@@raymanandeze no sir. They’re gonna go a the end of the segments I came out with today. I thought about it and if I did a segment just bunching all of the artists together then it wouldn’t get many views. This way everyone gets more eyes on them
The freestyle debate sounds like how people should treat people who can do advanced mental math. Its impressive if you can do it, but you shouldn't be down on yourself if you can't do it. Some people are built like that, and some people just didn't have the same tools we got now
Brodie you can do mental math if you understood this whole vid. The only reason you might think you can’t is because school cultivates a horrible “fear based” reaction system where you don’t actually try due to being conditioned to not believe in yourself. Smoke some weed and meditate or whatever you like to do to get Ina flow state, go outside and enjoy nature, and then try again and watch what happens. It’s like magic how you can change your brain once ur training ur alone and not in a system
I got suspended from hs like my junior year. My dad made be read a mental math book over and over for an entire week. One of the best gifts he every gave me. It puts you at a very clear advantage
To be fair freestyle skills are like working out for strength it is teachable skill however most commercial rappers are more of musicians as opposed to being freestyle technicians.
@@marothimahlake7458most rappers now a days are the same plant in a different pot…especially drill and trap rap they all rap about the same subject matter using the same words on a similar beat in different variations sometimes you can’t even decipher one artist from another because they sound so similar
I was half way through typing out a comment about Kendrick's freestyles right before you showed one. He does both and it's pretty cool seeing the difference.
I think the quintessential off the dome freestyle is Tyler, the Creator's on Funk Flex. He started off rough, but got into some really funny stuff that still rhymed. No one can say he had that written down before.
he also uses a bit of what seem to pre-written punchlines, i think he tried to use a few to get his momentum off, but he needed to push a bit more before that flex leaves him with enough time to actually spit after he thinks, and gives him the right reactions to play into the jokes actual greatness, and i think it was helped exactly by the fact that it was not supposed to be this dopeness test, but just a bit of fun i think it's good to take this not as a situation to put out thought-out bars, but to turn it into a performance *somehow* not everyone is tyler, not everyonenis wayne, but you need to emphasise thatbyou are *there* at the present moment somehow
Tech N9ne said the last time he worked with Lil Wayne, Wayne was looking up at the ceiling for inspiration then went in the booth to freestyle his bars
Agreed 100%, as someone who used to get tipsy and kick "ciphers" while passing the greens, you can easily tell who is off the top, and who is just reciting shi they already wrote...if you get really good at it, and someone just as skilled starts rhyming--you can tell when they are going "off the top of the dome" and "reciting," and the true masters can even blur the lines while weaving in-between their "written" and "impromptu" freestyle, getting you lost 👌🤣
Exactly💯 I had to stop those "off-the-top" freestyle battles though some years ago when I always got into it with somebody because I started talking about killing/shooting the 🥷🏿 because I was just trying to put together words that rhymed in split-second timeframes and bro started talking about wanting to fight after that SMH
Yeah the smart ones always add something relevant to that exact moment to trick dudes into thinking it's all freestyle but really they just freestyle one or two lines lol then go back to written
I grew up with freestyle being completely off the dome and that is what it will always be to me. As for the definition being it has no particular direction, I feel that came a bit later and is what has been accepted since. I got no issue with that but me personally I am going to judge it differently in what the persons actual abilities are. I have heard impressive people who can spit bars wholly off the dome and I have heard people who can write so clean that their ability to go off the dome doesn't really matter. The thing I don't like is when someone tries to fake one or the other and like you said it is pretty obvious when a dome freestyle is a collection of written bars.
Exactly. If freestyle doesn't mean off the dome then give us a word to replace it. It's like people are trying to remove your ability to even describe the skill of being an on-the-spot lyricist. Why? Cuz they suck
@@RandoManFPV Just say "off the dome" instead of "freestyle". You can also say "improv" like musicians do for on the spot instrumental solos. That's a really easy fix.
"I am a lyricist, I am a battle rapper too, I can freestyle ALL day long and all night long,I'm a MASTER at the stuff. Throw me a word,I can rhyme it,I can tell simple stories with my freestyling too . I love 💖💖 this stuff,I'll be the GOAT,the BEST of my generation..I make all my stuff up on the spot. Then I'm a sober individual too, man I be in my mode in my sobriety!!! Cant nothing moving freak with me on that freestyling!!! I'm a monster at that and battling!!;"
"I'm coming,I will be the artist of my generation,and the Freestyler of my generation. I'm the next Pac,the next Jigga,the next Nas, I'm a rap god,a lyrical god. My stuff dang near flawless. I love 💖💖 freestyling!!"
When I was 15 I remember a battle on the the corner of liberty hgts Kennedy fried chicken in Bmore in his freestyle he told me we can battle in any rind MFer choose your square and pointed to the side walk squares we were walking and on and everyone wit crazy I rember that to this day 20 something years later😂😂😂
My definition of freestyle has always been the free flow of thought and style, where your mind draws on accumulated skills and experiences without constraint. It’s abstract thinking unleashed.
@@Nunyafuccinbidness Exactly. Man thought he came up with something profound when it's a blanket statement that can be applied to a broad range of things.
I got a few drake tracks in rotation, it took years to find em but I got em. A few got Lil Wayne on em, a few got Cole, a few got other lesser names, I CAN NEVER TELL WHOSE RAPPING. He steals their flows, their style, shit he even takes their adlibs. I thought that was his appeal and why people liked him. Like I said, a few drake tracks.
I don’t agree. Then what about if an artist freestyles a few bars, then listens to the track and freestyles again after the first bars and then pauses and then does this the whole song? They freestyling? Or only if it’s one take the whole song off the dome. Def ain’t freestyling if it’s written though that’s the antonym of freestyling
@@Ciontrez_Grant b******* freestyling is straight off the dome freestyling is off of the head coming out of your imagination That's what freestyling is off the dome now this new s*** y'all doing like in the booth freestyling y'all mean a rhyme that is written rehearsed and remembered such as the cipher That's what the cipher is everybody has written their verse rehearsed it and remembered it to a live audience That's the difference
Honestly man, when Jay made that interview and Wayne took that idea to another level. That's where I felt the decline of lyricism started to happen. The beef between Kendrick and Drake imo really revived the art of lyricism and making kids interested in hearing bars again. I hope this is the future for mainstream rap, because we need some spittas back in the forefront.
