So Justin Bieber walks into a freestyle cipher...
That's not the beginning of a joke — it almost happened. DJ Premier, the legendary hip-hop producer and DJ, said on his blog that the Beebs asked him if he could participate in the 2011 edition of the BET Cyphers, which air during the network's yearly Hip Hop Awards. The ciphers are made up of several well-known rappers — Eminem, Rick Ross, Meek Millz — switch off on the mic.
Not all the participants are MCs — this year, the pop singers Chris Brown and Estelle rhymed —and Premier said he doesn't care who raps as long as they're good. "Everyone was worried that that might mess up the integrity of BET," Premier said of Bieber's request to participate. "I was like, 'As long as he got a dope rhyme, let him spit.' But then we heard, 'Oh, he wants Luda to write his rhyme...' And I was like, 'Oh, no, no, no, no, no. If you ain't writing your own rhyme, you can't do it.' So, Justin you got to take a back seat. Write your own rhyme, honey. You got to call him 'honey' on that one."
In case you're wondering how Bieber might have fared in the cipher, check out the video below. You can say this about Bieber's rhyming: he is very well-intentioned.