>DELIVERY: This is where he does <BR>>a FATALITY on the competition. <BR>>BT is always ON THE BEAT. <BR>> Listen to other "amateurs" (the <BR>>"underground" is littered with 'em) and <BR>>even some vets to see if <BR>>their rhymes land on the beat. <BR>> See, not always!! For <BR>>example, El P, who is ill <BR>>with the pen, is not always <BR>>on beat (damn this annoys me). <BR>> Even the dopest poets sometimes <BR>>land offbeat (I think even Common <BR>>is guilty sometimes - no flames <BR>>please!!) The rhythm in Black <BR>>Thought's voice is a gift that <BR>>VERY FEW in the game have. <BR>> Even if you just heard <BR>>his rhyme a cappella you'd still <BR>>be noddin that noggin. <P>Funkyprez is 100% right on this point. Remember that old drunken freestyle he did? Even if topically it wasn't his best, he was still on beat even tho there was no beat. (is that possible?? <img src="http://www.okayplayer.com/dcforum/Images/happy.gif"> ) But I think you know what i mean, he was following a the beat in his head. Lotsa times you hear someone freestyle and he is stretching shit out just so he can think of a word that rhymes. I guess this says something about his freestyling prowess as well but freestyling on beat with no beat is pretty impressive if you ask me.<P>I think one of the best demonstrations of him rhyming on beat is on his last verse on Pass the Popcorn (Not popcorn revisited). He's solo with just finger snaps and each line is dead on beat, and when the ?uest starts bringing the beat back and building it up Thought flows at the same pace and makes for one of my favourite verses of all Roots songs. <P>Phil<P>"Okayplayer.com, first the Web, next, the World!" - Phil copyright 1999