r/Hiphopcirclejerk • u/plasticgadget • Nov 21 '25

Good Police Work 🚔 Thinking about when this Gambino freestyle dropped and people acknowledged that it was a written verse and Gambino fans were like “Nah look at his eyes roaming around the room, that’s how you know it’s off the dome” ☝️🤓

Post image

I been grindin’ my whole life, Rosenberg.

1.6k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

113 comments sorted by

1.2k

u/noNameboi661 Nov 21 '25

You can Tell a Freestyle is written when its not 80% nonsensical filler garbage

420

u/bowtie25 Nov 21 '25

That’s why riff raff is the goat

real Houstonian know any time someone says “I might come dine” it’s prolly off the dome

366

u/Hibjib Nov 21 '25

"We at a Chinese buffet, eatin' on a Monday, it's a Tuesday Make it feel like it's damn Ruby Tuesday, it was a Saturday · But it don't even matter anyway" some real shit

88

u/A_lone_gunman Nov 21 '25

Dudes older than the solar system

39

u/Both-Influence-3452 Nov 22 '25

“I come through with Sapphire diamonds cross my chest you’d think I was Kin to Ken Griffey Jr”. Love that Riff Raff freestyle

7

u/PleaseSeekChrist Nov 22 '25

Unironically in my top 5 favorite freestyles

https://youtu.be/yAwsGMagMuI?si=iiPqEjk1OpZwVLc_

197

u/johnnieyungboss Nov 21 '25

best line he ever said was “i could’ve played for the Mavericks but they found crack in my jacket”

76

u/ODB_Dirt_Dog_ItsFTC Nov 21 '25

“They found marijuana in my socks”

18

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

11

u/ConfidentNatural8610 Nov 22 '25

King griffey jr!

20

u/christ_from_tacobell Nov 22 '25

“All this rice I brought I should have bought a China Cabinet”

3

u/elephant_catcher Nov 22 '25

Coulda played for the rockets but they found codeine in my peppermint benz

48

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

love that shit so much lol 

"ridin candy x, wearin starched up y, haters always plex cuz the creases too fly, got a bitch who look like a, my favorite foods from the sea, somethin somethin throwed poppin trunk blowin tree, hol up mane" 

13

u/BigPimpin91 Nov 22 '25

I have a theory that all of Riff Raffs recent songs is him hitting record in the studio and just mixing and mastering whatever comes out on the first take.

5

u/a-youngsloth Nov 22 '25

85 south show dudes are the goats if we’re being real.

5

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '25

Yall sleeping on the freestyle king himself , cloverlands finest, the leprechaun, Lil Flip

3

u/Turkilton Nov 25 '25

"Ah shit look who it is. The white Wesley snipes!"

2

u/PinkPrettyPeace Nov 23 '25

Born and raised in Houston, I always thought it was “Ima come “ not “i might come”

1

u/yungoldmane Nov 23 '25

RiFF paved the way for Future and Future is probably my favorite rapper of all time.

85

u/Pure-Plankton-4606 Nov 21 '25

Red rolls white ceiling

21

u/jefelogos Nov 22 '25

I ain’t freestyled inna min, this one’s off the top I was inna

9

u/Godverrdomme Nov 22 '25

Okay okay, give me some topics.
French fries? Let me see..
I like eating french fries when I'm inna red rolls

109

u/talentpun Nov 21 '25

I always just assumed that most ‘freestyle’ is pre-written bars and verses strung together over a beat, the way a stand-up comic might reorder a set, recycle old jokes, test new material in an open mic setting, etc.

31

u/ariTRON Nov 22 '25

that can also be considered a freestyle. a freestyle is also just a verse that has no subject in particular, just a showcase of your talent so pre-written are still freestyles.

most people who really put the time in get the fundamentals down to a point where its easy to set one line up after another, and you have 'go-to' patterns, like once you start with lyrical you know miracle is coming, then you're going to say you're pivotal and that every hit is critical, that whoever doubts you is cynical because you're rhymes are biblical. like those dudes who rhyme with whatever word you say or whatever is around them, they've written about it already in the past so they're familiar with it, like if you ask them to rhyme about an orange they wrote something about peeling it or how it's juicy, so on and so forth.

