The “Red Bull EmSee: The Road to 8 Mile National Championship” took place last week to find out who takes the crown as the best freestyle rapper in the country.   The event brought rappers from all best rap battling hot spots in the country including New York City and the Bay Area but the finals took place in Eminem’s hometown at Saint Andrew’s Hall in downtown Detroit. Here is a clip posted by redbull where Eminem talks about his freestyle career, his freestyle formula, and what he expected from this year’s Redbull EmSee competition.

Well were Em’s expectation met? YES and then some! The final battle came down to 18 year old Detroit native, Michigan State University freshman, Saffal Tall, better know as FowL, and New York City rapper, DNA.  The lyrical face offs were judged by Mr. Porter, Alchemist, and of course Eminem.  Let’s rewind a little and explain how this competition worked.

In the first round, the competitors were paired off and were asked to check out five images on the projection screen and then produce a freestyle about those images.  The highlight of round 1 which got the biggest reaction was when Austin rapper, Franchyze, was shown an image of Bob Saget and unleashed, “We had an orgy in your home/it was a full house.”  Wowzers!!

In round 2, each rapper was given a random word and was asked to use it in a freestyle.  Very similar to an old school Eminem word freestyle I remember which you can give a listen to here.  The competitors had a bit more difficult with this round due to the short 60 seconds they had to showoff their skills.

The last round was straight freestyle, no images, no words just straight off the dome flow with the show’s host D.R.E.S tha BEATnik beatboxing.  The biggest reaction was in the direction of FowL after he rhymed, “Who would you rather listen to?/someone who spits the truth/or a n**** with a missing tooth?”. DNA then attempted to start it off 8 mile style with “everybody from the 313, put your hands in the air and follow me” which resulted in unanimous boos from the crowd and consequently cut his rap short.  Not a great idea to start it off like that if you happen to be from New York City.  FowL was then crowned the winner by unanimous decision.

I wasn’t successful finding any footage from the actual final battle but since I already know you’re going to Google or YouTube FowL I thought I would save you the trouble. Here is the champion’s freestyle in his dorm room.