Here is the 12 minute freestyle featuring Craig G, Royce Da 5'9, Wordsworth and Mr. Complex. In the near future, I will be releasing more rare freestyles from the show. My good friend P-Love tells the story of how he put this cypher together.
P Love: In march of 1998, myself and my partner in crime DJ Sincere did a follow up cypher session on our radio show "Solo Vibes". I had high hopes to match the energy of the last one we did which showcased an unsigned Eminem, A.L (All Lyrics), Pumpkinhead (RIP) & Kwest amongst others. I kept in touch with Paul Rosenberg (Eminem's Manager) and he wanted to bring another unsigned emcee from Detroit up to the show. I told Paul I'll let him know when because I wanted to do another show of just MC's spitting and already had a lot of NY underground rappers interested. Some of these artists were friends and some were down from people we were down with. The list I had consisted of were Punch & Words, Polyrhythm Addicts (Shabaam Sahdeeq, Mr. Complex & Apani), Mr. Live & Tony Bones, L-Fudge, Matt Fingaz, and thanks to Matt the Legendary Craig G, one of the greatest battle and freestyle off the dome rappers in hip hop ever.
Royce came up with Paul and I never heard a single demo or rhyme from him before, needless to say he killed it with pretty much every one else up there that night. A few highlights to me was having Craig and Words go back to back as Words at the time was one of the nicest off the head (and still is) and a favorite of mine. Shabaam and Punch had a back to back where they just demolished it as well. What made the night very interesting was Royce kicking some dope battle rhymes in the cypher which wasn't directed at anyone. When it comes to battle rap, you know artists will take it up a notch which makes this show fun for all who was there.
In my opinion, this night was an even better session than the one previously with the young and hungry Eminem and All Lyrics. Royce made me a fan to this day for his rhymes that night and when all was said and done earned his respect from the NY emcees in the studio. A night I know myself and Sincere will never forget.
Always loved this freestyle session. Please continue to drop more freestyle sessions from the show. I'm a big fan of Royce. Love hearing Royce this early in his career, coming out of the open mic showcase scene.
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