Many people enjoy the art of freestyling, but most haven’t heard much of it. A rap freestyle can either be something you’re making up completely off the top of your head OR it can be an excellent pre-rehearsed verse to show people your true skills.
Eminem, prior to becoming one of the biggest selling and most popular hip-hop artists of all time, was a highly accomplished freestyler.
Here’s a list of what I believe to be some of Eminem’s best freestyle lyrics!
“It’s only fair to warn I was born with a set of horns
And metaphors attached to my damn umbilical cord
The warlord of rap that’ll bash you with a 2×4 board
And smash into your Honda Accord with a 4-door Ford
But I’m more toward dropping an a capella
To chop a fella to mozzarella worse than a helicopter propeller!”
What makes this so good is his multi-syllabic rhyme schemes and the imagery to go with it. Not only does it rhyme and flow perfectly, but the hilarious imagery inside of the line conjures up an incredibly funny image inside of one’s head.
This Eminem freestyle is from The Wake Up Show with Planet Asia.
“Crews die from an overdosage of excessive flavor
Aggressive nature got me stickin’ you for your Progressive pager
Spectacular, battle rap manufacturer
Stole your mama’s Acura, wrecked it and sold it back to her”
Even in his early years Eminem was as comical as ever. The reason this particular verse is one of his best freestyles is the multi-syllabic nature of each bar. For instance, instead of only rhyming ‘flavor’ with ‘pager’, which is relatively basic at face value, he rhymes ‘excessive flavor’ with ‘Progressive pager.’ This rhyme scheme (as they are referred to in rap circles) is incredibly impressive due to the amount of syllables in the line, as well as how similar sounding the words are. Instead of saying something simple, he takes a 5-syllable phrase and rhymes it with yet another 5-syllable phrase, displaying an unrivaled skill.
“My music is soothing, but it’s also been proven
That it can put you in the mood to jump out of your car while it’s moving
You’ve been waiting on this moment
My sermon is like an omen, I’m servin’, I’m Eric Sermon
I saw the window was open and I jumped through it”
This is more recent than the previous 2 and was released on a Kay Slay mixtape over the “Love Me” beat by Obie Trice. The way he flows these lyrics are a notch above anybody else in the game. It’s one thing to simply write clever lyrics, but it’s a completely different talent to actually rap them. And the specific reason Eminem will go down as one of the best ever is due to his amazing ability to juggle both of these talents at once. Not only do these rhymes contain clever, yet subtle hip hop references, but they’re flowed in a way that very few can mimic.
This is just a sample of the genius seen in each and every Eminem verse.
Source by Charles Gould
