Post by Game on Sept 28, 2014 9:55:12 GMT -5
HOW TO BATTLE LIKE A PRO
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, when it comes to being "critiqued".
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.
I see a lot of new emcees make the mistake of filling their verses with these. A statement is basically just telling somebody what they are, or what they do in a non creative way.
For instance:
Ur a bitch, ur stupid and ur whack.
Ur 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.
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 different! If your skill is so polished it will speak for itself. If you need to directly tell the audience 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The flow of your verse relies on a few different factors. The first is the 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 (me vs a battler named O Block)
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
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.
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 ("Just Quit Now")
The EndRhymes are (dispersed/his verse) simply because they are at the end of the bar.
Now we’ll be moving on to InRhymes.
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
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).
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”
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 by replacing words with synonyms that rhyme. 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
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.
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.
A MetaPunch is when you use a metaphor for your punchline.
Below is a bar that was used against a rapper named Flo Matic and is a great example of a metapunch.
He's buggin', but I lift up like crunches so watch your step,
Judging when he doesn't get punches, Flo's a boxing Ref. (Kiki Spirez)
What he did here was thought of a concept and in this case the concept is “how Flo vote battles”.
Once upon a time Flo and Kiki had a quick scuffle about how Flo voted one of Kiki's battles. He felt that Flo didn’t understand some of his punchlines. So since his concept was that Flo 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.
Nameplay is taking your opponents name and turning it around to work against him. For instance, let’s take the name "Flo-Matic" for example.
"Flo Matic". So look at the name and think of what you could do to wreck it. Well, the first thing that comes to mind for me is that the girls name on the Progressive commercials is Flo and she has become well known for being in that commercial so most people will understand the concept. So then you need to say okay, now I have (Flo) and (Progressive). How can I turn this into a punchline? Even though the setup comes first, you always want to create your punchline first and then come back and fill in the set up with something relevant. So for the punchline:
Only time Flo can be progressive is in the commercials
That’ll do just fine for the punchline. (Flo) is the opponent, and also the girl on the (Progressive) commercials.
,
Now that we have the punchline we need to create the setup. Since the punchline is based on "Flo-Matic" not being progressive, the setup line needs to be something leading up to that. So you would think, okay if he isn’t progressive, in the same sense that would mean he isn’t getting any better. So the next thing to do is to think of a word that rhymes with “commercials” and is relevant to not being progressive or getting better. “Rehearsals” seems like a good word because it relates to somebody practicing to get better and it rhymes with “commercials”. Now that I have my EndRhyme I will then fill in the rest of the setup with something relevant like so:
He stays lacking skill like he missed too many rehearsals
That’ll work for the set up. Now let’s put the two together:
He stays lacking skill like he missed too many rehearsals
Only time Flo can be progressive is in the commercials
I like that. It has a nice punchline using nameplay. Also notice that the multis came together naturally for me. (many rehearsals/in the commercials) I got lucky, that doesn’t happen a lot but it goes too show that it does in fact happen.
Another way to use nameplay is simply using the first letter of their name. It is very common to call people by the first letter of their name. (Jason/J, Timmy/T, Dustin/D) This works out with every letter in the alphabet in text battling.
For instance, in the next example the guys name is Orc. I take the first letter of his name and call him “O”. Next I think of words which are anagrams that start with the letter “O”. In this case I chose “Oscar”. Oscar starts with an “O” and also has the word “scar” within it, therefore making it an anagram. An "Oscar" is an Academy Award handed down for achievements in motion picture productions and performance. So in conclusion I would say:
Cos the only “scars” that comes from “O” are the Academy Awards
Explanation:
(The only “scars” that come from “O”) means that “O” produces “scars” in result, creating the word “Oscars”.
It also means “O” (Orc) isn’t man enough to inflict “scars” to somebody.
So I need to now work around that concept to create my setup line.
I don’t want to use the word scars twice, so I need to think of a synonym for the word “scar” or a term or word that is related to it.
In this case I chose “blood”. Now that I have the concept of the set up line (blood) I can now find a related word for the EndRhyme. “Swords” will work for this because swords draw blood and rhymes with “Awards”. So in this case I say:
He couldn’t draw blood even if he battled me with swords
Now that I have the set up line I can put the bar together:
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
I know that I made it look kind of simple but there is a lot of work that goes into creating a punch like this. You’ll just need to put your mind to it and use your creativity.
