Method Man, Redman and Raekwon are each hip-hop legends, but they aren’t resting on their laurels. Huddled inside of Red Bull’s Los Angeles studio, the veteran MCs kicked their Red Bull Spiral Freestyle. Before filming the cypher, the three hip-hop icons did an interview with Billboard where they praised Eminem and Slaughterhouse’s freestyling skills.
Redman: I like Kendrick Lamar’s freestyle on BET. Him and TDE. There’s so many elements to a freestyle. It’s not just about bars. It’s the movement; it’s the body language. My favorite part of Kendrick’s freestyle was when he high-fived ScHoolboy Q. See, I pay attention to little things like that. It was the perfect high-five! It was clean and you heard it! I know when or if he sees this, he’ll be like, “Wow, that guy is detailed. He knows what he talking about.” Because I know that hand slap was practiced and perfected. Eminem too… Em always bodyin’ s–t. What he was talking about during a BET Hip-Hop Awards freestyle, the purpose he was talking about when he was freestyling is what I liked. He could have blacked out and just went HAM, but he talked about purpose and things that was going on, so I highly respect it.
Method Man: My favorite moment — I wasn’t there, but it was when Busta and Dirty had that cypher…It was kind of like a battle, but it wasn’t, but it was very respectable. And I think that started their friendship from that day, where they was, like, inseparable…I also really liked the Slaughterhouse/Eminem cipher. That s–t was dope. They was killing it. I also liked a battle rapper cipher that they did on their own. Everybody caught a body on that. K-Shine killed it. Those are the ones that stick out in my mind.
Raekwon: One year, we went to the Jack the Rapper convention. It was an event, but it felt like a neighborhood, because everybody from all over was there… We’d run up and start battles. I remember, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, God bless his soul, would approach artists and say, “Shoot your rhyme.” They shoot they rhyme, thinking that we were just inspired, but they don’t know they just walked into a f—kin’ liquid sword fight. I remember Dirty goin’ crazy. “I grab the mic and I damage ya/ Crush ya whole stamina/ Here comes the medical examiner!” Those three lines right there was like, “Holy s–t!”
Read the full interview on Billboard here and watch the cypher below.
