Who Really Freestyles These Days?
Once upon a time, in a land not too far away, rappers used to rap off the dome. I know it sounds crazy, but back in the day the freestyle was the sign of a truly dope emcee. When a rapper was told to kick a freestyle, best believe that it was something made up on the spot. But somewhere in the mid 90s, the definition of freestyle changed to a written rap that nobody has heard before over a beat.
Where the hell was I when this happened?
Somewhere between the influx of mixtapes and rappers hitting the booth with Big Tigger, hip-hop redefined what a freestyle was and nobody put up a debate. It used to shock me when Tigger would bring artists to Rap City and decimate them with his own freestyles versus their written rhymes in the booth. But what used to shock me more was how some of these rappers would front like it was really a freestyle. If so, how does your whole crew know what you are going to say before you say it? Who has freestyles with ad-libs? Apparently, no rapper wanted to be made a fool of in the booth for his inability to rap completely off the top. So instead, they’d pull out one of their unheard verses and kick it like it was off the top.
Now, I’m not going to say I’m mad at the rappers who don’t freestyle, but to actually call it a freestyle is a slap in the face to artists like Supernatural who really spit off the head—and its dope! I’d much rather call these written rhymes that aren’t really a song something else. Just don’t insult me and other artists who are skilled in this facet by calling it a freestyle. That’s like imitation versus real cheese. Don’t try to play me, I know the difference. Drake kicking rhymes off of his Blackberry? Come on now.
It’s okay to show up with your rhyme in your head. Call it an exhibition of your skill set. But as long as artists such as Wordsworth, KRS-One, Skillz, Juice, Eyedea, Serius Jones, Eminem and a slew of others can impressively rhyme about anything at anytime, I’d prefer that we don’t continue to call it a freestyle.
Just something to think about.
Let’s just say, I agree with you wholeheartedly. It actually annoys me that they sit there and lie about it being off the top of the dome but in the next sentence say how they’re keeping it real.
Good article.
The hip hop game isn’t the same as it once was and probably won’t be. Too much money, hype, commercial in it. Artists are trying to get all the fanbases now.
I somewhat agree with you…People do try and act like they’re rapping off the dome, but just because they’re not, doesn’t make it a freestyle.
Freestyle just means free of style, so basically topicless.
Back in the day, people would spit written rhymes, and it’d be freestyle. Coming off the dome would be called just that…coming off the dome/top.
OR THEIR MOMMA’S WROTE LYRICS FOR THEM.NOW THEIR MOMMAS ARE IN MENTAL ASYLUMS WHOS GONNA DO IT
yus free style should b free style not fake. let the Rael artists shame the fakerz.
WHERE DID DRAKE SAY HE WAS KICKING A FREESTYLE ??? JUST CUZ YOU GOT A PICK OF HIM LOOKING AT HIS PHONE? NOW YOU SAY HE CANT FREESTYLE?LOL YOUR SUCH A TOOL , STOP HATTING ON DRAKE ,UM SICK OF PEOPLE TALKING S&IT ABOUT DRAKE JUST CUZ HE’S NOT FROM A HOOD IN THE USA. ……JUST SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!!!
The picture with Drake is from his power 92 radio station session where the dj asked Drake to spit a freestyle sooooo… he actually wasnt going off the top.. so im just filling yall in who dont know this if you think thats a freestyle go ahead.. me i’ll put that into the written section.. But drake is still good no doubt
thanks king james !!!! you should be writtin the blogs at Dr Jays.give this boy a job !!!
No offense, but you’ve got it all wrong. Before freestyling became interpreted as being mostly improvised, back in the the beginning freestyling was actually referred to as this. Dudes would spit a verse or two, sometimes from a song or two (often times obscure ones) sometimes referred to as dropping 16′s (usually there are 16 bars in a verse). This soon evolved to what we’re used to seeing it as today (being improvised for the most part), but it’s older meaning still gets applied and used today. In fact many of those guys you mention actually do the same thing from time to time, most notably perhaps, Eminem.
Many old school and newer cats in the game understand that this is something that goes with the territory, and I think that so long as a person isn’t dropping a verse at the freestyle session while trying to pass it off as being on the fly, there isn’t really much of a problem with it, especially if it’s done well. I see how it could be confusing for a viewer, generally speaking, who isn’t too privy to it all.
I know this is an old article, but I felt I should weigh in on it because there is often times confusion about this subject, and was able to gain insight on it from experience.