There is debate and to some degree, uncertainty about what freestyling really is when we are talking about it with regards to rap.

Originally, back in the 1980′s, the term ‘freestyle’ referred to a pre-written rap verse that was not on any particular subject matter, written for the sole purpose of demonstrating skill. Today however, the definition of ‘freestyle’ has changed, at least amongst rap purists. In the 1990′s groups such as “Freestyle Fellowship” pushed the boundaries and the definition of ‘freestyle’. It is thanks to their innovation that ‘freestyling’ is generally considered to be improvised rap lyrics performed off the top of the head.

One can debate the true definition of freestyling in this day and age.  There are many examples where the term is used for a rap that isn’t improvised, but for the sake of this article I want to assume that it means ‘improvised rap lyrics made on the spot’.

I personally think every rapper should be able to freestyle at least to a certain degree, but it seems that many rappers today do not see the importance of learning to freestyle.  There are many understandable reasons for this.  Freestyling was once a necessity for any MC with an intention of winning a rap battle contest.  However rap battles have become far more pre-planned and have moved to a more pre-written format.  Therefore that necessity is no longer there.  There are also a lot of famous and successful rappers that are unable to freestyle.  One could then argue the validity of learning to freestyle as it is not a necessity to becoming successful.  There is also the argument that it is too difficult and too time consuming to learn to do compared to the potential benefits.  The arguments I often hear are, “Why should I freestyle, if so few successful rappers are able to do it?” And, “I’d rather take my time crafting my lyrics to make something that doesn’t just sound good the first time you hear it, but sounds good time and time again.”

These are all reasonable arguments but I would assert that it isn’t something that has to be very time consuming to learn to do.  I also think that many would agree that it is a skill that can give any MC a distinct advantage, especially if they are able to write good lyrics as well as improvise.  I am not suggesting that one should neglect writing and pre-planning lyrics in favour of always freestyling.  I am not saying one should necessarily strive to be the best freestyle MC there is either.  What I am saying however, is that by learning to freestyle combined with an ability to write, one does seriously put themselves head and shoulders above the rest.

Many of us know and understand the importance and benefits of being a good writer but the benefits of freestyling are very rarely defined.  So the burning question is;

Why Should Every Rapper Freestyle?

Why should any rapper freestyle, yet alone every rapper??  Well in this article I want to give you 5 reasons why every rapper should freestyle!

Here they are;

1.It Gives You That ‘Wow’ Factor When Performing Live On Stage

Freestyling in front of a crowd really does separate you from the numerous other MC’s out there.  Being able to use your surroundings in the moment and creatively turn it into lyrics never ceases to impress an audience.  The other great thing is your rhymes don’t even have to be all that clever or be that deep in order to gain an audiences approval.  The simple ability of being able to rap in an improvised fashion even to a small degree can still ‘wow’ an audience.

2.It Can Bail You Out If You Forget Your Written Rhymes

Yes all rappers can forget their rhymes.  I’ve been guilty of this one in the past too!  One should always take their performances seriously and devote adequate time to memorising their lyrics and practising their performance.  Unfortunately though, there are those times when your mind just goes blank!  There’s nothing worse than being in a rap battle, or performing a song live and you all of sudden forget your rhymes….

Freestyling offers you a way round that, especially if you are battling or you are performing a song that the majority of the crowd don’t know.  If you happen to forget your lyrics you can simply go with the flow and adapt to the situation using whatever clever rhymes come to mind in the moment.  In fact this can sometimes improve your performance.  By doing the unexpected and taking something that could only be used in that very moment can be one of the best ways to make a crowd go crazy whether that is in a battle or whilst performing your own music live.

3.It Improves Your Individual Flow

Learning to freestyle teaches you to be far more flexible and far less rigid.  Many rappers can write good lyrics but struggle being able to deliver them in a way that is enjoyable to hear and in a way that gives them a more individual style over actual music.

Freestyling forces you to adapt to the moment and to move with the mood of the moment and the music.  It is a great way of helping you develop your flow both mentally as a creative individual and also in terms of the delivery of your lyrics.  This can also help you greatly when you actually want to take the time to write lyrics as it gives you a greater musical awareness and ideas of how you might deliver your rhymes.

