Usually on RapFix Live one of the guests of honor would spit some bars to end the show. Well, yesterday’s guest Royce did not, and explained why he doesn’t freestyle anymore:
“This is the segment I have to explain why I’m not rapping,” said a joking yet semi-serious Royce. “Since we’re living in the Internet era, the technological era, there used to be a point in time where I could kick a verse and I could go do tons of radio stations and kick the same verse. Since the Internet is accessible as it is, as soon as I kick a verse the verse is dead.”
Royce continued to explain further why he holds his verses for himself now. “I can’t go do it again because then I get attacked for recycling lines,” said Royce. “Since I haven’t been in the studio and I’ve been on the road so much, the only verses that I have memorized right now are verses off the Slaughterhouse album. I don’t want to say it because I’d give it away and then have to go rewrite that verse for the album.”
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what a faggot ass excuse. Stupidest shit i’ve heard all week. “waaaaah ppl will attack me waaaaah!!!!!” WTF has happened to MC’s in this “internet era”…
pretty weak cop out..
seriously gayyyyyy. so what if all rappers had his viewpoint? BMe was weak as hell anyway
You guys are not mcs or even have any part of the Hip Hop culture that you participate in. You would not understand obviously. You expect him to have a million verses memorized to waste at every media outlet? smfh. You are quick to judge yet you are not in the position to do so. Sit back and continue to play your position and be entertained.
how about actually rap off the top? the fuck is wrong with rappers nowadays
this video highlights a problem a large amount of people have been having with rappers these days. I understand it’s not only royce, but he is just one in the same. What he’s saying isn’t even sorry yall i don’t have the capacity to freestyle right now for whatever reason, but that i don’t have a memorized to spew out and pretend like its a freestyle. I just feel like the even bigger issue is that he considers that a freestyle. Of course works with great talent (artists, producers, his own lyircal ability) but isn’t be real on this account. C’mon this dude can come off the top if he so desired…or thats at least what we’ve been led to believe thus far
I think it’s funny how people always say, “how about you rap off the top? Faggot ass written verses, blah blah blah I’m butthurt”. The thing is that people have been spoiled by rappers spitting written verses for so long, that if a rapper actually spit off of the top (not a memorized verse or something he just wrote), people would be all over them screaming about how weak that shit is. Fickle ass fans.
He’s actually right though. Freestyle is dope but Royce is not gonna go off the head because fans dont wanna hear something dope. They wanna hear him fuck up so they can say , “look I told you he sucks”. I would just say if anybody thinks its easy to have a bunch of dope verses ready at all times just try it yourself and you’ll see it aint that easy. Royce probably does 3 or 4 interviews a week and a bunch of studio sessions. He aint gonna have verses for everyday of the week. He could have kicked something from his last album cause I still havent heard those verses but if he did people would just say he’s recycling verses.
eh. some rappers just aren’t freestyle rappers. and I mean REAL freestyles, not a random memorized verse. I agree with some of ya’ll, why is he acting like that’s a freestyle?? I can understand him if he said the same thing but replaced Freestyle with the word VERSE…that’ll make a lot of sense…some rappers freestyle better than they write. some write better than they freestyle…And I know first hand, if you spend a lot of time writing for projects, you probably haven’t spent to much time crafting your freestyle. Shit, what rapper hasn’t gotten on interview of some sort and used written verses. Kanye, BTNH, Drake, Keith Murray, Redman, Method Man, Common, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, all of them have gotten on a “FREESTYLE” section of a show and spit some verses. Shit, A Tribe Called Quest were some of the best MCs but they’re freestyle were wack ass hell lol.
Hence the word “Freestyle,” you shouldn’t be spitting memorized verses, just free it. I overstand what he’s saying but it shouldn’t matter if he is free-styling. Harness your craft. His verses aren’t even that ill anymore, he’s a flow + let me refer to my dick every verse type of guy. Shits sad when MCs get wacker with time.
honestly though totally agree, in this day and age where rappers are in front of the media on an almost daily basis, it is nearly impossible to have an array of dope ass verses in the arsenal. Yet i just want to bring up, recently watched a tony touch talib freestyle, and i hold kweli in the highest esteem, but the freestyle was nothing special…STILL it was a freestyle, he messed up a few ties crossed his words, only had a couple lines where i was like damn that was dope, but it was real. I understand my views may not be everyone else’s but i appreciate that more than anyone rappers dope freestyle which is just a verse off an upcoming album. I understand that may not be the case for everyone, but sticking to the art form shouldn’t get you in trouble with the fans. Maybe this whole issue highlights fans unfair expectations more than anything
he said j. cole his fav rapper along with yelawolf. cole’s name came out of his mouth first, while yall faggots stay hating on him. yall dont know shit. cole world. *waits for dickrider comments*
I think rappers are scared of rapping of the top of their heads, because what if they choke? What if what they spit is whack? I mean not every rapper is a Supernatural when it comes to freestyling.
