Recap: From Hitman Holla’s Bags and Bodies league, taking advantage of a Bigg K not only battling the noisy crowd, but also equipped with a shitload of (for him, anyway) of basic raps, an emboldened Nu Jerzey Twork goes nuclear with a gang of rambunctious/hard-hitting punchlines, witty/piercing personals, stinging gun lines, fiery schemes, rich trap/street talk and searing performance bars for all 3 rounds (only the 3rd round was somewhat competitive) to handily earn a haymaker-lit 30 before leaving the venue and perhaps finding that guy in the glasses from the crowd who heckled him earlier.
Verdict: Nu Jerzey Twork (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Nu Jerzey Twork – “I seen my man’s take a head shot, I had to get his brain matter off me, my mama told me words will never hurt me but then I had to get his name tatted on me!”
Recap: The long-awaited clash between Bigg K and Tay Roc finally went down on KOTD, a neutral battleground of sorts what with K repping RBE and Roc of course coming through for URL. If you saw the face-off between these two the day before, you already knew that the tension was going to be through the roof once they battled. And for the most part it was with plenty of name-calling and in-your-face theatrics from both sides. However, after K’s momentous taking off of his cap in round 2 as well as turning the lights blue in the room (in tribute to RBE’s Blue Room) near the beginning of round 3, the tension died down and the two managed to keep it professional, even hugging it out at the end.
As for the battle itself, it’s Roc who pulls off a Gentleman’s 30, edging all three rounds by staying consistent, showing more variety as well as originality and landing more haymakers in an efficinet manner than his opponent. Nonetheless, this bout was competitive and action-packed throughout. But Roc’s consistent firepower, combining a gang of crazy metaphors, some fly wordplay, graphic mayhem, wicked race angles, stinging personals and brutal gun bars, proved why he has to be favorite to win COTY this year. And while K’s rounds were tight and punch-wise often showed the heart of a true COTY when it came to witty punchlines, hard-hitting street darts, and mocking personals, overall the Dawg leaned a little too heavily on personal themes that have long been used against Roc. That slight overuse cost K some juice (even if it was funny at times). Then too was the irony of Ruc flipping K’s biggest moment–finally letting us see what was under the cap–to his advantage with a couple of fire rebuttals to start off his 2nd round, which coupled with the aforementioned roomshakers, the Gun Title co-prez ended up edging as well.
A strong 3rd by Bigg K with plenty of wicked punches, storied but still spicy personals, braggadocio lines and witty zingers only suffered a bit from some elongated set-ups. Nonetheless, Roc wasn’t having any of it. The Maryland vet venturing into ‘AMG mode’ with a plethora of speedy punches that more than delivered when it came to fire name flips, consistently hitting punchlines, potent wrestling bars and stinging gun bars to earn the shutout.
Verdict: Tay Roc (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Tay Roc – “Everybody with me will flip, I am the URL chaperone on this King of the Dot field trip!”
Recap: Not really on his A-game throughout, but still maintaining enough firepower in his punches, personals and name flips to make a statement, Bigg K is also helped by an aggressive, but mostly pedestrian Coach Corleone on his way to a 30 in this 3-rounder from RBE.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I wasn’t handed opportunities, i earned every one, you getting the biggest shot of your life like you turned 21!”
Recap: From DaFlytingIrish in the UK, from witty roasting sessions on British food to mocking personals on his opponent’s vernacular to a boatload of braggadocious darts that scored at will, outside of a debatable round 2, Bigg K handily takes rounds 1 and 3 for the win in this 3-rounder vs. a personal-lit, but otherwise just solid Dialect.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Your guy’s ass, he the next the die, never seen weapons fly, he gonna testify, hit ya streets with a chop, bleed a section dry, thought it was beef but it’s not…Shepherd’s pie!”
