When an artist performs their own lyrics over the beat and melody of someone else's song.

Differentiated from a CoverVersion in that covers generally use the same lyrics with [[TheCoverChangesTheGender minor]] [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning changes]]. Differentiated from {{Sampling}} in that there is rarely any change in the instrumentation.

This is almost exclusively a trope in GenreMotif/HipHop and GenreMotif/RAndB.

Like cover songs, the songs that are most often freestyled over are hit songs of any genre, although mostly (for the reason above), hip-hop, R&B, and pop songs.

This is not always the case however, and it is not uncommon for a more popular artist to give an unknown a ColbertBump by freestyling over their song.

This is also related to BattleRapping, though it's much more competitive than typical freestyling.

The legality of freestyling is in a similar area to the legality of {{Sampling}}, which can be viewed at that page.

Note that it's possible for a song to be a freestyle over an original beat -- a ''freestyle'' traditionally refers to a rap song that doesn't use conventional song structures (e.g. no hooks) and aims to display the emcee free-associating with their typical subject matter. Often, pre-existing beats would be used for this, so the term is now applied to FreestyleVersion songs as well, even if they use hooks and song structure. Also, a song being a freestyle shouldn't mean it's [[{{Improv}} improvised]] -- the majority of freestyles are pre-written, or occasionally made up of pre-written lines combined improvisationally. Fully-improvised lyrics are also called "off-the-dome" or "off the top" freestyle, which is virtually impossible to master; even many great rappers struggle with it.

----
!!Examples:
* Music/LilWayne built a lot of his buzz off of this. His ''Dedication'' series of mixtapes uses this trope almost exclusively, freestyling over the popular songs whenever the mixtape is released, as does his ''Da Drought'' series, and almost every other mixtape he's ever released.
* Music/KanyeWest recorded a freestyle over his OneHitWonder Rich Boy's "Throw Some Ds", which turned a song [[BoastfulRap about money and cars]] into [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning a song about breast implants]].
* Around a quarter of Music/{{Drake}}'s mixtape ''So Far Gone'' is freestyles, using songs by Music/JayZ ("Ignorant Shit"), Kanye West ("Say You Will"), Lykke Li ("Little Bit"), Santogold ("Unstoppable") and Peter Bjorn and John ("Let's Call It Off").[[note]](Drake's controversial 2012 track "Jodeci Freestyle" is not an example of this trope, as it is over an original beat.)[[/note]]
* Music/RickRoss' 2012 mixtape ''The Black Bah Mitzvah'' which was entirely composed of freestyles over popular songs at the time - although after Ross had done his freestyle verse, he let every song play out as it originally was, causing lots of [[EpicRocking Epic Rapping]], which for many was divisive.
* Music/KendrickLamar freestyled over Kanye West's "Monster" in 2010 and created a brilliant VillainSong out of it.
* Femcee Nitty Scott (who has collaborated with Kendrick Lamar) freestyled over "Monster" and the video of her doing so went viral and kickstarted her career.
* Music/NickiMinaj has done a few of these, over songs by Jay-Z ("Encore"), Music/TheNotoriousBIG ("Warning"), and also PTAL's "Boss Ass Bitch".
* Frequent across Music/JCole's earlier mixtapes, mostly over songs by Kanye West and Jay-Z (notice a theme here?), although also over Cassie's "Must Be Love", Missy Elliot's "Best Friend" and Talib Kweli's "Get By".
%%
%% * [[Music/FiftyCent 50 Cent]] does these frequently.
%%% Zero-context examples are not allowed.
%%
* Music/BustaRhymes does freestyle versions a lot, for instance over such songs as Music/KendrickLamar's "Backseat Freestyle" and "Poetic Justice" and Drake's "Best You Ever Had".
* Music/LupeFiasco freestyles often on his mixtapes. In ''Friend of the People'', he freestyles over obscure dance and dubstep instrumentals and also over Music/JohnColtrane's ''Music/ALoveSupreme''. He also freestyled Que's "OG Bobby Johnson" as [[AuthorTract "THOT 97"]].
* Music/TheWeeknd did a freestyle version in 2014, freestyling over Music/{{Lorde}}'s "Royals", Ty Dolla $ign's "Or Nah" and Music/{{Beyonce}}'s "Drunk in Love" (although he significantly altered the beat for this one).
* Music/AzealiaBanks freestyled over "Harlem Shake" when that song was popular.
* Music/VanMorrison tends to this when he does a cover version. His cover of ''It's All In The Game'' starts out as a conventional version sticking more-or-less to the official lyrics, but by the end it has diverged so much that on the ''Into The Music'' album, the second half of the cover is listed as a seperate track and given a new name (with songwriting credits for the lyrics given to Van).
* One famous case is when Music/PaulAnka adapted ''Comme d'Habitude'' for ''Music/FrankSinatra'' as "My Way". The only thing the two songs hold in common is the tune.
* The end credits song of the English dub of ''Anime/PokemonJirachiWishmaker'' is "Make a Wish", a remix of the original Japanese ending theme, Asuka Hayashi's "Chiisaki Mono" (A Small Thing). "Make a Wish" has the same overall tune as "Chiisaki Mono", with half of the lyrics replaced with English-language ones.
* Music/JuiceWRLD did an entire freestyle set using exclusively Music/{{Eminem}} instrumentals - in return, Eminem gave him a guest feature on one of his singles ("Godzilla"). (Juice's death happened before he could finish recording the feature.) Juice had a particular affinity with Eminem beats, and had a posthumous hit with "Doomsday", a freestyle he did with his friend Music/{{Cordae}} over the beat to Eminem's 1999 single "Role Model".
* Music/{{Eminem}}, known for his finnicky taste in beats, rarely raps over other rapper's beats unless he produced them himself, but has an interesting example in his late career: The first beat for his 2020 track "Book Of Rhymes" is the beat for "Talk Shit Like A Preacher" by Music/{{Future}}, sped up a little. This came about because the beatmaker, ATL Jacob, gave the beat to Future for $10000, and got no response, assuming Future had discarded the song. Later, Eminem and Music/DrDre called and asked him if he could use the beat, paying $30000 for it. A few months later, Future told ATL Jacob he was going to use the song with his beat on his album. Jacob, out of loyalty to Future, let Eminem know what had happened and attempted to return the money, but Eminem wasn't bothered and worked it out with his lawyers. Future has a writing credit on Eminem's eventual "Book Of Rhymes".
----