Are the freestyles real?

[Elision]

A freestyle doesn't necessarily mean off-the-top. It's just a non-organized form of writing. As opposed to your average form(s) of constructing a song.

[christalgurl]

Despicable is pretty obviously not an off the top freestyle. The Westwoods are questionable. I think that maybe parts of them are actually off the top, but not all by any means.

[Kez]

Despicable is pretty obviously not an off the top freestyle. The Westwoods are questionable. I think that maybe parts of them are actually off the top, but not all by any means.

I'm sorry but nobody's that good. His 2009 Westwood "freestyles" in particular remain some of the favourite stuff i've heard from him since he came back, it is impossible to freestyle like that. It's obviously pre-written. That doesn't make it any less awesome, it's just not freestyled.

[VenomBlackViper]

Despicable is pretty obviously not an off the top freestyle. The Westwoods are questionable. I think that maybe parts of them are actually off the top, but not all by any means.

I'm sorry but nobody's that good. His 2009 Westwood "freestyles" in particular remain some of the favourite stuff i've heard from him since he came back, it is impossible to freestyle like that. It's obviously pre-written. That doesn't make it any less awesome, it's just not freestyled.

Especially his Microphone freestyle, holy fuck that shit was amazing. I'm surprised he didn't use it for a song.

[Blu]

The only thing I don't understand is, if all these freestyle verses are written.. why can't he write like that in songs? I just listened to his Microphone freestyle and that shit was sick. He should've have a shitload of verses like that in Recovery.

So, I guess it's safe to say the 8 Mile battles were already written?

[Kez]

The only thing I don't understand is, if all these freestyle verses are written.. why can't he write like that in songs? I just listened to his Microphone freestyle and that shit was sick. He should've have a shitload of verses like that in Recovery.

So, I guess it's safe to say the 8 Mile battles were already written?

Well for one thing the Microphone freestyle came from the Relapse era. Most of Relapse was up to par lyrically the same as that freestyle. Whereas Recovery goes in a different direction. And of course the 8 Mile battles were already written lmao, it's a movie, they weren't gonna just wing it and see what happens were they? Although fun fact, when Proof does a verse at the start he actually did freestyle it from what I hear. But then again Proof always freestyled genuinely off the top (and you could tell)

[Blu]

The only thing I don't understand is, if all these freestyle verses are written.. why can't he write like that in songs? I just listened to his Microphone freestyle and that shit was sick. He should've have a shitload of verses like that in Recovery.

So, I guess it's safe to say the 8 Mile battles were already written?

Well for one thing the Microphone freestyle came from the Relapse era. Most of Relapse was up to par lyrically the same as that freestyle. Whereas Recovery goes in a different direction.

That raises another question, how was he so incredibly lyrical on Relapse, but yet on Recovery it seemed like he got worse? What the hell is going on Marshall?

[Amaranthine]

And of course the 8 Mile battles were already written lmao, it's a movie, they weren't gonna just wing it and see what happens were they? Although fun fact, when Proof does a verse at the start he actually did freestyle it from what I hear. But then again Proof always freestyled genuinely off the top (and you could tell)

I remember an interview with Em from the 8 mile era where Em said that he and all the other rappers who appeared in the movie sat around and wrote all the battles together to make sure they were the best they could be.

And man, I miss Proof. That's sick.

[Kez]

The only thing I don't understand is, if all these freestyle verses are written.. why can't he write like that in songs? I just listened to his Microphone freestyle and that shit was sick. He should've have a shitload of verses like that in Recovery.

So, I guess it's safe to say the 8 Mile battles were already written?

Well for one thing the Microphone freestyle came from the Relapse era. Most of Relapse was up to par lyrically the same as that freestyle. Whereas Recovery goes in a different direction.

That raises another question, how was he so incredibly lyrical on Relapse, but yet on Recovery it seemed like he got worse? What the hell is going on Marshall?

It's called pandering to the mainstream audience. He put Relapse out and it didn't get as big as they wanted it to, so he made a very commercial album, and we can all see how popular that got with just the numbers for Not Afraid and LTWYL alone. It's sad but true. Not that I don't enjoy some of the tracks on Recovery, but it is a fact.

[JasonOne99]

He said his freestyles now are rusty did you not watch this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD8jV_Jm ... age#t=115s

[j04370859]

The only thing I don't understand is, if all these freestyle verses are written.. why can't he write like that in songs? I just listened to his Microphone freestyle and that shit was sick. He should've have a shitload of verses like that in Recovery.

