The beat radiates from Edens and leaks into the halls of Wannamaker. Follow your ears and you'll find a kid rapping like his lines have been memorized for days, but his references to present surroundings would tell you otherwise. He flows to the beat entertaining his audience, letting his thoughts be known, sometimes taunting a fellow MC.
Even with the occasional exchange of insults, there is a mutual admiration between the rappers who are part of the growing freestyle culture at Duke. As junior Shavlik Randolph said, “If I see the person that I battled the day before, it's not like we don't talk. I totally respect him and he respects me and we do that because we both have respect for freestyling.”
Anyone who has watched 8 Mile would interpret freestyling as a bloodthirsty competition; however, at Duke most MCs prefer noncompetitive cyphers. “I love [cyphers] way more than battles because a battle only tests wit and not flow,” senior Jason Stewart explained. “Yet, even when it is a [cypher], you do not want to be shown up by the other MCs, so all MCs keep each other on their toes.”
Freestyling has brought Duke students together of all ages, races and backgrounds. “Freestyling [has become] a totally social event, mainly because we were all so glad to meet some other MCs. It was great to get out of the [Pittsburgh's] battlegrounds and let that flow become the foundation of camaraderie,” senior Avery Capone said.
With racial integration being a continual topic on campus, both administrators and student groups have struggled to encourage students to diversify socially. Several students said that more often than not, those efforts result in awkwardly forced encounters. These drive students further apart rather than create lasting bonds. But here, in these small gatherings of MCs, there is no difference between black and white, Hispanic and Asian. “For me, freestyling is a way of bringing people together,” junior Ike Mbanefo said.
Freestyling finds it roots in the West African griots—storytellers who taught their villagers the history of their community through rhythmic poetry. By the end of the Civil War, the culture had transformed into the African American oral tradition of toasting, in which legends and myths were passed on laced with improvisations as well as profane and sexual content. Although hip hop has strayed from the storytelling aspect, rhymes and rhythm are still central to freestyling.
While many of us grew up learning to rhyme with Mother Goose and Dr. Seuss, not everyone has the potential to be a successful MC. “It takes a certain kind of creative wit… you're going off the top of your head, trying to make it sound coherent,” explained Mbanefo.
Most, if not all, of the MCs at Duke will not be going into the music recording industry after graduation, but it will always be something that they can enjoy. “Freestyling in an office cubicle may be hard to picture, but picking my kids up from soccer practice in a chrome minivan with the system bumping sure isn't,” Capone joked. Like riding a bike, freestyling is a skill that comes as second nature once you have learned how to do it; it's as simple as turning on a beat and letting the words stream forth.
As hip hop grows in popularity, the freestyle culture at Duke will continue to provide an opportunity for both MCs and spectators to come together under a common interest. “Freestyling is just like art to me,” explained Stewart, “Duke just gives another canvas for creating and observing.”
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