Juice WRLD is not that important to the grand idea of freestyling, he was just good at it. This was still a well structured video essay without mentioning various exceptional freestylers such as Lil Wayne or Black Thought. It seems like you lowkey missed the point
Yeah I’m taking Los over Mack cuz Los can get much crazier flows and longer words where Harry Mack is just the “I said a hip a hop” type of off the dome which he is unmatched in being able to go without tripping up but it’s just so simple I gotta give it to Los
Imo, I think it is possible to freestyle stories and narratives off the dome, cuz I had a friend back middle school who could do it like crazy and it was never written. Cuz we'd play this game where we gave him a specific and niche topics to rap about and he'd freestyle a whole story out of it. Also, I think another key sign for if someone's freestyling off the dome is if their eyes are open, cuz usually in the real off the dome freestyles that I see and the freestyles from my friend, their eyes are always wide open no blinking. Edit: I also think that real freestyles are off the dome, cuz that means hip hop is in your soul, in your spirit. You are so in tuned with the culture that to speak its language is native to you, and to train yourself to reach that feat of freestyle capability is true dedication to the art form.
That's total BS 😂 Freestyle just means free of style, you don't have to be talking about anything specific or stick to a single topic. Maybe the best spitters in the game don't want to go off the top because they'd rather just have their best work out there instead of a mid off the top freestyle? Which at the end of the day, the majority of off the top freestyles are mid anyway.
Well one of the godfathers of rap KRS-1 has stated a freestyle is a topicless verse whether written beforehand or thought of on the spot. Just cuz someone might have an issue going off the top on the spot doesn’t mean hip hop isn’t “in their soul” witcho wanna be rza rap Confucius soundin ahh
Freestyle is just a rap that’s “free of style” per KRS1. Off the top is a type of freestyle but they can also be written. Off the top is just more impressive to some
FINALLY SOMEONE GETS IT! All these wanna be rap rza Confucius wannabes tryna act like it has to be so scientific or spiritual like no bro you can write a freestyle or come off the top but both are still freestyles 😂
That's 2 early rap pioneers saying that and people still wanna say they're wrong lol. There are people who werent even born when the term "freestyle" came who are trying to argue against what KRS-One and Big Daddy Kane were saying. Like how you gon tell somebody who saw the genre grow from it's infancy that they're wrong?
@@trigfizzle6876 Naw. So, KRS-One & Bid Daddy Kane aren't part of the culture? It was people who lived in the culture since the 80s who told me that definition, coincidentally, one of them was an extremely good freestyler off the dome, AND his older brother was a DJ heavy on turntablelism since the mid 80s, who was my DJ at one point, says the same thing. Your definition, which was my first, is the definition people assume from outside the culture looking in, or asking others, who happened to join the culture barely before you did, atleast from my experience. No one was saying this untill the 90s, another coincidence, the only rappers who say "it means off the dome" are only rappers from the 90s up to the more recent generations. You know, people who are newer to the culture. You have no proof. Which leads you to you say "You're not part of the culture" as a form of insult. You might say "naw its the truth", But again, you have no proof, yet there is way more evidence to what we saying. That is all you need to shut us up, and I gaurantee you we are extremely open to being corrected.
Got a new subscriber! Also: King Los has freestyled several times in Sway. He does a radio freestyle "challenges" where he makes them throw him words and bets then they run out of words before he runs out of rhymes. 🔥🔥🔥 Also, Harry Mack although not in the industry, he may genuinely be the goat as far as volume of freestyles. He freestyling like 20 mins in video a week in front of crowds . And obviously Eminem was crazy with it. But it's definitely not very common. Too much risk associated
This is kind of hinted at in the vid near the end, but maybe could be more explicit, that off the top freestyles are still pre-written (if only in their heads) to some extent, I remember back in the day Kurupt talked about how he would be rhyming and writing non stop everyday, not verses, but ideas and patterns / scheme - its those that end up being in "real" freestyles, connecting up pre-existing stuff. Imo that's cool and what its all about, its still improvised but its not that theyre just spewing random shit (aside from the connective lines)
@nolives what about it? Guy asked him to tell a story and he just retold it with rhymes, watch Kurupts rap city freestyle or even listen to Tha Shiznit, which was freestyled, and youll see what i mean
My fav freestyles come from the scribble jam era. “brother Ali vs sage francis” is a great era, there’s a lot of really great artists that year, even though rhymesayers pretty much had taken over, which is fine but it def affected the type of artist there.
As a producer/ audio engineer who’s worked with some underground artists. Watching some of the ones that are truly great can freestyle all new shit but make it all make sense for the track too somehow. Some do have a gift, I’ll admit. Many times over I’ve sat there with the headphones on while we’re recording them & as we’re going I’ll get chills with what they just punched in, and you sit there and think how did they just do that on the spot in their head but express it vocally? It is a skill & a gift that some artists definitely do have. Watching someone who can sing but also rap get the key of the beat we’ve made & recording to, all of his notes he’s singing into the antares auto tune is completely in key on the screen when it should be what your voice key is actually at then being adjusted correctly…something you see and hear & know it’s sonically and timeless music being made when those vibrations and feelings emit from thoughts and a voice through technology.
Dawg I could literally go off the top right now. Freestyling is a real skill and hella people can do it. It’s one of those things u either got or u don’t
You can go off the top is different than freestyle a freestyle can be written or off the top what makes it a freestyle is its lack of a consistent subject throughout the verse
@@_FLWRSI've heard Mike say conflicting things. Let me see if I can find the video. He's a super duper OG tho, so I'll defer to him. But in Oakland in the late 1980s, we DEFINITELY meant off the dome...
Ok freestyle began as a written verse. It didn’t have to have a topic. It was to show your technical skills. Then casuals confused “off the top” with free styling. So now the majority of the newer fans thinks freestyling is solely off the top. So now there are 2 types of freestyles. Written and off the top. But all the OGs would tell you, freestyle was originally written.
I’m 41 years old been freestyling since i was 13 14 years old we used to play the word games were people just shout out random words you had to incorporate into your rhymes or people would point at something in the room and you rap about it somehow harder to fake off the top of the dome in a cypher with people in that scenario. Ps. Love that Chance the Rapper theme you jacked and freestyled with from that Baby Blue joint with Action Bronson.
