Supernatural has built a name for himself as a freestyle and battle rapper, and he just appeared on Talib Kweli’s People’s Party to specify his definition of freestyling amid the common practice of delivering pre-written rhymes.
Past the one-hour mark, co-host Jasmin Leigh brought up how freestyling is considered rapping over someone else’s beat, and it’s not “always off-the-cuff.”
Several artists who’ve appeared on the XXL Freshman cover have used verses from previous tracks or unreleased music during their freestyles and cyphers. Lil Pump performed the second verse of “ESSKEETIT,” DaBaby previously shared his 2019 verse on Instagram, and Rico Nasty’s 2019 XXL Freshman cypher is an expanded version of her feature on the remix of XXXTentacion’s “#ProudCatOwner #IHateRappers #IEatPussy.” Radio freestyles are another common place where rappers spit pre-written rhymes.
In response to Leigh, Supernatural notes that there’s a difference between the terms “freestyling” and “off the head.” “Off the head is the purest form of freestyling,” he said. “But freestyles can also be a coherent written rhyme with no particular direction.”
“A true freestyle is living in the moment,” he continued. “Rhyming about what you rhyming about, and allowing it to flow. I would tell anybody, once you start to tap into that realm as an artist, you can only become a better artist.”
He closed out his appearance on the program by reflecting on conscious hip-hop’s place in the game:
The stories can go on forever of what I’ve learned in this game. But to sum it up, people like quality. All of the people that were in the conscious movement—the Soulquarians, the Questloves, the Black Thoughts, the Mos Defs, the Commons, the Jay Electronicas… We are a breed of MC that sometimes, we don’t get overlooked, but we get put in a category that’s not the same as the mainstream. I think that what we do is significant to the world, and I think that there needs to be a roundtable with all of us in the room. We have some of the most powerful black minds on the planet, and I want to be very clear with this: There is not another avenue that they have given young black people, Hispanics, and even white people that want to have a voice at this point than this mic. The airwaves are sacred.
Watch the full interview above, and catch up on all the lyrics to Supernatural’s biggest hits on Genius now.
