I wonder what will happen in the future, as technology grows and evolves. The art form will have to evolve with it. Will the freestyle slowly phase out? The “off the dome,” part of it and become off the phone? The allure of it will slowly fade away and become a long lost art form. Which is a big part of the culture. I have no problems with this “pre-written,” freestyle or free verse. My question is why do it?Where is it? I know talking about something like this may seem like a rant. Which is what I do not want this to be like. My question is, where and when did freestyles change. Some of my readers are like what do you mean? If you think about how many times have you heard a freestyle and loved it? Now re-listen to it, and think about the flow. Now to the untrained ear its no different. Yet, there are many who Black Berry Freestyle or (BBF). Some examples of artists who I have noticed who do this consist of Lil Wayne, Joe Budden, and more.
My favorite happened to be battle rappers who used their skills to the extreme. When you battle your mind has to be quick and sharp. You can tell a veteran from a rookie in the battle world. By the way they react and respond to what their opponent says. I stated before, “pre written freestyles,” are even present in the battle world. Trust me, I have seen it before, I was doing a battle, final round and the I was battling was nice, until his style changed. His verse dynamics changed and it did not seem right. The battle went on, and oh by the way (I called him on it in a verse, ha!) Needless to say I lost the battle, don’t you just love hip hop politics...anyway. Once this happened it made me rethink how battles are past and present.
No matter if you believe it or not, written freestyles are being passed off as non-written freestyles. It is becoming the new “it",” thing to do now a days. Prime example, Black Entertainment Television (I use that term loosely). Who remembers the tv show “The Basement,” Many of the artists who appeared on the show actually previewed the beat they were going to freestyle to. So it gave them time to prepare for what they were about to rhyme about. Which goes against what the show and the basic skills of the art form are about. Going further, some of those freestyles, became real verses for other songs that many people recite now.
I wonder what will happen in the future, as technology grows and evolves. The art form will have to evolve with it. Will the freestyle slowly phase out? The “off the dome,” part of it and become off the phone? The allure of it will slowly fade away and become a long lost art form. Which is a big part of the culture. I have no problems with this “pre-written,” freestyle or free verse. My question is why do it?
