Rap Tutorials: How To Battle Like A Pro (Flo)

HOW TO BATTLE LIKE A PRO

(Flo Matic)

Introduction

Okay, I ‘m not the best ever but I do have some knowledge to this battle shit and I don’t care to share. If you have no clue of how to write a battle verse this tutorial can help mold you into a force to be reckoned with. If you already know what you are doing this may consist of a couple of pointers for you also. I’m just going to jump straight into it. The first thing that I want to touch up on is Basis, the core of your verse.

Basis

It is important for you to understand that text battling is much different than street battling. Street battling has a lot more leniency than text battling.

In text battling voters have the opportunity to take the time to visually look into your verse and catch every flaw that may exist.

Below you will learn the meaning of a Statement. Using statements is a bad thing.

·         Statement

I see a lot of new members make the mistake of filling their verses with these. A statement is basically just telling somebody what they are, or what they do.

For instance:

Yer a bitch, yer stupid and yer whack.

Yer rhymes are trash. You must be on crack

Those are statements. They have no creativity within them. They are missing similes, metaphors and a punchline which we’ll discuss later. But as the above bar sits it is worth nothing and would have the same effect as not being written at all.

Another thing that is bad is Self Glory. Just a dash of this may be okay but you’re playing with fire if you choose to use it.

·         Self Glory

This is when you use up your bars glorifying your skill or yourself.

For instance:

I’m a beast at this shit, I’m a king

My skills polished and it bling like a ring

The purpose of a battle is to attack your opponent only. Nothing more! If your skill is so polished it will speak for itself. If you need to directly tell the reader how skilled that you are, you must not be skilled because instead of taking the time to show them, you are telling them. The above bar is a wasted bar for a battle verse and hurts your opponent in no way. Remember that you need to be relentless toward your opponent throughout the complete verse.

Something that you need to be sure to use is Relevancy. Irrelevancy is a bad thing.

·         Relevancy

By relevancy I mean attacking your opponent directly. Keep in mind that you are battling him and nobody else, just him. Not his mom, sister, grandma, brother or girlfriend. You didn’t have sex with his mom, make love to his girlfriend, beat up his brother and his grandma isn’t your #1 fan. Well it is possible by a long shot that all of that happened and if it did you are a bad man and I commend you, but unfortunately you will need to provide some proof. But the chances are that you are in two different countries and none of that shit really took place and therefore it is irrelevant.

For instance:

Your mom invited me over for dinner

And the next thing I know my dick’s up in her

That is irrelevant because you attacked his mom and not him. Also as I have already mentioned, it is not true. The above bar is a wasted bar for a battle verse and hurts your opponent in no way.

That is the basic basis of a verse. Now we’ll be moving on to creating your verse.

Creating Your Verse

This section will touch up on all aspects of creating your verse.

While creating your verse the first thing that you need to focus on is the structure.

·         Structure

The structure of your verse is how it is put together. You want a neat layout with lines of equal length and breaks between transitions. This helps readers understand where to stop and start while reading your bars. That makes for a much easier and comprehensive read for the reader. You want to make it easy for them to read because they are the ones voting it.

So to sum it up, writing a verse as it you’re writing a paragraph is what not to do.

You need to use bars to write your verse.

§  Bar

A bar consists of 2 lines which are typically close to the same length.

For instance:

This frenetic pathetic wretch expects to get respect from text hits
when in fact his raps lack substance like an Anorexics breakfast (Manc)

In the example above,

The first line is called the setup line (which in short is simply called the setup) and the second line is called the punchline. The both of them together form a bar. Notice that the setup is relevant with the punchline. You always want the setup and the punchline to be relevant. You do not want to make the setup and punchline unrelated! Also notice how the lines are close to the same length. Always try to be sure that the setup and punchline are near the same length.

o    Line Length

If a line is so long that it makes a new line break it is much too long. Anymore than 16 syllables within one line is too long. An overly long line is referred to as being “stretched”. Around 12 syllables is a great length for your lines.

 The next aspect of creating a verse that I will touch up on is the overall flow of your verse. This is very important when writing a verse.

