Interview with John Hensley On The Subject Of Elevating - B-Boys.com - Hip-Hop Rap Forums

KempoMRK · 10-04-2009, 04:59 AM

KempoMRK: hello john! how ya doing?

John Hensley: i'm doing pretty great right now

KempoMRK: thats lovely. ok, lets start at the beginning. i've interviewed you before and it was like, fuckin epic. i think we covered pretty much everything. but i think how you started is an important part in how you elevated. so, tell us

John Hensley: Well, when i first got on the internet to do anything with rap was back in about 2002, I was just looking up Tupac information because I've always been a fan of his, and believe it or not 6 years ago when I was 15, I still believed the death rumours. Anyways, that got me associated with the internet and rap music message boards in general, so I basically found several sites and noticed they had leagues where you could battle, RapBlock was one of them, and there were some other old ezboards that I had kinda seen before, but RB was the main one I started getting involved in

John Hensley: Anyways, on RB I started gaining contacts through battling, which I think made me more interested and some of the shit we'd discuss were our lines. So I think the criticism in votes and the system of battling weekly and comparing yourselves is what makes a person generally elevate, and I was no different.

KempoMRK: nice. for anyone reading when john says RB he means rapblock. i know you mentioned that, but peeps might get confuuused.

KempoMRK: when did you first find you were being regarded as good?

John Hensley: I honestly was pretty successful in terms of winning battles right away, I wasn't on the level to compete with anyone from Prowlers or anything like that, mainly because I hadn't been exposed to the style and wasn't able to try and replicate it or at least learn from it. But I won battles regularly, and got involved with the better battlers on the site, like Jook and Ominus, and I just got better and better. I'd always been able to write my lines well in terms of wording.

KempoMRK: did you find it just came fairly naturally then? did you ever rap before you started text

John Hensley: Yeah, on both of those. I always liked freestyling in school, it was fun to try and be creative and witty I suppose. But writing always came natural, and I found it pretty easy to adjust to a sites style.

John Hensley: But that doesn't mean I always wrote good lines every verse, or that it's easy to write good lines. Sometimes I have horrible writers block, and back then was no different, I just was good at making the finished product.

KempoMRK: cool. how much did you battle back when you first started?

John Hensley: Not a whole lot, I'd do like crew battles and shit lol, but there was a general league on RB I was in

John Hensley: so just weekly i guess

KempoMRK: was the first thing you entered outside of rapblock the RBL?

John Hensley: yeah it was, Jook exposed me to Fracture because someone was pretending to be him, so that's how I heard of him, and then Jook started telling me about RM

John Hensley: so a few of us went there actually, i think he did, I did and this guy named Hugh G. Ballz

KempoMRK: lmaoo. who was he?

John Hensley: i don't really know lol, just some guy that was on rapblock at the time

John Hensley: nique was there as well, but not many other people

John Hensley: i remember seeing dynamix there, or a dynamix impersonator who battled once and used dynamix lines

KempoMRK: aha. talking of impersonating, how did it feel to get impersonated a few times?

John Hensley: Well it's weird, but at the same time it's understandable. At the time I just was like thinkin they were all retarded people, and they are pretty much, but It's just people trying to win their battles on their site, and some people want a shortcut

John Hensley: But it does feel weird, because you don't really understand how they think it's that important

John Hensley: it's kinda crazy lol

KempoMRK: yea. i think its pointless, because you obviously wouldn't feel like you've achieved anything.

KempoMRK: alright, back to elevation. your wording is some of the nicest arooound. was that just natural or did you take notice of anything or anyone and just learnt it?

John Hensley: I think it's partly natural, but translating good writing abilities to what makes a text verse good is something I really don't think people have in their genetics. When I came up, I saw people like Tang, Scientz, Oneduh, Richard Corey and Namix battling in the RBL. They all had pretty solid wording, so I kind of saw what was good from them.

KempoMRK: who would you say is your favourite person to read verses of?