At the end of the day, rhyming off the top is basically a party trick. There's more fingers on my left hand than there are humans on the planet who can impress me off the top. And purposely dropping trash is unacceptable.
EXACTLY … rhyming off the top is exactly what it states … RHYMING OFF THE TOP …. There’s a reason people say this “off the top” because it’s always been known and said by the greats such as KRS-1 that a freestyle is just a topicless verse whether off the top or written I don’t understand how people don’t get that lmao
@@Nunyafuccinbidnessso give us a fcking word that describes "off the top". It's not even possible right now to search the internet for strictly off the top freestyles. Needs a word so we can communicate and function effectively. That's why people try to use freestyle to describe off the top rapping. What's even the point in describing something as a freestyle meaning it's free of style? Who tf cares if it's free of style lmao I've never searched for free of style songs but hundreds of times I've searched for off the top rapping. Freestyle meaning free of style is a useless definition. Meanwhile off the top rapping has no definition/word.
I’m from TX. So I can tell you a huge reason that freestyles have to be off the top for some people. DJ Screw is a legend down here. Every artist that came in the booth had to spit off the top, no written. It gave it a very unique sound even when they messed up in their raps it sounded good. And when someone dropped a great verse it felt different. Something about a good verse off the top makes it sound better than a written. Anyway that’s a lot of where this idea that freestyling cannot be written came from bc DJ Screw is so influential in the south and he believed a freestyles shouldn’t be written.
@@_FLWRS Yea if you’re from TX you look at freestyles different because of Screw. It’s gotta be off the top down here. And a good freestyle off the top hits different than a written.
As an underground loving, back pack type, I use to look down on MCs that couldn't flow off the top. What changed that was Nas on the Wake-Up-Show. Sway asked him to freestyle, and he was like "nah...but I'll write something right now on the spot" and proceeded to pen one of the craziest opening bars... I don't remember if this was pre-Illmatic or not. It's been 30 years of damaging my brain at this point. But that changed my perspective.
Freestyling doesn't mean you're a good artist plenty of rappers can freestyle but can't write a song to save their lives. Funny thing is, MOST "freestyles" you see are just memorized writtens.
That's exactly what i mean when people try to make me seem like a bad rapper just because i don't focus on my freestyling skills, i want to expand myself as an artist with each of my songs not as a rapper.
Also i totally agree eith what you said about that jay z stuff. Even the stories about biggie make it clear he would map it out in his head, listenin to the beat for a couple hours while writing in his head.
When it comes to freestyle topics, these are the moments where we need to distinguish between a rapper and an emcee. A rapper Anyone can be a rapper, but not everyone can become an emcee
I love a clever line like: "Lying through your teeth should never count as flossin" - Jered Sanders. Sometimes, a well thought out line is better than an off the top line.
A video that I think helps the point you’re trying to make is Harry Mac’s interview with Coast Contra. For those unfamiliar: Harry is someone who made a career out of off the dome freestyles just spitting random bars using words he was given by people on the internet. Coast Contra is a rap group that got their start freestyling on J.I.D’s never beat. In that interview they explain the differences in off the dome and written freestyles really well and how much respect they have for both. Something you should take a look at if you haven’t. Much love
The local skatepark used to be packed with kids that could freestyle, they'd do verbal bashings. If you cut someone's line you didn't get jumped, you got read to filth in verse.
Great vid. I also don’t like how freestyling and going off the top has been conflated. I’m a creative writer and when I was in undergrad, every morning my professor would put on jazz music for 10 min and have us free write about anything that came to mind. By the end I’d have a large page of text that could either connect or be completely all over the place. That’s the same as freestyling, it doesn’t have to be off the top, but if it is, that’s very impressive. People mock Drake for that BlackBerry video but in reality most rappers that go up there have practiced and memorized a verse and maybe even the beat. It’s all fake lol, like when performers act like they’re playing instruments at the Super Bowl halftime show. Anyways, some of my favorite freestyles to watch are the old Migos ones. You can tell when they’re alternating between written and off the top. RIP Takeoff 🙏🏽
I enjoyed this. So an Off Top Freestlye is typically what people think about. Off tops can have schemes and themes, which is honestly harder, but not a Freestyle. Prepared freestyles are still talented but definitely pre written.
I have been a Hip-Hip Head since the mid 90’s. I mean way before Jay-Z even said that to sway. I think that’s a good point to say, at one point it was IMPLIED that all of those radio freestyles were off the top, but - back then, the internet wasn’t what it is now, so the chance that you would hear that verse as a freestyle twice was slim. Radio was regional they could use and re-use those verses as “freestyles”. It did set an unrealistic standard though, and ultimately, when the web became a powerhouse, even through file sharing sites - it tanked a lot of emcee’s album hype. Once the thing dropped and it was just made up of those same verses you had downloaded, it made the actual project a snooze fest over new beats.
Let these be the definitive terms: Freestyle: any rap performance that is not a structurally complete song or is performed outside of its intended or regular studio or concert setting. *It is an answer to the request to "rap something for us"* Off-the-top: the artist conceives of lines as they perform them Pre-meditated: the artist conceived of the lines some time before performing them Rehearsed: the artist previously practiced/performed those exact lines Written: the artist physically wrote the lines down Troy Ave: the artist had to read the lines they physically wrote down ...Cause it's cool if you didn't write down the lines at all, but what people really care about is if you thought of the bars in advance and how primed you were to put on a performance, not if you used a pen and paper. If I catch Lil Wayne in the street and get him to rap a verse off _No Ceilings,_ that's a rehearsed freestyle; on the way to the studio he's thinking up bars to record a pre-meditated freestyle; and when he runs out of material he'll start rapping off-the-top. Central Cee and Drake's _Off the Radar_ performance was definitely premeditated, probably rehearsed and probably written. I'd argue it still qualifies as a freestyle because the _setting_ isn't where either artist normally records or performs: they answered OTR's request to "rap for us"
I can freestyle real good from the dome i have bad memory so i can remember what i write i usually can prove its not written buy letting the listener pick the topic enjoyed this vid alot blessing
Put it like this, it has to be passionate at some point where the bars come from the heart or the freestyler put mad hours into forethoughts or can see words in their heads..
