These artists spend weeks and sometimes months crafting absurdly complex lyrics with intricate wordplay and then perform them a cappella with no microphones in active one-on-one competitions that can last from three minutes to an hour in front of hundreds of people in attendance and thousands on internet pay-per-view. For the level of competition that’s expected, it’s exceedingly rare a performer will gamble on a moment of spontaneity and create a rebuttal on the spot. When purists of both pre-written and freestyle camps disparage the other, what both miss is that they’re really too different to compare. The rules are different, what makes for a great performance is different and the skill-sets required to do either well seldom overlap.
But while both are under the umbrella of “rap battles,” a niche in itself within the still somewhat-niche counter-culture that is hip-hop, the expectations for a freestyle battle are entirely different. Mostly, it’s the allure of the unknown. Two adversaries on one stage in that one moment have to muster whatever skill they can to win the crowd, and must do so within the rhyme schemes, the English language and rhythm of the beat. With the pressure on, these 30 second rounds can feel like the absolute longest or shortest of one’s life. You don’t just need to think on your toes and create something on the spot, but you have to entertain an audience in the process.
But, beyond the challenge, it’s also the triumph of when these moments of creation work. While the nature of freestyle rap battling can lead to lesser match-ups that are either laughably bad or unbearably middling, the times when things click are incredible. Seeing an MC uniquely diss their opponent in a moment of spontaneity that they couldn’t possibly prepare for, and then their opponent using that same insult they’ve just heard and flipping it back at their opponent for a barb that’s twice as sharp creates the unique magic moments that freestyle battle rapping is all about. It’s arguably the closest live hip-hop comes to jazz improvisations.