John Hensley: i don't know honestly, when i think about that i don't really sit and judge it, but i'd say that startin out, fracture and resin appealed to me the quickest, and then people like tang

John Hensley: also butler is awesome, and he was around before me a bit, but i was also battling with him for a long time

KempoMRK: yea, butler's raw. in regards to writing, how do you write? do you just sit down and write? do you tend to do something before? do you prefer to be chatting to people while you write? just give an insight into your writing process

John Hensley: well yeah, i think i do a bit of all of that. mainly when i sit down to write a verse, first i'll already know who my opponent is, and just the feeling of a thread being up is kind of the motivation. so it depends on the moment. i'll sit here with the wordpad open, and just stare at it until i can get a catch on something, and most of the time i can get ina rythym after that. sometimes not so much, so i'll just set it aside and not force it, because forcing lines usually means they don't come off the way you wanted. but i'll gather ideas throughout the day, something will spark it.

John Hensley: and talking with people helps, especially throwing lines back and forth on aim just cyphering kind of, you can get in that mood where you're thinking in a punchline format easier

John Hensley: if i really can't get into a rythym i'll read old battles of mine, things like that to kind of see where i'm at, almost remind myself to get into the mood to write like that

KempoMRK: yea, that's a cool way of doing things. how easy or hard do you find it to critique your own lines? and do you find it gets easier the more you write?

John Hensley: I think everything generally improves with experience, and definitely being able to tell where your own lines are at. As you get better, and more experienced, you just know what is going to be good for the most part, but I do think there's times where it's hard to tell if your lines are going to be as nice to the voters, so that's where it helps bein able to talk on aim, if you feel like you aren't confident in them.

KempoMRK: when you write a line, do you find that you reword it a few times before settling on it?

John Hensley: Yeah, at times i'll do that, mainly I just like to see what the best possible way for me to say the line is, you could do a concept alot of different ways.

KempoMRK: cool. alright, finally, what's the main pieces of advice you'd give to anyone wanting to elevate?

John Hensley: I think it depends at what stage you're at, but generally with the people in this league, they are all pretty much collectively in a stage where they have the potential to drop nice lines. I guess the main things I would say you should do are to not settle on a concept that you aren't impressed with yourself, and word the lines so that they come off smooth, and that they are executed well.

John Hensley: Also, don't settle on bullshit set ups, you can use your setups to make a line better and relate better to the punchline. You have a whole extra line to get your idea across.

John Hensley: And I don't have all this shit down, I don't always take my time, or use the best possible concepts I can think of, because sometimes I can't think of them, especially if I'm rushed and have writers block at the same time. If you can get in a mood to get your concepts down early in the week, you'll really help yourself out.

KempoMRK: nice, great advice man. thanks for the interview. 'n thatsabout it. PEACE.

John Hensley: WORD

John Hensley: pz

mitchishere21 · 10-04-2009, 04:46 PM

good interview learnt alot, keep stuff like this coming Kempo
props

KempoMRK · 10-05-2009, 11:45 AM

Glad it helped.

Did you get my PM?

Nasty Nate · 10-05-2009, 07:01 PM

smh at imposters. but good overall advice. altho elevation really depends on the effort and amount of battles under the belt.
also, hopefully mitch learned enough

good interview on both parts

Nasty Nate · 10-06-2009, 04:23 PM

also eliminating any lines dont dont impress yaself is a great pointer

namix · 10-10-2009, 08:39 PM

hensley - was someone actually recycling my lines in the rbl? if so, it was definitely an imposter lol... when did that take place?

filisili50 · 07-08-2010, 11:25 PM

This is really good interview which learn a lots of things. This post is really nice, it help people to start their own ideas, I hope that people will really like. Thanks for sharing.

alice14 · 11-15-2011, 12:01 PM

welcome to this forum site, you can find apropriate solution of your answer by this site
and for your problem you have to consult with expert or your senior....
-----------------------

J2ME Tutorial

duncklee5 · 04-14-2012, 12:15 AM

Your interview is very informative for us because many question related to elevating subject resolved after reading your post.

fitness-girl · 04-14-2012, 12:52 AM

Very informative interview. thanks for sharing.

