After a series of inspirational events within the past few months, I have intentionally been trying to pick up rhyming again.
Being somewhat intentional about writing rap from my highschool days to the first half of university, I subsequently sort of let this art recede into the background of my interests, especially as I got more into the world of critical thinking, academic learning, and scholarly research. Through this decade of time, I did write the occasional birthday rap or humourous rap for friends for random things. However, I wasn't really intentional about it.... until a few months ago.
It's interesting how things end up. I never knew I'd be picking this thing up again. Honestly, I thought it was kind of a "juvenile" hobby of mine from another era of my life that I "outgrew".
An unexpected surprise was waiting for me around the corner though. For the past couple years, I have been exploring psychoanalysis, and through that, I have learned how to use the right side of my brain more and more. The right brain is the side of the brain that is more associative, intuitive, emotive, imaginative, creative as opposed to the left side of the brain that's very logical, rational, factual, scientific etc. Through psychoanalysis, I have learned how to use the right brain in specific ways, like dream interpretation, counselling exercises involving ones imagination, and getting in touch with the wisdom of my physical body on issues that I'm dealing with. I've also tried to approach life with more of my right brain in general.
The interesting thing though, is that I've learned to freestyle rap with my right brain! I realize only now that 10+ years ago, I tried to go about freestyling mainly with my left brain. And it simply doesn't work. Even if it works for a few lines, it feels very mechanical, the way one feels when one is reading/doing scientific lab reports. It has a different qualitative feel to it compared to the other side of the brain. One has to tune into the right brain for organic "flow" that's "cool". It's been really interesting. I never knew before that one had to freestyle with the part of the brain one dreamed with.
I am far from mastering the art of freestlying, but the unexpected psychotechnology of psychoanalysis has taken me really far. It's a big exaggeration, but it feels like the help of psychoanalysis in freestyle rapping has been like Neo "downloading" Kung fu into his mind and then just "knowing how to do it".
I also realize that it's so much easier to rhyme vulgar than rhyme clean. A lot of the time, when I tap into my right brain flow, my inhibitions/restrictions/limits of the cleanliness of the words that come into my mind are lowered along with the rational logic that I try to lower because it helps me to be more creative. However, when this happens sometimes, I can sense vulgar words coming into my mouth, where I have to override my mouth from rhyming with my left brain right before the filthy content almost rolls off of my tongue! This is a concrete lesson for me in how Jesus said that out of the overflow of the heart (in my view, a lot of the "heart" of a person is associated with the right brain) the mouth speaks.
I also realize that it's easier to flow when I deeply put my body into it (i.e. my head bobbing, my rhythmic arm flailing, and even my leg doing some mini-springing). When my whole body is immersing itself in the "sick flow" of a beat, I feel like I've "entered the beat" as opposed to just "listening outside of it" and the result is that I can freestyle a lot better. This is opposed to me rapping while standing as still as a statue. It's so interesting how the body and rightbrain creativity are interconnected, another lesson I learned thanks to psychoanalysis.
Picking this up again, I have picked up more than just a hobby. I have the opportunity to "spiritually scrutinize" the nature of flow through its hip-hop form. Freestlying by its very nature taps into one's "spirit" that involves an autonomous and spontaneous flow that, to a certain degree, has a life of its own. Just like how the content of one's dreams seems to have a life of its own. And putting this part of the human person under the microscope of introspection can reap rewards on uncovering more about the "spirit" of human nature. I know this, because I have learned that there is a dimension to interaction with God that involves "passive reception" on the part of human consciousness, such as "being filled with the Spirit" (which is a passive imperative that involves allowing oneself to be influenced by something, or in this case someone). Also, Ephesians 5 also associates spiritual phenomena, such as being filled with the Spirit, with music, suggesting another strong connection between musical flow and spiritual flow. I am learning more and more that the very nature of "spirit" is something that is constantly flowing in a spontaneous manner to a certain degree. The fruits of this spiritual research can have massive implications for one's spiritual formation in Christ!
Exciting!
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