Recap: From Ruin The Day, perhaps it was the cold Alaskan weather as it’s hard to recall Marv Won ever being as bad as this. The Detroit vet (after a way too long intro from the host) repeatedly succumbing to a bunch of slip-ups and other miscues over the course of 3 rounds on his way to being shutout by the wide variety of witty personals, funny storytelling and hitting punchlines from Bigg K.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “You ain’t got shit to say, potato chips is big and you still losing battles to M&M’s [Eminem] today!”
Recap: From iBattleTV, although he had enough punching ower in both the 1st and 3rd rounds to keep it close, some subpar punches and angles by Bigg K through this 3-rounder combined with an opponent in Oppa who outside of being a little elongated (which helped get him edged in round 1), frequently hit up the scoreboard (esp. during a sublime round 2) with a wide variety of gritty wordplay, clever punches, hitting personals and witty barbs/storytelling to take the 2nd and 3rd rounds for the upset win.
Verdict: Oppa (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Oppa – “If you thinking about any Opp besides me, you shouldn’t have caught this fade, if you thinking about rapping with Roc, yu shouldn’t have Walked This Way!”
Recap: Camera dudes running through the stage while the battle is going on?!? Chrome 23 has gotta do better. Anyway, in an unexpected matchup between Bigg K and Jaz The Rapper that saw both battlers appear on Remy Ma’s league for the first time, outside of their usual m.o.’s., angles utilized by both K and Jaz were noteworthy. K with a bunch of hard-hitting/disrespectful personals when he wasn’t punching Jaz’s light out. While a more versatile Jaz would hit her opponent with a gang of witty barbs/personals when she’s using solid race angles (one of which K surprisingly addressed), fiesty gun bars and gritty punches that for the most part hit (tho she did shockingly struggle with her flow a bit). That said, a debatable round 1 efficient when it comes to haymakers on both sides is followed up by K upstaging a less consistent Jaz in round 2 before the Rapper got back (“You the king of being anti-Smack, matter of fact you so anti-Smack all you do is punch!”) in her bag with a sturdier and more consistently -lit 3rd to force a debatable.
Verdict: TIE
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Y’all ruin every league that try to give you bitches bread, it’s time to sing a new tune, that Femi shit is dead, they got me out the blue room ‘cuz y’all got Remy in the red!”
Recap: Almost too close to call, this KOTD 3-rounder between Charron and Bigg K brought with it what you’d expect from a couple of top tier battle rappers: plenty of fire punchlines, dope angles and a boatload of aggressive heat. However, after getting edged in round 1 to the slightly more haymaker-lit Charron’s crazy 4-bar set-up/punches and other salacious darts, Bigg K’s witty ‘nerd’ angle/personals, bullish punches, top-notch lyrical stunting and head-ringing boasts prove to be efficient and pointed enough to edge both the 2nd and 3rd rounds (despite some nice rebuttals and a pair of pretty solid/personal-lit rounds from Charron) for the win.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Rock with a body shot, your organs shatter, I’m all business with a 30, it’s a corporate ladder!”
Recap: From RBE, against the meandering but hard-hitting jabs and righteous/slick talk of Yung Ill (who stayed competitive throughout, esp. during a turned-up and fire round 3), it’s a mean collage of nasty work from Bigg K. The Norfolk, VA vet using a steady barrage of spitfire 4-bar set-up/punchlines, flexing similes, sturdy name flips, fiery street bars and brash/witty personals to take each round and the earn a 30.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “It’s calling, oh you need a booster start, I will supply you the stuff that you use for sparks, I still grind in the tuck yeah the gruesome part, where more lines getting cut than amusement parks!”
Recap: From GTX, I’m guessing T-Rex meant to say ‘Stojakovic’ (as in former NBA star Peja). Verbal hijinks aside, a close one between the Dot Mobb capo and Bigg K that featured Rex putting up a pretty soldi effort what with a boatload of fly name flips, aggressive/hardbody punches and bodacious trap talk, one too many pedestrian bars from the Harlem vet to go along with a slightly steadier K on his shit throughout via a bunch of witty barbs, graphic, steely street bars, sturdy schemes and stellar punchlines, gives the Norfolk, VA battler the 1st and 3rd rounds fo the win.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “You line them up, I knock ’em down, catch a body smoking Rex, another Dot on the table, it’s the domino effect!”