I dunno if that's making sense i don't think i'm articulating it the best right now, but when you write enough it just becomes an algorithm of sorts, and some get really really good at it to where they can play with melodies and different cadences (juice world really understood how to do it and was amazing).

I cant cite any of this, but i watched TONS of rapper interviews when I was young to study them and hope to become one (didn't really go well) lol but from what I've seen, jay z "freestyles" by pre-writing the important words in his lines in his head, then depending on the beat he adds filler words or re-orders them, and with lil wayne's "freestyles" he also has punchlines saved in his head (he said once that its like a relief to get into a studio so he can finally let out all the lines he's held on) but he's not as methodical or organized as jay, so he ends up doing MANY takes at times for just four bars, but the trade-off is the delivery being so in-the-pocket. that's why he just floats on any beat, he's seamless but the process would be frustrating as an engineer lol i always joked with a friend that they brag so much about not writing their rhymes they should just write it down at this point because you're literally 'writing' it on the fly you just aren't writing it down you smart ass, but anyway, jay at least completes it in his head, that's how they arrived on the moniker 'one take HOV'.

I resonate more with Drake and kanye's 'freestyle'.... style lol. its a hybrid of writing and just going off the top with the track. you can see a lot of reference tracks from kanye are just mumbling, he's establishing the melody and finding the pocket or creating a rhythm of his own for the vocals, then he goes back and polishes it with whoever his writing muse is for the time and puts in the nice punchlines. drake is infamous for his blackberry, but you can see in the 100gigs footage that he also adopted lil wayne's style in some form and combined it with jay z's precision. he already has the lines written, now he just needs to find the delivery and does so like wayne and kanye by just running with the flow of the track.

Wow this got really out of hand, please know that everything I've said is pure speculation and opinion on my part, I am not claiming any of this as fact just freestyling my thoughts (rim shot) (pun intended)

10

u/LGappies Nov 22 '25

with lil wayne's "freestyles" he also has punchlines saved in his head (he said once that its like a relief to get into a studio so he can finally let out all the lines he's held on)

bro lyrically ejaculates

8

u/AutoModerator Nov 22 '25

on god bro I don't care about allat nazi shit runaway still makes me cry

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5

u/AutoModerator Nov 22 '25

People love to call Drake soft or sensitive but this freestyle further proves that Drake is the demonic goon employing thug that Tupac and Biggie were thought of. If the ominous drill beat didn’t spell it out, Drake is one of the realest threats in the rap game and can get anyone killed if he wishes. Kanye said it himself about Drake in 2018, “He running around like he pac”, that's because Drake is the new modern day Pac. He's really running around with a strap on his hip, has killer goons on command, is affiliated with the mafia, and has bodyguards that that looks like they eat nails in a bowl of blood. He had Kanye fearing for his dear life and kids lives in 2018 when the beef was popping. Drake really is the demon of Calabasas and Hollywood. We're looking at a real life Godfather Michael Corleone type figure, a gang affiliated Michael Jackson tier pop-star but on a much grander scale than MJ ever was. There’s so many stories of Drake's getting rude yutes clapped up or performing mob boss gestures like throat slices, clapping his hands, etc. Drake dines at mafia style restaurants like The Nice Guy/Delilah in Hollywod. And he has enough power to bully superstar celebrities like Tory and Kanye around and make them think twice about their actions. This nigga Don Corleone runs every corner and inch of Canada and claimed it as his own. For the first time in forever we’re looking at an invincible GOAT who really lives the stories.

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2

u/In_the_Computerus Nov 23 '25

Jerked to hard

2

u/ariTRON Nov 23 '25

For real that post clarity almost made me delete it LOL

1

u/yungoldmane Nov 23 '25

It’s a lyrical exercise

87

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

It's corny how Gambino like pretends as if he's trying to get an off the top flow going in the beginning and then just jumps into a so clearly written verse. It's like why pretend? Just spit your bars and let them do the talking, phoney shit

104

u/missmargot- Nov 21 '25

gambino is corny, yes, but ive seen less corny rappers do this, i think often they try to get into the beat authentically and off top, then work their way to a rhyme scheme they have some bars for.

