Why do so little people know what a freestyle is?

[45123]

Its one of the most used and known terms in hip-hop but for some reason most people think it is and has to be improvised and off the top, when really its just any rap you could have stored in your memory about any topic (hence the name freestyle), doesn't belong to a song, or just fits the beat you're rapping to. I actually think its a travesty that so many people misconstrue the meaning of the term, even non-casuals and some heads

Rappers have been spitting written material for decades now and labeling them as freestyles, who the fukk told everybody they had to be off the top? Even since the days of rap during its genesis, off the top rapping was more reserved for when you and friends were just playing or joking around or whatever. Barely any rappers, even the famous ones, can do it at a high level.

 

[Zero]

About to be a whole lotta flab in here but I agree

 

[Big Daddy]

And just what was your source for your definition of what a rap freestyle was meant to be when that term was coined, or is this just your opinion on what a rap freestyle was meant to be when that term was coined?

 

[WaveGang]

A freestyle is flowing off the top

The cultures been watered down and so has the terms, nowadays it also means pre written because mainstream "rappers" don't have skills like that

 

[45123]

And just what was your source for your definition of what a rap freestyle was meant to be when that term was coined, or is this just your opinion on what a rap freestyle was meant to be when that term was coined?

My source is all the "freestyles" rappers do on the radio, the songs labeled as "freestyles" when rappers do verses to other people's beats, the XXL "freestyles", etc. None of those are off the top.

A freestyle is flowing off the top

The cultures been watered down and so has the terms, nowadays it also means pre written because mainstream "rappers" don't have skills like that

The top rappers of today are far more intricate and maybe even more skilled than rappers of yesterday. Rappers in the 80s were ABC 123 yet that's more skilled than the multi's and metaphors that are pretty much the standard of lyrical rappers today?

Watch this video too by the way

 

[SuburbanPimp]

Everybody knows what it is.....

Rappers just don't actually do it anymore

Can't say I blame them totally

If a rapper really freestyles and it stinks he'll get clowned forever

If a rapper really freestyles and it's dope everybody will just be like

It's a shame it's not respected the way it used to be

 

[WaveGang]

The top rappers of today are far more intricate and maybe even more skilled than rappers of yesterday.

 

[45123]

By "yesterday" I'm talking early 90s and before when it was ABC 123 hippity hop rhyming. I mean maybe I'm wrong about all this and as time went on people just twisted the definition of the term since barely anyone can go off the top and sound nice anymore, but even then 90% of people cling on to that meaning when .00001% of these freestyles rappers do on the radio or whatever are actually off the top

 

[1/2OfDaBruinz]

Boy you sound ignorant. An AUTHENTIC freestyle is improvised rapping. All that other shyt is evolution of the term. I believe I had this debate with you before, so it's really no point in going back and forth. However, I will just drop a few freestyles from a couple of MC's who never been scared to flow off the dome on a big stage. Anyone who has ever been to a Common show knows that it's been a part of his routine to freestyle live. It's hundredsof examples of mainstream artist spitting real freestyles out there, but for the sake of bandwidth, I'll just drop a few and continue letting you try to further your crusade to misinform some of the younger and more impressionable people on this board. Good day.

 

[45123]

Boy you sound ignorant. An AUTHENTIC freestyle is improvised rapping. All that other shyt is evolution of the term. I believe I had this debate with you before, so it's really no point in going back and forth. However, I will just drop a few freestyles from a couple of MC's who never been scared to flow off the dome on a big stage. Anyone who has ever been to a Common show knows that it's been a part of his routine to freestyle live. It's hundredsof examples of mainstream artist spitting real freestyles out there, but for the sake of bandwidth, I'll just drop a few and continue letting you try to further your crusade to misinform some of the younger and more impressionable people on this board. Good day.

So who or what authority figure told you that off the top is the "authentic" way of freestyling? And how the fukk can the term's definition "evolve" from an improvised rap made up on the spot, to a written rap that isn't improvised whatsoever? That's not an evolution that's a complete flip, which means one or the other way of defining it is wrong

And you posting vids of improvised raps and letting me know who can do it has got nothing to do with the actual argument

Simply stated, a freestyle doesn't have to be off the top. And its actually the "younger and more impressionable people" you speak of who believe it has to be

I'll post this video again so you can hear it from a rapper and not a random internet message board user

 

[*L*E*G*A*C*Y*]

A freestyle is flowing off the top

The cultures been watered down and so has the terms, nowadays it also means pre written because mainstream "rappers" don't have skills like that

This.

hip-hop culture doesn't exist anymore...it's basically pop culture now.

 

[desp]

A freestyle is flowing off the top

The cultures been watered down and so has the terms, nowadays it also means pre written because mainstream "rappers" don't have skills like that

Big Daddy Kane don't got skills like that then?

 

[#SOG_soldier]

big daddy kane is right

 

[Another Man]

So who or what authority figure told you that off the top is the "authentic" way of freestyling? And how the fukk can the term's definition "evolve" from an improvised rap made up on the spot, to a written rap that isn't improvised whatsoever? That's not an evolution that's a complete flip, which means one or the other way of defining it is wrong

And you posting vids of improvised raps and letting me know who can do it has got nothing to do with the actual argument

Simply stated, a freestyle doesn't have to be off the top. And its actually the "younger and more impressionable people" you speak of who believe it has to be

I'll post this video again so you can hear it from a rapper and not a random internet message board user

Your initial post and that vid are pretty much spot on as far as what freestyles are. Dudes are pretty much just arguing to argue at this point.