4.It Speeds Up Your Ability To Write Lyrics

By being able to creatively rhyme on the on spot, this means you can come up with rhymes far more quickly than you would have done if you were an MC that strictly writes your lyrics.  This is because you have more rhymes stored in your head.  If you can improvise clever rhymes on the spot, think how much time that can save you when you actually have time to think more deeply about what you want to say?

5.It Elevates Your All Round Songwriting Ability!

If you choose to continue writing lyrics as well as freestyling the quality of your pre-written lyrics will inevitably increase!  This is because when you can come up with lyrics on the spur of the moment, you naturally want to go one step further and one step better when you actually take the time to write your rhymes.  When you can freestyle to a certain level you might find that you come up with some rhymes and then think to yourself, “I could have freestyled that.”  That naturally encourages you to push the envelop of your written rhymes that bit further and forces you to think, “How can I make that even better??”

……and these are just 5 reasons why every rapper should freestyle.  There are many more!

Freestyling is often seen as being some sort of opposition to written lyrics.  I don’t think it should be.  It shouldn’t be a case that one should choose to be a freestyle MC or a written MC.  One should in fact do both!  The biggest reason in my opinion is because they can go hand in hand and one can actually help the other!

Some people have this idea that freestyling takes away from ones ability to write good songs and vice versa.  I can’t find anything further from the truth!  I would say that freestyling helps your ability to write and writing helps your ability to freestyle but it takes practice on both sides.

Click on the picture below and submit your best email address to get a free tip in how to learn to freestyle rap very quickly!

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Video 1:Making the instrumental

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Stay Tuned for my debut album ‘Lord of the Dead‘ Coming Soon!!

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I have often done well in live performances to a crowd and I always thought it was down to my lyrics, but under further investigation it wasn’t about lyrics, it was about showmanship.

This is an important point for all Rappers to grasp whether you are just starting out honing your skills or you have been Rapping for a long time.  A lot of Rappers get hung up on lyrical content.  I have met some Rappers that make great recordings with great lyrics, but when it comes to performing live to a crowd that have not heard any of their songs before, they are not well received and fall apart.  They then come to the assumption that their lyrics are still not good enough or come up with the assumption that the crowd are stupid and they are performing to the wrong audience.  It is when they come up with these assumptions that they are often missing the point.  In quieter settings or in a recording, lyrics do have strong importance, as people will eventually take in what you say and I am not down playing the importance of being a good lyricist.  But as a Rapper you inevitably will not always have the luxury of performing in quiet settings.  There will be times when you have to perform in a big reverberant room, with average sounding microphones, with loud backing music, that is poorly mixed.   This can seriously limit what people can hear from you in terms of your actual words, and will not be able to take in and process your lyrics.

It is on these occasions that we as Rappers or MCs really have to understand what MC stands for.  That’s Master of Ceremonies for those of you that don’t know!  You are the stage conductor and the showman, who is there to get the crowd hyped and to enjoy the music or event that you are at.  To do this takes charisma.  Charisma sounds like a very intangible thing that cannot be learnt nor taught, but I beg to differ.   I think when you understand some of the things that make a person charismatic you find that it is something that anyone can learn.

I just gave an example of some of the Rappers I have seen that are great lyricists, yet for some reason couldn’t cut it on stage.  Conversely I have also seen Rappers that are very average lyricists and did not have all the hype behind them that the big names have, yet still managed to kill it on stage in front of a busy crowd.  The crowd absolutely loved them!  So how could it be that people thought they were any good, without any hype and despite them being very average lyricists?  Well, it’s because of what was going through their head in the moment, their body language and to a lesser degree their flow (the rhythm of their voice that people could hear to the music).  When they took the microphone and started Rapping, they weren’t acting timid and looking for validation from the crowd.  They were simply having fun.  It came across as if they had complete disregard for the outcome and went with the flow.  They put themselves out there for people to take or leave so to speak, with complete indifference to what the crowd thought of them.  You could take their approach as being like this.  If the crowd liked them, great!  If they didn’t, then at least they would learn from the experience in one way or another.  Having this vibe in the moment of performing is a crucial concept to adopt.

