Black Thought & Common Have A Freestyle Battle That Goes Off The Wheels (Video)

When it comes to freestyling, few are better than Black Thought and Common. Unlike others who shy away from grabbing an open mic, both Comm’ and Thought seize the moment when there’s an opportunity to rhyme. And, while neither has anything left to prove, each often goes completely off the top, with absolutely no fear.

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This week, Common appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Given his respect for Hip-Hop, Fallon understood the opportunity before him, and he created a segment to showcase the talents of both Tariq and Rasheed. He devised a “Wheel Of Freestyle,” where a freestyle generator was used to randomly select words with which both MCs had to create spontaneous rhymes. Both Common and Black Thought were more than up for the challenge.
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Lest anyone think this would be a cakewalk, the first 3 words selected for Common were “blender,” “snowplow,” and “Keanu.” Though challenging, Common made his way through, respectably. Rather than spewing nonsense that rhymed, he took his time, building to his punchlines. Next up was Thought, who went to work like an assassin. Even Common acknowledged that the words “blanket,” “IMAX” and “cheeseburger” were a handful, but Tariq made them light work, not only rhyming, but weaving in pop culture references, to boot. By the end of Thought’s rhyme, one could see Common knew he needed to go to the next level and, indeed, he did. Faced with “kangaroo,” “limousine” and “virtual reality,” Common resurrected his 90s competitive spirit and left nothing on the table.

Though both MCs were deeply competitive, it was all in good fun as the two frequent collaborators were clearly doing it for the love of Hip-Hop.