I will attempt to summarize the definition of freestyle in my opinion. I have been an MC for about 6 years and as an MC in Hip hop you are required to bust a free now and then. I have been in battles where I won 70 percent of the time and cyphers where I also 'murdered'.
I have created a list of different types of freestyle from the most difficult type to the easiest.
1. Direct from the Dome 1 - Topic & Character
This version of freestyle is the most difficult as it forces the artist to use not only a suggested character, but also a foreign topic. This means that the artist must create a world, in his/ her mind, where he/ she is for example, the president of South Africa and rapping about the economy, which is something he/ she couldn’t have prepared for.
Topics are decided by the host or the crowd in advance or as the artist arrives on stage.
2. Direct from the Dome 2 - Head-space
Direct from the dome 2 is the most "free" of free-styles. The dome is one's head, so from the dome means it comes straight from your head. This for me is pure speed of thought process and a wide vocabulary. This is needed, in order to find different words that mean similar things, or different words meaning one thing, that have similar syllables and rhyme.
3. Direct from the Dome 3 - Phrases
This in my opinion involves thought from your head arranged in rhymes and metaphors. The difference comes in with the fact that you can use phrases and lines that you have written down before. This is very similar to a cypher which is the reciting of ones written rhymes. The free style element is greatly observed and appreciated when one brings relevance to the rhyme by including things that are happening or recently happened in the crowd or on stage.
4. Crowd Freestyle
Crowd freestyle is when the crowed shouts out words at you that you must rhyme with, the perception is that this is harder and it challenges the rapper/ mc. In my opinion, this is the easiest type of freestyle, I say this because in free-styling the hardest elements are finding words and keeping the topic relevant.
When the crowd gives you words to rhyme with, this reboots your thought pattern and if you've been using rhymes that end with "ing" then if the crowd shouts "cars", now you have an excuse to switch rhymes and you have a new set of words to rhyme with.
5. Fake Freestyle
This for me involves using a completely written verse that is then passed off as a freestyle. There exists grey areas within this type of freestyle as artists sometimes substitute words that are relevant to the situation, so as to give of the impression of a live freestyle.
This unfortunately is the most common form of freestyle, found on the internet on shows such as KOTD and sometimes on Sway's radio vodcast and labeled on the net as freestyles. This in turn gives upcoming artists unrealistic levels to reach in the element of freestyle, leaving most rappers not to pursue the sub-artform.
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