Recap: Murda Mook versus Bigg K, a matchup that pretty much came out of nowhere, gets the royal, blue light treatment from RBE and deservedly so. K, arrogant and fiery as ever, but almost always able to back it up with his modus operandi of steely back-to-back punchlines, hard-hitting personals and charming wit, did his thing up until getting sidetracked towards the end of his 3rd round by a heavy-on-the-personals ‘cop’ angle that seemed to be based on hearsay rather than actual facts. While Mook, always sly and aggressive with his raps, pontificating, punch-lit for the most part, scoring with some solid metaphors and of course, well-dipped when it came to jaunty personals and predictable race angles, kept it close throughout. Unfortunately for Mook tho, despite a fly showing of his own in round 1, K’s more steadily hitting darts would edge the former the opener, before one too many subpar joints from Murda to go along with a pretty lazy ‘A-B-C’ scheme in round 2, would help a punch-crazier and scintillating Bigg K get that round too for the win, before a wittier, spicy storytelling and slightly more punch-heavy Mook took the final round to avoid the 30.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “You was the best in the world when there was only 8 battlers!”
Recap: Probably alluding to Bigg K rapping in different pockets outside of his usual pedigree of rapid punching, A. Ward might’ve been right when he told Bigg K that it was him that was forcing K to rap this way. Nonetheless with plenty of white-on-white violence, aggressive/raucous punches on both sides, a surprising display of solid rebuttals from K, a plethora of hard-hitting personals from Ward (esp. in round 3), stinging Christian-laces disses and wtty barbs from K, a bunch of dope wordplay/schemes from Ward and a shockingly elongated at times K showing off some strong versatility throughout this battle, all-in-all this matchup (which notoriously got pushed back from last year due to Ward’s last-minute bout with sickness) ended up being spitfire and competitive. A trio of rounds that were all close and had the RBE crowd buzzing throughtout, assisted by a couple of more haymakers in round 1 and some nasty off-the-dome work that edged him the 2nd round, it’s Bigg K for the win before a more direct and slightly more steadily hitting A. Ward edged the final round to avoid the 30 piece.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I ain’t saying God fake, I hope he exist, but if he made you in his image, I know he a bitch!”
Recap: By now the entire battle rap culture should know how strict Bigg K is when it comes to contracts and time limits. So to see a battler going up against K complain, after going past the decided time limit, about not being able to ‘get all his shit off’ just makes no sense to me. Nonetheless, with over a decade in the game, at times it can get a little formulaic with K, which in turn makes him seemingly unmotivated and worse yet beatable. But that wouldn’t be the case here as sometimes sheer talent just wins out. So indeed, despite a 40 Cal hitting and keeping it close (esp. in the latter two rounds) with some gritty/fire punchlines here and there (esp. that opening ‘Big L’ bar), a lack of consistency from 40 to go along with a bizarre (tho still funny) stretch that saw him totally jack T-Top’s infamous 3rd round ‘Walmart’ angle vs. Rum Nitty with a photoshopped pic of K for some personals that went nowhere as well as K dishing his usual assortment of spicy, rapid-fire punches, boastful screeds and hard-hitting personals to handily take round 1, before edging both of the latter rounds for the 30.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Keep saying Black don’t crack, what if I pistol whip it?!”
Recap: As good as it is to see Philly vet Reed Dollaz battling more often these days, shame on Reed thinking it was cool to copy his opponent here and pull out his phone to recollect his bars in round 3. An automatic choke (as was the case for Bigg K in round 2) in these confines and with K out-punching and edging Reed in round 1 and briskly freestyling his way through round 3, what would’ve been an impressive win by Reed (who had am extra gritty and terrific round 2) gets screwed up by his own misdeed.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “It’s getting scary for Reed [read], are you afraid of the dark?”
