Freestyle battling exactly what is it?

As far as I know, a "freestyle battle" is basically improvisational rap being recited off of the top of the head, meaning it wasn't written beforehand and then memorized. It is used to show how much skill one artist has over another competitor. These days, I check out freestyle battles and I notice that the artists will have something written, but try to pass it off as a "freestyle". Case in point: (skip to 0:26 to get past the intro)



The kid on the right does his best to insult the opponent on the left. The audience clearly gives away the the fact that the artist on the right actually wrote his lyrics beforehand as they recite pieces of his bars. The artist on the left does his best at an actual freestyle (meaning you could tell his bars aren't written). Unfortunately, the judges give the title to the kid on the right.

Is it just me, or do they actually know what "freestyle is" and they are following the rules accordingly, or are they really on some wackness? Personally, I vote the latter. Any thoughts on this?

Where I grew up freestyling has always and I mean always meant coming off the top. I did not hear about the written freestyle until I saw a dvd where NY rappers from the 80's said some of them considered a freestyle a verse you had written just for battling or ciphers.

Ive seen battles were dudes used the same line on multiple opponents. Battles should be more sporadic, they shouldn't even know who theyre battling unless its a major showdown. But these rappers know exactly who there battling and have time to prepare.

Back when I used to go to the Apache Cafe the rule was it must be unwritten and off top of the dome. And if a person was suspected of using prefabricated bars they were "tested".

The test, the audience would yell 3 random ass words and said rapper had to construct a freestyle. They'd give you about a minute to 2 minutes to think. And if you couldn't do it they took your picture posted it on the wall and banned you from the mic. They had about a dozen pics up so they were serious about that shit.

I heard last year or the year before last they brought back open mic. I don't know if they're still doing it though.

TheHazardous wrote:

Back when I used to go to the Apache Cafe the rule was it must be unwritten and off top of the dome. And if a person was suspected of using prefabricated bars they were "tested".

The test, the audience would yell 3 random ass words and said rapper had to construct a freestyle. They'd give you about a minute to 2 minutes to think. And if you couldn't do it they took your picture posted it on the wall and banned you from the mic. They had about a dozen pics up so they were serious about that shit.

I heard last year or the year before last they brought back open mic. I don't know if they're still doing it though.

That is how it should be done. That's a great idea.

Dang! Trotter wrote:

Ive seen battles were dudes used the same line on multiple opponents. Battles should be more sporadic, they shouldn't even know who theyre battling unless its a major showdown. But these rappers know exactly who there battling and have time to prepare.

I noticed that, especially with Grind Time Battles. They all follow a format that goes like this:

Round 1, first artist includes:

gay joke
having sex with the opponents mother joke
appearance joke
having sex with the opponents girlfriend, sister
insulting opponents girl by calling her: dumb, stupid, hoe,or bitch, sometimes added in the same line
calling somebody a "faggot".
telling the other artist how bad they just got "killed".

Second artist includes:
"you can't kill me because (fill in the rest of their verse with the same stuff the first artist included in the above example, but done in a different order)


Lather, rinse, repeat for each round. They hardly ever ever get serious like they used to do back in the day, except this one proved different (kid on the right goes in on round 2):