I Miss Radio Freestyles 💔

Back in the 2010s, when an artist was set to drop a new project, one way to build buzz was to hop on a radio show, talk about the album and drop some bars off the dome. Nowadays, with the decline of radio, we don't see this form of marketing as much. But we were recently blessed with some gold...you'll like the beat that was used. Tap in 🎧 (2 min read)

Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

What Happened to the Radio Freestyle?

If you lived through the Blog Era or are just a hip-hop nerd like myself, you’ve definitely found yourself in a Youtube rabbit hole watching every rapper radio freestyle imaginable. Remember Childish Gambino’s epic freestyle turned conversation turned back to a freestyle on Sway In The Morning ✍️

Or what about Drake’s infamous Blackberry incident on Hot97 🦉

These examples and countless others were such iconic moments, and also quintessential to every album rollout in the 2010s. It was almost like a rite of passage for MCs and lyricists. Not only were these moments indications of something greater to come, but they also provided an opportunity and platform for these artists to truly showcase their skills as MCs and lyricists in such a raw and unfiltered way over the most classic beats in the genre 📡

  • Unfortunately, due to various factors like the decline of radio and the ability for artists to release this type of content themselves on their own social media profiles and other platforms, we’ve seen a drastic decline in frequency of radio freestyles over the past couple years

  • But, every now and then, we’ll see an MC and elite lyricist try to carry on the tradition and flex some lyrical exercise, like J. Cole did on the LA Leakers before The Off-Season dropped

And the most recent example was a SPECIAL one - Deante’ Hitchcock rapping over Kanye’s All Falls Down. He went CRAZY! You gotta see this ASAP (and watch it back 4-5x to make sure you caught every bar) 👇

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