This video is awesome. Great editing and i like your OC character. Recently got into a argument on tiktok with like a 100 morons about wether or not dababy writes his freestyles off the top. The most annoying thing about that honestly is people telling me Wayne does it like that fucking chamges anything about most freestyles being prerecorded. I think if were talking who freestyles the best, its gotta be harry mack, dudes off the dome game is crazy
I never understood the people who claim Freestyle was done on the spot . There's a reason people use the term "off the dome" ... It's different than a regular freestyle...
I remember an interview where Shaquille O'Neal said he would start freestyle cyphers with the Lakers, then Kobe would come in with his memorized writtens & get pissed when Shaq called him out on it 🤣
This reminds me. I once saw a VOD of T-Pain recording the song "That's just tips." He showed us his whole recording and songwriting process for that song, which basically consisted of him punching in every idea that he came up with on the fly, every few bars or something. I can't even imagine myself doing that, especially as a songwriter. I like to write my stuff down, and when it comes time to record, I got to get it done in one cohesive take. Call it pride, but I try not to do too many things that I can't do on stage, in the studio. You feel me?
The radio in the early 00’s changed the “freestyling “ definition…. If a artists came and spit bars live that we’ve never heard they labeled it a freestyle 🤦🏾♂️
I've always thought of freestyle being different than "off the top" or "off the dome". Off the the dome freestyles tend to be a lot more forgiving, a lot more fun and less about trying to be perfect, or even good
The lack of distinction and accuracy in the terms used gives room for the culture to be mocked and stolen. Ex: Raygun, the Australian Olympian in BBreaking/Breakdancing. Also: glad you’re back. I was wondering where the nephew with the rose for a head went!
If you add a layer of difficulty like Supernatural or Harry Mack where random words are chosen on the spot then you separate a freestyle from a pre-written.
I'm 47 from out west. Freestyle originally meant off the dome to us. The first time I heard it on a record was by Richie Rich in 1989. But I understand that terms evolve and definitions change.
As a fan and an artist of hip hop, I believe that “freestyling” is when one exercises their skills in rhyming by rapping from the top. Nothing written, nothing previously recorded. Freestyling should not be a test of how lit you are; it’s an exercise that sharpens your skills. I personally don’t like to hear when “rappers” call their written/previously recorded lyrics a freestyle.
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I'm still waiting on this artist showcase bro 😭 did that other state mess it up for everyone?????
@@raymanandeze no sir. They’re gonna go a the end of the segments I came out with today. I thought about it and if I did a segment just bunching all of the artists together then it wouldn’t get many views. This way everyone gets more eyes on them
The freestyle debate sounds like how people should treat people who can do advanced mental math.
Its impressive if you can do it, but you shouldn't be down on yourself if you can't do it. Some people are built like that, and some people just didn't have the same tools we got now
Great comparison
Brodie you can do mental math if you understood this whole vid. The only reason you might think you can’t is because school cultivates a horrible “fear based” reaction system where you don’t actually try due to being conditioned to not believe in yourself.
Smoke some weed and meditate or whatever you like to do to get Ina flow state, go outside and enjoy nature, and then try again and watch what happens. It’s like magic how you can change your brain once ur training ur alone and not in a system
I got suspended from hs like my junior year. My dad made be read a mental math book over and over for an entire week. One of the best gifts he every gave me. It puts you at a very clear advantage
To be fair freestyle skills are like working out for strength it is teachable skill however most commercial rappers are more of musicians as opposed to being freestyle technicians.
@@marothimahlake7458most rappers now a days are the same plant in a different pot…especially drill and trap rap they all rap about the same subject matter using the same words on a similar beat in different variations sometimes you can’t even decipher one artist from another because they sound so similar
lol the hate for the copyright claims in between segments was brilliant 😂
I appreciate you lol I was heated
It is the reason why I just subscribed right now 😂
Thats because its HIGHLY abused, scumtube knows this. Doesnt care
I was half way through typing out a comment about Kendrick's freestyles right before you showed one. He does both and it's pretty cool seeing the difference.
It was the perfect example. I appreciate you watchin
"All my life I want money and power-reee... " - K. Lamar
I think the quintessential off the dome freestyle is Tyler, the Creator's on Funk Flex. He started off rough, but got into some really funny stuff that still rhymed. No one can say he had that written down before.
That was definitely off the top 🤣🤣
he also uses a bit of what seem to pre-written punchlines, i think he tried to use a few to get his momentum off, but he needed to push a bit more before that
flex leaves him with enough time to actually spit after he thinks, and gives him the right reactions to play into the jokes
actual greatness, and i think it was helped exactly by the fact that it was not supposed to be this dopeness test, but just a bit of fun
i think it's good to take this not as a situation to put out thought-out bars, but to turn it into a performance *somehow*
not everyone is tyler, not everyonenis wayne, but you need to emphasise thatbyou are *there* at the present moment somehow
I'm under the impression JIDs 29 and 30 freestyle are off the dome too but I'm willing to be shown to be wrong
One of my favorite freestyles. Childish Gambino is nice with it too. But my favorite is Riff Raff cause of how silly he is.
None of them are fire but all of riff raffs freestyles are on the spot and hilarious
Tech N9ne said the last time he worked with Lil Wayne, Wayne was looking up at the ceiling for inspiration then went in the booth to freestyle his bars
Pullin words out the ether
He was building the bars
Biggie is the first notable person for doing this type of thing. What Wayne was doing was putting it all together before saying it on the track.
Agreed 100%, as someone who used to get tipsy and kick "ciphers" while passing the greens, you can easily tell who is off the top, and who is just reciting shi they already wrote...if you get really good at it, and someone just as skilled starts rhyming--you can tell when they are going "off the top of the dome" and "reciting," and the true masters can even blur the lines while weaving in-between their "written" and "impromptu" freestyle, getting you lost 👌🤣
Exactly💯 I had to stop those "off-the-top" freestyle battles though some years ago when I always got into it with somebody because I started talking about killing/shooting the 🥷🏿 because I was just trying to put together words that rhymed in split-second timeframes and bro started talking about wanting to fight after that SMH
True, sometimes its written punchlines and fillers mixed in with off the dome , its all over the place,, but put together well,,freestyle
Yeah the smart ones always add something relevant to that exact moment to trick dudes into thinking it's all freestyle but really they just freestyle one or two lines lol then go back to written
When I ask my wife to get me some flowers, this channel is what I’m talking about
Respect lol
😂😂😂😂
Not mentioning harry mack or juice world at any point in a video about freestyling is criminal
Harry Mack?? Really? Do you feel the same when Rick James ain’t mentioned in rock?