Recap: From Voices of Battle Rap, devoting his trio of rounds to a gang of witty barbs, stifling personals/wordplay, bullish street darts, piercing punchlines and of course (since he was facing a ‘URL rapper’) pointed zingers at his old URL home, even in light of a pretty solid (esp. with the name flips) 3 turns by opponent Jey The Nitewing, a more consistently blazing Bigg K pulls off the 30.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I’m direct, knowing he a sucker, you big ass, spam eating Samoan muthafucka!”
Recap: From RBE, a couple of things we learned from this battle: Bigg K is still hilarious and punch-lit as ever and when you consider that displaying some wit helped him spout his best round (rd. 2) here, in the future Jae Millz may want to consider showing off his funny bone in battles more instead of complaining about battlers who in his eyes joke too much. That said, more condensed while dropping a bunch of crazy similes, rich storytelling and witty personals throughout each round, it’s K who earns the 3-0 despite what was overall a pretty solid, gritty and punch-worthy effort from Millz.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Suck a drag queen dick, I will slap and lean your shit, this is personal like asking what vaccine you get?!”
Recap: I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that the normally clock watching Bigg K had too much respect for Charlie Clips to complain about time limits despite his opponent’s elongated rounds (esp. the 3rd) throughout this battle. But then, maybe even K appreciated the sometimes lacking Clips taking him seriously and bringing 3 full rounds with him. Nonetheless, a goodie between these two vets here on RBE comes down to Clips’ sizzling schemes, witty/rigid personals (even when he did the race angles) and versatile punches out-working a mostly punch-heavy, but not consistent and subpar/redundant with the personals K in both of the opening rounds to give the Harlem battler the win, before a still fiery and condensed K edged the final round.
Verdict: Charlie Clips (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Charlie Clips – “Y’all know damn when there’s beef, the only thing white people raisin [raising] is teh potato salad!”
Recap: Said it before, race angles against white battle rappers, for the most part, just come off as lazy penmanship. In other words, unless you’re a B. Dot or some other conscious battler (where it’s already part of your repertoire), unless you can kick some really unique or otherworldly shit that’s never been done before (or, be adept enough to incorporate race bars around one of your noted signature moves, which in X-Factor’s case would be his ‘Priorities’ lines and while he tried to do so, overall it just didn’t work), angling an entire round (as X-Factor does here in his 3rd against Bigg K) towards race just to score some points with the politically correct crowd and maybe get a win, almost never works. That said, even with a so-so 2nd round, it’s all Bigg K here. The Dawg striking once again with a gang of piercing punchlines/name flips, witty personals and stinging storytelling rhymes to beat an X-Factor who after a pretty solid round 1, just landed in a cesspool of nothing but filler and pedestrian punches thereafter.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “You work out?, big flex, I caught him at mid rep, pulled a p-90 X, it ain’t part of yoru gym set!”
Recap: From RBE, while he definitely served up some mediocre raps, 3 rounds with zero stumbles to go along with some gritty/dope punches/name flips here and there (esp. in round 2), all the while performing on one week’s prep: I’d say that as a last-minute replacement for Serius Jones, Clone did pretty well. Yet, for a Bigg K who’s almost never impressed by anyone or anything besides himself, backed here by a gang of flagrant personals, dismissive/bruising punchlines, a plethora of stinging wordplay and even a rarely seen rebuttal in the 2nd round, while The Dawg wasn’t quite on his A-game either (surely, Jones backing out like he did was going to effect both battlers) what with some low-grade punches of his own, overall he still manages to edge each round and make it a 30 nonetheless.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “You less than poppin’, second option, I ain’t ask for you homes, my other opp can’t travel, he ain’t ask to be home, he gotta see 3 PO’s [C3PO], now it’s the attack of the Clones.” !”
