7 Characteristics That Make Slam Poets Great

If you want to be a really compelling spoken word artist, it may be time to switch up the words you use and up your vocab game.​By that, I don’t mean to blow away an audience with language they don’t understand. If you use words no one knows, the audience ends up getting snagged on a particular word or phrase and the rest of your poem falls on deaf ears.  They’ll probably miss the meat of the whole thing.I use tools such as Thesaurus.com and WordHippo, along with a few others I’ve alluded to before.Also, I catch a lot of awesome new words on TV and radio. Shows, movies, sportscasts, even the news – they all use what I used to call “50 cent words” or “S.A.T. words” – essentially its not your everyday jargon but it’s used in a context that makes it understandable.So whenever you’re watching TV, keep a pad or your phone nearby so you can constantly pick up new words and phrases. It’s a surefire way to become a better slam poet.