Here is another example with the guys name being Venom.:
Who you trying to omit bitch? You don’t even know the meaning
Only “omit” that comes from “V” is the outcome from this beating (vomit)
Another way to use nameplay is when your opponents name spells out a word or multiple words
Here is an example with the guys name being CasZack:
You better hope ya duck quick when ya see me throw
Cas Zack was only saved by the bell in the T.V show (Cos Zack/Caszack)
You just need to take a good look at his name and see which one of these methods will work for it. It is safe to use a couple of nameplay punches but don’t fill your complete verse with them because it will get old after a couple of bars.
Another way to use nameplay is to relate your opponents name to something else. If your opponents name is “Sherman” you can relate it to toilet paper. If it is “Bush” you can relate it to pussy etc.
This wasn’t a bar out of a battle verse but just a time when I was having fun and decided to wreck on a guy who posted a verse to join a crew at a forum I was once on. His name is Day Darian. I decided to shorten his name to Day Day and refer to him as Day Day from “Friday after Next” the movie.
But aye let me talk to the gang and see what They Say..
They May wanna get back wit ya Friday after next .. Day Day
Here is another example where I wrecked his name in the same verse only this time I changed his name to Double D referring to breast size.
Aye pray they find your shit refreshing as the summer breeze
But brother please, listen, worst case .. show em your double D’s (DD =Day Darian)
You just need to look at his name and ask yourself what his name resembles.
The next type of punchline that I am going to touch up on is a personal punchline.
A personal is just what it sounds like. You are finding something personal about your opponent and wrecking him for it. This may be his age, where he resides, how he looks, his battle record, profile avatar, signature or anything personal. Personals consist of “digging up dirt” on your opponent. The first thing to do would be to check his profile for any information that he has included, then google his name in search of his facebook, twitter, myspace or any info that my be publicized about him. You could scan through his open mics, past battles, and general responses to find personals also. After you “dig up his dirt” you will then be able to start creating punchlines from that info.
When I battle somebody the very first thing that I do is make a summary on every bit of personal info that I can find. I will open up Word on my computer and start filling the page with everything that I dig up about him. If I get a good idea at the time that I discover the info I will make a note of the concept that I have in mind also. Using personals have a catch to them though. You will need to prove that the personal is true. You can do this by using expos above your verse that inform the voters of what they are about to read (you may need to include links to the proof to make it solid) or you can add a link within your actual punchline. Most sites have the option to do so by adding links with UBBC code.
I’ll show you a couple of examples of turning personals into punchlines:
This guy claimed to be an actor so I found his Twitter account and used his picture for a personal. I did actually learn from his Twitter account that he was in fact an actor and had a lot of followers. But his picture was an image of his face with him giving a big smile. I noticed that his teeth were quite yellow and I said to myself this is gold! He’s an actor with bright yellow teeth? So like always I started thinking of a punchline for this concept. I thought to myself what can I say about an actor with yellow teeth? Then it dawned on me, the actors who do the before poses for dentist commercials. So this became the punch:
Must do the (before) poses for local dentists, that’s why he keeps his teeth so yellow
Perfect! Then I thought of a swell set up line using the process that I have been explaining throughout this tutorial and came up with:
He’s claiming to be a professional actor well you sure aint no Al Pachino fellow
Put the two together and got:
He’s claiming to be a professional actor well you sure aint no Al Pachino fellow
Must do the (before) poses for local dentists, that’s why he keeps his teeth so yellow
Then I added the link to his image to make the punch solid.
Here goes another example:
This guy was known for dodging and ducking battles. He had 2 no shows on his battle record and a lot of posted comments pertaining to dodging his battles. I had to add some expos before the verse to inform the voters of this fact first. Then since the concept is based on Mohammad Ali I had to also add some history on Ali in the expos. Most people know Ali as a great boxer but I wanted to portray him as the man who dodged the Vietnam draft as he did. His dodging the draft meant that he ultimately dodged many great battles just like the guy I was battling did. So this is what I came up with:
Mike No Show? Oh no bro that wouldn’t shock Me
He done dodged more battles than Mohammad Ali
The bar above does not need a link because I added the links to the posts where he dodged the battles along with the concept in the expos above the verse. Without the expos this bar would mean nothing because I would have not provided any solid proof. All of your personals must be proven or they will be automatically discredited and be called a simple statement.