·         Flow

The flow of your verse relies on a few different factors. The first is the multis.

§  Multis

Multis are when you rhyme more than one syllable within a bar. Using multis adds major polish to your verse and helps the flow of your verse tremendously.

Here is an example of a bar with no multis:

This fucking pansy couldn’t draw blood even if he used swords

Cos the only “scars” that comes from “O” are the Academy Awards (Flo Matic)

As you can see, only one syllable is rhymed here. Swords/wards

The above bar does not sound half bad but it is not written to its full potential.

Let’s add a multi to it:

This fucking pansy couldn’t draw blood even if he used a sword

Cos the only “scar” that comes from “O” Is an Academy Award (Flo Matic)

 Now we have added a multi to it (a sword/Award) More than one syllable rhymes therefore it makes it a multi. Notice how much better it makes it sound just by making that minor adjustment?

We can keep adding multis to make it sound even better. Let’s add even more multis.

This pussy couldn’t draw blood even if he battled me with swords

Cos the only “scars” that comes from “O” are the Academy Awards (Flo Matic)

Now we have used a 5 syllable multi which polished the bar up quite well. Be sure to use multis in all of your verses because they are always being looked for by voters and they make your bars sound much better. This now leads us to EndRhymes and InRhymes.

§  EndRhymes

The EndRhyme is the rhyme at the end of your bars. We have basically covered this in the multis section so there is not much more to say about it. Here is an example of an EndRhyme.

Artist??? That half ass rhyme ya dropped is the reason they dispersed

He should have taken his own advice, the first 3 words of his verse (Flo_Matic)

The EndRhymes are (dispersed/his verse) simply because they are at the end of the bar.

Now we’ll be moving on to InRhymes.

§  InRhymes (Line to Line)

The InRhyme is the rhyme at the beginning of your lines. It makes for a smooth transition from the set up line to the punchline. Here is an example of an InRhyme:

Artist??? That half ass rhyme ya dropped is the reason they dispersed

This perp should have taken his own advice, the first 3 words of his verse (Flo_Matic)

As you can see the example above has a much smoother transition than the example above it. (This perp) rhymes with the EndRhymes (dispersed) and (his verse).

§  InRhymes (Bar to Bar)

You can also use InRhymes to make for a smooth transition from bar to bar the same as you can from line to line. Here is an example:

Artist??? That half ass rhyme ya dropped is the reason they dispersed

This perp should have taken his own advice, the first 3 words of his verse

Kris first blazed your snake pit, then I straight ripped your heart sir

Farther more we need this thread renamed “Ven the Noobs Sparring partner” (Flo_Matic)

As you can see the two bars have smooth transition accredited to the EndRhymes and InRhymes. (His verse/Kris first)

Now lets look at it while I add emphasis to all of the InRhymes and EndRhymes within the 2 bars:

Artist??? That half ass rhyme ya dropped is the reason they dispersed

This perp should have taken his own advice, the first 3 words of his verse

Kris first blazed your snake pit, then I straight ripped your heart sir

Farther more we need this thread renamed “Ven the Noobs Sparring partner”

As you can see the bars have a very smooth transition. Try to use these aspects as much as possible while writing your verse.

TIP: I usually write my bars without initially focusing on the InRhymes unless they just come to me naturally. After my bars are wrote I will then go back in and try to add the InRhyme. You may personally find it easier to think of the InRhyme while you are creating a bar but that is not the case for me.

Okay that just about covers flow so now we’ll be moving on to creating Punchlines

·         Punchlines

Punchlines are what make the battle. I like to think of a punchline as if I was in a boxing match with my opponent and the punchline is the hook while the setup is the jab that’s opening my opponent up for the hook. I’ll be elaborating on this more throughout this section. Every bar has to have a punchline! Punchlines win battles!

There are countless ways to create a punchline and I’ll tell you the ones that I know.

One way to create a punchline is to use similes and metaphors

§  Simile

A simile is a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds. It is usually used with “like” or “as”.

