Freeway: "Trap Door (Freestyle)"

Wow! Explicitly recorded as a commercial for his upcoming album, The Stimulus Package, Freeway’s two-minute take on “The Trap Door,” a two-year-old track from his producer Jake One, is better than most full-fledged new rap songs you’ll hear all year.

The Philadelphian has been very busy lately. As he likes to say, he gets to work early! (And he pronounces this in a way that sounds like it might hurt his throat. Like he gargled extra hard with the Listerine.) As was the case with folks like Bun B, who’s back at it lately, and, so famously Lil Wayne, it seems like there’s a new Freeway recording waiting every morning when you click on the internet. And so many of them are fresh like that Listerine.

But back to the freestyle, which is probably the best explicitly-recorded-as-a-commercial rap since Wu-Tang shilled for their clothing company with “Wu Wear The Garment Renaissance” back in 1999. The original “Trap Door” appeared on Jake’s White Van Music album, featuring rhymes from MF Doom, and is an original, meaning sample-free, production. Surprising, since it sounds like something Link Wray might have come up with in 1962. (Linking to Link Wray just made my day, by the way. It doesn’t take much.)