When you are performing to a crowd you cannot afford to get hung up on whether they like you or not.  It sounds almost counter-intuitive but the less you care about what they think of you, the better you are going to do.  You get to focus more on expressing yourself honestly to the people in front of you.  When you look for validation in any shape or form you often inhibit yourself and focus more on trying to make them like you rather than expressing yourself honestly and instead hold back through fear that they might not take to it.  As a result you are likely to sub-communicate neediness in your body language, voice and general demeanour.  This is off putting not just on stage but also in social settings.

I’m sure you can think of a time when you were in school, or work, or at a party or family gathering and can remember being in a conversation with a particular person that just came across as needy.  Maybe it was the lonely geeky kid in school that had no friends.  Or an old family member that didn’t get out much.  As they had no real friends and you happened to be one of the few people that spoke to them, you could sense them being really eager to talk to you.  Maybe they kept trying to impress you with average jokes that weren’t that funny, that you pretended to laugh at.  Or they kept asking you ‘interview’ questions about yourself.  Perhaps they felt they now finally had a friend in you, because they weren’t used to having people actually speak to them.  You can probably remember them not being a particularly bad person but also not really wanting to talk to them.  You certainly wouldn’t entertain the idea of actually speaking to them on a regular basis and were simply carrying on the conversation out of sympathy rather than genuine interest, whilst in the back of your mind really wanting to get away.  Think about the sort of things that person was sub-communicating in their body language, conversation and general vibe….  If you were to think back, you will probably notice they were sub-communicating in their body language and conversation that they felt they were lower value to yourself.  As they perceived you as higher value they felt they had a need to have a positive response from you to give them a sense of validation and worth and a general need to impress you and hold your attention.

These same points are things to avoid when performing on stage.  You may want attention, positive responses and validation but in this game the hungry don’t get fed!  The most charismatic people in the world are more concerned with expressing themselves honestly rather than having positive attention from everyone.  That is at least in the moment of performing.  As a result they are no longer inhibited by worrying about the outcome.  This is why nowadays in Hip Hop people have started to accept others from all backgrounds.  You don’t have to fit into the standard Rapper/Gangster stereotype to be accepted by a Hip Hop crowd.  You can be anything from a nerdy, suburban kid, a poor homeless person or a Gangster and anything anywhere else in-between.  Who you are or where you’re from doesn’t matter as much as the uninhibited expression of yourself or the persona you want to put out.  To quote the great Rakim, ‘It aint where you’re from it’s where you’re at…’  You should wear who you are, almost as a badge of honour, especially to a crowd whilst on stage.

I think there are 5 crucial keys that will unlock your ability to have charisma and extremely powerful stage presence.  Join my friends list by clicking on the icon below to get a free download to “The 5 Crucial Keys To Powerful Stage Presence as a Rapper”.  As part of my friends list you’ll also be first to receive new videos, exclusive music amongst other Lord Lav happenings!

P.S The email address that I mention at the end of the ’5 Crucial Keys’ is no longer active…..

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Video 1:Creating the Drums

Video 2:Sampling and Chopping the Loop

*See how I find the break in the sample then chop and loop it to create the instrumental!

Video 3:Writing the Lyrics

*See how I Write the Lyrics for the song!

Video 4:Recording the Vocal Verses

*See how I Record my Vocals!

Video 5:Scratching

*See how find the sample then Scratch the sample using Logic and Serato!

Video 6:Mixing Down

*See how Lord Lav mixes his song down!

Click on the picture below to join my friends list.  You will receive a free download to the song ‘Imperial Pace’ and you will also receive more free exclusive videos me showing you how I created this song!

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As we come to the nature vs nurture argument I often debate with people as to whether rapping ability is something you’re born with.  I would at some degree say yes it is but not to the same degree a lot of other people think.  The gender and race you are born is purely down to nature. The same goes for the place you were born and who your parents are.  These are things completely out of your control.  I would also argue that it is the same case for the majority of your desires.  Where I will say the nurture side of the argument comes into play is when it comes to what you decide to do with these desires and your natural disposition.  There are a lot of things that are predestined in your life but despite that there is a lot of room for movement.

