''Free (Based Freestyles Mixtape)'' is a collaborative mixtape by American rappers

Lil B Brandon Christopher McCartney (born August 17, 1989), known professionally as Lil B and Lil B The BasedGod, is an American rapper. He began his career as a member of the Berkeley, California-based hip hop group the Pack in 2005, who signed wi ...

and

Chance the Rapper Chancelor Johnathan Bennett (born April 16, 1993), known professionally as Chance the Rapper, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, he released his debut mixtape '' 10 Day'' (2012) during one of his high school suspension ...

. It was self-released for free download on August 5, 2015.

Background and recording

''Free'' was recorded in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

—Chance the Rapper's hometown—on July 18, 2015. The recording session was supervised by

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while consider ...

/ producers Jeff Arenson and Aidan Sigel-Bruse.

Composition

''Free'' consists of six tracks. Writing for ''Consequence'', Adam Kivel compared it to a "pretty good episode of an improvised podcast". The opening track, "Last Dance", features a guest appearance from Noname Gypsy. ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'''s Winston Cook-Wilson compared the beat on the track "Do My Dance" to that on Chance the Rapper's song "

Chain Smoker Chain smoking is the practice of smoking several cigarettes in succession, sometimes using the ember of a finishing cigarette to light the next. The term chain smoker often also refers to a person who smokes relatively constantly, though not nec ...

" (2013).

Release

On July 18, 2015, Chance the Rapper and Lil B announced that they had recorded a collaborative mixtape together. Later that month, Chance the Rapper appeared on Wild 94.1, and called it "a

masterpiece A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

" and "a classic". Two weeks later, ''Free (Based Freestyles Mixtape)'' was self-released on August 5, 2015. It was uploaded to Lil B's

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

account for free download.

Critical reception

Sheldon Pearce of ''

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of Hip hop music, hip hop music criticism and news. ''HipHopDX'' has over 3.5M monthly readers, the website encompassing hip hop news, interviews, music, and reviews. The website's founder and CEO is Sharath C ...

'' and Dean Van Nguyen of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' considered the final track, "We Rare", to be the best on the mixtape. Writing for ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'', Calum Slingerland said that "''Free'''s greatest moments come when the pair play off each other's rap skills".

Track listing

Track notes

* "Last Dance" contains uncredited vocals from Noname.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Free (Based Freestyles Mixtape) category:2015 mixtape albums Self-released mixtape albums Chance the Rapper albums Lil B mixtape albums