Harry Mack: The Master of Freestyle Rap

With his jaw-dropping visual and improvisational freestyle rapping, Harry Mack has grown into an internet sensation, pulling in over 2.5M subscribers on YouTube and performing on shows with Kendrick Lamar, Ellen DeGeneres, and Joey Bada$$. Learn Harry Mack’s keys to success that any creator can replicate.

1. Harry Mack turned roadblocks into opportunities

In 2020, Harry Mack was just getting started working on his Guerrilla Bars series. In this series, Harry would walk around neighborhoods and ask random strangers if he could freestyle rap for them. He would subsequently blow their minds by hitting them with the craziest rhymes that can only be summarized as “word magic.” The strangers he rapped for loved it and the internet was gobbling up his content. Things were going great.

That’s when COVID hit.

There were no more people wandering the streets. People were advised to stay isolated for their own safety. Guerrilla Bars was no more. And with it, Harry’s journey as a content creator was looking increasingly bleak.

But instead of giving up on his content, Harry started looking for avenues where he could replicate the success he was having with Guerrilla Bars. His content didn’t need much — just his voice, a bit of music, and a live audience. The first two were no problem. And with the modern state of the web, solving the third requirement was more than doable.

Harry chose Omegle as a proxy for running into random strangers. From there, he would follow almost the exact same script as he did in Guerilla Bars. He would ask the stranger for a few words to rap about and then proceed to blow their minds with his word magic.

It didn’t take long for Harry’s content on Omegle, titled Omegle Bars, to blow up. And surprisingly, it was as popular, or even more popular, than his Guerrilla Bars series. Maybe it was because there were more people online due to the pandemic. Maybe it was because people preferred the sound quality of a high quality microphone. But either way, what seemed like a massive roadblock actually turned into Harry Mack’s stepping stone to success.

2. Harry Mack made his content a two way street

Harry Mack doesn’t just make content for his audience. He makes content with his audience.

In almost all of his videos, Harry Mack makes sure to spotlight his audience’s reactions. In Omegle Bars, half of the screen is dedicated to Harry and the other half is given to the audience. In Guerrilla Bars, Harry’s cameraman spends a lot of the time standing slightly behind Harry, giving the majority of the focus to the people Harry is performing for. And if you’ve ever watched any kind of reaction video, you’ll understand why he does this. People love reaction videos because it essentially gives the audience a friend to vibe with, even if you’re watching alone. When the reactor gets hyped, it’s easier for you to get hyped, when the reactor gets sad, it’s easier for you to feel sad.

Harry also finds opportunities to make his audience an active audience. In his videos and his Twitch livestreams, Harry is always polling his audience for words or topics to rap about. This gives viewers and his audience the validation that what he does is real and not scripted, but it also serves as a way to keep his audience engaged and even want to be part of the show. That’s why hundreds of thousands of people flock to Harry’s livestreams when he hosts them and sign up for Omegle just for a chance to run into him.

3. Harry Mack epitomized the community he wanted to create

The most impressive part about Harry Mack is the kind of community he has built around himself. Common topics that run through today’s popular rap songs include drugs, violence, and other things that could be viewed as vices. You might think that Harry grew to fame rapping about the same topics as those popular rap songs. But in actuality, it’s the complete opposite. In his freestyles, Harry tries to keep things as positive as possible, really exemplifying the positive energy he wants his community to bring.

For example, in his video “Pianist & Freestyle Rapper BLOW MINDS on Omegle”, Harry runs into a couple of girls who gives him the following words to rap about: “cocaine”, “substance abuse”, “alcohol”, and “depression.” The easy way out would be to rap about these words at face value — likely turning into another version of today’s popular hip hop songs. Instead, Harry spins these words on their head, He raps about love, positivity, and using his music as part of the healing process in the recovery journey from drugs, substance abuse, and depression. It’s mindblowing that Harry goes to such lengths just to keep things positive and uplifting. And you can really see him bring the same energy to every video, every livestream, every interview. It’s truly his authentic self.

In today’s age of social media, where there is so much negativity constantly swarming each and every one of us, who wouldn’t want to be part of Harry’s community?