How I Became A Lyricist

A lot of people want to know how I learned to rap and freestyle on the spot while making up rhymes and metaphors. So I decided to write my lyrical origin story to share with anyone interested in knowing. I will start from the beginning and explain how I worked on my skill.

TEXT BATTLE FORUMS

I started rapping back in 2006 on different text battle forums. Truth be told, I am not sure how I even came across these websites at such a young age. So you are probably wondering what a text battle forum is, well it is an online community that uses a forum to host online written rap battles. The forum also included things like posting your music or written pieces that may not necessarily be related to battle rap. It was a good way to post without the fear of anyone knowing who you really are, while properly getting critiqued for your work. Unfortunately the website that I use to have a membership too, no longer exists.

MAKING LOW QUALITY MUSIC

By 2007, I found some random dynamic microphone by accident in my house. I do not know where it came from or who even bought, but I started using it as if it was mine. This is when I first start making really bad music. By really bad, I mean that I was off beat, my rhyme patterns were off and I was writing like a demonic gangster (whatever that means). However, that one microphone sparked my interest a lot and is the reason that I still make music today.

YOU WANT TO BATTLE? LETS GO!

By 2010, more and more people started to find out that I was making music and writing raps. I got challenged to my first written rap battle that would take place in person. I was super nervous because I never had to memorize my stuff, yet alone say it out loud in a crowd. I was motivated by the battlers on "Grind Time", which was a rap battle organization in the state. View the link below to check out Grind Time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER5XyrAjd5g

But once I did it, the feeling and pressure boosted my confidence. I really do think I can beat anyone, especially now. Oh and if you are wondering, I lyrically destroyed my opponent.

LEARNING TO FREESTYLE

Around 2011, I started to teach myself how to freestyle. I always feared the idea of forgetting my rhymes and getting a bad reaction from people. I want to learn how to put rhymes together on the spot, even if I was not saying any that was metaphorically amusing. I literally would sit down and just type up words that rhymed. I would not write any of the lyrics down just words that rhymed. The reason is because I was trying to memorize the sounds the words make, so that it would naturally flow out of my mouth. For example, I would focus on the end of how a word sounds and try to think of another sound. Other people usually try to memorize words that rhyme with that word, so that's why it would be harder for them. They are little trying to think of the next word, while I already have the sounds in my head. Once I mastered how you can make certain words sound like they rhyme or naturally think of words that do rhyme, it became easier for me to do.

WHERE HAS THIS LEAD ME TO?

Fast forward to the present day, I have the confidence to rap in a crowd, I have the skills to freestyle and I work on my music. I have a studio set up at my house, which I record at. I still practice freestyling up until today. I use websites like random word generators that will pop up random words and I will freestyle to a beat using those words. You can use the same one that I use which is:

www.randomwordgenerator.com

I also started producing instrumentals and sound engineering for my friends. I feel like the more I continued to make music, the more I wanted to learn the different aspect involved in it.

If you have in interest in music, honestly just try it out alone until you are comfortable sharing your stuff. A lot of people have this false perception that you need to let the world know that you are an artist. I feel like you should do it for yourself and eventually other people will start recognizing your talent. You can try following my foot steps but I can say that I have over 12 years of experience when it comes to music or being a lyricist. Just do what your comfortable with but definitely give it a shot.

- BFXPHOTOGRAPHY