Tonight (Aug. 3) in New York is Freestyle Mondays' "The Arena" event. After 13 years, Freestyle Mondays is the city's longest running freestyle hip-hop event, and the second longest running hip-hop event behind Pyramid Club's "End of the Weak." While the location for Freestyle Mondays has changed a few times over the years (starting at the now defunct Club Sin Sin and currently holding residency at Manhattan's Meridian 23), its consistent activity with a jam-packed capacity crowd is proof of what may be a surprising revelation to some: freestyle battling is alive and well.
Now when the topic of freestyling itself comes up, a good segment of hip-hop heads tend to suddenly become defensive or dismissive. To some, it's irrelevant and not indicative of where the culture is headed. To others, it's the purest form of hip-hop that there is. Truthfully, it’s neither.
As I’m sure a substantial chunk of the battle audience reading this knows, there are essentially two circuits of battle rapping. There’s the a cappella pre-written street battle style, which is the far more popular and prevalent style today made famous by URL, KOTD, DF, etc., and then there’s the freestyle rhymes-over-beats circuit, which is now mostly held at regional events. While there are fans in both camps who adamantly can’t stand the other, as well as plenty who simply don’t care for the other, it’s pretty likely that there’s a lot of overlap in both fanbases. In my experience, the bulk of fans of freestyle battles watch the street battles. Likewise, the a cappella fans will enjoy a quality freestyle battle, but that’s if they get the chance to see one, which a substantial chunk in all likelihood don’t realize even exist, beyond the occasional clash that pops onto their timeline.
That’s not to fault them for not knowing. It’s kind of the by-product of the peaks and valleys of rap battling as an art/craft/competition medium. The street battle format gained popularity with the simple set up of one camera, two emcees, no beats and whatever crowd they could get. With no overhead outside of paying the battlers and the means of recording the contest, its rise in popularity coincided perfectly with the new technology of easy-to-duplicate DVD-Rs and streaming Internet video. It’s this minimalist style that gave, and still gives, the opportunity for anyone to become a star as long at their bars/flow/performance is on point and polished enough to translate to wherever it’s being seen. It’s the sheer triumph of the individual out there.
With freestyle battling, before the emcees get involved you already require a microphone and beats just for the live element alone. Then, say you get two really talented freestylers, the sound mixing and the recording have to be perfect for both the live crowd AND whatever way you’re saving the footage for future distribution. Just aesthetically speaking, it’s a much more challenging undertaking. Factor in no chance for the artists to rehearse and the pressure of making something in the moment, unless you’re working with the absolute best of the best, it’s a little more of a gamble than letting someone know who they’re facing weeks in advance and letting them craft their bars. Still, it’s the magic from these stars-aligning moments where freestyle battling can really shine. Whatever you’re seeing could only happen once based on the specific circumstances that led both emcees to that stage at that exact moment.
Perhaps it’s because of this undertaking that freestyle battling lends itself much more to the live experience and, unless the crowd can be heard on the recordings as well, it doesn’t translate quite as well as the a cappella format does to that tiny YouTube window. The best freestyle battles are like a great party that just happens to have two guys trying to outshine each other by creating spontaneous rhymes in the middle of it. It’s the same way with watching a video of an improv comedy group or hearing a great jazz group. Unless you’re filming the absolute best of the best of the best, you’re not going to get that same excitement watching it online compared to if you’re there live. This is probably why freestyle battling is still niche within the battling niche itself, and despite way fewer YouTube views, still packs out venues in major hip-hop cities around the globe.
Ultimately, if you like a really good a cappella rap battle, you’ll probably like a really good freestyle battle as well. Both value wordplay, both value showmanship, both aim to get that crowd reaction and both create that exciting aura of competition. The only real difference is a cappella battling gives you the opportunity to see an intricate, nuanced live performance, whereas freestyle battling shows you something wholly new summoned before your very eyes with the very real chance of unpredictability weaving its way into the performance. Think theater vs. improv.
There’s also, of course, the occasional freestyle rebuttals you’ll get in an a cappella battle that an emcee will work into the start of their round. These are universally more well received than if an emcee in a freestyle battle launches into pre-rehearsed rhymes, which is immediately detectable and uncomfortable for everyone involved.
Even outside of battling, freestyle rapping has started to become popular again here in New York. Along with Freestyle Mondays, freestyle-centric rap events have become a substantial draw. Every Friday night, the Legendary Cyphers event draws a huge crowd in Union Square Park offering just a smattering of emcees exchanging rhymes in a circle. Even the improv comedy world has found a lane for rapping with Freestyle Love Supreme getting a weekly half-hour show on the Pivot network, North Coast having a much-extended weekly improv show Saturday nights at The P.I.T., and Upright Citizen Brigade East’s monthly comedy rap battle "Battlicious."
So, if you’re a battle fan and haven’t seen a freestyle battle in a while/ever, I highly recommend checking it out. Not just online — actually attend one. They’re usually much cheaper than their counterparts (most expensive I’ve ever seen was $10 at the door) and given how they’re usually tournament-style events, by sheer law of averages you’re going to see something great at some point.
All photos by Farbeon Photography. See more of Farbeon's work here. Follow Freestyle Mondays on Facebook for info on future events.
How's the freestyle scene in your city? Let us know in the comments below.
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