Note: Some text rap battle forums do not appreciate expos.
The next type of punchline that I am going to touch up on is a wordplay punchline.
Wordplay is exactly how it sounds. It is taking two or more words that sound alike and making them both pertain to the concept at hand. For instance:
Lyin/line
One means to not tell the truth and the other is a string or rope in this case.
Here is an example of wordplay, in the example below hit the link when you read up to that part.
All-yer verse screams is “VENS FAKE AND MASTERED THE ART OF THREAT”
Barking that, yer skilled! With all a that lyin (line) I guess you really Are a vet
In the bar above, in one sense it is saying that he claims that he is a veteran but he is (lying) because he truly is not that skilled. In another sense it is saying that he is lying (line} so much about being a veteran (vet) that he is like a fishing reel that is named avet.
That concludes punchlines.
Important Tips and Resources
Here are some important tips and resource for you to use. It is critical information so do read!
Always keep a dictionary by your side when writing. You may know what a word means since it is already a part of your vocabulary but it is still a great idea to look it up so you have a fresh understanding of the word and therefore can use it to its best potential.
RhymeZone is a great place to get ideas and find rhyming words. Let’s face the fact that it takes enough time just to think of a damn concept. If you are looking for an EndRhyme and can’t reach one in your mind, type it in at RhymeZone and have 50 or so words there for you.
It is also good for when you are in need of a synonym or antonym which is a big part of creating punchlines.
As I have already mentioned it is very important to have notes on all of the personals that you may possibly use against your opponent.
There are things that you should not do when creating a battle verse.
No gay shit!
No mom jokes
No fake personals
No self glory
Final Words
Understand that this does not cover every aspect of battling and you can never stop learning. You should always read veteran battlers verses to help expand your mind. Also read as many tutorials as you possibly can, you will learn something new every time. Take criticism constructively and understand that there are no haters in this game. You are either favored or not, no matter how harsh one may be it is all words to help you elevate. Even if they are intending to hate, you need to take it as constructive criticism.
And always remember that you can always get better.
Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts or questions.
GO GET EM!
Stay Up
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, when it comes to being "critiqued".
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 emcees make the mistake of filling their verses with these. A statement is basically just telling somebody what they are, or what they do in a non creative way.
For instance:
Ur a bitch, ur stupid and ur whack.
Ur 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 different! If your skill is so polished it will speak for itself. If you need to directly tell the audience 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.
- 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 (me vs a battler named O Block)
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
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 ("Just Quit Now")
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
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”
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 by replacing words with synonyms that rhyme. 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.
- MetaPunch
A MetaPunch is when you use a metaphor for your punchline.
Below is a bar that was used against a rapper named Flo Matic and is a great example of a metapunch.
He's buggin', but I lift up like crunches so watch your step,
Judging when he doesn't get punches, Flo's a boxing Ref. (Kiki Spirez)
What he did here was thought of a concept and in this case the concept is “how Flo vote battles”.
Once upon a time Flo and Kiki had a quick scuffle about how Flo voted one of Kiki's battles. He felt that Flo didn’t understand some of his punchlines. So since his concept was that Flo 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.
- Nameplay
Nameplay is taking your opponents name and turning it around to work against him. For instance, let’s take the name "Flo-Matic" for example.
"Flo Matic". So look at the name and think of what you could do to wreck it. Well, the first thing that comes to mind for me is that the girls name on the Progressive commercials is Flo and she has become well known for being in that commercial so most people will understand the concept. So then you need to say okay, now I have (Flo) and (Progressive). How can I turn this into a punchline? Even though the setup comes first, you always want to create your punchline first and then come back and fill in the set up with something relevant. So for the punchline:
Only time Flo can be progressive is in the commercials
That’ll do just fine for the punchline. (Flo) is the opponent, and also the girl on the (Progressive) commercials.
