Freestyling vs. Writing
 

Who writes better songs? Freestylers? or Just Writers?
Blue corner Says Freestyling is useless skill that would "jus be a cool aspect of ur game"!!
Red Corner Says a good Writer is a essentially a good Freestyler its just making the connection from brain to mouth!
What do you all think!?

I think that it's really cool to be able to freestyle well, but the most awesome stuff is written. You can't freestyle with as much depth because you simply can't think up stuff that fast. However, you do have to take into account the performers art. Freestyling is somewhat like an improvisational jazz solo as it allows the the individual to to express exactly what they are feeling at that moment in time. But whatever, I'd rather listen to people who have their stuff planned out.

Written- 1
Freestyle- 0

Freestyling is a skill. It's also a practice tool by which you can develop your rhythm and vocal delivery. Sure, it also develops your ability to think on your feet, but that only really comes in handy when you're... freestyling.

I see a lot of emcees, especially novices that focus almost exclusively on writing, but when it comes to delivery it's ends up being all off. I also see a lot of emcees who can aesthetically deliver, but really have not much to say. Surprisingly, I prefer the latter. That's probably why I continue to defend Weezy.

People neglect that, even in hip hop, the voice is an instrument and there should be some soul and swagger to it. It's not all tongue twisters on a breakbeat. You can't judge everything on lyrical dexterity. That's the equivalent of judging a guitarist on how fast they play. The best emcees show a balance between the ability to write and to deliver really well vocally, so I believe that both are equally important and both take time to develop.

Tough question because I don't think there's really any guys out there who JUST freestyle... I rap for fun, and I learned the best ways to come up with rhymes and different flows and learning where to rhyme within the beat is to just freestyle. I worked in a huge ice cream freezer (think a warehouse at -20 degrees with hundreds of 5-gallon tubs of ice cream) and I would just freestyle rhyme the entire work shift to take my mind off the cold and make it more fun. Half the lines wouldn't even make sense, but I'd come up with some really creative stuff and then use some of it when i began writing. I look at freestyling like a practice method for when you write your rhymes. Helps out with your flow so much I think.

Exactly

This.

I agree I like the Freestyling more.
I had a Conversation about this with a friend who completely says that freestyling is useless and I just couldn't understand how he would think that accurate expression of what they feel at that moment.
I understand why people like prepared stuff better but that's only if your thinking in extremes of either you do one or the other. I think freestyling is alot about the performance and delivery. That's what makes the feeling more convincing. More Expression then Calculation.
It seems to be 2 different skill sets that compliment each other.

Jazz is essentially the godfather of hip hop in a lot of stylistic ways, so I think the same thing can be applied. A lot of great aspects of hip-hop come right off of the top of the artist's head: using their immediate imagination to create something spontaneous and surprising. That's a lot like an improvised jazz solo, to me.

So I think of free-styling as necessary, though the structured, written approach is obviously just as important to actually being able to enjoy the music. Whether one outweighs the other, depends on the artist.

My boy Voss and I were having this conversation. Mostly about written battles vs purely freestyle. His take is that written battles are a new trend, and they're the future. Two emcees get a week or so to gather up dirt and write rhymes. This allows for cleaner and wittier lines. If you've ever been to a freestyle battle, there's a lot of repetition. People are trying to go off the cuff quick, so the tendency is to resort to an old favorite line or even biting to keep the flow. Sure, freestyling is the pure form of battling, but written shit makes for an awesome spectacle. I don't think that written battles could ever replace freestyling, but it's not an evil takeover of rap that some purists try and make it seem like it is.


Example of freestyle vs written with Voss:

Free:




Written:

I'm always hearing that writing sounds better then freestyling for the most part. Because you get a chance to fine tune. And like you said in freestyles lots off repetition occurs because people revert to what I like to call their fallbacks.
But My imagination makes me think of someone who is actually good enough at the freestyling that they have the timing and structure down well enough that you can essentially say they can freestyle to paper no edits needed.
Is that impossible or just difficult?
Wouldn't that be better then a weeks worth or research?
I think researching for freestyle battle is ridiculous.

I think that the Freestyling is more cool but the most important thing is written,Freestyling is a skill.I agree i like the freestyling more,but the freestyling is not possible without written because catching the world fast without written is not possible.

It's nice to be able to be able to come up with a completely improvisational stanza or phrase. Whether you're throwing down 16 bars or 2's it's good practice. I have to agree that it's nice to have your delivery together. You can fine tune and put more thought into words when written, but make sure you they flow aloud as well as in the head.

Freestyling is a lost art... It needs to come back. Half the sh-t you hear today that is claimed to be a "freestyle" is either all written or mostly written. Eminem, Mos Def, Cassidy... dopest freestyle's ever, and they are TRUE freestyle's.

True that. Doperest freestyles come from

Myka 9
Aesop Rock
Gift of Gab

I like Mos Def's freestyles more than his album ish.

Same with me man, but no but for real I didn't believe Eminem's sh-t was really a freestyle until I really analyzed it and when you hear it its just like waaaaaat the f-ck. Dude just has a mind that can keep spitting words the sound alike and somehow he always makes sh-t work out.

There's ways to tell when people are going straight off the dome. Sometimes sh-t don't necessarily rhyme every with every bar but it still keeps the flow or the message going, pointing out things as thei happen is another.

Ya'll know Chris Webby? There's a video of him in a cab and I thought it was all memorized but drives by a stop sign and spits something like "...and I will never stop, not even at an Octagon Sign..." and goes on to rhyme that ish with "Optimus Prime" which he's got a tattoo of... Ridiculous ish.

Also when heads like f-ck up a little or something doesn't really make sense or they choke a bit or lose the flow a little, you know it's a free.

Method Man has a dope one too on Rap City back when they had those freestyle features... man I miss those days.

Oh and everything you hear from Cassidy that says it's a free is a damn free. Boy is dirty

I like both.
I mean there's nothing cool than two people spitting lines off the top of their head in front of a crowd of people. I mean that can only go so far though.

I also like for someone to sit down and write well thought out lyrics too.

So both are equally cool in different aspects and both can take a lot skill and talent.

Exactly, they are completely different games altogether