A method of smoking cocaine that was briefly popular before the advent of crack, which is apparently a pre-fab thing compared to the DIY of freebasing. Someone more knowledgable will have to go into the particulars (I was always a cannabis/shrooms/acid man, myself), but it first reached North American consciousness via the night Richard Pryor accidentally set fire to himself while freebasing. Later, it became Rick James' favorite sport, supplanting sex and exhibitionism.