Recently I got several “freestyles” (making up rap on the spot) by Biggie Smalls off Napster. However, each and every freestyle has been used as a verse in a released song as well. The songs being: “Come On”, “Kick In the Door” and “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Kills You.” I am fairly sure at all the freestyles are real (as in, not edited, or remixes). Is there anyway to know whether the songs came out before the freestyles? If so that could mean that these weren’t actualy freestyles, but recitations of real songs being passed off as freestyles. Has anyone else noticed this with any other songs?
I’m no expert. The fact that you know all the songs and can recognize the lyrics would suggest that you’re more knowledgeable on the subject than I, but I’ll voice an opinion anyway.
If the lyrics are word for word the same as those in his songs, you can be almost certain that they were at least preconceived if not parts of already finished songs. And for the second part, I’m pretty sure that this happens frequently in the freestyle biz. I haven’t listened to much rap in the past couple years so I’m having trouble coming up with an example. I remember hearing a q-tip and phife freestyle sometime where at one point phife slipped into one of his more famous ditties before getting back to making stuff up. (sorry no cites, just vague recollections.)
I don’t think that this sort of thing is looked down upon too much. Nobody thinks of it as “trying to pass stuff off” as a freestyle or anything like that. People seem to just recognize it as being from an all ready made song and its no big deal. This may in part be because, while frestyling skills (or skilz) are highly respected, the line between freestyling and reciting preconceived lines is often blurred. Many of my friends that were good freestylers would spend a lot of time thinking about rhymes and working out different sequences in their head. If they came up with a good metaphor for how dope they were, they would work in at some point of the freestyled verse no matter what. So freestyle vs. not freestyle; I don’t think its that big of a deal. Especially if you’re Biggie Smalls after 1991. Many of these things take place at live events or radio shows. In which case, everyone involved was just glad to have Biggie on board as it meant instantly sold out shows and/or high ratings.