At the recent Macklemore & Ryan Lewis concert at First Avenue, Junior Paul McClure was selected from the crowd to go onstage and free-style rap with rapper Dee-1. While most people would have been nervous and would maybe stumble through a few weak lines, McClure’s freestyle rap was impressive. Anyone who went to the concert or saw the video on YouTube can attest to that. Dee-1 even said “that might have been the best freestyle on the whole tour.” Zephyrus interviewed McClure to see what it meant to be “on his grind.”
Q: Do you have any freestyle rapping background? Explain.
A: No not really I mean the only other time I’ve really free-styled was in the back of my friend’s car when we were really bored and it went decently well then.
Q: How were you selected to go on stage and freestyle rap?
A: Since it went decently well when it was just my friends and I, when the rapper, Dee-1, asked if anyone could freestyle, they all pointed to me and he just picked me out of the middle of the crowd and I actually got to crowd surf up there.
Q: Could you talk us through what was going through your mind when you were selected and got on stage?
A: When he first pointed at me at first I thought he was kidding cause there was no way I was actually going to get up and rap for thousands of people at a rap show. But, as I got up there the realization kind of hit me and I just got terrified. Literally the entire time he was rapping I was just trying to think as hard as I could of any words that rhymed and how to fit the to the beat.
Q: What was your inspiration for your freestyle rap?
A: Really I was just trying to think of any words that rhymed without just breaking out in swear words and saying a bunch of “YOs” and “Uhs” so I finally just settled on the word “rhyme” as my starter and went with it. It actually went so well it surprised me and my voice cracked a bit.
Q: How did you have the courage to do that?
A: Really I didn’t have that much courage at the time, I was terrified but I knew I couldn’t say no, and I knew that if I did say no I’d wind up regretting it. So, I just got up there and if you’ve seen the video you know how awkward I was until I actually started rapping. Then the crowd really kind of picked me up and carried me through the rest of my verse until he took the mic back and it got very awkward again.
Q: What was your favorite part of being onstage?
A: My favorite part of being onstage actually came when I first started rapping and no one was really cheering, then a few seconds in people started cheering along and that just gave me a huge boost sort of like I said earlier. Also, having thousands of people see my smiley face underwear (not on purpose) was pretty funny looking back on it.
Q: What did Dee-1 say to you after your rap?
A: Talking to Dee-1 after he just told me that I killed it like 3 or 4 times and thanked me for coming up then spun me around and showed my underwear which he found pretty amusing.
Q: What is your advice to successfully freestyle rap?
A: The key to any great freestyle is really starting strong right away and finishing definitively. I’m no rap expert but the few times I’ve done it I just think of one word to start on that I know a bunch of other words rhyme with. It also helps if instead of just kind of drifting off into nothing you just stop and let people know you’re done so that your last few weak likes don’t kill the rest of your verse.
Q: Who is your favorite rapper?
A: My favorite rapper right now is either Macklemore or Childish Gambino since they both rap with a lot of wit and cleverness but also have a powerful message, which is really hard to do.