@@clifvaughn962bro harry mack is the worlds best visible freestyler
@@JoshManwaring17 🤦🏿♂️
do you even know who Myka 9 IS!?!
im glad someone brought juice up
I grew up with freestyle being completely off the dome and that is what it will always be to me. As for the definition being it has no particular direction, I feel that came a bit later and is what has been accepted since. I got no issue with that but me personally I am going to judge it differently in what the persons actual abilities are. I have heard impressive people who can spit bars wholly off the dome and I have heard people who can write so clean that their ability to go off the dome doesn't really matter. The thing I don't like is when someone tries to fake one or the other and like you said it is pretty obvious when a dome freestyle is a collection of written bars.
Exactly. If freestyle doesn't mean off the dome then give us a word to replace it. It's like people are trying to remove your ability to even describe the skill of being an on-the-spot lyricist.
Why?
Cuz they suck
@@RandoManFPV Just say "off the dome" instead of "freestyle". You can also say "improv" like musicians do for on the spot instrumental solos. That's a really easy fix.
@smoothsavage2870 a phrase isn't a good replacement but "improv" certainly is a good word for it 🤙🔥
In my 47 years FREESTYLE is and always has meant rapping verses either without a beat or over a beat it's not meant for.
Growing up, my friends and everyone that we battled and were around treated it as a freestyle is off the top of the dome. No writtens. On the spot…
Facts we was on dat same ish picking a random subject out a hat and goin off the dome
"I am a lyricist, I am a battle rapper too, I can freestyle ALL day long and all night long,I'm a MASTER at the stuff. Throw me a word,I can rhyme it,I can tell simple stories with my freestyling too . I love 💖💖 this stuff,I'll be the GOAT,the BEST of my generation..I make all my stuff up on the spot. Then I'm a sober individual too, man I be in my mode in my sobriety!!! Cant nothing moving freak with me on that freestyling!!! I'm a monster at that and battling!!;"
KRS-1 says differently I’ll stick to his knowledge 😂
King Los remains the most underrated freestyler of his generation, I still remember when Sway was throwing words at him and he just kept rapping.
The vegan rap king
"I'm coming,I will be the artist of my generation,and the Freestyler of my generation. I'm the next Pac,the next Jigga,the next Nas, I'm a rap god,a lyrical god. My stuff dang near flawless. I love 💖💖 freestyling!!"
When I was 15 I remember a battle on the the corner of liberty hgts Kennedy fried chicken in Bmore in his freestyle he told me we can battle in any rind MFer choose your square and pointed to the side walk squares we were walking and on and everyone wit crazy I rember that to this day 20 something years later😂😂😂
Not really
Diddy’s guy
Lol
Nah yeah he could freestyle. That one on sway was refreshing. Straight off the top.
My definition of freestyle has always been the free flow of thought and style, where your mind draws on accumulated skills and experiences without constraint. It’s abstract thinking unleashed.
You can literally do all that while writing 😂
@@Nunyafuccinbidness Exactly. Man thought he came up with something profound when it's a blanket statement that can be applied to a broad range of things.
Freestyle is a great talent. I could freestyle. I just get a better message across when I write.
Drake has never been a rapper imo, he has always the pintrest of rap, recreates/adapts other ideas and claims it as his own.
There was a point at the beginning where he was on the right track. Then everything got to him and he never recovered
I got a few drake tracks in rotation, it took years to find em but I got em. A few got Lil Wayne on em, a few got Cole, a few got other lesser names, I CAN NEVER TELL WHOSE RAPPING. He steals their flows, their style, shit he even takes their adlibs. I thought that was his appeal and why people liked him. Like I said, a few drake tracks.
@@_FLWRS Nah from the beginning he was entirely reliant on much more talented writers.
Based on all the songs he’s stolen, some in there entirety, word 4 word, Yo Boy Frake is a glorified karaoke singer.
@@handsanitizer2457 except most artists who do this credit/pay homage to the artist they are influenced by. Drake says its his style thats the issue
Freestyling is one take regardless of if it's written ✍️🏾💯
I don’t agree. Then what about if an artist freestyles a few bars, then listens to the track and freestyles again after the first bars and then pauses and then does this the whole song? They freestyling? Or only if it’s one take the whole song off the dome. Def ain’t freestyling if it’s written though that’s the antonym of freestyling
@@Ciontrez_Grant b******* freestyling is straight off the dome freestyling is off of the head coming out of your imagination That's what freestyling is off the dome now this new s*** y'all doing like in the booth freestyling y'all mean a rhyme that is written rehearsed and remembered such as the cipher That's what the cipher is everybody has written their verse rehearsed it and remembered it to a live audience That's the difference
Honestly man, when Jay made that interview and Wayne took that idea to another level.
That's where I felt the decline of lyricism started to happen.
The beef between Kendrick and Drake imo really revived the art of lyricism and making kids interested in hearing bars again.
I hope this is the future for mainstream rap, because we need some spittas back in the forefront.
This video was a comprehensive education on freestyling. Thank you bro this one was an important one 😂
This is laid out so logically but in a non linear sense it’s hard to even try to disagree
Ask a dancer to freestyle they aren't gonna make new moves but mash together already learned moves
It’s been so dope seeing the channel grow. Keep up the work!💪🏽🗣️✨
I appreciate you🙏🏾
Not having a single mention or clip of Juice Wrld freestyling should be a sin 😭
Best freestyler in my opinion
He wasn’t necessarily tryna make a case for off the dome freestyling since thats the main thing evb knows
Juice WRLD is not that important to the grand idea of freestyling, he was just good at it. This was still a well structured video essay without mentioning various exceptional freestylers such as Lil Wayne or Black Thought. It seems like you lowkey missed the point
@@THESHOTGUN42O that’s what freestyling is. Most people don’t count written freestyles.
Strange how you never mentioned Harry Mack since he's well known for spitting off the dome.
I might get hate for this but I think he's by far he best rapper ever so far.