It would have just been better if he said he can’t freestyle than giving that lame ass excuse I mean what kind of bitch shit was that I like Royce but niggas need to realize its not a freestyle if your using written rhymes and not going off the top of the head at least thats what real emcees do
He DID say verse.
I thought a freestyle was like some “on the spot make it up as I go” type shit. Remember when rappers actually freestyled and you could tell cuz they would mess up some lines or keep saying fillers words until they had the next line? What the hell is he talking about? He doesn’t have any new unheard memorized verses to throw away right now? That’s not what we are asking for man.
Its been years since I heard a rapper go off the head and was nice. Anybody can go off the head but can you go off the head and make it sound like a written? Then do it in every interview? Try freestyling right now and put 6 -8 punchlines in a 16 off the top without fucking up. Ill wait……….. See I told you it aint that easy.
This is just sad, Royce is a crazy good MC so I don’t know what his problem is with kicking a few bars off the top. The problem is if he doesn’t “come hard” or whatever you’d like to call it, he’ll receive flack for it. BUT ITS FREESTYLING, its okay to screw up, just have some got damn fun. And as far as i’m concerned, if you can’t freestyle, let alone don’t attempt to freestyle, you shouldn’t call yourself an emcee. PERIOD. I’m glad he didn’t spit a written because that’s not freestyling anyway, it’s reciting a written which in my opinion is boring and corny compared to cats who can actually come off the top and entertain the crowd.
Bottom line: A weak ass excuse that I’d expect from a “new-age” rapper, but Royce has been around for a while, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he can come off the top so I don’t know why he didn’t.
What ya’ll think?
Obviously you can’t give out a verse off your album to every interview. Maybe your don’t have the capability to spit a real freestyle off the top, which in my book qualifies you as wack. Could you please at the very least take 5 minutes and right a little throw away verse if you don’t have the balls to freestyle. I see that fancy phone Royce. Notes ships with every iphone so I know you have that app. Type up a little 16 and spit it. I can do that so if you can’t why should I buy your album?
I don’t usually flame people but I see everybody’s comments as extra wack right now.
A few weeks ago everybody was commenting on Kendrick Lamar freestyling over this guys violin outside. It was actually off top and everyone tried to bury him alive. Now, Royce acknowledges that fact and everyone is mad about that too.
People getting mad because he didn’t want to write another 18 verses to have 100 internet “experts” say it was wack or the greatest thing ever to be forgotten about a day later? Do you know how long it takes to write a verse? A song? Then if he did freestyle, you guys would have been mad about him only having ONE good punchline.
Nothing will make anybody happy. NEWSFLASH: Everybody writes except if you hear them mess up and get back on track. That includes their verses on songs and “freestyles”.
Oh and since I am spoiling things today, “Lil Wayne is known to have a team of writers that work for him, the government planned 9/11 and Ronald Reagan is the Devil. Thank you.”
P.S. I am not coming back to check this post to argue, tough luck.
Okay as an aspiring rapper, I can speak a little on this. 1st off you only get so many chances to showcase your skills so most people rather not chance it freestyling and sounding whack and then no one wants to listen to them. So people usually have writtens ready for so they can come with their best foot forward. And freestyling is not the easiest thing, you have a milliom things going on in your mind. You barely have any time to think about what you’re saying so its hard to make em dope and sometimes you mouth moves faster than you thoughts and choke or mess up. And the way people eat you alive for doing something like that is another thing that makes people stay away from it. An in this hip hop landscape it might be more essential to work on your hooks than your freestyles anyway. But I do enjoy freestyling, but I am one of the more conservative guys who keeps written on me because you only have one 1st impression. But for somebody as esteemed as Royce, he could’ve busted a free and it wouldnt really matter howit sounded. I didnt like the move he made there, that was pretty weak
Ain’t a freestyle like: “I spit something off the dome?” It ain’t “I’m gonna do a couple of prewritten bars.”.
Look as much as I agree with the whole “It’s dead once I say it” a Freestyle is suppose to be off the dome anyway with a few pre-written punchlines thrown in. But majority is suppose to be off the dome. But in today’s age NO ONE actually freestyles anymore
First, a Freestyle doesnt mean off the top. a freestyle is bars spit raw without any form. people keep getting “off the top” bars and “freestyles” mixed up. All those rappers that you see on radioshows and interviews spitting crazy bars with metaphors and crazy wordplay without messing up, you think those are off the top? Eminem at the BET cypher you think thats off the top?
i understand where he’s coming from considering that he does mad interviews a week where he’s asked to freestyle but i still think its a wack excuse.
Just because thats what rappers do nowadays doesnt change the definition of “freestyle”. a freestyle was always a rhyme off the top, or at least made to sound like 1. I remember when mc’s started spittin obvious writtens when asked to freestyle (mid 90′s?) and ppl started refering to it as a “paystyle”, cuz it sure as hell wasnt a freestyle. You obviously weren’t around then.