So, I guess it's safe to say the 8 Mile battles were already written?

Well for one thing the Microphone freestyle came from the Relapse era. Most of Relapse was up to par lyrically the same as that freestyle. Whereas Recovery goes in a different direction.

That raises another question, how was he so incredibly lyrical on Relapse, but yet on Recovery it seemed like he got worse? What the hell is going on Marshall?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ockceXMxU5I
I guess you didn't listen to this then.

[Fleka]

A freestyle doesn't necessarily mean off-the-top. It's just a non-organized form of writing. As opposed to your average form(s) of constructing a song.

This.

[Devil'sAdvocate]

MTV Car Freestyle (1998 or 1999?), with em and proof >>>>>>>>>>>>>*

that was off the top fasho!

[Asd-ONE]

Of course they're writtens, you can tell the difference between a written & a off the top freestyle easily.

This was off the top:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXqBLY1sQj4

.

Irony. He says in that hates when rappers say they die hard like bruce willis.

"In other words, I'm saying I die HARD!"

That's why he said "My God! What I mean is David Carradine, jacking his penis in front of his tripod."

[EminemBase]

You seriously think Eminem was trying to pretend "Despicable" was off-the-top?...

People always confuse what freestyle means. Originally it just meant a verse that wasn't about a particular subject-matter, that was random, that could go anywhere and could be rapped to a beat on the spot. A freestyle verse, a verse free-of-style.

Then people started to re-appropriate to mean on the spot, but that's really an 'off-the-dome' freestyle. Either way, when you see Em spitting his "Microphone" freestyle VERSE on Westwood, in no way is he pretending that it's on the spot.

It's OBVIOUS that it's written given its complexity, how smooth and constructed it is etc. people are retards when they comment like "no way man, this is written!" lmao. WE KNOW. EMINEM KNOWS. EMINEM KNOWS YOU KNOW. He's not pretending it's on the spot.

Of course it's written. It's just about spitting a lyrical verse that's not used and is random. It's just a nice little surprise slice of lyricism. And that "Despicable" freestyle is like a little promo. Yes, it's written.

It's obvious when they're off the top or not though. I don't get how people can't tell or even need to question. It's like, when you hear Em swearing a shit load, pausing and reverting to cliche and things like "spiritual, miracle, lyrical..." < that's off the top. He's trying to improvise thoughts and falling back on old tricks.

Where as, when you hear line after line of witty, non-stop lyricism with a clear rhyme pattern and structure, that's written. But it's obvious from the timing of the spitting / pausing alone. You can just tell when he / anybody is genuinely thinking / actually coming up with stuff in that moment and when they're clearly spitting from memory.

But in that sense, rarely is ANYTHING truly off-the-top. As, if there's three guys in a room trying to spit on the spot and one guy is waiting for the next guy to finish - don't you think he's going to be thinking of rhymes / lines to start with, as much as he can before he starts? so that's technically 'writing' right there. As that's what you do when you write. A pen and pad is just a way of recording those thoughts with the leisure of not having to remember them. But you're still thinking things up and then refining the thoughts. So very little is truly on the spot as you're always thinking.

But, Eminem can spit on the spot also, a real example is his 'any word' freestyle with Stretch. Which is a genuinely amazing off-the-dome freestyle and the best I've ever heard. The most naturally gifted I ever heard at it was Proof, but Em's one with Stretch was unbelievable.

This is the one I'm talking about by the way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hhQGUfPaU4

It's amazing how smooth he keeps his flow going. A continuous flow. Coming up with rhymes / raps in a continuous flow on the spot that all make sense, are witty and lead into each other is one of the hardest things to do with the brain. As you're not only spontaneously writing / forming rhymes, wit and ideas but you need to adhere to a constant rhythm as well.

His on the spot lyrics there are also better than most modern rappers writtens lmao. Shows how shit mainstream rappers these days are.

Sometimes he mixes it also though. As in, sometimes when spitting off the top for real, he'll throw in some written lines to make it a bit more impressive or, when spitting written he'll mix it up and spit some off the top. An example of this is the 09 Westwood freestyle, the part when he spits "I'm quite mellow / a white fellow / my pee is bright yellow / I like jello / I'm like hello..." < I think that is genuinely off the top. You can hear / see where he's connecting the dots in that moment, very strong and simple multi rhymes which don't connect all that much and are more like separate statements. So it's clear, I think, that he's thinking each line individually. It's all about just having tools in the arsenal though.