A rapper you’ve likely heard of, Big Daddy Kane, explains the definition of a “freestyle” in the 80s. He says, “When we said we wrote a freestyle rap, that means it was a rhyme that you wrote that was ‘free’ of ‘style” meaning its not a subject matter…it’s basically a rhyme just bragging about yourself.” Nowadays of course, it’s mostly used when rappers recite written lyrics over instrumentals. |Nah Right|
That's a good article, funny how words progress over time like that…