Wordsworth could have never kept up

As usual, the challenge took on a second meaning: If someone wants to freestyle about poverty or injustice, fine. But they'd better have their facts straight or they won't win the battle. The quest is not merely to outspeak the others, but to outsmart them.

"When I was a kid, I realized that racism was something that society taught people, and as I grew up I realized that hip-hop was the voice that challenged this idea," says Kevin Fitzgerald, director of "Freestyle," his first film.

Alex Harris, aka "Otherwise," has been freestyling for as long as he can remember. Born in Los Angeles and raised by a jazz musician, Mr. Harris sang in his church choir until, at age 16, he began skipping church to freestyle with friends, drumming on tables at Burger King and rhyming about the woes of adolescence. "I've always been a verbal thinker," says Mr. Harris, who became famous at age 19 when he outperformed Eminem in one of the country's fiercest battles, Rap Sheet Olympics.

Today, he makes a living traveling the country to perform with other talented freestylers, and he sells CDs of his songs, most of which are pre-written and then recorded, not improvised.

Harris is always grabbing his dictionary to look up words he doesn't know. "The competition forces you to practice, and when you're amongst people who can freestyle real well, it brings out the best of your abilities."

"It is tremendously helpful to youth involved to elevate their intellectual and linguistic skills through such practice," says the Rev. Mr. Dyson. "It spurs serious insight, underscores the benefits of verbal battle, and teaches them to redirect and channel their energies in edifying fashion."

Most freestylers, like most musicians, perform locally and cannot make a living at it. They flock to street corners and neighborhood cafes, or gather spontaneously in school cafeterias or outside movie theaters. Improvisation is inherent in the genre. The use of music echoes social commentators from a previous generation: beat poets like Jack Kerouac.

"Just as the beat poets used live jazz as a background to their poetry, we incorporate music as an element to enhance the performance of our words," says Alex Frampton Jost, known as Padati. But "instead of an eight-piece jazz band, we use two turntables and a mixer."

Like many involved in the hip-hop community – endorsers and critics alike – Mr. Fitzgerald is baffled by what he considers the misrepresentation of hip-hop today. "There is a lot of very positive, soulful, and spiritual material that people are rhyming about, which more often than not does not make it to the general public," says Fitzgerald.

In part to refute these misconceptions, Danny Castro and Anthony Marshall founded the Lyricist Lounge in New York in 1991. The arena has become the Carnegie Hall of freestylers and today showcases the most famous – like Supernatural and DJ Juice – as well as those whose experiences barely stretch beyond the end of their block.

What these performers do have in common is a way with words. Mr. Castro likes to reiterate that the lounge is for everyone. "It's a puzzle, and everyone's got to put in their own piece to make it what it is."

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