Recap: Had to get past getting out-punched by Big T in the 1st round, but in this 3-rounder from RBE ‘The Dawg’ certainly struck again, utilizing a more consistent array of piercing punchlines/wordplay, fierce schemes and a series of hilarious personals/anecdotes to take rounds 2 and 3 from an opponent who had his moments in the latter rounds, but not enough steady heat to win.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “‘Big titties!!!’…them bitches sitting like a bar stool!”
Recap: Putting aside a fire, punch-heavy and race-angled/neutering 3rd round by Bigg K that won him that turn, the Norfolk, VA, rapper gets beat here by a more versatile, punchline-spazzing, raucous, metaphor-rich and extra witty Mackk Myron. Indeed, even with a slight stumble in round 1, Mackk’s more consistently electric and sometimes performance-heavy punch game stayed on point in both of the opening rounds, allowing the Pontiac, MI, spitter to score more than enough haymakers and edge what were a couple of pretty solid and bullish, but also a bit redundant turns by K for the win.
Verdict: Mackk Myron (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Mackk Myron – “My face, scare more nigga’s than test results!”
Recap: Yunno, gotta admit, Bigg K gotz a really nice crib there. And props to K and Jae Millz for the fly creativity with the visuals here. Moving on to this 1-round Social Distance battle…a close one with fire punchlines/personals from both battlers. And I like how Millz predicted K would bring up his notorious Cash Money days. Still, a slightly more condensed with less filler Bigg K gets the edge here.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 1-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I’ll get the drop, spray it up, Glock 30, you talk dirty, the mop straighten up, gauge cocked, face shot, your top breaking up, I’ll bring more people to Jae [Jay] spot than a Roc Nation brunch!”
Recap: Sure, one could argue that Ah Di Boom got mentioned a little too much in this battle. But with both Bigg K and Floss da Boss uttering Boom’s name, in this 1-round Social Distance battle from RBE, sparing a mulligan for all the Boom talk doesn’t get in the way of Bigg K’s more consistently flexing punchlines, lofty name flips and witty jargon earning him the win.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 1-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “How is a worker with no teeth named Floss da Boss…get lost!”
Recap: Ah Di Boom’s return to battle rap is a bizarre and inconsistent one as the South Jersey rapper first has to deal with a gang of allegations from opponent Bigg K of being a snitch (a serious claim, that included K handing out paperwork to the crowd, yet didn’t seem to bother Boom nearly as much as it did K), before spitting a spitfire, punch and performance-heavy 2nd round that reminded everyone of Boom’s hey days. And despite the usually punchline-crazy K not being on his A-game throughout this battle (perhaps because he was too hellbent on the personals), thanks to Boom spitting a gang of reaches, mediocre punches and righteous filler, a more consistent K is able to do just enough to edge both the 1st and 3rd rounds for the win.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I been popped tags, how could you ever hate on me, first staff you ever grabbed came from ARP, y’all battle rappers never trapping like they say y’all be, so if you ever pumping gas you putting 8 on 3!”
Recap: Madflex’s unorthodox stylings, pointed personals, witty (“Fat Thor!”) anecdotes and often clever wordplay make for a debatable 1st round and a close 2nd and 3rd. But in this aggressive, competitive and fiery bout from KOTD, Bigg K’s gritty name flips, flexing punchlines. fierce braggadocios darts and stinging metaphors/personals combine with more consistency/potency to edge the latter rounds and earn the win.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I ain’t no fucking battle rapper, where you know me from, your O.G. my little homie and he owe me one!”
Recap: Gotta get past a 3-minute intro, but still a riveting 1-rounder from Ruin Your Day sees the brazen punches, sizzling wordplay and mocking/witty personals from Bigg K edge the raucous, but abstract lines and sly humor from Reverse Live.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 1-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “You fucking junkie, y’all ain’t what you make it out to be, the coolest thing you ever did was hang out with me!”