When you freestyle and fuck up in the streets it doesnt matter but if you get on MTV with millions of viewers and you represent Shady Records and Slaughterhouse and your own solo career and then you mess up and its played all over the internet for weeks after , it becomes a problem , especially if you said something crazy cause that could ruin his career. Im not making excuses for Royce just giving you another perspective. Every Verse counts for him as a tool that adds value to his artistry so its not a free-style for him , its only free to the listeners. He probably has to make a new verse every other day for the SH album and other projects and writing a verse mite take him hours and then if he did read off his phones , fools would complain about that. I think rappers should just do written verses on interviews because even though I think freestyling is dope it comes a time where verses matter for the artist and the media platform isnt the schoolyard with a bunch of wannabes freestlying their bullshit.
i’ve heard mcs argue over the definition of freestyle, and I guess its just different for some rappers
Most “freestyles” is just spitting verse over other people’s beat. It’s sort of like an official remix thing. If you are a fan of a certain rapper or mc and you see them on tv/radio do a freestyle, you’ve probably heard that verse or you might hear it on upcoming ablum.
There’s no consensus on the definition of “freestyle”. Growing up, we freestyled “off the dome” all the time, whereas to other cats it was a written verse that wasn’t recorded yet.. or a written verse with no particular topic.
Still Royce knows the game.. this made him looker weaker than if he would’ve tried going off the head & messed up. He could have at least did a verse from the new album, cuz many people haven’t heard it yet.
I find it amusing that some people are complaining that he’s not spitting anything.
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How many times on here have we seen an emcee spit a verse at a radio station and 30 people comment, “Wait, that’s from that one song on his mixtape. What a cope out for him to not spit anything new.”
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How many times on here have we seen an emcee spit a verse on a song and 30 people comment, “Wait, he spit that verse on a radio station last week. What a cope out for him to not spit anything new.”
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You can’t have it both ways. Either you let them rap whatever/however they want (mixtape verse, album verse, freestyle, whatever) and STOP COMPLAINING. Or they just stop rapping on the radio all together.
Stupid idiots on this site.. smfh. When was the last time you heard an actual FREESTYLE and called it dope? I remember Kendrick spit that violin freestyle or whatever whatever a couple of weeks ago and everyone was calling that weak because he made it up on the spot. Now if Royce did the same, yall would do the same. Then, if rappers spit recycled verses, yall call them out for not actually freestyling. They can’t win. You should praise Royce for being up front about it. Rappers have been spitting verses in so-called “freestyle” sessions for as long as I can remember.
The only thing that surprises me is that he doesn’t have any verses from Success is Certain memorized. He could have spit one of them cause I doubt many people have it yet.
Judging by the excessive paragraphs of excuses why this bull shit is acceptable I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume most of yall are late 90s to now “rappers”. Going by old school (puritan) rules, that shit dont cut it. A freestyle is of the top, in the moment, no written shit. You’ll usually know because the emcee would mention something within that moment. I personally haven’t seen it done in a while and I gave up hope ever seeing it again when some of my favorites started falling short. That being said, your only doing yourself a disservice since its simply a form of verbal and mental calisthenic. But the industry killed it along with everything else good with HipHop and yall will continue to produce (and jock) subpar shit because of it. Congratulations!
Nah, wait. I heard one by killah mike and that other one by Kendrick a while back. Was it great, no. But they gets props for doing it. Especially in an atmosphere that clearly doesn’t appreciate it.
that shits embarassing..
imagine van gogh painting the same picture over and over and putting it in different museums to display. He wouldnt do it! Royce doesnt put out trash. Everything I hear from him is art. You dont have to be a dope freestyler to be a dope rapper. Royce is an amazing song writer regardless. I always wondered why he didn’t and this is a sound explanation.
i see what hes sayin… i dont get how yous hatin
I’m shocked that thaere are still people who think dudes are actually going off top on radio shows and the like. NO ONE does that. Maybe like MC Super Natural or someone not in the know like Asher Roth (have you seen his Westwood Free? embarrassing). Every freestly (okay like 95% of them) you have ever heard that was labeled ‘freestyle’ was at least preconceived if not pre-written. You should be able to tell the difference if your a hip-hop fan. If the rhyme scheme is really complex or there are punches set up lines in advance then it is NOT off the dome.
READ THIS:
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/interviews/id.1597/title.big-daddy-kane-rap-like-no-equal
@yeah is completely right, if he spit a rhyme off the top and it bricked, it would’ve been a huge setback and he would’ve caught a shit storm of hate, and it doesn’t matter if its Royce who is probably one of the best wordsmiths alive, and had it been written, people would still criticize it whether it was dope or not, so I have no problem with Royce saying what he said, but I wouldn’t have been so diplomatic about, here’s the real nigga translation foroo Royce’s comment. ” I write rhymes, I make albums, I dont have the time to run around spittin mediocre freestyles on every interview and doing meaningless battles to prove myself to an audience that is so off and on about what is and isn’t hip, especially since thats what I was doing 10 years ago, i’m over that, times change, it is what it is, bottom line is I’m Royce Da 5’9, I don’t have shit to prove, FUCK YOU”