,
Now that we have the punchline we need to create the setup. Since the punchline is based on "Flo-Matic" not being progressive, the setup line needs to be something leading up to that. So you would think, okay if he isn’t progressive, in the same sense that would mean he isn’t getting any better. So the next thing to do is to think of a word that rhymes with “commercials” and is relevant to not being progressive or getting better. “Rehearsals” seems like a good word because it relates to somebody practicing to get better and it rhymes with “commercials”. Now that I have my EndRhyme I will then fill in the rest of the setup with something relevant like so:
He stays lacking skill like he missed too many rehearsals
That’ll work for the set up. Now let’s put the two together:
He stays lacking skill like he missed too many rehearsals
Only time Flo can be progressive is in the commercials
I like that. It has a nice punchline using nameplay. Also notice that the multis came together naturally for me. (many rehearsals/in the commercials) I got lucky, that doesn’t happen a lot but it goes too show that it does in fact happen.
Another way to use nameplay is simply using the first letter of their name. It is very common to call people by the first letter of their name. (Jason/J, Timmy/T, Dustin/D) This works out with every letter in the alphabet in text battling.
For instance, in the next example the guys name is Orc. I take the first letter of his name and call him “O”. Next I think of words which are anagrams that start with the letter “O”. In this case I chose “Oscar”. Oscar starts with an “O” and also has the word “scar” within it, therefore making it an anagram. An "Oscar" is an Academy Award handed down for achievements in motion picture productions and performance. So in conclusion I would say:
Cos the only “scars” that comes from “O” are the Academy Awards
Explanation:
(The only “scars” that come from “O”) means that “O” produces “scars” in result, creating the word “Oscars”.
It also means “O” (Orc) isn’t man enough to inflict “scars” to somebody.
So I need to now work around that concept to create my setup line.
I don’t want to use the word scars twice, so I need to think of a synonym for the word “scar” or a term or word that is related to it.
In this case I chose “blood”. Now that I have the concept of the set up line (blood) I can now find a related word for the EndRhyme. “Swords” will work for this because swords draw blood and rhymes with “Awards”. So in this case I say:
He couldn’t draw blood even if he battled me with swords
Now that I have the set up line I can put the bar together:
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
I know that I made it look kind of simple but there is a lot of work that goes into creating a punch like this. You’ll just need to put your mind to it and use your creativity.
Here is another example with the guys name being Venom.:
Who you trying to omit bitch? You don’t even know the meaning
Only “omit” that comes from “V” is the outcome from this beating (vomit)
Another way to use nameplay is when your opponents name spells out a word or multiple words
Here is an example with the guys name being CasZack:
You better hope ya duck quick when ya see me throw
Cas Zack was only saved by the bell in the T.V show (Cos Zack/Caszack)
You just need to take a good look at his name and see which one of these methods will work for it. It is safe to use a couple of nameplay punches but don’t fill your complete verse with them because it will get old after a couple of bars.
Another way to use nameplay is to relate your opponents name to something else. If your opponents name is “Sherman” you can relate it to toilet paper. If it is “Bush” you can relate it to pussy etc.
This wasn’t a bar out of a battle verse but just a time when I was having fun and decided to wreck on a guy who posted a verse to join a crew at a forum I was once on. His name is Day Darian. I decided to shorten his name to Day Day and refer to him as Day Day from “Friday after Next” the movie.
But aye let me talk to the gang and see what They Say..
They May wanna get back wit ya Friday after next .. Day Day
Here is another example where I wrecked his name in the same verse only this time I changed his name to Double D referring to breast size.
Aye pray they find your shit refreshing as the summer breeze
But brother please, listen, worst case .. show em your double D’s (DD =Day Darian)
You just need to look at his name and ask yourself what his name resembles.
The next type of punchline that I am going to touch up on is a personal punchline.
- Personal
A personal is just what it sounds like. You are finding something personal about your opponent and wrecking him for it. This may be his age, where he resides, how he looks, his battle record, profile avatar, signature or anything personal. Personals consist of “digging up dirt” on your opponent. The first thing to do would be to check his profile for any information that he has included, then google his name in search of his facebook, twitter, myspace or any info that my be publicized about him. You could scan through his open mics, past battles, and general responses to find personals also. After you “dig up his dirt” you will then be able to start creating punchlines from that info.
When I battle somebody the very first thing that I do is make a summary on every bit of personal info that I can find. I will open up Word on my computer and start filling the page with everything that I dig up about him. If I get a good idea at the time that I discover the info I will make a note of the concept that I have in mind also. Using personals have a catch to them though. You will need to prove that the personal is true. You can do this by using expos above your verse that inform the voters of what they are about to read (you may need to include links to the proof to make it solid) or you can add a link within your actual punchline. Most sites have the option to do so by adding links with UBBC code.
