Recap: In a bout loaded with hardbody street missives, some fierce name flips/personals, roundabout mayhem and aggressive punchlines, backed by his knack for rigid wordplay, it’s the more consistently hitting Big Hann who takes the first couple of rounds of this URL Close Quarters 3-rounder for the win over TruFoe before a slightly more bar efficient and condensed Foe edges the 3rd.
Verdict: Big Hann (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Big Hann – “You bang right?, well the minute you get to twisting shit up, you going paraplegic!”
Recap: After getting beat back by a superbly-executed, gritty and punch-heavy turn from Big Hann in round 1, Swave Sevah takes advantage of a less potent opponent and also uses a variety of witty personals, hardbody bangers, Philly trap talk and requisite mayhem to edge the latter rounds for the win in this Rookies vs. Vets 2, 3-rounder from Smack/URL.
Verdict: Swave Sevah (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Swave Sevah – You?, you like the avatar for average bars!”
Recap: Having a hard time finding his grind of late, Don Marino gets back to basics, using consistently banging (“Child’s Play, when I was killing shit, I didn’t need y’all to put the batteries in my back!”) punchlines/personals with a little added wit, lofty gun lines, fire schemes and hitting, but also thought-provoking struggle bars to….force a draw here with Big Hann. Indeed, while Marino put on a show, so did Hann. The Philly capo matching his steely aggression with a wide load of blistering street shit, boastful metaphorical bangers, ringing mayhem and some gritty wordplay/punches/personals to edge round 2 (after Marino took the 1st) and force a tie in the deciding 3rd round.
Verdict: TIE
Favorite line: Big Hann – “You know the truth, you wanna check my stats?, I’ll show the proof, I kept an eagle on me, I used to to pull up in a drop top and let a bird fly the coop!”
Recap: From Verbal War Zone, 3 rounds with Wutang’s “Triumph”, Braveheart’s “Oochie Wally” and Mobb Deep “Shook Ones 2” serving as beats, you can’t go wrong with the instrumentals. Too bad, outside of a dope 3rd round from both battlers (which the harder-hitting Big Hann edged), the punches in the earlier rounds were mostly so-so. Still, it’s the more consistently-lit bar-wise and slightly more flow-astute DNA who takes rounds 1 and 2 for the win.
Verdict: DNA (W) 2-1
Favorite line: DNA – “Your legacy got a recipe with another style, don’t mention me, I’ll make pedigree out of Puppy Chow!”
Recap: No doubt, an emphasis on flow and cadence during this rare battle over the beats between Big Hann and Haze Tha Gift, which sees both battlers spit some gritty rhymes at a more rapid pace (esp. on Hann’s part) than usual. Still, it’s Philly’s Hann who takes it in the end with a much more steadier flow along with slinging more noteworthy darts.
Verdict: Big Hann (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Big Hann – “He don’t wanna see Hann with a black Wesson, hit his leg, now he Big Daddy Kane…half-stepping!”
Recap: After edging round one with better punchlines and some gritty visuals with the bars, Wise gets a little less potent and predictable with his bars/schemes in the latter rounds, thus leaving more than enough room for Big Hann to edge round 2 with steadier hardbody barbs and easily take the deciding round 3 with a nice mix of lucid personals and rambunctious punches.
Verdict: Big Hann (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Big Hann – “You’ll get [bwoh!] without me even looking….crock pot!”
Recap: A spitfire, punch-heavy 2nd round by Rosenberg Raw and Big Hann’s choice to pontificate and go postal on everybody but his opponent in the deciding 3rd round, add up to give Raw the win here.
Verdict: Rosenberg Raw (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Rosenberg Raw – “Now he got game, I got game, but he ain’t half as skilled, so when he act live, we don’t believe it, because we don’t think the graphic’s real!”
Recap: The always aggressive and gritty with the urban (“Nigga, I got two guns [puts out each hand on the sides of Kannon], if I shoot, it’ll death on both ya sides like gang violence!”) grumblings Big Hann manages to pull off a mild upset as the usually on-point Big Kannon waits till the middle of the second round to get his A-game going (that’s proven even moreso by a [“But respect is what I better see from dude, if not I’m a see his group, I’ll make them all leak blood on the ground, and the leader, I’ll leak a leader too, but people, just know that the eagle, I’m ready to let the eagle loose…but I’ll open up Hann [hand] right in front of ya eyes, nigga ‘PEEK_A_BOO!’“] superlative 3rd by Kannon). But by then the more overall consistent Big Hann had already edged the match with a thunderous opening round that easily beat a feeble 1st from his opponent, while edging the middle round with more fiery bars.
Verdict: Big Hann (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Big Hann – “I pack tools, the snub, you’ll get a wide nose in ya face like Papoose!”
