Drect’s Top 100 Battles of All Time: 100-91
Prologue
When I first announced that I would be making a "Top 100 Battles of All Time" list, the immediate reaction of the majority of my peers seemed to be, "why would you put yourself through that kind of stress?" What some may look at as stressful or overbearing, I like to look at as a challenge - maybe this is my duty; I feel empowered to teach the people about something I love so much.
At one point in time, there were only two classifications of battle rapper: one that sucks and one that doesn't. In the last 20 or so years battle rappers have consistently raised the bar in this craft by developing unique styles and complicating rhymes, which has ultimately resulted in millions of fans gravitating toward the artform and their favorite personalities within it.
Now that battle rap is huge, judging is nearly extinct and the majority of emcees are very talented, everything is based off of opinion. If I like your personally, am a fan of your music or know your little brother, chances are that I will log onto youtube and defend you in the comment box. This has a lot of people watching and interacting with the artform, but I believe it has one downfall ...
New fans of battle rap have been introduced to the scene in a very comment-box/reality-based youtube fashion. They don't have the same feeling or knowledge a lot of us battle rap purists have gained through 10+ years of involvement with the culture. Instead of seeming like a bitter old man (which a lot of hip hop notables tend to do when something/someone new comes along or changes,) I have decided to teach. This is my reason for writing The Top 100 Battles of All Time.
Introduction
As I have mentioned time and time again, battle rap is HEAVILY based on opinion. It is nearly impossible for anyone to 100% agree with my list. A lot of my writing is based on a heavily educated, yet personal opinion of the artform. I have ran battle leagues, been to countless battle rap events, manage battle rappers and speak to different fan bases all the time. The most important part of this list was that I didn't rush it and took the time to understand why different fans like different things. Whether it be geographical location, lifestyle similarities, historical value or personal opinion - I asked EVERYTHING.
You can choose to either look at this top 100 list with critical, yet argumentative eye or treat it as a guide of sorts. I purposely chose to include both freestyle and written battles for a simple reason: nobody else would dare do it and there is great historical significance in some of the things we tend to forget about. A few different people/companies have chose to make lists of their own, which I respect, but I bring an unprecedented amount of knowledge from all facets of the battle rap world and would like to educate the fans instead of force feeding them a bunch of recent or highly viewed material.
When making this list, I needed a criteria - something readers could easily understand and grasp - not only follow my writings, but form their own opinions. So, along with 100 of the greatest battles, I have included a detailed write-up on each battle along with my personal judging system. This system helped me not only re-evaluate my opinion of the battles, but it also allowed me to rank them in a proper fashion.
All battles are judged off of and will be given a score of 1-10 in three categories:
Competition - How close was the battle and how debatable is the outcome? "Body-Bags" are worth a little bit less in this system.
Historical Value - Is this a battle with lyrics we all know by heart, or is it a recently-recorded "instant classic" for the ages?
Impact - What effect or influence did this battle have on its generation or the future of the sport? To what capacity was this a compelling force on the actions, behavior, and opinions of fans and other emcees.
*Note: This list does not include battles from 2013, as I will be creating an updated list at the end of the year*
*click pictures to view battles*
Without any further adieu, here are number 100-91 of the Top 100 Rap Battles of All time ...
100. Uno Lavoz vs Lunar C
Competition - 8
Historical Value - 5
Impact - 5
Hate him or love him, Uno Lavoz has definitely managed to make a name for himself on Grind Time, King Of The Dot and Don't Flop with his heavily criticized, yet outlandish and entertaining style that mixes extreme comedy and bars. Uno has his ups and downs, but this is where we see the rapper at his best. On the other side, we have Lunar C. I realize that sometimes it is hard for Americans to grasp the artistic value in a non-singing international artists, but picture this: your favorite underground youtube rapper (with a lot of views), a dope hip hop resume and a decent fanbase (outside of battle rap.) Now picture him having a uk accent and a battle style just as raw as his music. This is a very close and debatable with an equal amount of comedy and wordplay; definitely a fun watch. Congrats to both emcees, as its closing in on one million views!
Memorable Moment - Uno Lavoz pulling out the measuring tape
99. (Young) Gattas vs Tut
Competition - 8
Historical Value - 5
Impact - 3
Long before the Ring was filled with Queens and a little while after Remy on the Rocks faced off with that Lucky Lady, (Young) Gattas was the only active female battle rapper making any noise in the scene. With no other women to battle, she regularly faced off against male opponents. Since Gattas would often freestyle, (then Grind Time Midwest President) Sonny Bamboo decided to place her against freestyle veteran, Tut, who had previously beaten Real Deal and made it to the Scribble Jam finals against the likes of The Saurus. Nobody knew the battle would turn out this good. For the first time, we saw how good Gattas was when she prepared and how effective Tut's freestyles could be in a written league. Definitely one of the best inter-gender matches battle rap has seen.
Memorable Moment - Gattas' mom yelling and Tut telling her to, "Shut it up!"