He's not big enough
I think King Los’ sway freestyle is the pinnacle of true off the dome shit… that man has been gifted
A generational talent
Idk if it can be the pinnacle while Harry Mack exists, I remember even hearing King Los calling Mack the GOAT
Harry Mack is the freestyle goat, sorry no one can touch him. King Los is an epic freestyle god but not the goat though
Yeah I’m taking Los over Mack cuz Los can get much crazier flows and longer words where Harry Mack is just the “I said a hip a hop” type of off the dome which he is unmatched in being able to go without tripping up but it’s just so simple I gotta give it to Los
Imo, I think it is possible to freestyle stories and narratives off the dome, cuz I had a friend back middle school who could do it like crazy and it was never written. Cuz we'd play this game where we gave him a specific and niche topics to rap about and he'd freestyle a whole story out of it.
Also, I think another key sign for if someone's freestyling off the dome is if their eyes are open, cuz usually in the real off the dome freestyles that I see and the freestyles from my friend, their eyes are always wide open no blinking.
Edit: I also think that real freestyles are off the dome, cuz that means hip hop is in your soul, in your spirit. You are so in tuned with the culture that to speak its language is native to you, and to train yourself to reach that feat of freestyle capability is true dedication to the art form.
Your edit make you sound like an idolized goofy
That's total BS 😂 Freestyle just means free of style, you don't have to be talking about anything specific or stick to a single topic. Maybe the best spitters in the game don't want to go off the top because they'd rather just have their best work out there instead of a mid off the top freestyle? Which at the end of the day, the majority of off the top freestyles are mid anyway.
Well one of the godfathers of rap KRS-1 has stated a freestyle is a topicless verse whether written beforehand or thought of on the spot. Just cuz someone might have an issue going off the top on the spot doesn’t mean hip hop isn’t “in their soul” witcho wanna be rza rap Confucius soundin ahh
Rewatched Kendrick's radio freestyles + the Harry Macks then watched the Drake one. My god lol.
I don’t think he prepared at all lol
Another 🔥 vid as always!!
Thank you!
Freestyle is just a rap that’s “free of style” per KRS1. Off the top is a type of freestyle but they can also be written. Off the top is just more impressive to some
Exactly. And this is what freestyling also meant in sports BEFORE Rap music. The same thing. Etymology is all there.
FINALLY SOMEONE GETS IT! All these wanna be rap rza Confucius wannabes tryna act like it has to be so scientific or spiritual like no bro you can write a freestyle or come off the top but both are still freestyles 😂
That's 2 early rap pioneers saying that and people still wanna say they're wrong lol. There are people who werent even born when the term "freestyle" came who are trying to argue against what KRS-One and Big Daddy Kane were saying. Like how you gon tell somebody who saw the genre grow from it's infancy that they're wrong?
It's really not though. if you were really of the culture you would know that.
@@trigfizzle6876 Naw. So, KRS-One & Bid Daddy Kane aren't part of the culture? It was people who lived in the culture since the 80s who told me that definition, coincidentally, one of them was an extremely good freestyler off the dome, AND his older brother was a DJ heavy on turntablelism since the mid 80s, who was my DJ at one point, says the same thing. Your definition, which was my first, is the definition people assume from outside the culture looking in, or asking others, who happened to join the culture barely before you did, atleast from my experience. No one was saying this untill the 90s, another coincidence, the only rappers who say "it means off the dome" are only rappers from the 90s up to the more recent generations. You know, people who are newer to the culture.
You have no proof. Which leads you to you say "You're not part of the culture" as a form of insult. You might say "naw its the truth", But again, you have no proof, yet there is way more evidence to what we saying. That is all you need to shut us up, and I gaurantee you we are extremely open to being corrected.
As an artist, you had me saying "right!" every few seconds untill the end lmao
If we could all just write our own rhymes that would be greaaaaaat
I endorse this message
Glad you did this
I appreciate you watching! And the repost!
Got a new subscriber! Also: King Los has freestyled several times in Sway. He does a radio freestyle "challenges" where he makes them throw him words and bets then they run out of words before he runs out of rhymes. 🔥🔥🔥
Also, Harry Mack although not in the industry, he may genuinely be the goat as far as volume of freestyles. He freestyling like 20 mins in video a week in front of crowds . And obviously Eminem was crazy with it. But it's definitely not very common. Too much risk associated
You deserve a like just for showing steez respect with that shot at Troy
This is kind of hinted at in the vid near the end, but maybe could be more explicit, that off the top freestyles are still pre-written (if only in their heads) to some extent, I remember back in the day Kurupt talked about how he would be rhyming and writing non stop everyday, not verses, but ideas and patterns / scheme - its those that end up being in "real" freestyles, connecting up pre-existing stuff. Imo that's cool and what its all about, its still improvised but its not that theyre just spewing random shit (aside from the connective lines)
This is just wrong. Look up Harry Mack. Particularly the googenhiem freestyle.
@nolives what about it? Guy asked him to tell a story and he just retold it with rhymes, watch Kurupts rap city freestyle or even listen to Tha Shiznit, which was freestyled, and youll see what i mean
Harry mack is one of these rare ones 😅
My fav freestyles come from the scribble jam era. “brother Ali vs sage francis” is a great era, there’s a lot of really great artists that year, even though rhymesayers pretty much had taken over, which is fine but it def affected the type of artist there.
As a producer/ audio engineer who’s worked with some underground artists. Watching some of the ones that are truly great can freestyle all new shit but make it all make sense for the track too somehow. Some do have a gift, I’ll admit. Many times over I’ve sat there with the headphones on while we’re recording them & as we’re going I’ll get chills with what they just punched in, and you sit there and think how did they just do that on the spot in their head but express it vocally? It is a skill & a gift that some artists definitely do have. Watching someone who can sing but also rap get the key of the beat we’ve made & recording to, all of his notes he’s singing into the antares auto tune is completely in key on the screen when it should be what your voice key is actually at then being adjusted correctly…something you see and hear & know it’s sonically and timeless music being made when those vibrations and feelings emit from thoughts and a voice through technology.
Dawg I could literally go off the top right now. Freestyling is a real skill and hella people can do it. It’s one of those things u either got or u don’t
Do it and send it in. It’s not impossible to do it’s unlikely
@@_FLWRS wait are you being for real? How I send it
@@itsnimbi hit my email bro
You can go off the top is different than freestyle a freestyle can be written or off the top what makes it a freestyle is its lack of a consistent subject throughout the verse
I'm from Cali, L.A. to be exact. And to us, freestyle has ALWAYS meant off the top of the dome.