A huge number of beginners with a lot of potential, drop out at this first hurdle.  They think that rapping is a skill you have to be born with, and they simply don’t have the innate talent.  As a result they quit.  But if you look to every rapper admired for their skills on the mic, you will find that there really is a lot of hard work and practice over time that got them to the skill level they are at.  Know this, because it is as true as night and day!  Every single rapper, regardless of their caliber have written terrible verses, spit average verses on stage and freestyled poorly on their path to becoming great.  Whenever they encountered those challenges, they didn’t decide to quit, they kept going, kept practicing and continued to hone their skills.  This is a crucial point!

If you desire to be good at something, that to me is a sign of who you are capable of becoming.  Your role is to treat the desire in itself as your destiny for who you will become.  When you imagine yourself becoming who you want to be, don’t look at it as something you have to build from scratch.  Instead look at it from the perspective of a sculpture artist.  When a sculpture artist looks at a block of stone, she can already see the statue or model she wants to create.  She merely has to chip away at the block in order to bring the statue out of it.  It was already there, it just needed some work.  The same can be said for your life and desires!

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By unique I mean the ability to stand out amongst the other artists.  In many cases innovating and bringing something new to one’s creative endeavour.  Much like the development of a new genre of music.  Or the pushing of the boundaries of a particular genre by taking it in a new creative direction.

You can look at what is commercially popular and you might be forgiven for thinking that everything sounds the same nowadays.  That individuality is dead.  To be a credible artist you have to copy what everyone else is doing.  Many people have this assumption that you can no longer be unique because everything has already been done before, hence why, ‘Everything sounds the bloody same these days errrrrrr….’

I consider that a limiting belief and I personally don’t buy it.  It’s an assertion that has been proved wrong numerous times throughout history.  I think people were saying it back in Mozart’s era.  Of course there have been a huge amount of unique breakthroughs in creativity since then.

I still believe there can be innovation in art and creativity and there always will be for as long as we continue to develop as human beings.

The big question then, is how can an artist be unique?  Well many people would say that you have to go against the grain.  You have to see what the majority are doing and see what is popular.  Then do the opposite.  I can understand that perspective.  It can be good to pay attention to what the current trends are.  Although I think there is a danger that one can rebel against the mainstream just for the sake of it.  As a result this can lead one to creating insincere art that fails to resonate with other people or even themselves, simply because they are so obsessed with trying to not sound like anyone else.  By desperately trying to avoid sounding like someone else it can lead you to forget that at some level everything came from something else.  This can lead to frustration and an unfair expectation of yourself to craft something out of nothing.

Pablo Picasso for example was very much considered an individual and his creative works are most certainly considered unique and innovative.  Yet he was influenced by others in order to reach is profound level of uniqueness and innovation.  He was initially taught by his father.  He was also influenced by fellow artists such as Georges Braque, as well as African styles of art which were rare avenues of influence for a European artist during his era.

So again how can an artist be unique?  Well I believe the key is not to necessarily go against the grain and not to necessarily follow the trend either.  Instead you should follow your desires and do whatever the hell it is you want to do!  You may forget that you are the only person exactly like you in the entire world.  There will never be another person exactly the same as you ever again!  You show uniqueness simply by being you and expressing yourself as an individual or as a collective depending on whether you create on your own or in a group.  We are all unique like it or not, no matter how many similarities there might seem to be and no matter how much we might gain from other people.  So don’t chastise yourself just because something you did is influenced by something else.  You probably chose that influence for a reason.  That reason is probably because it resonated with you.  That in itself shows your individuality at some level.  There are numerous things that could have influenced you but out of everything, you chose that particular influence.

So whenever you’re faced with questions such as, ‘How can I be unique?’ Or, ‘How can I create something innovative?’  I think a better question is, ‘Who are you?’  And ‘How do you want to express that to yourself and the world??’  ’Why not be brave and show it???’

I try to adopt this in everything I do.  I take a lot of influence from other sources but I always try to put my own individual spin on it.  Check out Lord of the Dead and my music on my Lord Lav page

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A couple of months ago we went to a fantastic woodland area not too far from where I live called Spinney Hollow.  This proved to be the best area to film the zombie album cover.  Thanks to the awesome Rob Luckins with his masterful photographing abilities and the help of everybody else that contributed by doing makeup, zombieing up and provided substantial amounts of tea and biscuits, this proved to be a day well spent!

Everything turned out ok in the end but it certainly wasn’t plain sailing.  It was absolutely freezing to the point my arse was turning blue (sorry there’s no pictures of this….)!  We’ve had some abnormally cold weather so far this year and the day we went to film was a fine example of this.