Here are some simple examples:

Dumb as a rock

Tall like a tree

Big as a mountain

Sweet like candy

Alone similes make for a weak punchline but it is almost imperative to include them into a bar to help the concept. They are typically used to assist the setup.

If one was to say:

I’ll hit him and leave his head spinnin like a clock

He just don’t understand cos he’s dumb as a rock

That is a punchline but it is just too simple and ineffective because it is only made up of similes.

§  Metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity.

Below are some examples of metaphors:

I’m a beast on this mic

The simile for that would be: When I’m on the mic I’m like a beast

Your skill is garbage

The simile for that would be: Your skill is as useless as garbage

Metaphors can be a very strong weapon. Using a metaphor to create a punch is called a metapunch.

o    MetaPunch

A MetaPunch is when you use a metaphor for your punchline.

Below is a bar that was used against me in one of my past battles and is a great example of a metapunch.

He's buggin', but I lift up like crunches so watch your step,  ßSimile

Judging when he doesn't get punches, Flo's a boxing Ref. ßMetaphor

(Kiki Spirez)

What he did here was thought of a concept and in this case the concept is “how I vote battles”.

Once upon a time we had a quick scuffle about how I voted one of his battles. He felt that I didn’t understand some of his punchlines. So since his concept was that I was judging battles but didn’t get the punchlines, he thought “who would judge a battle and not get a punch?” A boxing referee! Therefore he created a very clever metaphor out of the concept as you see in the bar above.

He could have simply said:

He don’t get punches so Flo is like a boxing ref

But that is just too simple and weak for a punchline

So to create a punchline using a metaphor you need to first come up with the concept and then think of something that is similar but has no relation to what you are talking about (boxing and rapping have nothing to do with each other but they both have judges and punches so to speak)

Then put it together like I showed you that Kiki did in the bar above.

After you get a grasp on that you will be ready to create a metapunch.

Another way to create a punchline is to use nameplay.

Continued in next post ...

I don’t feel like you took a HUGE shot at me but I do feel like your intention was to attack me so my killer instincts kicked in.

RhymeZone:  Personally I don’t see anything wrong with it. If you are digging a whole and have a track hoe, are you going to use a shovel instead because you feel that’s how a real man does it?

I personally feel (and this is just my opinion) that you need to humble yourself if you feel you are too good to use a rhyming dictionary.

If we ever freestyle against each other I promise I won’t pull a rhyming dictionary out of my pocket. But this is the internet and text battling. This is more of a battle between scriptures.

So would it be accurate to say you saying in the same respect that, if I wanted to use a punchline against you that was related to a certain movie that it would be weak for me to do some research on that movie first?

I think that this is one of them “agree to disagree” situations.

I know that cat, rat, hat, tat, sat, bat, fat, stat, splat, and gat rhymes with pat, but it is nice to have them all laid out in front of me to see them all at once when writing my bars.

No offense, but you have been here for nearly 3 and a half years and you only have 3 battles so you talking to me about this feels wrong to me. You have written 3 battle verses since you have been here! That is less than 1 per year. How can you have the audacity to even reply to this tutorial like you have based on that fact? Maybe you did use a rhyming dictionary but don’t remember because it has been so God damn long ago!

To me you entered this page with the intent to troll. That must be what you spend your time doing since it obviously isn’t battling. And your remark about battling a rhyming dictionary is just whack. I do more than just rhyme homeboy. As a matter of fact I’m setting up a call out for you now because I’m already disgusted with your intentions here and I’m not the type to rant on with 10 pages of shit talking. I’d rather just do what we (well at least me ..who knows why you are here) are here to do. Battle

Look Acid I don't care if he has 10 open battles that haven't been closed, my point still stands. He has been here 3 and half years and his battle record says 3! He has had plenty of time to change that even if he has a couple of open battles. 3 and half years a guy should have at least 20 - 25 at least, and especially when he wants to jump into a debate on how to battle.

For you, I am kind of annoyed that considering all of the improvement that members have told you that you need, the only thing that you have to comment on in here is that comment. You should have read the damn tutorial and learnt some much needed info instead of worrying about the situation between me and Jay which is closed here anyways. That has already moved on to the battlefield. SMH