at one, aren't so flash with the other. Sometimes you can't tell whether a lyricist is a true freestyler if they claim to be, but one way to determine truth from BS is through battles.

Battles

The film commented that a freestyle rap battle looks (and sounds) violent, but it's really just humour in exaggerated tones. This really made me think. To me, the violent aspect of the description is reminiscent of a krump battle or a true bboy battle in its truest, rawest form; the energy, attitude and aggression is all there, but it's just a front, their battle face which they (usually) take off as soon as they step off the battlefield. It's more about the moves or the rhymes you can pull off while you're in that zone, and what happens during the battle stays there. Fly Wit Me feat Project Pat

One of the first real freestyle battles I seen live happened very recently: one side was experienced and one of the best in Australia; the other, was a first-time battler but not new to freestyling at all. To see the reaction of the inexperienced one after the other did his first set, crucifying him and continuing to do so in his following sets, was kind of awkward - we know battles can be cruel but it's part of it, but just seeing the guy getting really offended and disheartened made me think twice about battles and their significance.

The other MC apologized and claimed defeat, admitting he was too harsh; I remember him saying a while ago that he wasn't really into battling because of the spiritual nature of emceeing and how battles can really become quite derogatory and negative, and now I finally see that for myself.

I am reminded of that battle while the documentary shows the most highly anticipated MC battle in '93, pitting MC Supernatural against Craig G of the legendary Juice Crew in the Lyricist Lounge; they were considered the best freestyle MCs at the time and the first battle saw Supernatural get smoked, some even saying it was the beginning of the end for his career.

Supernatural - The Greatest Freestyle MC?

Nevertheless, Supernatural is still going strong, still doing what he loves and what he does best, his famous technique for getting a crowd to bring items and hold them up to him as he goes along each one, rhyming about all sorts of random things. They say nothing rhymes with "orange" but Supernatural has ways to make it work; to arrive at such skill he read the regular English and rhyming dictionary daily as well as using anything and everything as a source of inspiration for his lyrical flow.

Freestyle emcees are urban poets with mental stamina improvising verses over a beat - unedited, unrestricted. Freestyle, as claimed in the documentary film, is "somewhere between a song and a speech"; the art of improvisational rap that is rarely recorded and often neglected by the media or portrayed negatively as violent and derogatory.

Why all the negative connotations of Hiphop and rap?

Think about the socio-economic backgrounds of the people, the community from which the Hiphop culture evolved - poverty, racial discrimination, stereotyping and inequality. Individuals speak on their experiences and their views on the world in a sincere and candid manner; this is not all the time, but the media for so long has chosen for the general public what they listen to, creating a misconstrued truth which commercial rap artists adapt to for their own personal benefit.

What we can do as individuals is get educated and contribute to the positive reinforcement of what Hiphop is really about - a culture, a community that promotes peace, love and unity.

Through DJs whose instruments are turntables, beatboxers who can replicate drum sounds - they provide the music and beats for the dancers to physically express themselves and for the MCs, the urban poets, to tell a story; graffiti artists who substitute paintbrushes for aerosol cans and those that recognize and 'live' this culture lead a spiritual life, seeing the potential for the Hiphop culture as a catalyst for social change and self-empowerment.

"The ultimate in Hiphop is that fleeting moment of escape."

The art of rhyme, this spiritual, raw form of creative expression will find that one can become so immersed in the zone that they really can't explain or teach people what they're doing - rather, tell them about the basics and foundations and allow them to explore and find meaning for themselves, hence the terms "free" and "style".

There are no boundaries, no limitations, no prepared lines - just the moment.