Recap: After getting edged by a more consistently potent and (“A buck-fifty, behind his ear…it’s a magic trick!”) punch-heavy Bigg K in the 1st round, Geechi Gotti steps it up in the latter two, using savvy (“I don’t pump fake, I’m with the shit, Big who? bitch I done shot K’s bigger than this!”) gun bars, solid rebuttals, righteous punchlines, stinging personals and rare couple of slip-up’s from a still solid, but-not-quite-as-potent K in the 3rd to complete the comeback and take this fierce 3-rounder from KOTD.
Verdict: Geechi Gotti (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Geechi Gotti – “All my guns, the serial [cereal] scratched off like the grocery check list!”
Recap: Surviving some reaches here, a pretty solid Bay-area legends scheme as well as a bit of a flow-challenged 1st that got overwhelmed by a versatile and (“They banking on you to beat the angry farmer…I’m the goat-puncher!”) hard-punching turn by Bigg K, Rum Nitty dishes enough otherworldly punchlines, sizzling (“I’ll get a lane popped, raise Glock’s, light on a pole, that old Kendrick…give K dot’s!”) gun bars, mocking personals and fiery wordplay to easily take the 2nd round before edging a close 3rd with more consistently potent ammo and make for a victorious return to KOTD.
Verdict: Rum Nitty (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Rum Nitty – “I pop the clip and give you afterburner…Harvey Dent!”
Recap: Calicoe versus Bigg K is one of those entertaining, but a bit perplexing battles as well with K going more hard on his punches overall instead of his usual bent towards wit/humor. And Calicoe, while mixing it up a little bit with lit pontification’s, bully bars and lofty metaphors/anecdotes, still went a little overboard on the race angles/themes. Still, a close battle and intense battle throughout, a little too much filler along with Bigg K’s repetition with the heat/punches loses out to a spazzing, (“All my bars about that chopper and how I’m aiming at y’all sight, white boy couldn’t box with me if I agreed to all rights!”) braggadocios and performance-rich turn by Cal in the 2nd before K steps up on the fiery punchlines, stinging wordplay and (“I took penitentiary chance after chance just to get moolah, while you was having underground chicken fights, watching out for intruders!”) flair for street shit with a spitfire 3rd to take that round. So it’s back to the 1st round, a spitfire on both sides and closer round then what’s given credit for, that a slightly more condensed, hardcore and overall more potent with the haymakers Bigg K edges to take this one in the end.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Two [waves hands like knives opposite Cal’s face] slices, a buck-fifty…he caught the lunch special!”
Recap: Hard to see to puncher with the oomph of Bigg K struggle with his flow, but that’s the case often here in this Rare Breed matchup with Iron Solomon. And tho K, freshly lit when he was spitting robust punchlines back to back, had to cut a couple of rounds short thanks to the aforementioned unforced error’s, it didn’t help his cause that a more versatile Iron used a variety of fire personals, some well-crafted set-ups and other frenetic wordplay to help him dig a ditch and bury his less stable opponent with a mighty 30.
Verdict: Iron Solomon (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Iron Solomon – “Truth is, he ain’t violent, a lot of talk, but don’t do shit…DJ Khaled!”
Recap: In what would turn out to be a cameo appearance back on Smack.URL, Bigg K gets T Top in a wild one that saw a forever (“I ride on ya, hell raiser, Clive Barker, you fighting Luke Skywalker with a flyswatter!”) snapping and oft-witty K use a more condensed turn to take round 1 from an almost as potent, a but little too prone to filler and elongated Top. Things would begin to turn around in round 2 tho as K would almost drop the comedy routine altogether for rapid punchlines that while loaded with utter mayhem, didn’t stand out too much when it cane to haymakers, thus leaving a more versatile, trap-talking and (“This getting old, y’all don’t remember the shit I did to Sno?, I been whupping crackers in the ring, I’m Riddick Bowe!”) personal-heavy Top with enough grit, grind and consistency to take the round. A pretty solid 3rd from both battlers sees K get sarcastic and busy with some fire set-ups/schemes/personals, before Top uses his turn to parlay his own round of spicy racial jargon, pointed/witty personals and enough loud, aggressive and potent punchlines to take the deciding round and earn the win.