10-04-2009, 04:59 AM	#1
KempoMRK The Don Corleone Join Date: May 2005 Location: England Posts: 5,430	Interview with John Hensley On The Subject Of Elevating KempoMRK: hello john! how ya doing? John Hensley: i'm doing pretty great right now KempoMRK: thats lovely. ok, lets start at the beginning. i've interviewed you before and it was like, fuckin epic. i think we covered pretty much everything. but i think how you started is an important part in how you elevated. so, tell us John Hensley: Well, when i first got on the internet to do anything with rap was back in about 2002, I was just looking up Tupac information because I've always been a fan of his, and believe it or not 6 years ago when I was 15, I still believed the death rumours. Anyways, that got me associated with the internet and rap music message boards in general, so I basically found several sites and noticed they had leagues where you could battle, RapBlock was one of them, and there were some other old ezboards that I had kinda seen before, but RB was the main one I started getting involved in John Hensley: Anyways, on RB I started gaining contacts through battling, which I think made me more interested and some of the shit we'd discuss were our lines. So I think the criticism in votes and the system of battling weekly and comparing yourselves is what makes a person generally elevate, and I was no different. KempoMRK: nice. for anyone reading when john says RB he means rapblock. i know you mentioned that, but peeps might get confuuused. KempoMRK: when did you first find you were being regarded as good? John Hensley: I honestly was pretty successful in terms of winning battles right away, I wasn't on the level to compete with anyone from Prowlers or anything like that, mainly because I hadn't been exposed to the style and wasn't able to try and replicate it or at least learn from it. But I won battles regularly, and got involved with the better battlers on the site, like Jook and Ominus, and I just got better and better. I'd always been able to write my lines well in terms of wording. KempoMRK: did you find it just came fairly naturally then? did you ever rap before you started text John Hensley: Yeah, on both of those. I always liked freestyling in school, it was fun to try and be creative and witty I suppose. But writing always came natural, and I found it pretty easy to adjust to a sites style. John Hensley: But that doesn't mean I always wrote good lines every verse, or that it's easy to write good lines. Sometimes I have horrible writers block, and back then was no different, I just was good at making the finished product. KempoMRK: cool. how much did you battle back when you first started? John Hensley: Not a whole lot, I'd do like crew battles and shit lol, but there was a general league on RB I was in John Hensley: so just weekly i guess KempoMRK: was the first thing you entered outside of rapblock the RBL? John Hensley: yeah it was, Jook exposed me to Fracture because someone was pretending to be him, so that's how I heard of him, and then Jook started telling me about RM John Hensley: so a few of us went there actually, i think he did, I did and this guy named Hugh G. Ballz KempoMRK: lmaoo. who was he? John Hensley: i don't really know lol, just some guy that was on rapblock at the time John Hensley: nique was there as well, but not many other people John Hensley: i remember seeing dynamix there, or a dynamix impersonator who battled once and used dynamix lines KempoMRK: aha. talking of impersonating, how did it feel to get impersonated a few times? John Hensley: Well it's weird, but at the same time it's understandable. At the time I just was like thinkin they were all retarded people, and they are pretty much, but It's just people trying to win their battles on their site, and some people want a shortcut John Hensley: But it does feel weird, because you don't really understand how they think it's that important John Hensley: it's kinda crazy lol KempoMRK: yea. i think its pointless, because you obviously wouldn't feel like you've achieved anything. KempoMRK: alright, back to elevation. your wording is some of the nicest arooound. was that just natural or did you take notice of anything or anyone and just learnt it? John Hensley: I think it's partly natural, but translating good writing abilities to what makes a text verse good is something I really don't think people have in their genetics. When I came up, I saw people like Tang, Scientz, Oneduh, Richard Corey and Namix battling in the RBL. They all had pretty solid wording, so I kind of saw what was good from them. KempoMRK: who would you say is your favourite person to read verses of? John Hensley: i don't know honestly, when i think about that i don't really sit and judge it, but i'd say that startin out, fracture and resin appealed to me the quickest, and then people like tang John Hensley: also butler is awesome, and he was around before me a bit, but i was also battling with him for a long time KempoMRK: yea, butler's raw. in regards to writing, how do you write? do you just sit down and write? do you tend to do something before? do you prefer to be chatting to people while you write? just give an insight into your writing process John Hensley: well yeah, i think i do a bit of all of that. mainly when i sit down to write a verse, first i'll already know who my opponent is, and just the feeling of a thread being up is kind of the motivation. so it depends on the moment. i'll sit here with the wordpad open, and just stare at it until i can get a catch on something, and most of the time i can get ina rythym after that. sometimes not so much, so i'll just set it aside and not force it, because forcing lines usually means they don't come off the way you wanted. but i'll gather ideas throughout the day, something will spark it. John Hensley: and talking with people helps, especially throwing lines back and forth on aim just cyphering kind of, you can get in that mood where you're thinking in a punchline format easier John Hensley: if i really can't get into a rythym i'll read old battles of mine, things like that to kind of see where i'm at, almost remind myself to get into the mood to write like that KempoMRK: yea, that's a cool way of doing things. how easy or hard do you find it to critique your own lines? and do you find it gets easier the more you write? John Hensley: I think everything generally improves with experience, and definitely being able to tell where your own lines are at. As you get better, and more experienced, you just know what is going to be good for the most part, but I do think there's times where it's hard to tell if your lines are going to be as nice to the voters, so that's where it helps bein able to talk on aim, if you feel like you aren't confident in them. KempoMRK: when you write a line, do you find that you reword it a few times before settling on it? John Hensley: Yeah, at times i'll do that, mainly I just like to see what the best possible way for me to say the line is, you could do a concept alot of different ways. KempoMRK: cool. alright, finally, what's the main pieces of advice you'd give to anyone wanting to elevate? John Hensley: I think it depends at what stage you're at, but generally with the people in this league, they are all pretty much collectively in a stage where they have the potential to drop nice lines. I guess the main things I would say you should do are to not settle on a concept that you aren't impressed with yourself, and word the lines so that they come off smooth, and that they are executed well. John Hensley: Also, don't settle on bullshit set ups, you can use your setups to make a line better and relate better to the punchline. You have a whole extra line to get your idea across. John Hensley: And I don't have all this shit down, I don't always take my time, or use the best possible concepts I can think of, because sometimes I can't think of them, especially if I'm rushed and have writers block at the same time. If you can get in a mood to get your concepts down early in the week, you'll really help yourself out. KempoMRK: nice, great advice man. thanks for the interview. 'n thatsabout it. PEACE. John Hensley: WORD John Hensley: pz