I’ll show you a couple of examples of turning personals into punchlines:
This guy claimed to be an actor so I found his Twitter account and used his picture for a personal. I did actually learn from his Twitter account that he was in fact an actor and had a lot of followers. But his picture was an image of his face with him giving a big smile. I noticed that his teeth were quite yellow and I said to myself this is gold! He’s an actor with bright yellow teeth? So like always I started thinking of a punchline for this concept. I thought to myself what can I say about an actor with yellow teeth? Then it dawned on me, the actors who do the before poses for dentist commercials. So this became the punch:
Must do the (before) poses for local dentists, that’s why he keeps his teeth so yellow
Perfect! Then I thought of a swell set up line using the process that I have been explaining throughout this tutorial and came up with:
He’s claiming to be a professional actor well you sure aint no Al Pachino fellow
Put the two together and got:
He’s claiming to be a professional actor well you sure aint no Al Pachino fellow
Must do the (before) poses for local dentists, that’s why he keeps his teeth so yellow
Then I added the link to his image to make the punch solid.
Here goes another example:
This guy was known for dodging and ducking battles. He had 2 no shows on his battle record and a lot of posted comments pertaining to dodging his battles. I had to add some expos before the verse to inform the voters of this fact first. Then since the concept is based on Mohammad Ali I had to also add some history on Ali in the expos. Most people know Ali as a great boxer but I wanted to portray him as the man who dodged the Vietnam draft as he did. His dodging the draft meant that he ultimately dodged many great battles just like the guy I was battling did. So this is what I came up with:
Mike No Show? Oh no bro that wouldn’t shock Me
He done dodged more battles than Mohammad Ali
The bar above does not need a link because I added the links to the posts where he dodged the battles along with the concept in the expos above the verse. Without the expos this bar would mean nothing because I would have not provided any solid proof. All of your personals must be proven or they will be automatically discredited and be called a simple statement.
Note: Some text rap battle forums do not appreciate expos.
The next type of punchline that I am going to touch up on is a wordplay punchline.
- Wordplay
Wordplay is exactly how it sounds. It is taking two or more words that sound alike and making them both pertain to the concept at hand. For instance:
Lyin/line
One means to not tell the truth and the other is a string or rope in this case.
Here is an example of wordplay, in the example below hit the link when you read up to that part.
All-yer verse screams is “VENS FAKE AND MASTERED THE ART OF THREAT”
Barking that, yer skilled! With all a that lyin (line) I guess you really Are a vet
In the bar above, in one sense it is saying that he claims that he is a veteran but he is (lying) because he truly is not that skilled. In another sense it is saying that he is lying (line} so much about being a veteran (vet) that he is like a fishing reel that is named avet.
That concludes punchlines.
Important Tips and Resources
Here are some important tips and resource for you to use. It is critical information so do read!
- Tools Necessary For Writing a Battle Verse
- Dictionary
Always keep a dictionary by your side when writing. You may know what a word means since it is already a part of your vocabulary but it is still a great idea to look it up so you have a fresh understanding of the word and therefore can use it to its best potential.
- RhymeZone
RhymeZone is a great place to get ideas and find rhyming words. Let’s face the fact that it takes enough time just to think of a damn concept. If you are looking for an EndRhyme and can’t reach one in your mind, type it in at RhymeZone and have 50 or so words there for you.
It is also good for when you are in need of a synonym or antonym which is a big part of creating punchlines.
- Notes
As I have already mentioned it is very important to have notes on all of the personals that you may possibly use against your opponent.
- The Don’ts of Writing a Battle Verse
There are things that you should not do when creating a battle verse.
No gay shit!
No mom jokes
No fake personals
No self glory
Final Words
Understand that this does not cover every aspect of battling and you can never stop learning. You should always read veteran battlers verses to help expand your mind. Also read as many tutorials as you possibly can, you will learn something new every time. Take criticism constructively and understand that there are no haters in this game. You are either favored or not, no matter how harsh one may be it is all words to help you elevate. Even if they are intending to hate, you need to take it as constructive criticism.
And always remember that you can always get better.
Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts or questions.
GO GET EM!
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