Big L / Jay Z Freestyles

I rep Big L on the blog a lot. Seriously, listen to the guy. This arguably isn't a freestyle, but regardless he kills it so hard.

One of my favorite things about Big L is his imagery. He manages to keep his flow dense without resorting to twisted syntax (i.e. MF DOOM, who I have been feeling a lot lately) because he is so gifted at creating quick powerful images. It's like he's stabbing you then stepping back for an instant, but it isn't to laugh, it's to let the image settle just long enough to hit you again even harder. He doesn't ever really step out of the pocket, he is totally relentless. A guy like Jay-Z will jump around the beat and ride the rhythms and melodies like the coolest guy in the room, but L just keeps stabbing you over and over again with the sharpest lyrics you can imagine.

I have a ton of respect for Jay-Z, probably much more than most people do at this point, but I can't really hold up my role of Jigga-man apologist when it comes to this flow. Jay-Z gets embarrassed in this session. His flows on this recording are a joke and you can tell that he knows it. Next to L, Jay Z sounds like a kid. He redeems himself in the first few bars of the second flow, but then he totally drops off the beat and starts to rely on some weird rhythmic scatting and repetitions, and most of the time he isn't really saying anything. I feel like I could battle him based on this recording. No joke, I can flow if you give me a half hour to warm up.

But back to L, my second favorite thing about him is he's the vilest rapper I've ever heard. It's totally endearing to me for some reason. I just want to hear him rapping about having sex with people's mothers and not caring about women and killing whole buildings worth of people if he's disrespected. Here are some of my favorite one-liners from these freestyles:


"Bitches get fucked on the roof when I got no hotel dough."

"I'm quick to blast a goon and break a mother-fucker like a plastic spoon".

"You'll find my silk boxers in your mother's hamper."

"I'm so ahead of my time, my parents haven't met yet."

"My blood is colder than an ice-box."

"All chicks ain't shit, there ain't no such thing as Miss Right"

"Fuck love, all I've got for hoes is hard dick and bubblegum."

"So I left him sleeping with his temple leaking."