Hagen's House

"Been up for six days, smellin' like a moose!" It's Dondada, freestyling on his stoop in the hood on a version of "Married To These Streets", complete with melodic hooks and all.

 

Here's Eminem in his freestyle rhyme mode. "you wanna mess with a mother who skydives out of a plane to give the statue of liberty high-fives..." And this one: "Whoa Nelly, tell Angelina Jolie I'm ready with petroleum jelly to smear it all over me belly..."

  And here comes Hova in another legendary Rape City freestyle. "Wanksters want beef or their name on the street, most times they end up with their brain where their feet should be!"

And the creative flow of Lil Wayne... A rare tight one, as Weezy generally ignores his beats and goes to some other groove happening in his head. "Ya rolling with a Don, come through nice, ice bucket on my arm..."

 

 Here's one off The Cypher, sublime funk beats courtesy of DJ Premier from Gang Starr. This one a battle/freestyle with Em, Mos Def and Black Thought out of The Roots "doin' it self, doin' it again for Illadelph". Who else could get away with a rhyme like "I'm like Martin Luther King, you like Rodney. The difference is I give it everything inside me..." Just when you think thought has laid waste to the game, Em comes back to "hit you as hard as barbiturates in the ribs and stitch you at the same time before you can flinch to it." Whoah! This man's gotta be king of the freestyle game.

 

So now Shady gets to curate cyphers of his own, like this one with Joe Budden, Yellawolf and some homies. Budden's flow, especially, contrasts with the hyperactive delivery of most freestyle pieces. Royce Da 5'9" comes with "young rappers, I tell you this, ya don't kill but ya father will, like Jaden Smith"... before Em comes in at the end to reestablish his supremacy, complete with cliche-ridden false start. Then he hits his glorious stride... "Superman and his kryptonite won't do, it gives me more power. I bump the bat poison, eat rat poison, take meteor showers..." while the rest of the rappers shake their heads in disbelief.