Harry Mack: King of Freestyle

This is Harry Mack.

This is the guy who got me through a year of the pandemic. Stuck in my room with very little interaction with the outside world, I was able to tune into his videos on Youtube and just listen for hours on end as he would manifest song after song from the top of his head with some instrumentals and a few word prompts.

The thing that stuck with me most about Harry was not only this incredible talent he had for freestyling lyrics seamlessly at the drop of a dime, I had seen plenty of really amazing freestyle rappers be able to do that, but what made Harry a cut above the rest was that he was able to take a word that was suggested to him and not only work it into a rhyme, but he was able to construct an entire verse around that one word, using it as a thematic template to weave throughout the song in a way that I had never seen any other freestyle rapper do at his level. And above all, he projected an incredibly positive outlook through his music, skill, and energy. That was just what I needed as a distraction from the daily drag of life during the early pandemic.

So after already feeling a certain amount of debt and gratitude towards Harry, he announces a tour, and wouldn’t you know it, he’s coming to Houston. He will be working his magic at the Houston Improv, (it would become the only sold-out show at the Improv for that week). And of course, I get tickets, and I decide to fanboy it out by doing a poster piece for him, because, hell - that’s what I do.

Take 1:

So, my initial thought was to show him as a knight in full armor with a dragon behind him and then drop as many little easter eggs into the scene as possible. Things like his Omegle 50 or Guerilla Bars series. The fact that he can spit flames, hence the dragon. That he has bars for days and all his lyrics are golden.  And things like his song “Napolean Hill” or his background as a classically trained jazz drummer. And did I mention I really, really wanted to draw a dragon? 

I quickly dropped the suit of armor idea because I wanted my boy to still look fly, and how fly can you look in a metal suit? But then as I added more and more pieces, the composition started to feel cluttered and disjointed. It didn’t feel organic and I realized that I was going to have to do less in order to do more. I was really happy with how the gold bars came out though, I did spend quite a bit of time on that just to not even use it in the end.

Take 2:

Less is more?

The show was fantastic. To see him do what he does live with no gimmicks is mindblowing to behold. The only drawback is you don’t have a rewind button in real life to play back so many of the “how did he think of that so fast” lyrics he freestyled that night. And he is geniuely a positive, honorable dude. 

Until next time, H Mack.