Harry Mack, the Freestyle Rapper

Harry Mack is a multi-talented artist and rapper, best known for his unique music taste, jaw-dropping visual freestyle rapping. His initial breakthrough to fame was when his Venice Beach Freestyle rap went viral, which further propelled him to a ton of opportunities alongside Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Ellen DeGeneres, Complex Music and Red Bull Music. Mack performs 100% improvised freestyle raps based solely on random words thrown out by strangers.  Mack is a rapper based in Los Angeles, California. H rose to fame through his YouTube channel, where he posts regular videos of him freestyling both in his home as well as in public situations. He found his first break with his semi-viral YouTube video, “Venice Beach Freestyle”, where he freestyled off the top of his head and spontaneously about his surroundings, which ended up drawing a large crowd. Mack found his first bit of commercial success when he freestyled on Power 106 Radio Los Angeles. Harry Mack is considered by some to be one of the quickest freestylers on his feet, and has received worldwide praise for exactly this very reason.

Achievements

·         Harry starred in a national North American commercial campaign in support of Mitsubishi’s Eclipse Cross model in the year 2018.

·         He had freestyled alongside Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$ and Macklemore amongst others.

·         Appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in the year 2018.

·         Performed at Live Nation’s “Ones To Watch” and Bardot’s “School Night” showcases in 2018.

·         Mack sold out his first LA headline show at Viper Room in 2018 and his album release show in January 2019 at Moroccan Lounge.

·         He also performed at the High Times Festival in support of Ice Cube and Torey Lanez in the year 2019.

Harry Mack and Ellen DeGeneres

When Mack was a guest at The Ellen DeGeneres show, he shared a snippet of the show on his YouTube and Instagram with the comment “THANK YOU, Ellen DeGeneres!!!! P.s Your bomber jacket is way doper than mine”, with the hashtags #harrymack #freestyle #ellenshow #weouthere.

Harry Mack songs

A few of Mack’s individual hits are –

·         Parcel of Idiots

·         Onwards

·         Wound up

·         1,000 Light Years Away

·         Ellen DeGeneres Freestyle

·         Immutable Grind

·         Altogether Untenable

From his album Content Under Pressure (2019),

·         Next Gear Intro

·         They Told Me

·         Go for Mine

·         Outta my Head

·         Roll your Jay

·         Deep Sea Diving

·         Not Worth It

·         Next Gear

·         Napoleon Hill

Harry’s lifestyle

On an interview to know more about what Harry Mack’s lifestyle is like, he talked about how each day varies from the next and he ends up having to wear a lot of different hats. In addition to being a rapper, he is also a content creator, an educator, teaches lessons and creates educational materials.                                                                                                                                 

As soon as he wakes up, he reads the morning pages; doing his part on journaling. From there, he goes into a writing phase where he works on his songs for a couple of hours and try to brainstorm on new ideas. On days when he has time, he also tries to include a freestyle practice session, by working on just freestyle techniques and tries to keep the skill set sharp. The first part of the day is really holy to Mack and he says that this time of the day really helps him focus on his creativity and being an artist. He tries really hard to keep that part of his routine intact no matter how busy his life gets.                                                                                                           

Post all this, the second half of the day is sometimes a lot more administrative, in comparison. He works with his day-to-day manager on emails, scheduling and planning or editing videos from his Guerrilla Bars series, or creating beats to use in his Wordplay Wednesday weekly livestream on YouTube.

Harry enjoys long walks and sticks to it for regular exercise. He also prefers cooking meals at home rather than eating out or ordering in, since he can’t have dairy.

When asked “What is the hardest part about what you do?”, he said, “The hardest part is figuring out how you’re going to make a stable living and be comfortable financially. And so, I’ve been lucky in the sense that I’ve been a full-time professional musician for the last, I guess, six or seven years now.

So, I feel very fortunate that I’m able to make my living entirely from music, but I’ve really had to hustle and pull together a lot of different revenue streams. And I think that’s really the key, is you can’t rely on just one revenue stream to keep the ship afloat. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a rapper, so obviously I create albums and I tour and perform and do live events”.

Upcoming shows

Harry is all set to perform at Day N Vegas Festival in close support of J. Cole, Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar, in the month of November, later this year. Post releasing his debut album “Contents Under Pressure” in the month of January 2019, he went on a tour to play his debut shows in New York City, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago and Los Angeles, which sold out after only five weeks of being on sale.

- Akhila S