10-05-2009, 07:01 PM	#4
Nasty Nate N8've Pryde, nigs Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 490	smh at imposters. but good overall advice. altho elevation really depends on the effort and amount of battles under the belt. also, hopefully mitch learned enough good interview on both parts __________________ I'm a sioux-per star..deeper then an indian grave

10-06-2009, 04:23 PM	#5
Nasty Nate N8've Pryde, nigs Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 490	also eliminating any lines dont dont impress yaself is a great pointer __________________ I'm a sioux-per star..deeper then an indian grave

07-08-2010, 11:25 PM	#7
filisili50 Newb Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 5	This is really good interview which learn a lots of things. This post is really nice, it help people to start their own ideas, I hope that people will really like. Thanks for sharing. __________________ voucher

11-15-2011, 12:01 PM	#8
alice14 Newb Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 8	hi welcome to this forum site, you can find apropriate solution of your answer by this site and for your problem you have to consult with expert or your senior.... ----------------------- J2ME Tutorial

10-04-2009, 04:46 PM	#2
mitchishere21 Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 241	good interview learnt alot, keep stuff like this coming Kempo props

10-05-2009, 11:45 AM	#3
KempoMRK The Don Corleone Join Date: May 2005 Location: England Posts: 5,430	Glad it helped. Did you get my PM?

10-10-2009, 08:39 PM	#6
namix Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 150	hensley - was someone actually recycling my lines in the rbl? if so, it was definitely an imposter lol... when did that take place?

04-14-2012, 12:15 AM	#9
duncklee5 Newb Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 11	Your interview is very informative for us because many question related to elevating subject resolved after reading your post. __________________ For more info visit here

04-14-2012, 12:52 AM	#10
fitness-girl Newb Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 4	Very informative interview. thanks for sharing. __________________ fitness and health \| burn the belly fat

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