George Watsky, a San Francisco-based musician and rapper, has eclipsed the previous world record for the longest freestyle rap by more than seven hours. The final count was 33 hours, 33 minutes, and 33 seconds. And he streamed it all on Twitch.
The previous official world record was set by Pablo Alvarez in August 2017, clocking in at just under 26 hours. At the time of writing, Alvarez’s remains the official post in the Guinness World Records as Watsky’s record undergoes evaluation by Guinness officials.
With his 33-hour freestyle, Watsky also broke the unofficial record set by Emmy Award-winning rapper Frzy one year ago.
The rapper posted a statement two days ago, explaining his decision to stream a world record-breaking attempt at the longest freestyle rap by an individual.
Watsky’s planned concert tour in March was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The world record effort was a dual bid to help recoup some of his team’s financial difficulties, as well as helping other musicians through Sweet Relief. By streaming the event, it was “something fun that would allow and stay on the air for a long time raising money.”
“My heart goes out to everyone affected by this crisis,” Watsky said. “Hopefully we can do our part to spread a little love in these dark times.”
Watsky also helped to raise over $140,000, with proceeds split between alleviating his crew’s financial difficulties, a fan relief fund for those affected by concert cancelations, and the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.
Watsky rapped the first 22 hours and six minutes without a break, stopping for just 10 minutes before embarking on his record run again. According to the official guidelines, a five-minute break is allocated for each hour, which can be accumulated to take a longer break further into the attempt.
The freestyler’s world-record attempt received attention from numerous celebrities, with his rhyming skills (even while fatigued) drawing praise from Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The entire VOD can be found on Watsky’s Twitch channel, split into three parts. If you can’t find a spare 33 hours to watch the entire video but are interested in its content, a group of enterprising fans has set out to painstakingly record the entire freestyle rap in a written format, via a collaborative Google Docs.
