One-up

okay, so here's the deal. i like to listen to good lyricists and pick apart their styles and the lyrical tools they use. now of course, we all know about things like wordplay, metaphor, punches, etc, etc, etc...

but the truth is that a person can only handle so much repitition of the same tools and styles over and over and over before it's simply too much to handle. so altho i have tried to keep a few of my own lyrical tools from being noticed and stolen by others for quite a while, i am now ready to reveal this one tool in hopes that it will be a useful thing for b-boys emcees and netcees.

so...are you ready for SOMETHING NEW!?!? something you can use in both battles AND general writtens?? this is a little thing that i have named "The One-Up".

first let me say that i didn't invent it, but i did pick it out as a specific tool and give it a name so there! hahah!

in general written verses, the One-Up is just a way to make yourself stand out above the masses. in battles, the One-Up is a very useful method of making yourself look better than your specific opponent. rather than being a direct diss to the opponent, it takes something that your opponent said, and makes it better to show how much better of an emcee you are. hence the term "One-Up".

the idea is to take an average phrase, or a phrase used by your opponent, and change its wording so that it sounds more impressive and shows off your mastery of lyricism and language. so you make yourself look good and your opponent look bad at the same time.

the first time i realized the incredible potential of this tool was in listening to "Move Somethin" by Taleb Kweli. in it is the line:

"yall catch bodies, we catch excellent cadavers."

as you can see, Kweli has artfully shown his mastery of description by changing "bodies" to "excellent cadavers", and in the process makes himself look pretty good. he takes a term that is commonly used in hiphop and proves that he can make it better. he just "one-upped" the competition.

this is a versatile tool and can be very effective when used properly. here are two more example of One-Ups that i used in a written piece:

"if you're 'droppin shit', i'll be 'droppin spectacular feces'
so you 'cut it up' while i'm 'choppin immaculate pieces' "

all i did there was take two phrases that are heard all throughout hiphop, and made them more lyrically impressive. add an adjective or two, substitiute in some eloquent synonyms, and VIOLA! you have yourself an official "One-Up".

and let me stress again the cool thing about one-ups is that they aren't JUST making you look good, and they aren't JUST dissing the competition. they do both of those things at the same time!

the examples given above are generalized examples, the type you might use in a written verse. but a good emcee could also use this tool effectively in live battling to make it more personal. for example, lets say your opponent spit a line at you like

"i'll hit with so many bullets you look like swiss cheese"

well, obviously that line is played out as hell. but so is saying "your lines are played" so why not simply prove how much better you are and make your opponent look weak at the same time with a One-Up? by using this technique, your retort could include something like:

"go ahead and 'hit with bullets', i'll 'bitch-slap you with missiles'"

not only does this make you look creative, what's important is that it makes you look MORE creative than the other guy while simultaneously knocking down one of his lines.

so...this is my gift to you fellow emcees and netheads. the amazingly wonderful "One-Up". feel free to use this tool, but as with anything else in life, moderation is the key to making it successful. don't overuse it or you could kill it's effectiveness.

class dismissed.

written by Ntropy