Battle rap (also known as rap battling) is a type of rapping that includes (bragging and boasting) content. Battling can occur on recorded albums, though rap battles are often recited or freestyled spontaneously in live battles, "where MCs will perform on the same stage to see who has the better verses".

Freestyle is a style of rap, with or without instrumental beats, in which rap lyrics are improvised, i.e. performed with no previously composed lyrics, and "off the top of the head". It is similar to other improvisational music such as jazz (Myka 9 of Freestyle Fellowship describes it as being "like a jazz solo") where there is a lead instrumentalist acting as the improviser and the rest of the band providing the beat. Rap battles are improvised in this way.