We often happen to see a myriad of young talented women and men spitting bars online, over beats like Roddy Rich’s Box, Cardi B’s Money, Meghan Thee Stallion’s Savage, DaBaby’s Rockstar. And they are incredibly skilled too. Funnily though, they have little to no views, while others, get thousands, if not tens of thousands of REAL views. We took our time to study what these upcoming artists did differently from one another, and we’ve come down to 5 key differences that are valid for ALL social media platforms (Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, YouTube).
5. Your Freestyle Video Must Be Visually Clear
I am not saying to buy a light ring and a whole studio equipment just for your freestyle video, however… It is always easier to accept an unknown artist when you get to see him/her, than when they just upload a photo for the whole track. People need to see you moving, and clearly at that, and your face MUST be visible. If you don’t believe me, think about your favorite rapper. Do you like their photos or their videos more?
4. You Have To Chill And Have Fun
Here’s something you may not hear as often as you should: people don’t connect with try harders. People crave fun, and love having fun trough others. That means, when you try too hard and you’re doing too much, you’ll give off desperate vibes (which no one likes). But when you have fun and seem to have put in little to no effort, your message clicks with the audience, and you seem super relatable. Which translates to a cool freestyle video that is enjoyable to watch. And if you’re thinking ”what about all those official music videos freestyles?” – true. There are artists who produce entire music videos for their freestyle covers, BUT… usually those are artists who already have pretty large followings, micro celebrities, and for them more visuals mean more traffic to their songs. You, on the other hand, need to win over real fans, not just curious eyes. Your first fans need to focus on your bars, rhymes, and flow, rather than your flashy chains. If you attract your fanbase by flexing a materialistic lifestyle, the moment something happens to you and you can’t flex no more, they’ll drop you like a sack of potatoes. Not something that leads to a long lasting career.
3. You Must Include Captions/Subtitles
If you’re an American, then you’re most likely unbothered about people who don’t speak English, but you need to remember that people from literally all over the world love rap music. A 13-year-old from Sweden could be listening to your freestyle right now, and he would love to rap along with you but he can’t, because you spit those bars too fast for his understanding and you never included any captions. On YouTube you have the option to enable auto-generated CC, while on the other platforms we highly suggest you add those yourself in the main video, or at least in the caption/description. Always keep in mind a GLOBAL view of your career, not just your local city or state.
2. Your Other Content Should Be On Point
If you did everything else right, you will guaranteedly have engagement on your video. But how do you make sure people stick around and don’t just skip to the next rapper? You put in all your effort in ALL of your other videos/photos/links. If I see a dope freestyle, then on your profile I see photos of your girlfriend, your shoes, your house, your kids, I’m so keeping it moving because all my friends are showing their personal sh*t too. And so does everybody else’s friend. If I am going to follow someone new, I need to know they’re not going to waste my time. I need to see photos in the studio, videos from live performances, other fire freestyles, a consistent brand image, etc. But all of it should be related to your ARTISTIC identity. If I wanted to see more regular sh*t, I got my own family and friends to look at. Show me something new, be an entertainer.
1. You Must Tag The Main Fan Accounts Of The Original Artist
This one is especially important if you upload your freestyle on Instagram. Before you do that, search on IG their biggest fan accounts, by typing in the search bar: ”(rapper name) fan”. You will be suggested their biggest fan accounts. Why you should do that instead of tagging the artist himself/herself? Because they are so big, they will most likely NEVER see your tag at millions of followers. But if you tag their fan accounts, those usually stand at tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of followers, and you got a pretty fat chance his/her fans WILL look at your video, and if you’re good, they WILL follow you. You chose their favorite artist to freestyle over, so you both share the admiration for X, Y, Z rapper. They also love their idol so much, that they can’t get enough of them, so they highly enjoy derivative works as well. That’s how remixes blow up, remakes make it to Top 40, freestyles get press attention. For Facebook: open a new tab, search again ”(rapper name) fans” and you will be suggested their main fan pages, go like them so you can tag them in your video, then use ”@(fan page name)” to tag them in the comments of the final video. If you’re lucky, you might even get reposted by these fan accounts. And that is exposure to THOUSANDS (sometimes hundreds of thousands) of real fans ready to accept you and like you. FOR FREE. Remember: target THEIR FANS, not the artist.
Blue Rhymez Entertainment 