98. Tenchoo vs Big Kannon
Competition - 7
Historical Value - 3
Impact - 3
Big Kannon has always been slightly underrated to me. He is one of the best emcees on earth at mixing freestyles seamlessly with written material. When I heard he was going to UK's Dont Flop, I assumed that he would easily catch a body. This was my intro to Tenchoo, who also happens to have mastered the art of weaving spontaneity with preparation. This is such a great battle as it shows how to cover all the basic and advanced techniques in battle rap. These two have impeccable timing and the match is very arguable.
Memorable Moment - Kannon freestyling his whole 3rd round and killing it
97. Qua Star vs Bonnie Godiva
Competition - 8
Historical Value - 3
Impact - 3
I LOVE this battle to death. Everything from the atmosphere and the way it was filmed to the microphone mysteriously coming out of the side of the screen was perfect; I wouldn't change anything about it. This was part of Queen of The Ring's Sparring Session, which is comparable to the Proving Ground of URL. We all knew that Bonnie was nice on paper, but this was the first time she came out of her shell and rapped with some passion in her voice. Qua Star's personality really shined in this match and she showed her true potential. Definitely a Drect favorite!
Memorable Moment - "Qua are you a carpet muncher? No bitch, i'm a target puncher" - kills me every time.
96. K-Shine vs Tay Rock
Competition - 8
Historical Value - 6
Impact - 5
The first official one-off of our battle generation. This match brought us back to the old SMACK days of one battle per dvd. The crowd was small, so you would think the energy wouldn't be there, but K-Shine just got home (from jail) and Tay Rock was coming off off a loss (to Charlie Clips) - both of these guys were hungry! This battle proved that both emcees were ready to move to the next level of competition.
Memorable Moment - People walking by the window and wondering what the hell was going on
95. Scarchild vs Datin
Competition - 7
Historical Value - 7
Impact - 3
One of the most slept on battles of all time occurred when Fight Klub veteran (who had previously battled French Montana), Scarchild had a crazy match with Datin (formerly of Nems' FYL or Fuck Your Lyfe crew) on Proof & Bizarre's (of D12) Who Wanna Battle. The x-factor (no pun intended) of this whole battle event is definitely the Detroit crowd. Thye are respectful to both emcees, give appropriate reactions and are electrifying at key moments. Scarchild was definitely one of the best battle emcees of this era that hadn't had any footage released. His believable street content, mesmerizing rhythm and freestyle ability make him a very dangerous opponent. On the other hand, Datin arguably has the rawest style (and verse on 106th and Park's Freestyle Friday) in battle history - you can hear the emotion and feeling in his voice, yet he mixes it with a smooth charisma. I wish this battle was released on youtube years ago when people like Murda Mook and Serius Jones were first blowing up; the two would definitely be legends at this point.
Memorable Moment - "Fuck him, fuck him, fuck y'all life!"
94. Young Kannon vs Pooh
Competition - 9
Historical Value - 4
Impact - 3
At a time where Grind Time was attempting to establish a wider demographic and put together classic street battles, they teamed up with Chicago Battlegrounds for a definite classic. It currently sits at 48K, but had it came out on the URL it may sitting at about 1M. This is the battle that opened the door for Chicago and introduced their talent to a larger fan base. I still believe this is both of their best performances - you can see the hunger in their eyes and hear it in their voices. Most importantly, this showed that a city such as Chicago could bring together two inner city youths and throw an event with no violence in the name of hip hop. Dope.
Memorable Moment - "Big Kannon'll start pop locking like Rerun / The Sister Sister twins will give Rodger a threesome / A bitch with her tubes tied will get pregnant off pre-cum / Theres links in your squad, but nigga you are the weak one"
93. NH vs T-Rex
Competition - 6
Historical Value - 8
Impact - 5
This is arguably T-Rex's best performance. He killed this from beginning to end. NH was a formidable opponent, but in this historic battle, Rex showed he was on a completely different level whether is was on or off of SMACK DVD.
Memorable Moment - "not to toot my own horn, but *boop boop* im the bomb my dude"
92. Lotta Zay vs Syahboy
Competition - 8
Historical Value - 3
Impact - 4
This battle just debuted on URL's youtube channel. Had it been out for at least a year, I would have put it in the top 50. I have no idead why it isn't sitting at (at least) 200,000 views at the current moment. First of all, B City (URL film staff) decided to grayscale the footage and make this the first black and white (colored) battle that we have ever seen in HD, which set the mood perfectly for this "one off." Both Lotta Zay and Syahboy have had their ups and downs, but this was a perfect battle with perfect timing. They both showed showmanship, well written material, creativity, humor and great delivery. With proper timing this battle would have blown up instantly - let's give it a little more time.
Memorable Moment - Lotta Zay "fixing" Syahboy's infamous Wiz Khalifah line
91. Jaz The Rapper vs Chayna Ashley
Competition - 8
Historical Value - 7
Impact - 6
Queen of the Ring does a wonderful job promoting some of their match ups. Jaz vs Chayna was highly anticipated as a battle between two of the top wordsmiths in female battle rap - both the crowd online and in person treated it as such. This is one of the first true main events that helped men (who are admittedly sexually biased at times with female rappers) gravitate more towards the Queen of the Ring brand and become fans.
Memorable Moment - "My name is 'Jaz' with one 'z' but you can catch two or three once you go night night nigga"
81 - 90 coming soon