Verdict: T Top (W) 2-1
Favorite line: T Top – “I’m Donald Trump sitting in office…a head cracker!”
Recap: Well, who doesn’t love a battle where the two contestants face off that really don’t like each other? That seems to be the case here as after a year or so of social media banter, threats, interviews, blogs, etc., Bigg K and John John da Don finally take their differences to the battle stage on RBE.
And yeah, it was a goodie with JJDD going first and cleverly taking on his old threat to slap BK ‘when he sees him’ to set off a round of solid bars, dope personals and some stinging set-ups. However, Bigg K wasn’t having any of it, not only addressing JJDD’s backing out of his threats, but barking in his opponent’s face with a shitload of fiery punches/personals and feelgood (“I’m seasoned with the elbows, like Salt Bae on the Gram!”) haymakers that won him the round. Still, John John came right back in the 2nd, dishing on Bigg K’s tumultuous history in battle rap with pointed punchlines, witty (“The k got a kick like…you, when you don’t like a bar!”) barbs and just to make sure he totally got his point across…a picture prop with Bigg K not looking his most gangster that was accompanied by a gang of raucous heaters. And while Bigg K came back with a solid round of funny personals and stinging (“You just want to sell a battle, get your check, claim the fame on it, I want to sell a shirt that got the death, date and name on it!”) punchlines, overall it wasn’t enough to take the round.
Split going into the 3rd, with plenty of tension in the air, John John sticks with his game plan, going after his opponent with more and more personals that included a nice mix of flexing personals and potent schemes. And while K started his 3rd hot with a couple of banging personals/shiners, his swift adjustment to a rapid stream of nifty punchlines was not only head-scratching when it comes to tactics, but more importantly, not enough to take the round, thus giving JJDD the win.
Verdict: John John da Don (W) 2-1
Favorite line: John John da Don – “URL don’t fuck with you, care to tell the people why?, better yet I’ll tell ’em, just in case you feel a need to lie, after choking twice he went and set his price extremely high, but they was down for you K [U.K.] until you showed your European side!”
Recap: Dispensing a variety of (“I caught the BART with a Maggie, word to Homer Simpson!”) robust punchlines at will, Bigg K proceeds to out-punch a solid, but not as potent Pass for two rounds, before a wordplay-heavy, (“Bitch, you racist, I’ll hit in the face with the K, k, K?!”) personal-leaning and a little more consistent Pass edges round 3 to avoid getting shut out in this fire battle from KOTD.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “You 50 percent clown, but that ain’t the half of it!”
Recap: Punch-heavy throughout, bodacious with the name flips/gun bars/braggadocio lines, extra funny (Bigg K’s CVS security line, “You control the parking lot, all mad and upset, trying to tackle a skateboarder like ‘Get back from the steps!'” was hilarious) at times, competitive, peculiar (O-Red’s strange wardrobe choice and K’s choice to dedicate his entire 3rd round to a scheme on bathroom usage) and delicious with the wordplay, except for a few reaches and some pretty basic punches here and there, O-Red versus Bigg K delivers on all fronts. However, when it comes to picking a winner, after a debatable 1st (even with Red’s fire ‘translation’ rebuttal, K’s punchlines were pretty vicious throughout), a condensed and more consistent O-Red takes the 2nd and with some seismic set-ups, better sauce on the bars and his own display of pointed (“You dropped your arms quicker than dude who told Ace ‘I ain’t eating!'”) personals that flexed his versatility, it’s O-Red who takes the 3rd as well for the win.
Verdict: O-Red (W) 2-1
Favorite line: O-Red – “I’ll muzzle him, you won’t hear shit when the Uzi bang, that silnecer make it sound like a hit song….from Pootie Tang!”
