Casual's top 10 battle rappers thread

[Casual 785]

Back with another classsssic list. I doubt there's anyone here that engages in man poetry but I'll try to post some videos for anyone interested. Not gonna do this one in order since it's super subjective so lets just get right into it with a bit of a precursor.

 

I'm mostly covering the modern format of battle rap, though many of these guys have participated in multiple eras. There's a number of era's of battle rap...but the main ones that resulted in what we have today would probably be the Scribblejam era, WRCs era, and the current written format. Many people consider the modern written format to be less pure...it's no longer on a beat, and it's (primarily) prepared in advance. That said, it's really responsible for the longevity and popularity that battle rap has seen today. Having time to prepare for an opponent has resulted in battles becoming much higher quality in many aspects. Obviously the quality of the writing has gone up tremendously...the metaphors, rhyme schemes, multisyllabics, etc. The lack of a beat really allows people to have their own unique style, flow and rhyme patterns. 

 

One thing that's always been to the detriment of battle rap is the incestuous nature of it. So much of the material is referential to other aspects of battle rap (whether it be other specific battles, crews, etc.) that it's hard to find a battle that someone can just sit through and watch without prior knowledge. I'll try to avoid this in what I reference, or at least give some context when it's needed.

 

As much as battle rap is about rapping, it's also very much a performance game. There's guys that are really good at rapping/writing that have never really gotten big, but the ones that are able to balance that with performance, controlling an audience, and creating a character/image for themselves are the successful ones. Lots of parallels to wrestling really...techinical ability is a must but showmanship goes a long way. 

 

 

 

Scribblejam era (1997-2008):

 

This was more or less what started us on the path to where we are now. Scribblejam/rap olympics is the first notable event that brought people together from all sides of the world (though still primarily being Americans). Entirely on beat and probably the most pure form of freestyle. The downside of freestyle is that you end up with a lot of filler and generic/one dimensional type punchlines. Unfortunately most of the footage from this era is either lost or pretty terrible quality. 

 

 

 

 

World Rap Championships era:

 

WRCs was a bit of a stopgap between Scribblejam and the current format. It only lasted a couple years. This was a 2 on 2 acappella freestyle format with different divisions throughout North America/UK, most of the battles for each division were filmed in the same day and then the winners eventually went on to a finals event. There was a bit of an overlap between this and scribblejam and a lot of the same people participated in both. This was around the time people started to bring "premeditated" lines to battles...the matches were random but since you mostly knew who was going to be there you could tailor some of your material for specific people. The two guys most prominent for this were TheSaurus and Illmaculate who would eventually go on to win two years in a row. The combination of people bringing premeditated lines + some bad business by the league owners eventually resulted in the format we have today...

 

One thing to note is that before the modern, written format, battle rap was very much a backpacky type thing. There wasn't much of a presence from the more urban hip hop scene yet, which is part of the reason the written format really took off. 

 

 

Modern era (~2008-present):

 

The modern era is, again, written and acappella. Opponents know who they're going up against in advance and have ample time to prepare. The majority of battles are three rounds and depending on the league and time era the rounds are between 60 seconds and a few minutes. There's a few main leagues/platforms.

 

 

SMACK/URL:

 

The "urban" league. An offshoot of SMACK DVD from back in the day. URL started doing battles in 08/09 in a very strict 3x3 minute round format. Early battles were in relatively small rooms without much crowd participation that allowed them to adhere to a strict time limit. Nowadays they mostly hold their events on big stages with larger crowds/PPVs and the strict 3 minute limit is a thing of the past due to it being impossible to account for crowd reaction (a rapper is still expected to write ~3 minutes of material but with crowd reaction the rounds are always much longer. This is still the premier battle league in the world. It gets the most views, has the biggest stars and is probably the only league where there's battlers who are actually making a good living off this. Many of the bigger names on this platform can get 20k+ for a battle and lots have gone on to become D-tier type celebrities. 