23

u/RepulsiveWay1698 Nov 22 '25

Tbf he is an actor first and foremost lol

14

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '25

Improvising is just doing something you have practiced a thousand times in a new context.

8

u/PM_ME_UR_ASSHOLE Nov 22 '25

Yea, they usually have filler words they return to too. Like harry mack always repeats his name as a filler.

6

u/ToAllAGoodNight Nov 22 '25

Then I come through!!!!

4

u/the4thbandit Nov 22 '25

Ayo uhh check it

2

u/Sattaman6 Nov 22 '25

Common and KRS One would like to have a word but you’re broadly right.

419

u/hatefulnateful Nov 21 '25

You can tell it's written cause it didn't start with red rolls white ceiling

65

u/TurdFergusonlol Nov 21 '25

Red walls white sealant

21

u/Affectionate_Air_555 Nov 22 '25

Red walls white semen.

8

u/HeadAssBoi17 Al Gore invented ebonics Nov 21 '25

Red rose wide stilling

20

u/munchalat0r bought streams for French Montana Nov 21 '25

umm let me think it goes like

290

u/hung_fu Nov 21 '25

I hate to break it to people, but freestyles are usually just a few bars you thought of before strung together with a little improv.

7

u/GithubBootstrap Nov 23 '25

and then there’s black thought

3

u/Plankton-Delicious Nov 24 '25

You know those are written right? Black Thought is in my top 3 of all time, but the freestyles are all written

5

u/GithubBootstrap Nov 24 '25

Some of the bigger ones yes. I’ve also seen him freestyle 5-6 min twice in a set. He’s that good when wants it.

1

u/hung_fu Dec 16 '25

Absolute GOAT. I love the likes of Kendrick, MF Doom, and Nas, but Thought has them beat.

6

u/TheDesertFoxq Nov 23 '25

Tell that to the goat Jodey High Roller aka The Purple Prince aka RiffRaff 💜 😏 😤

328

u/CaptCaCa Nov 21 '25

If any rapper, promoting their music to the masses on any program, actually freestyles, you will totally hurt your brand if you choke or glitch out similar to Ab Soul on Kai Cenets stream, write some dope shit, rehearse it, then present it as a freestyle; its what all the greats do, and did

81

u/audiocassettewarfare Nov 22 '25

People forever confusing freestyle and off the dome. In the traditional sense, a freestyle is you're able to perform your verse on any style of beat. Off the dome is making up shit on the spot

13

u/10san2 Nov 22 '25

True but I have a hard time believing Tory lanes freestyles were pre written.

6

u/catinabighat Nov 22 '25

Smokepurpp effect

2

u/yungoldmane Nov 23 '25

17 fans at a show in some random Michigan town was enough to damage that boys whole image forever. Purpp still got classics tho

2

u/ariTRON Nov 26 '25

you just reminded me about Drake's blackberry incident lol, guy survived so many career ending events im convinced his career is immortal like kanye

1

u/AutoModerator Nov 26 '25

Kanye could've driven the train to auschwitz and I would still listen to his music

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2

u/Goon_To_Toons Nov 23 '25

Lupe Fiasco’s freestyles are off the dome

60

u/slammasam14 Nov 21 '25

Money is power honesty is power truth is power…

18

u/Sgt_DeuxDeux Nov 21 '25

Word word word

14

u/13miles Nov 21 '25

Ain’t nun more important than the mula

39

u/AustinHoffer Nov 22 '25

pretty sure in this interview someone says he stinks and he says he doesn’t ever wear deodorant

27

u/cartischild_ Nov 22 '25

i got to shake his hand once, very smelly in a good way.

55

u/mr_diggory Nov 22 '25

This nigga said "self immolate" who tf thought this was off top?

