The rapper who carried out the enduring backwards freestyle

The which means of the colloquial time period ‘freestyle’ has usually been debated. Many insist it means rapping verses on the spot that aren’t pre-written, whereas others declare that it means spitting pre-written rhymes however in a free-flowing approach that’s devoid of construction.

Nevertheless, no matter the kind of freestyle we’re listening to, they at all times ship surprises and often astonish us. Within the UK, ‘Fire In The Booth’ is the place artists go to indicate off their rapping means, give all they’ve to supply and the place they show themselves. Nevertheless, within the US, MCs go to HOT 97.0. More specifically, they visit DJ Funkmaster Flex.

Normally, lyricists ship pre-written verses with advanced rhyme schemes, fascinating similes and punchy metaphors. Nevertheless, on one event, an emcee sat in entrance of the microphone and delivered a rap in reverse.

The lyricist who achieved this unimaginable feat is the Massachusetts native Joyner Lucas. In 2020, Eminem licensed Lucas as one among his favorite rappers of all time, tweeting, “For me, in no particular order… Toss up between Wayne, Pac, Royce, Jay, Treach, G. Rap, Biggie, and King Crook. Plus Redman, LL, Nas, Joyner, Kendrick, Cole, Andre, Rakim and Kane.”

This stamp of approval undoubtedly helped Lucas, and two years in the past, he paid a go to to HOT 97.0, the place Funk Flex challenged him to recreate his 2015 observe ‘Backwords’, which hears him ship lyrics from back-to-front.

Difficult him, Flex instructed Lucas, “I saw something seven years ago. I saw you rhyming backwards. I seen it — might I say — cranking, hard! ‘m into challenges; I’m gonna challenge you to do that again. ‘Backwords Part 2,’ that sounds like where we’re going with this.”

Nevertheless, to Funk Flex’s shock, Joyner Lucas took him up on the problem, and over the instrumental of ‘Nas Is Like’, he started by rapping often earlier than hitting the rewind button and repeating the identical bars in reverse.

In a 2015 interview with DJBooth journal, the Massachusetts artist defined the inspiration and course of behind his authentic ‘Backwords’ tune, detailing,“I write all my lyrics on my iPad. For the backwards, I copy and pasted the same verse and then made another paragraph underneath and went all the way from the ending to the beginning and then figured out how to make it work.”

He added, “I didn’t try to get a point across like, ‘I’m an MC, I’m super lyrical, and I’m gonna prove it.’ It was more so for me; I wanted to see if I could pull it off. I wasn’t thinking about if other people are gonna like it or not … I’m always looking to do something different that somebody else isn’t doing.” You may hearken to the Funk Flex freestyle under.