Behind-The-Scenes At Red Bull Spiral Studios, Where One Day Makes Months Of Content

In our modern era of micro-content and YouTube original programming, you might be surprised at how much work actually goes into those videos. They may only take you a few minutes to watch, but they take a team of camera operators, directors, editors, producers, lighting techs, make-up artists, managers, and assistants to bring to life. Take, for instance, Red Bull‘s Spiral Freestyles the series of one-take group cyphers featuring fan-favorite rappers like Coast Contra, Earthgang, IDK, Mick Jenkins, Pusha T, Saba, Souls Of Mischief, and more. One of hip-hop heads’ go-to outlets to see some of the best rappers dropping intricate, tongue-twisting verses, the show is shot at Red Bull’s studio/headquarters in Santa Monica, California.

On the day of my visit, Red Bull was able to bank plenty of footage for several pieces of entertainment, including Red Bull’s head-to-head trivia game show, Rap IQ. Both Red Bull shows appear on the Red Bull 1520 YouTube channel, named after the building where hip-hop was birthed. The premise for Spiral is simple: a group of three or more performers rap their verses as the camera rotates in place, a la the “session” scenes from That ’70s Show. The dynamic show kicked off in 2023 with the Coast Contra episode, taking advantage of the group’s viral status and then-burgeoning reputation as undeniable freestylers; to date, it’s the most-watched episode, with over 1 million views since it was posted.

Since then, the one-take format has benefitted a growing number of bars-first MCs, from the silver-tongued wordplay masters of Griselda Records to more raucous groups like one made up of Bay Area party rappers ALLBLACK, DaBoii, and MBNel. Usually, there’s some unifying theme, whether that’s shared geography (one popular cypher joined Texas natives Maxo Kream, Monaleo, and That Mexican OT, while there have been multiple episodes of Chicago rappers, with one pairing The Cool Kids with Mother Nature and another connecting Saba and Mick Jenkins), gender (there have been a handful of all-women cyphers), or label affiliation (shout out to Dreamville).

The day I dropped in, the talents for the day included Ab-Soul, Big Sean, and Joey Badass, a group mostly linked by reputations for being among hip-hop’s top tier of punchline-laden double entendre slingers — and by their tangential connection to rap’s recent row over the so-called Big Three kerfuffle involving Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole. Sean commented on feeling left out of the discussion despite frequently collaborating with all three, Joey drew attention for throwing his hat in the ring for inclusion earlier this year, and Ab-Soul’s connection to Kendrick is well-documented, with the Carson native sometimes standing in as a proxy for his better known West Coast compatriot in rap debates.

On the day in question, the talents arrived with their retinues early in the day, taking over a handful of conference rooms as their headquarters for a full day of shooting content. It’s around lunch by the time the rappers are funneled into another studio with Rap IQ host Patrick Cloud. This time, they’re going head-to-head with each other, testing their hip-hop knowledge with a buzz-in quiz show. Of course, considering the names involved, the competition is friendly but fierce — a preview of the scintillating performances ahead.

The sun’s starting to set outside, and the office workers just beyond the studio doors say their goodbyes as our trio of rappers shuffles into the Spiral room: an actual recording studio booth decked out like some someone’s living room, where a cameraman will spin himself dizzy — several times — capturing the equally dizzying feats of freestyle wizardry from the three rappers.

A couple of weeks before this shoot, Joey made waves online with his song “The Ruler’s Back,” in which he ostensibly called out Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar after the Pulitzer winner’s combative 2024. The resulting fallout saw Joey being called out by Kendrick’s onetime labelmate Ray Vaughn, doubling down with the ornery “Sorry Not Sorry,” and fielding a swell of speculation from rap fans about who all would respond and whether the All-Amerikkkan Badass would be able to keep up with his West Coast counterparts.

Well, during the shoot, Joey addressed all that and more with a raucous verse that even drew his fellow performers in for a one-of-a-kind performance that may send a few aftershocks reverberating through the rap world. The rappers shot a few takes, drawing expressions of amazement from the onlookers in the control room — “How does Sean do that?” — and then, when they were completely satisfied that they’d all delivered flawless performances, they retired to the control room to watch the footage back.

After that, though, there’s still tons to do over the next few weeks: the footage must be edited together, the sound must be leveled, schedules must be coordinated again to optimize the release dates for the completed episodes. A full day’s work turns into weeks of meetings, tweaks, concessions, and cuts for maybe an hour’s worth of content. But for the team of creators who makes it all happen, it’s worth it. That content will live on, giving endless hours of entertainment to countless viewers over the years.

You can check out the latest Spiral Freestyle with Ab-Soul, Big Sean, and Joey Badass below.