 

The leagues/rosters have blended a lot over the years, but early on SMACK was distinctly different than the other leagues. It was the only one that wasn't really an off shoot of the more backpacky Scribblejam/WRC formats and catered to a primarily urban culture. The main criticism it would get from fans/battlers of other leagues was that it was all "generic gun lines that could be said to anyone". Obviously that was a simplification in the first place, and as time has gone on other elements such as multisylabbics, jokes, and personals have made there was into SMACK battles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Quote

 

I hear everything you sayin', but lets discuss something apparent

Himan Holla? Cold killer. But Gerard Fulton (context: Hitman's actual name) grew up with both parents

Now I'm not knockin having both parents, but your situation wasn't the worst like

Everything mommy ain't have on the 15th, Daddy could cover on the first

He probably taught you that five step dropback and the spiral amazingly

I taught myself you gotta ease off that trigger slow let the hammer up simultaneously 

He probably taught you about the birds and the bees, chlymadia, clap and all about crabs

Man them n****s was out the window with the bird throwin up bees, clappin callin out crabs

You was at practice, shootin...if you missed you do suicides

Them n****s came through shootin, that was our practice, if we missed it was suicide

You had x squared over y, tryin to find the remainder and add up

I'm askin my ex why you askin me bout numbers I'm tryna bag up

Your father probably bought your momma coat, all your sports gear and your brothers boots

No football, these gloves wasn't for baseball this facemask was for another use

Your mother was at your game, cardboard colours, fresh signs

My momma was in pain, "you wanna speak to the inmate, press 9".

 

Grind Time:

 

Grind Time was the most direct offshoot of the WRCs. It had divisions across the US and a lot of the initial participants had roots in either Scribblejam or WRCs. As a result it had a very similar backpacky type feel. "Personals" and "Multisylabbics" were probably the main characteristics of a good grind time battler. Personals obviously being observations that could only really apply to the person you were battling, and multisyllabics being rhyme patterns with multiple rhyming syllables carried on for a number of consecutive bars. Probably the battle that embodies this most would be TheSaurus vs. Illmaculate...two pioneers of the format and former partners (and winners) of the above mentioned WRCs. These guys also both won Scribblejam. Essentially staples in the scene, even today:

 

 

 

Quote

It's Peter the poor sport, everytime he loses he pouts and he whines

Then he takes his aggression out and screams loud when he rhymes

But if there's a reason my buzz won't amount to his shine 

It's cause the net nerds want someone they can relate to and rally behind

But look Pete, we met in 2005

06 and 07, that was a mountain to climb

It's been 2 years since then, I've put three projects out in the time

Do the math bitch, it's 2009 and you still haven't been on an album of mine

 

 

Quote

Keep it a hundred, your pansy ass threatened

Say rest in peace to your dream like the cali graff legend

My knives is fitteds, one blade that run round

59 50, custom made for Kung Lao

So get low, don't need to get Loe's lyrics

Hats off, if I toss expo's fitteds it's like paying for intercourse, the head go wit it

Your bitch bored to death of your eggroll didick, so I dug her back out and I ain't necrophilic

You ain't even try dog, If she ain't eatin my rod she's leading guys on like a seeing eye dog.
 

 

 

 

Grind Time eventually died off because of bad business, but most of the higher end guys on their roster eventually found a home with...

 

King of the Dot

 

Another league that's still going today, albeit not so strong. KOTD basically started off as Grind Time's bizzarre Canadian cousin. It was very similar in terms of format/style but with a bit of a redneck canadian twist. They did much better business though and slowly expanded into Grind Time's territory and absorbed a lot of their roster. They were one of the first leagues that really pushed international battlers with their "World Domination" events that began by bringing rappers from all sorts of countries...Sweden, UK, Phillipines, USA, etc.

 

 

 

 

This is one of those somewhat incestuous battles with a history but I feel like they do a good job giving it context. A classic to this day and maybe the battle that put KOTD on the map. Pat Stay is still absolutely killing it and regularly performing on SMACK/URL now.

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by Casual

[Guest]

From what I've seen, some of the best include

 

- Serious Jones: dude's been at it for over a decade and can compete with anyone

- Loaded Lux: just off that one battle vs Calicoe

- Calicoe: seems like he can beat anyone not named Loaded Lux

- Pat Stay: dude graduated from bodying nerds to be able to compete in SMACK/URL like you said. He can go toe to toe with almost anyone. Serious Jones and Cal beat him though.

