more rappers should start writing, but more importantly rappers should start reading to make sure the whole topic is overstood before recording the usual corporate commercial garbage that is being perpetuated as hip hop. we definatley need a larger support for some kind of progressive agenda that can take hip hop out of the culture of consumption, capitalism as well as pure black exploitation over pure lyrical wit and skill. hip hop isnt dead, it just needs to be recycled or reincarnated to truly represent the marginalized voice of the oppressed in america.

infinite_question, I agree with you 100%

I agree. Writing is an art that most people can’t do…

these young boys, these new niggas, dont know nothing bout real hip hop. They think Kool G Rap was an advertising promotion for RJ Reynolds.

I am with you guys on that for sure but damn Kane where the hell has he been?

im a kane fan, but coming off the top is also a art alot of people cant do. to me it shows the elevation of hip hop, the ability to just randomly spit some tight stuff is in my view even more impressive than writting. when i was growing up it was all about that and we called that freestyling, the problem with hip hop today is that alot of people cant come of the top and come up with nursery rhymes insetead of tight lyrics. thats just my opinion.

Altadena,Ca Rap Artist/Producer MRARMSTRONG takes a shot at General Larry Platt with his new single “Pants2ThaGround” http://www.youtube.com/oogarmstrong
“I’d rather write and record hot material than 2 freestyle all the time”
But freestylin is good excercise 4 the mind and all those freestyle cyphers Ive been in have made me the MC I am 2day and the confidence 2 battle any body..yes Any Body…..Oh yeah I see yawl cats on freestyleFriday spiten written son

THIS IS A TYPICAL RAP SONG……”I GOT MONEY I GOT B***HES, I REP SETS AND I BUST GUNS” AND ALMOST OF AMERICA EATS IT UP AND SAY THESE DUDES ARE THE BEST,I THINK LIL WAYNE AND JESUS SHOULD HAVE A RAP BATTLE OR SOME TYPE OF CONTEST BECAUSE COME ON THEY BOTH CLAIMING THE GREATEST, I MEAN THE LAKERS EVEN HAVE TO PLAY TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP AS FAR AS IM CONCERN 50 CENT IS THE BEST RAPPER ALIVE “MY REASON FOR SAYING THIS BECAUSE HE TOOK OUT ONE OF RAPS MOST LOVED AND HATED ARTIST EVER JARULE WHILE HE WAS AT THE TOP THATS BEEN THE LAST BATTLE AND LIL WAYNE WONT BATTLE 50″ SO I TAKE IT 50 IS THE BEST

OH YEA DONT SAY NOTHING BOUT SALES CAUSE WILLIAM HONG FROM AMERICAN IDOLS SOLD CDS AND MADE MAD MONEY

INFINITE_QUESTION….WELL SAID AND PUT…NUFF SAID!

THANK YOU BIG DADDY KANE!

Kane is right back in the day freestyle was implied to mean any rhyme that didn’t stick a song structural concept and was free to roam hence the term, “Freestyle”. Now people take it to mean only off the top of the dome. That to me is ignorance of HipHop not elevation.So what you can spit off the top of the dome that’s still doesn’t make for good songwriting and that truly is devaluing Hip Hop as a serious art form. True art is something that takes time to produce and if anybody can just spit off the top of their dome and be classified as great then it’s not to be taken serious. We have to keep the art pure of nonsense.

respect to da legend !!

I’ve been telling niggas what Kane just said for YEARS….it’s actually a GENERATIONAL thing, because HIPHOPPas’from the 80′s and back KNOW BETTER….somebody changed the definition of the term *freestyle* in the 90′s.To do a SHOW, U HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO WRITE…..U CANNOT GO OFF THE DOME for an ENTIRE SHOW….your audience ain’t gonna have the patience to come & check you anymore, after that.As an emcee, it’s better to know how to WRITE 1st….THEN once you realize your CREATIVITY as an ARTIST, u can do the off the dome rhymin.WRITING TAKES FOCUS, which GUARANTEES YOUR MATERIAL to be SHARP, if U ARE a TRUE EMCEE.Look at artists like RAKIM, NAS, & BIG PUN (R.I.P.)….they can’t come off the top too well, but what they WRITE will BURY MOST EMCEES,so that just goes to show u why WRITING YOUR LYRICS is ESSENTIAL to BEING a Master Creator.

NOW IF YOU ASK LISA LISA, GEORGE LAMOND OR TKA WHAT FREESTYLE MEANS, YOU WILL HAVE ANOTHER DEFINITION. LOL.

I’m glad Kane dropped the science on the original meaning of freestyle, and the difference between spitting off the top, which alot of kids think is freestyling. I agree off the top is an art form too, but it also takes talent to be able to write, not everybody can do that either.

Kurtis Blow made this distinction, like a decade ago or more. Just reminds us of who’s real w/ this thing. More props to Kurtis and Kane…

“8 Mile” basically alluded to it, too (if you know what you’re going to say about a person before you’re in front of ‘em…), but you can’t possibly knock comin’ off tha top, ’cause most of those who can in the industry still write their songs/albums (and ghost-write for others).

To spit coherent subject matter off tha dome is the pinnacle, IMHO. Heck, Kane came off the dome in Chicago, and it was RAW. KRS1, B.I.G., Pac, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Black Thought, Common, Eminem, all sick off the top. Half of these folk I heard IN PERSON, just straight killin’ it!!! Don’t knock the skillz, ppl…

OH, and let me be clear!!!!
“Rappers” coming off the top nowadays are usually saying the same GA’BAGE that they write, they can’t write OR top-it-off; they are just BOOTY RAPPERS that need to VACATE the industry and DEFINITELY stop trying to claim to be REAL Hip-Hop. Period.

@infinite_question
I’m co-signing with you right on target.
@JAHTRISTAN25
You right about that and recently that was proved when Ja Rule had a party and nobody show up.
@KingZkwan
Exactly, and what many forget is that the late Tupac and Biggie wrote down their freestyles. Tupac also was an avid poetry writer.
@SOULSACRED
You are not lying about Rakim, Nas and the late Big Pun.
@Phlyght
Co-signing with you.

As for Big Daddy Kane……I am glad he writing a book about it because these young rappers are not impressing this true hip hop head (me). I was there to witnessed hip hop when it was underground in the Bronx, I was there when friends, family, and DJs were writing their freestyles down and took it to the streets to do battles. I was just about every where when it spread all over NYC.
I stick with the old schools because as Phlyght said most of the ones today coming off with pure garbage. Good thing I know how to take the garbage off a cds and just listen to the music! Yes, this sister got skill because I grew up with some top DJs abroad who competed against other DJs and put them out. I will buy a couple of BDK’s book when it come out and hand them to the younger generation in my family and godsons to learn from the best.

I’m ma come off the top right here… I’m drop it hard, out from ma yard… knock it till its dead, yeah its just as you cats said!
Almost any idiot can spit a nursery rhyme off the top but that does not make it quality. The new generation is more concern with lukewarm pap
and superficial shine, they don’t care about substance because its too much work and just not fast enough to satisfy the new fast food mentality that has sprung up and typifies today. Take the time to write and make the s**t tight; that promotes talent and elevates your endeavors to a true art form! Too bad we’re losing that…

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