Northeastern University entrepreneurship student Jerry Spatch has invented a new game that might help novice rappers perfect their flow. Vers, a freestyle rap card game, is giving people the tools to turn any gathering into a cypher.
Spatch says that his experience freestyling with friends at college parties is what inspired him to create the game. Many people expressed their envy of his ability to throw together rhymes on a moment’s notice, and the 21-year-old took that as an opportunity to show them their own potential.
“The resolution was that if I could give people what a freestyle rapper does in their head and then make it as fun and accessible as possible, it could be a pretty great game.” he told the Huffington Post.
The concept of the game is very simple. Players choose a category card, which dictates what their rap must be about, and a card with three words they must incorporate into the freestyle. Fellow players judge whether or not the bars are up to par.
“What I like about freestyling is that it’s a primarily idea-based form of expression,” he says. “You’re really just connecting the concepts in your head and putting those into rhymes.”
Spatch started a kickstarter for the game on Wednesday (April 19), which has a goal of $10,000. At this time it has already raised $3,471 and has 49 backers. Until enough money is raised to produce a physical form of the game, hip-hop wannabes can download and print their own version here.