(CDTV rambling about Lyrical Lemonade)
The XXL freestyles.
There are good ones, there are bad ones, in my opinion there aren’t that many that are
downright bad.
But for the ones that are, here is a special list dedicated to them.
I’ve covered my 10 favourite and least favourite XXL freshmen before, but now that I’ve heard
all the freestyles from 2019 (a little late i know), it’s time to cover them as a whole
in a video.
This is CDTVProductions, subscribe and turn on notifications or else I’m pulling up,
and let’s get into the video.
10 - MadeinTYO
Y’know, there’s probably a couple other XXL freestyles out there that didn’t make
this list that are consistently worse than this one, but this one to me is worse overall
because it starts out promising.
For the first half TYO actually brings out some bars that are nice enough with a good
flow to them, and while it’s nothing crazy, it was nice.
But then, it just completely derails exactly at the halfway point of his freestyle where
he just repeats the same line over and over as if it has some important message it needs
to get across.
Yes, old heads definitely don’t want none of that mumble rap.
A revelation indeed.
Look MadeinTYO, I’m glad I can be one of the few 70,000 people that you follow on Twitter,
but this freestyle to use an outdated meme, just wasn’t it.
9 - OG Maco
1 rhyme, 2 rhymes, 3 rhymes, we rhyme, tea time or that’s me time, the children of
rhymes and this ain’t the time.
That’s basically what this whole freestyle is.
It’s the most disjointed and confusing one I’ve heard.
Also, I watched every single XXL freestyle to research for this video, and I’m pretty
certain OG Maco is the only person who said ‘um’ during his verse like he got stuck
during a class presentation.
I can’t even be too mad though, like this one isn’t at the bottom of this list because
while it is pretty bad, it’s bad in a really funny way.
There’s at least a bit of entertainment value to this one.
The way he seems to switch topics mid sentence is honestly hilarious, this is what it would
sound like if you fed 20 songs into an AI program and got it to produce a rap verse
out of it.
It is pretty terrible, but in a glorious way.
8 - Shy Glizzy
Look I try to live by the motto ‘never rip into the drip’, people can dress however
they like, but the only people I’ve seen wearing that particular BAPE hoodie are 15
year olds that presumably have rich parents.
And at the end of this freestyle, Glizzy zipped up the front of said hoodie, I’m assuming
to hide from the freestyle he just performed.
Incorrect.
This is one that doesn’t even have any shockingly bad bars or anything like that, but personally
I just find the way Glizzy delivers his lyrics so grating on my ears.
He seems to drag each word out in a nasally way that makes this one kinda hard to get
through.
From what I’ve heard, Shy Glizzy works way better with a beat than accapella, and this
is proof of that.
7 - Donnis
If you want cringey lines that make your entire being collapse in on itself, then this is
the perfect freestyle for you.
I got 7 seconds into this before I had to take a long breather to compose myself.
Pro tip (from someone who isn’t a pro here): don’t start your freestyle with a line that
makes people wanna check out straight away.
This thing is so cringey that Cody Ko and Noel Miller could make a whole long video
reacting to it.
And after an onslaught of cheesy wordplay, he comes out with this audacious statement.
I’ve never checked out his music so Donnis might be a great rapper on that, but this
freestyle was a massive L.
6 - YK Osiris
A
lot of the comments were mad that this was YK singing his freestyle instead of rapping,
but that isn’t the issue in my opinion.
August Alsina sang his one, and it was great.
But the main difference is, August sounded passionate about the topic he was singing
about and had a few different cadences and flows.
YK’s to me just sounded forced and predictable.All the way from the really flat note he hits
around 30 seconds into the freestyle, bruh what is that to the fact that the way he’s
singing essentially doesn’t change for the whole freestyle, and that’s what makes it
bad.
I can’t sing at all so I’m not saying I can do better, but every time this man tries
to hit a big stretched out note it just sounds off.
Like his voice can’t quite reach what he’s going for.