Not according to ya mans Mikah 9,just goes to show everyone has a different meaning in their heads
@@_FLWRSI've heard Mike say conflicting things. Let me see if I can find the video.
He's a super duper OG tho, so I'll defer to him. But in Oakland in the late 1980s, we DEFINITELY meant off the dome...
this is so true. 90s was a lot off the dome tho.
Great video bro you articulated the explanation very well👏👏
Ok freestyle began as a written verse. It didn’t have to have a topic. It was to show your technical skills. Then casuals confused “off the top” with free styling. So now the majority of the newer fans thinks freestyling is solely off the top. So now there are 2 types of freestyles. Written and off the top. But all the OGs would tell you, freestyle was originally written.
Kid Cudi always comes off the top
Cudis another one too. I also feel like his regular cadence fits a freestyle more naturally than others
Nothing like watching Wayne record a mixtape song in the studio, he is so good with the writing in your head shit
also , 7:33 not 'mortal man' it's 'how much a dolla cost' , that's all
SMH how did I do that. You’re the first one to catch that btw. I appreciate you watchin
@@_FLWRS lmao fashoo, i appreciate your work
I like that you showed SaveAJ when talking about authenticity.
I’m 41 years old been freestyling since i was 13 14 years old we used to play the word games were people just shout out random words you had to incorporate into your rhymes or people would point at something in the room and you rap about it somehow harder to fake off the top of the dome in a cypher with people in that scenario. Ps. Love that Chance the Rapper theme you jacked and freestyled with from that Baby Blue joint with Action Bronson.
Or had to rhyme the last word someone used before you in said cypher
This was dope and summarised eloquently, subbed.
Much appreciated!
Fire video. Freestylin' will always mean off the top. Listen to every type of beat and let your synapses fire!
At the end of the day, rhyming off the top is basically a party trick. There's more fingers on my left hand than there are humans on the planet who can impress me off the top. And purposely dropping trash is unacceptable.
☝🏾
EXACTLY … rhyming off the top is exactly what it states … RHYMING OFF THE TOP …. There’s a reason people say this “off the top” because it’s always been known and said by the greats such as KRS-1 that a freestyle is just a topicless verse whether off the top or written I don’t understand how people don’t get that lmao
@@Nunyafuccinbidnessso give us a fcking word that describes "off the top".
It's not even possible right now to search the internet for strictly off the top freestyles.
Needs a word so we can communicate and function effectively.
That's why people try to use freestyle to describe off the top rapping.
What's even the point in describing something as a freestyle meaning it's free of style? Who tf cares if it's free of style lmao I've never searched for free of style songs but hundreds of times I've searched for off the top rapping.
Freestyle meaning free of style is a useless definition.
Meanwhile off the top rapping has no definition/word.
Freestyling is a lie indeed. I also do believe every mainstream rapper has ghost writers.
I learn something new every day. Thanks!
I’m from TX. So I can tell you a huge reason that freestyles have to be off the top for some people. DJ Screw is a legend down here. Every artist that came in the booth had to spit off the top, no written. It gave it a very unique sound even when they messed up in their raps it sounded good. And when someone dropped a great verse it felt different. Something about a good verse off the top makes it sound better than a written. Anyway that’s a lot of where this idea that freestyling cannot be written came from bc DJ Screw is so influential in the south and he believed a freestyles shouldn’t be written.
That’s why we stayed wreckin in school and I thought the same thing. I’m from bmt
@@_FLWRS Yea if you’re from TX you look at freestyles different because of Screw. It’s gotta be off the top down here. And a good freestyle off the top hits different than a written.
Wasnt the real freestyle the lyrics we made along the way
As an underground loving, back pack type, I use to look down on MCs that couldn't flow off the top. What changed that was Nas on the Wake-Up-Show. Sway asked him to freestyle, and he was like "nah...but I'll write something right now on the spot" and proceeded to pen one of the craziest opening bars...
I don't remember if this was pre-Illmatic or not. It's been 30 years of damaging my brain at this point. But that changed my perspective.
Sway moving them water bottles during Troy Ave freestyle sent me to heaven lmaoo
Great video. Been speaking on this for years
Freestyling doesn't mean you're a good artist plenty of rappers can freestyle but can't write a song to save their lives. Funny thing is, MOST "freestyles" you see are just memorized writtens.
That's exactly what i mean when people try to make me seem like a bad rapper just because i don't focus on my freestyling skills, i want to expand myself as an artist with each of my songs not as a rapper.
Also i totally agree eith what you said about that jay z stuff. Even the stories about biggie make it clear he would map it out in his head, listenin to the beat for a couple hours while writing in his head.
When it comes to freestyle topics, these are the moments where we need to distinguish between a rapper and an emcee. A rapper Anyone can be a rapper, but not everyone can become an emcee
Freestyles are like magic tricks. You never know what someone got under their hat 🎩
I love a clever line like: "Lying through your teeth should never count as flossin" - Jered Sanders. Sometimes, a well thought out line is better than an off the top line.
The punches before the bars like police brutality. - Jered Sanders
Harry Mack has freestyle in the bag. It's his own style, and it might not resonate with everybody, but it's very impressive.
Great video
❤️🌱
The only way to truly know if someone is going off the top, is if you’re throwing words out there
Scenario beat in the background is a vibe
A video that I think helps the point you’re trying to make is Harry Mac’s interview with Coast Contra. For those unfamiliar: Harry is someone who made a career out of off the dome freestyles just spitting random bars using words he was given by people on the internet. Coast Contra is a rap group that got their start freestyling on J.I.D’s never beat. In that interview they explain the differences in off the dome and written freestyles really well and how much respect they have for both. Something you should take a look at if you haven’t. Much love
The local skatepark used to be packed with kids that could freestyle, they'd do verbal bashings. If you cut someone's line you didn't get jumped, you got read to filth in verse.
We made it for the premiere
I appreciate you comin through!