- Hollow da Don seems super solid

- Charlie Clips seems hella good

[Teh_Diplomat 2,054]

Blind Fury?

[Casual 785]

1 minute ago, モンキー said:

From what I've seen, some of the best include

 

- Serious Jones: dude's been at it for over a decade and can compete with anyone

- Loaded Lux: just off that one battle vs Calicoe

- Calicoe: seems like he can beat anyone not named Loaded Lux

- Pat Stay: dude graduated from bodying nerds to be able to compete in SMACK/URL like you said. He can go toe to toe with almost anyone. Serious Jones and Cal beat him though.

- Hollow da Don seems super solid

- Charlie Clips seems hella good

Calicoe is my absolute favourite tbh.

 

He's so direct but just absolutely great at rapping and has the best stage presence and just overall image out of everyone.

 

My favourite is probably his first round vs. Roc. 

 

 

 

All good picks for sure though. Like you said, Serius is a vet and he's had some better battles recently since coming back.

 

Pat Stay is great, I've seen him live so many times and similar to Calicoe he just knows how to control a room. His third against Charron is one of my favourite examples. A lot of people used to shit on him for the jokes, and to be fair he used to be a bit corny sometimes, but he found a fantastic balance that just makes him so deadly. He takes amazing, unique angles on his opponent and can take something they said that was seemingly nothing and just put such a good spin on it. 

 

 

 

[kaz 2,485]

i saw that movie... 8 mile?

[Guest]

This battle was great

 

 

Both of them killed it and were having fun, and crowd was amazing.

Edited May 1, 2020 by Guest

[Casual 785]

Just now, モンキー said:

This battle was great

 

 

Both of them killed it and were having fun, and crowd was amazing.

Yeah great battle. Suge's another guy that's gotten a lot better in the later years imo. He's almost the perfect target for Pat in a lot of way but definitely held his own. He's also Shaq's favourite battler lol. 

[Casual 785]

3 minutes ago, kaz said:

i saw that movie... 8 mile?

Classic but we all know B Rabbit fucking lost. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Casual said:

Yeah great battle. Suge's another guy that's gotten a lot better in the later years imo. He's almost the perfect target for Pat in a lot of way but definitely held his own. He's also Shaq's favourite battler lol. 

yeah Pat basically eats gun bar rappers that he isn't scared of. He couldnt get at Calicoe because he was too shook lol.

Edited May 1, 2020 by Guest

[Casual 785]

1 minute ago, モンキー said:

yeah Pat basically eats gun bar rappers that he isn't scared of. He could get at Calicoe because he was too shook lol.

for sure. that battle was weird and really just not either of their best performances but Calicoe definitely got him lol. 

 

not sure if you've seen him vs. danny myers but it's hilarious.

 

context for anyone else...Danny myers is a more street/gunbar rapper who has 10 kids. He also allegedly paid a big name battler $12k to battle him and has had a history of opponents backing out on him last minute (mostly a result of him just booking battles with absolutely anyone at anytime).Which Pat absolutely goes in on...

 

 

We're almost at round 3 and it's already off with your head man

And i ain't even have to mention your 10 kids or that 12 grand

BUT DAMN!

Come on....ten kids?

That bitch be missing periods like a run on sentence

And I heard he got an eleventh comin, figured he'd learn a lesson from it

Maybe all your opponents pulling out last minute were trying to tell you somethin

Nanny myers...most inconsistent plan b buyer

Could change a diaper with his hands behind him

Tryin to convince the fans he's violent

You soft as a flower danny lyin (dandelion) 

He home with the kids family timin, candy bribin

Babies crawlin all on him in their jammies cryin to bambi dyin

Yeah you be runnin the streets...

Double backpack, twin stroller and one on a leash

You livin the fam life, gettin all damn hype

Oh you gonna pull out and bust? Yeah right

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Yeah Pat destroyed him lol. Basically these super serious gun bar rappers are toast if Pat clowns them and kills their credibility. 

 

Most fucked up Pat Stay verse though is definitely his vs Marvwon. That was just brutal. 

Edited May 1, 2020 by Guest