Soul Food Cypher fosters community through freestyle rap

Soul Food Cypher's next freestyle rap event, “One Hundred,” will take place on Sunday, Nov. 27 at CreateATL in Southwest Atlanta. (Anthony Truth Gary)

A hip-hop cypher is where freestyle rap or improvisational on-the-spot lyrical creativity reigns. Participants form a circle and must skillfully craft unscripted rhymes in a display of imagination, confidence, skills and faith. The organization Soul Food Cypher uses the art of freestyle rap and lyricism to transform individuals and communities, and the organization’s next Freestyle Rap event, “One Hundred,” will take place on Sunday, Nov. 27 at CreateATL in Southwest Atlanta. Soul Food Cypher MC, host and community manager, and Clark Atlanta hip-hop history professor Joe Stu, spoke with “City Lights” producer Jeannine Etter about the art of freestyle rap.

Interview highlights:

Discovering and defining the art of freestyle rap: