Recap: Not that he wasn’t bountiful with the haymakers, but a surprising freestyle/rebuttal game ends up saving Cortez from a loss here in what was a fire and competitive battle versus Ryda. Indeed, after an entertaining, (“I’m a hybrid, Ryda [rider], ain’t no gas in the clutch!”) personal-heavy/name-flip and braggadocio turn from Cortez to start things out in the first, Mr. I Like To Name My Guns comes right back with an aggressive, (“They say no fingers, no evidence, Gary Payton, O.J. Simpson, I brought both gloves for Cort!”) gun-savvy and spitfire turn of his own that with a couple of more haymakers, edges the Goonie member the round. Still, after a spazzing-on-both-sides first, things settled down a little bit in the 2nd round. But while Ryda was a little more consistently nice with his punchlines/personals/gun bars, a couple of solid freestyles by Cor towards the beginning of his turn and only one less haymaker gets him a draw for the round. With Ryda still ahead going into the final round, Cortez really gets in his bag of haymakers, crisply working his vaunted ‘Shit We Gotta Speak About’ angles to ill effect with some dope wordplay, fiery shots at Ryda’s team, a couple of rebuttals, fire Spanish idioms and more salacious (“I’m flaming out the projects, banging out with targets, 50 sparking, Ricky Martin, this shit just came out the closet!”) punchlines/gun bars mixed in to beat back what was also a turned-up and punch-heavy, but not quite as potent turn by Ryda.
Verdict: TIE
Favorite line: Ryda – “Just because you out of arm’s length don’t mean I can’t bring you pain, just because you out of reach, don’t mean you out of range!”