Recap: Put aside the jokes as Big Hann and Snake Eyez kick that struggle rap, real street talk, prison semantics and other assorted high crimes and misdemeanors throughout this URL/PG battle from Smack. Indeed, both (“Old pistol with the duct tape, so it’s either you dead or your family in ICU waiting on the update!”) Snake and (“Nigga, I’ll even draw on ya kids, that’s face-painting!”) Hann, competing to the tee on who can spit the most genuine urban ethos, let you know early on that they ain’t here to play games. But it’s an elongated, but more consistently fiery Snake who edges round 1 with more steely haymakers that were backed by consistent aggression and moxey. Round 2 was more of the same with Snake Eyez again going slightly longer than his opponent and taking the round (and the win) with more gripping punchlines, fiending (“Nigga, I’ve been nice since we was using aluminum foil from the gum to make the grills with it!”) braggadocio bars and less filler before Hann salvages the 3rd round and avoids a 3-0 loss with tight storytelling bars and straight-fire (“Nigga, you ain’t no cobra, you a garden snake that probably Harlem shake!”) punches.
Verdict: Snake Eyez (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Snake Eyez – “You know the drill, no games, this pain, come from the soul, you could feel the hunger, I’m on parole, so I’m still a number!”
Recap: Dope PG battle between J. Murda and newcomer Big Hann with plenty of street chatter, ringing gun bars and some crazy nice wordplay from both battlers. I got Murda edging round one, after Hann’s put on a worthy (“Everybody wanna be in the spotlight, till we tell ’em to reach…and [reaches hand out like gun] put a dot in they face!”) display of sizzling (“Y’all let a lad in [Aladdin] , but got mad when he stole the bread!”) bars during his turn, Murda brought his own palette of steady heat with a richer (“Automatic and an automatic, I’m steering with an armload….[puts hands like’s driving and holding gun] it look like I’m stick-shifting!”}performance bars and a slightly better bar quotient. But credit Hann’s for sticking in there and stepping it up in round two with nicer wordplay, real (“My life consist of scrapping and clapping, a bunch of one-night stands…how I kept resorting back to the magnum!”) rap shit and aggressive (“This how you kill a nigga, I keep the silver by my back, you dealing with a gorilla nigga, but try to run and that wild shit will cover ya back like a chinchilla, nigga!”) haymakers that landed hard. And while Murda stayed consistent with righteous (“Relax chump, got mad guns, the impact make a tin can out of a Mack truck!”) lines that for the most part hit their mark, it just wasn’t enough to take the round. Continuing to impress for his hometown of Philly, Hann’s stayed solid in the last round with gritty braggadocio (“You a fan and you been one before you got a wave, spoiled kid first day of school…nigga I’m rocking J’s!”; “I only gave a [points hand like shank] tip, because I knew there was a stab behind it!”) bars and seering street tales. But just when you might’ve counted Murda out, he whips out an assortment of goodies including convincing (“A head shot, he fall asleep forever…and dream nuthin!”; “Stop being a bozo Daffy, but if I shoot you better duck clown or get the cal popping on you like Kung Pow”) urban theatrics, fiery punchlines and vibrant (“Ain’t no Love in Hip-Hop, if you butt in [Budden], you gotta deal with the Consequence!”) wordplay–a more versatile turn that got him the win in what was a very close and exciting battle throughout.
Verdict: J. Murda (W) 2-1
Favorite line: J. Murda – “I got too many fucking demons boy, I talk to them on the regular, that shit happens often…only nigga with more monsters in his head than me, is Magic Johnson!”)
Recap: Immensely fire battle between (“Beating me? You got a better chance of saving Atlantis!”) Bad Newz and (“All it takes is a banana to split his melon, you’ll be Easter fresh, for the last time, in front of your reverend!”) Big Hann with all sorts of mayhem, fierce braggadocio bars, righteous gun lines, some dope name flips and monstrous punchlines dished in all 3 rounds. Close throughout with a huge amount of replay value, the only difference here is who needed less time to get in their bag more. Thus, the 2nd and 3rd rounds to Big Hann for the vic.
Verdict: Big Hann (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Big Hann – “I’m a betting man, and I bet I leave here with your neck in hand, your life was over, as soon as I put your name in these rounds like a wedding band!”
Recap: Proving to have more gas left in his tank than his less potent opponent, Big Hann’s more formidable 3rd round, an unremitting and solid turn of aggressive bully bars, wit, street semantics and mean punchlines, is the difference maker in this fiery 3-rounder versus Bonus.
Verdict: Big Hann (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Big Hann – “You got bars, but no gift, that’s Christmas in prison!”
Recap: Dishing mean and descriptive gun bars with willful abandon, when he wasn’t flexing on his opponent with aggressive braggadocio lines, after a debatable 1st round, Big Hann gets the drop on an inconsistent P.G. Skillet in the latter rounds to score a win.
Verdict: Big Hann (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Big Hann – “You came in here with nothing to lose, thinking what you spit shine, you just here to buff up my shoes!”
Recap: A spitfire punch-wise (and less morbid) 3rd round by Tink tha Demon isn’t enough to save him from Big Hann’s more condensed, rigged and punch-heavy 1st and 2nd, thus giving Hann the win in this nice, competitive battle from World Battle League.
Verdict: Big Hann (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Big Hann – “You Delaware nigga’s is pussy with no hammers, Me? I keep the ratchet cuffed like I’m slow-dancing!”