To tell you the truth I had the easiest job out of everyone.  At least I was dressed in warm tweed for the occasion.  All I had to do was stand and look pretty (or ugly…) and have my picture taken.

I seriously have to big up everyone that zombied up on the day as they were stood for long periods of time in clothing that was actually far from warm!  The picture really doesn’t show you just how bloody cold it was!!

To give you all a taster of what the zombie album artwork will look like, I’ve posted two pictures. One being a picture with the whole zombie crew looking terrifying in Spinney Hollow and the other is a picture of me in tweed attire in Rob’s studio.

Check it!!!!

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On Easter Sunday evening I was kindly given some bottles of Henney’s Cider which prompted me to do some off the dome freestyles for shits and giggles.

I don’t think I spit about Easter at all in this freestyle which is very unseasonal of me. Bollocks anyway!! I might do that next time. Easter obviously wasn’t in my head at the time of spitting. That’s always the chance you take when you’re spitting bars off the dome….

The problem with bank holiday evenings is a lot of people don’t want to go out, so there are times I could be bored sitting at home. Thankfully, I’m rarely bored. If I haven’t got anything to do, I may as well be productive with my time. Exercising my freestyle ability is one way of doing that.

Freestyling is one of my favourite hobbies, drinking cider is another one. When you bring these things together you create a magical cider induced me spitting deranged bars about whatever pops in my head. It’s more fun in a group with other people than alone, but still makes for an enjoyable time much like sex….

Anyway, I digress…. Enjoy the video!

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Sampling has long been considered the bedrock of hip hop production.  Not to mention an integral part of a lot of dance music, drum & bass, and trip hop.

The vast majority of hip hop classics we love have used samples of other people’s work.  Yet it seems there is an ever increasing threat of a lawsuit being brought to an artist that chooses to use samples of other peoples work without clearance. As a result, it is becoming more and more difficult to produce hip hop in this sample based manner.

There is a fantastic article about this very issue with regards to the recent court case being brought to the creators of The Harlem Shake single. It is a great article written by producer Axeman Jim, I suggest you check it out!

Personally I love the art of sampling!  The Bog Standard EP was made entirely from samples. Most of my favourite producers have used the art form of sampling to create their music too.

That being said, I am fully aware of the potential pitfalls of releasing sample based music. As a result I have chosen to expand my production skills by learning the piano and music theory in order to be able to create my own chord progressions more efficiently.  In fact Lord of the Dead will be almost entirely sample free.

Despite this I am still an advocate of sample based production and I don’t want it to diminish.  There is a certain artistry to taking something someone else has created and being able to flip it in your own individual way.  Although I am choosing to expand my musical capabilities, I will still go back to the sample based production I know and love.

Back in the day hip hop grew out of a desire to create and express using whatever limited resources were available. The hip hop pioneers couldn’t afford to record instrumentation, nor did they necessarily have the ability to learn an instrument.  But they could loop other peoples records to make their beats.  This way of sampling soon developed and became a lot more sophisticated. It wasn’t enough to just sample 4 bars of a song and loop it. Producers started to sample in more creative ways by chopping up small extracts of music and then putting it together.

The information and tools to learn an instrument and the ability to record instrumentation is a lot more accessible nowadays, yet many producers still choose to sample in order to create their beats.  That is because there is a certain rawness and grittiness in sample based music that is hard to recreate through any other method without actually sampling.

It is getting harder and harder to do sample based music in a profitable way as copyright holders are becoming more and more desperate to maintain their monopolies and choosing to sue any artist behind a big sample based release.

Whether sample based music dies due to the unprofitability of doing it, time will tell.  My belief however, is that if anything is going to die with regards to music in this day and age, it is probably going to be the present notion of intellectual property. In this amazing internet age we live in, policing intellectual property is going to be increasingly more difficult to do. In the long run, one could argue that is perhaps a wise choice for both artists and record companies alike to look to new ways of being profitable without looking to enforce intellectual property.  As Seth Godin has often said, an artist’s biggest problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity.

In light of this topic I decided to post below a very interesting and relevant documentary about the classic ‘Amen Break’ one of the most widely used samples in music history.

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