This game title is perhaps a little misleading in that in order to pursue Bad Rap players must actually closely honor the core rhythmic and rhyme scheme tenets of the game while using a Third Thought technique to derail the listeners’ expectations. It’s no small task to be good at being this particular kind of bad!
The Basics
Players form a circle and establish a 4/4 rhythm by clicking their fingers or similar. Everyone chants the choral refrain. “Bad rap… bad rap, bad rap.” (The cadence I use puts the first “bad” on the first beat, and then the two final “raps” on the third and fourth beats respectively.) One player begins by providing the first couplet, setting up a target rhyme in the first line and then truncating the second line so that all but the rhyme word is completed. This final word or phrase is the moment when the couplet is swiftly passed to the next player in the circle to complete “badly.” That is, the next player should finish the pitched sentence logically but not with the intended rhyme. The “bad rap” hook is repeated between each couplet line, and the player who just completed the prior line now constructs their own couplet with a similarly clear target rhyme offer. This all becomes much clearer with the example below…
Example
All:
“Bad rap… bad rap, bad rap
Bad rap… bad rap, bad rap”
Player A:
“I was walking down the street…”
All:
“Bad rap… bad rap, bad rap”
Player A:
“In just ten minutes I had really sore…”
Player B: (maintaining the cadence)
“…legs!”
All:
“Bad rap… bad rap, bad rap”
Player B:
“I finally arrived at the gardening store. “
All:
“Bad rap… bad rap, bad rap”
Player B:
“Bought one bag of dirt, couldn’t carry…”
Player C:
“…enough.”
All:
“Bad rap… bad rap, bad rap”
Player C:
“Dragged that bag all the way home…”
All:
“Bad rap… bad rap, bad rap”
Player C:
“And made a little bed for my garden…”
The Focus
This exercise reinforces a litany of important improv skills but is particularly effective at modeling a third thought process. As the lyric receiver – initially Player B in the above example – your first thought is hearing the pitched word “street,” your second thought is parsing the intended target rhyme through grasping the context of the second half of the couplet which brings you to “feet,” and your third thought is providing a timely subversion that maintains the narrative logic by offering “legs” or any other non-rhyming word instead. Ironically, in the ensemble’s efforts to evade the rhyming couplet, rhyming will probably never feel easier or more organic!
Traps and Tips
1.) The rhythm is going to get you. The exercise has little chance of longevity if the rhythm becomes irregular or adjusts awkwardly to the perceived needs of the individual poets. The current speakers, in particular, can tend to distort the tempo as they construct or exit their lines, especially if they are a little musically challenged. Make sure you cleanly get out of the second couplet, in particular, for your teammate to have enough time to blurt out the last word. Generously use the rest of the ensemble to set and maintain the “bad rap” hook, but make sure your initial chorus isn’t too jaunty as you begin. Once everyone has a good understanding of the mechanics, then you can make the pace a little brisker. If and when fumbles occur, make sure you’ve set a tradition of robustly and sincerely applauding the team’s efforts before restarting.
2.) Target rhyming is a must. There’s a lot going on in this circle exercise, and harried players will occasionally throw out almost anything as their set-up line, especially if the rhythm sneaks up on them. The exercise can survive a little of this but don’t overlook the function of an obvious intended rhyme. If an intention for that last word of the couplet is unclear or possibly even omitted, the following player can’t really engage in an effective third thought process. This is not to suggest on any level that this is easily achieved but refocus or slow the pace if target rhymes disappear entirely. It’s hard to joyfully subvert the goal of each couplet if there was no clear goal established in the first place. The exercise also provides practice in clearly landing those pivotal final rhyme words as you can’t rhyme (or, in this case, not rhyme) with something you didn’t hear or comprehend.
3.) A continuous narrative is helpful. When I first introduce this exercise, I tend to make each couplet discreet so that Player A’s offer of walking doesn’t need to necessarily inspire or relate to B’s subsequent idea. Invariably this additional freedom increases the likelihood of some proficiency although I would posit that most players across the circle are spending the build up to their turn well and truly in their heads coming up with their offering in advance. Once everyone has a more confident sense of the logistics involved, pursuing a connected narrative decreases the trap of pre-planning and increases the risk and abandon. In most instances of shared storytelling, I’d recommend a third-person narrative style, but there’s something on point about a more braggadocious first-person voice for this particular game.
4.) Yes, there is a way to make the game even more challenging. This variation is most definitely not for the faint of heart, and if you or your troupe is only just managing the basic model, perhaps skip over this bullet point completely! But if you’re consistently meeting the challenge head on, you can raise the bar by treating the missed rhyme – “legs” in the first couplet – as the intended rhyme for the next exchange. So now Player B might continue, “I wanted an omelet, so I bought some…,” at which point Player C leaps into the fray and might finish the couplet with “milk,” thereby avoiding the intended “eggs.” Player C would then craft a line that sets up a rhyme for “milk…” This approach essentially reduces the turn around by half (while increasing the chances of stumbles tenfold!) I will be completely transparent and admit that I don’t think I’ve experienced more than a fleeting moment of success with this version especially when playing in a larger group.
In Performance
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed incorporating aspects of this mind-numbing dynamic into various directed scenes: a Tag-Team Song where one or more players are instructed to foil the artful target rhyming efforts of their teammates is a particular guilty pleasure. On the way to “mastering” Bad Rap, you are actually actively honing an array of powerful lyrical and poetic skills.
Cheers, David Charles.
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Connected Concept: Third Thought
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