There’s also the fact he ended his freestyle with a hook, so it’s almost guaranteed this
is from an unreleased song of his.
It’s one of those ones thats just a kind of awkward experience to watch.
5 - Lil Pump
Esketit.
I’m not quoting Lil Pump there, I mean this verse is just recycled from his song Esketit.
Pump did switch it up a lil bit though to give him credit, it was slightly different,
in the sense that this freestyle version was a lot more mumbled and incomprehensible than
his verse on the song.
That’s what makes it so bad for me, not only is it recycled, but it’s poorly recycled.
And of course whenever this is the case, people keep giving it the ‘oh this freestyle was
recorded before the song came out’ but we both know that isn’t true.
As I covered in my video ranking the XXL freestyles from that year ESSKEETIT dropped April 13th,
the freestyles are recorded in late April.
He legit just used the second verse from his most recently released song.
Even for Lil Pump, it’s just a bit insultingly lazy.
He showed up to flash his jewellery, money phone and expensive clothing then dipped.
4 - Kodak Black
Every single word in this freestyle just blends together, it straight up feels like one run
on sentence dragged out over a minute.
And that’s not really me making fun of Kodak’s voice because it’s easy to make out what
he’s saying in interviews, but in this freestyle he slurs so damn much that it really takes
a few listens to catch everything.
And is it just me or does it feel like he really doesn’t wanna be there?
Just look at the video on your screen right now, man just looks tired.
And also, this isn’t really a main reason why it’s on here, but it is dragged down
a bit further by the fact that this is a verse taken from a Kodak song called Slayed.
If this freestyle is supposed to make me want to listen to Kodak’s music, for me it missed
that intended purpose.
3 - Playboi Carti
Surely even Carti’s fans can agree with me on this one, his style does not lend well
to a freestyle setting.
One of the main things I see that people love about his music is how he works with the production,
how his music produces this psychedelic effect, so when that’s not there I don’t think
there’s much at all to praise here.
There’s legit nothing to it.
It basically flows just like Magnolia, but no ad libs layered behind his vocals, no Pierre
coming out here, just someone who’s dropping extremely typical lines with an extremely
typical ‘aye’ flow.
The ‘hide it in my sock’ meme was definitely one of my favourite from the 2017 XXL class,
but that’s the best thing to come out of this one.
2 - Trinidad James
Just like in his music, Trinidad really comes off as if he’s parodying mainstream rap
in the 2012/2013 era with this freestyle, but it doesn’t come off like an entertaining
parody.
It’s more like a ‘man stop, this is just kinda painful’ parody.
Just his whole demeanor and the way he delivers his lines, it gives off the vibe that he feels
like he’s completely killing this freestyle, and ironic or not, the arrogance is more annoying
and offputting than anything.
All you have to do is look at the lyrics, witness the depths of this man’s vocabulary
within his bars, and you know it’s something you really don’t need to hear.
But, if you go and check it out from this video, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
That 35 seconds feels a lot longer than that.
1 - OJ da Juiceman
11 seconds.
OJ da Juiceman rapped on this freestyle for 11 seconds.
I was honestly in disbelief after the first time I heard this, this man clearly did not
care about this at all.
Gunna and Blueface have better freestyles than this, and they didn’t even show up
for them.
4 bars, just 4 bars is what this consists of, and for the first 2 lines he rhymes the
exact same words.
Basketball player, with basketball player.
And then the last 2 lines have different rhymes at the end but basically start the same way.
Everyone involved in this process including OJ himself knew that he did not care at all.
Part of me does find this one hilarious because it just ends so abruptly, but
then I also think about the fact that XXL took the time to put him on this list, on
their magazine cover, reached out to him, asked him to be part of this class that only
10 rappers were a part of that year, and in return he provided he closest thing to nothing
that he could.
I believe that’s what they refer to as a bruh moment.
It may be an obvious choice but man, when skipping out on your freestyle entirely seems
like a better option, that’s how you know it was a really, really bad one.
(Outro)