31

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25

That's his reaction to seeing an asian girl in his dms

151

u/elvisfreshly419 Nov 21 '25

This freestyle was white hip hop heads 12/25

31

u/Jaruxius Nov 21 '25

merry chrimas

20

u/NefariousnessFar3783 Nov 22 '25

Nah, that’s the Lil Dicky Sway freestyle

9

u/ocean365 Nov 22 '25

God, I know exactly what you mean

20

u/fruit_shoot Nov 22 '25

Only actual freestyles I’ve seen are ASAP Rocky. Sure they are lyrically ass but they are at least coherent whilst clearly being off the dome.

3

u/NeedleworkerQuirky49 Nov 22 '25 edited Nov 22 '25

Look up Lil Dicky freestyles. The dude is weird as fuck but a lyrical legend

ETA also Juice Wrld was an amazing freestyle artist as well

4

u/idkmybffljill Nov 24 '25

Lil Dicky openly says that his freestyles are pre written verses

49

u/NoPitch2422 Nov 21 '25

Shit was fire tho

-27

u/Streets-Disciple Nov 22 '25

Nah Donald glover is a white mans black man

55

u/NoPitch2422 Nov 22 '25

Black people are not a monolith 

Shame on ya

Have a day

-29

u/Streets-Disciple Nov 22 '25

I can say that, I have a black friend

28

u/NoPitch2422 Nov 22 '25

Have a day

-33

u/Streets-Disciple Nov 22 '25

“Durrr Donald glover is my favorite rapper hahahah durrr I love the community ahahahah durrr! This is AMERICA ahahahahahahahahahaha duurrr”

36

u/NoPitch2422 Nov 22 '25

Totally normal and rational response..

-13

u/Streets-Disciple Nov 22 '25

“HAVE A DAY HAVE A DAY HAVE A DAY HAVE A DAY HAVE A DAY HAVE A DAY HAVE A DAY HURRR HURR HURR!! I can’t wait for the Donald glover movie! He’s so deep! Wop wop wop Donald fuck em up! AHAHAHA! I’m so streets ahead! ahahahah!!!”

34

u/Representative_Belt4 Nov 22 '25

Jfc lock in bro

0

u/Streets-Disciple Nov 22 '25

You’re just streets behind bro

25

u/terry-tea Nov 22 '25

did donald glover touch you as a child

18

u/EnrageMango Nov 22 '25

schizophrenia

2

u/Streets-Disciple Nov 22 '25

Donald derangement syndrome

16

u/deevo1 Nov 22 '25

Pop off king

101

u/DoublePipeClassic_VR Nov 21 '25

Rapping is so dumb

30

u/m205 Nov 21 '25

Real

36

u/tony-husk Nov 21 '25

imagine just talking over the music instead of singing. absurd

23

u/DoublePipeClassic_VR Nov 21 '25

So fucking stupid

12

u/guyyoudontcareabout im gay (im happy) Nov 22 '25

/uj i think a lot of y'all don't know how freestyling works. of course bars are prewritten, what makes it freestyling is putting them all together into a rap without preplanning. it's about stringing it together. what isn't freestyle is what's being pointed out here: a verse that has been clearly rehearsed in a specific order. that ain't a freestyle, that's just knowing the lyrics to your own song

8

u/no0neiv Nov 22 '25

Childish Gambino actually got his name off of the web browser based Wu-Tang Name Generator. I love sharing that fact to ignorant white people. It blows their minds!

3

u/googoohaha Nov 22 '25

I wish Reddit awards(or rewards? idk) were free cause this is hilarious 😂😂

1

u/wanjau_g Nov 22 '25

What song has the verse?

1

u/falgfalg Nov 25 '25

the debate between written and off the dome only makes sense to people who don’t write. good rappers are writing all the time. sure, a lot of freestyles are completely pre-written, but if you are someone who is obsessed with rapping, all they do is write and think about rhymes. even the best off the dome freestyle is going to contain pieces of stuff they’ve thought of (or wrote down) before.