Great vid. I also don’t like how freestyling and going off the top has been conflated. I’m a creative writer and when I was in undergrad, every morning my professor would put on jazz music for 10 min and have us free write about anything that came to mind. By the end I’d have a large page of text that could either connect or be completely all over the place. That’s the same as freestyling, it doesn’t have to be off the top, but if it is, that’s very impressive. People mock Drake for that BlackBerry video but in reality most rappers that go up there have practiced and memorized a verse and maybe even the beat. It’s all fake lol, like when performers act like they’re playing instruments at the Super Bowl halftime show. Anyways, some of my favorite freestyles to watch are the old Migos ones. You can tell when they’re alternating between written and off the top. RIP Takeoff 🙏🏽
I enjoyed this. So an Off Top Freestlye is typically what people think about. Off tops can have schemes and themes, which is honestly harder, but not a Freestyle.
Prepared freestyles are still talented but definitely pre written.
I have been a Hip-Hip Head since the mid 90’s. I mean way before Jay-Z even said that to sway. I think that’s a good point to say, at one point it was IMPLIED that all of those radio freestyles were off the top, but - back then, the internet wasn’t what it is now, so the chance that you would hear that verse as a freestyle twice was slim. Radio was regional they could use and re-use those verses as “freestyles”. It did set an unrealistic standard though, and ultimately, when the web became a powerhouse, even through file sharing sites - it tanked a lot of emcee’s album hype. Once the thing dropped and it was just made up of those same verses you had downloaded, it made the actual project a snooze fest over new beats.
9:53 I believe the word you meant to use was comprised. 😉
100 percent! Shit just gets away from me sometimes
@@_FLWRS I know how it is. 😂
As someone who wasn't a fan of juice wrld before he died, he might be the best freestyle rapper I've ever seen
New sub, love your videos man 🔥
I appreciate you, thanks for watching and subbin
Great video 🎉❤
If i see another vid like this then i gotta subscribe
Juice got to be up there. The ability to rap for hours in any setting in the stew and out is insane would be surprised if he pre wrote all of that..
7:36 small correction, that verse is from How Much A Dollar Cost
Otherwise, a very informative watch and thoroughly explained!
Yea I slipped up on that one, I appreciate you watchin!
Let these be the definitive terms:
Freestyle: any rap performance that is not a structurally complete song or is performed outside of its intended or regular studio or concert setting. *It is an answer to the request to "rap something for us"*
Off-the-top: the artist conceives of lines as they perform them
Pre-meditated: the artist conceived of the lines some time before performing them
Rehearsed: the artist previously practiced/performed those exact lines
Written: the artist physically wrote the lines down
Troy Ave: the artist had to read the lines they physically wrote down
...Cause it's cool if you didn't write down the lines at all, but what people really care about is if you thought of the bars in advance and how primed you were to put on a performance, not if you used a pen and paper.
If I catch Lil Wayne in the street and get him to rap a verse off _No Ceilings,_ that's a rehearsed freestyle; on the way to the studio he's thinking up bars to record a pre-meditated freestyle; and when he runs out of material he'll start rapping off-the-top.
Central Cee and Drake's _Off the Radar_ performance was definitely premeditated, probably rehearsed and probably written. I'd argue it still qualifies as a freestyle because the _setting_ isn't where either artist normally records or performs: they answered OTR's request to "rap for us"
I can’t spit off the dome, but I can write rhymes in my head & remember them.
This is why Harry mack is the real Goat of freestyling
I am very great at rapping and even making songs. But one thing I cannot do and never enjoy doing is going off the top, I can’t do that shit
I feel like I’m 1 of the best actual freestylers ever. Mainly from an abundance of practice and bad memory
I can freestyle real good from the dome i have bad memory so i can remember what i write i usually can prove its not written buy letting the listener pick the topic enjoyed this vid alot blessing
Put it like this, it has to be passionate at some point where the bars come from the heart or the freestyler put mad hours into forethoughts or can see words in their heads..
This video is awesome. Great editing and i like your OC character. Recently got into a argument on tiktok with like a 100 morons about wether or not dababy writes his freestyles off the top. The most annoying thing about that honestly is people telling me Wayne does it like that fucking chamges anything about most freestyles being prerecorded. I think if were talking who freestyles the best, its gotta be harry mack, dudes off the dome game is crazy
Thank you! I’m hearing that name a lot I’m gonna have to check him out
I never understood the people who claim Freestyle was done on the spot . There's a reason people use the term "off the dome" ... It's different than a regular freestyle...
I'm finna go watch the Rich Homie Quan freestyle 😂😂😂😂😂
I remember an interview where Shaquille O'Neal said he would start freestyle cyphers with the Lakers, then Kobe would come in with his memorized writtens & get pissed when Shaq called him out on it 🤣
This reminds me. I once saw a VOD of T-Pain recording the song "That's just tips." He showed us his whole recording and songwriting process for that song, which basically consisted of him punching in every idea that he came up with on the fly, every few bars or something. I can't even imagine myself doing that, especially as a songwriter. I like to write my stuff down, and when it comes time to record, I got to get it done in one cohesive take. Call it pride, but I try not to do too many things that I can't do on stage, in the studio. You feel me?
Definitely feel you. I feel like I would forget too many things. Which jay also spoke about but no talks about
The radio in the early 00’s changed the “freestyling “ definition…. If a artists came and spit bars live that we’ve never heard they labeled it a freestyle 🤦🏾♂️
I've always thought of freestyle being different than "off the top" or "off the dome".
Off the the dome freestyles tend to be a lot more forgiving, a lot more fun and less about trying to be perfect, or even good
The lack of distinction and accuracy in the terms used gives room for the culture to be mocked and stolen. Ex: Raygun, the Australian Olympian in BBreaking/Breakdancing.
Also: glad you’re back. I was wondering where the nephew with the rose for a head went!
Glad to be back!
Bruh you had me cracking up at work 😂
If you add a layer of difficulty like Supernatural or Harry Mack where random words are chosen on the spot then you separate a freestyle from a pre-written.
Your flower looks like a carolina reaper. Makes sense, these vids are on fire bro.
Respect!
I'm 47 from out west. Freestyle originally meant off the dome to us. The first time I heard it on a record was by Richie Rich in 1989. But I understand that terms evolve and definitions change.
As a fan and an artist of hip hop, I believe that “freestyling” is when one exercises their skills in rhyming by rapping from the top. Nothing written, nothing previously recorded. Freestyling should not be a test of how lit you are; it’s an exercise that sharpens your skills. I personally don’t like to hear when “rappers” call their written/previously recorded lyrics a freestyle.