Recap: Dope, competitive KOTD battle between Bigg K and Pat Stay ironically comes down to K, a battler rarely known for rapping longer than his opponent, getting edged in the 3rd round for doing just that. Indeed, while K’s punchline/wordplay game was rousing at times and his personals often hit with amusing narratives, rapping almost twice as longer as Pat in the 1st round with lesser overall bar efficiency would hurt him there and one too many redundant heaters and as well as some surprising shots at KOTD (tho they were mean) would cost him in the deciding 3rd. For the performance-heavy Pat Stay, who for the most part impressed throughout the battle with stinging breakdowns of Bigg K’s style of rap, a couple of spicy rebuttals (as well as a spitfire, mid-round rebut in the 1st), witty anecdotes/punches and a host of boastful barbs, an ability to dish 3 condensed turn against an opponent who’s long noted for doing the same, would end up in his favor.
Verdict: Pat Stay (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Pat Stay – “[Bigg K kicks imaginary garbage after a line from Pat] You okay there, bro?, what are you, a fucking angry baseball coach?, well, I got that Slugger for next time you interrupt me, and I’ll let that Louie see K if this ginger thinks he’s funny!”
Recap: Running throughout all 3 of his rounds with a super witty/mocking ‘He’s just a baby’ theme for his much smaller built opponent JC, Bigg K has what could arguably be his finest battle. Whether K was kicking a rare rebuttal on his opponent’s outerwear, dishing rapidly stinging (“Look, I rock for delph, big dog of the commonwealth, head first in that dirt, how an ostrich felt!”) punchlines throughout his turns, bringing the heat with some superb gun lines or making fun of battle rap semantics in general when he wasn’t going at JC with scintillating personals, a more-versatile-than-usual Bigg K does it all in taking out a pretty solid overall, gun (“But that scope got a lens wide enough to keep every nigga on yo’ field watching I send a paid shooter, he will pop and you gon’ only see him once like Will pops!”) savvy and haymaker-inducing-at-times, but a bit filler-prone JC, who at the end of the day just didn’t have enough to take out Bigg K’s comeuppance.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “While you was playing Checkers, Connect 4, Life, Trouble, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, I had to check a connect for life, havin’ trouble getting that can to land, shooting Ladders!”
Recap: As the old sports adage goes: ‘This is why you play the game’. Surmising that very few (outside of his hardcore fans) had Cortez winning this match against an elite punchline feen like Bigg K (not to mention a shorter time limit that strategically speaking clearly works in K’s favor), Cortez steps back in vet mode, reminds everyone of his ‘Top Tier’ status in the game and pulls off the win. First round is close with K aggressively (“You more than fake, gassed at a quarter tank, got your wife’s hair [hare] in my lap like the tortoise race!”) punching and name flipping with persistent fire, but a confident looking Tez gives it right back with fiery (“Fuck you, s*ck my dick, yeah I said it G, honky, blow on a sack [sax], who said Kenny G?!”) wordplay and stifling (“Everybody want to be Blood, till there’s a trail of that!”) bars that continuously landed in what turned out to be a flawless turn. Despite Cortez going longer with another (“I taught you everything you know K, I gave you tips, you obey, they put Duke on court…makes sense, I used to coach K!”) hardbody round, a higher bar quotient along with more scintillating (“Bounce, I’m unruly, two hands on one uzi, this clip will bring the bitch out Cort [court]…Judge Judy!”) punches and potent personals gives the still-drenched-in-unsportsmanlike-conduct Bigg K the second round easy. Going into the last round tied, K pretty much gives up the round (and as it turned out, the battle) surprisingly stopping short (or choking) after like half a minute of spitting, leaving his only chance of winning coming via his opponent choking. But Tez (who outside of writing a little too much per the time limits, clearly prepared well for his battle), delivers a solid (“Yeah nigga, so what, you want it, yeah? high shots, five shots, why?, I ain’t choke but why not?, this is a body on cam, now y’all get it…white cop”) round with nary slip-up, to pull off the victory.
Verdict: Cortez (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Listen here Julio, I don’t care who you know, I hope Trump builds that wall and it can keep you out the studio!”
Recap: Here we see the always competitive Showoff impressing with his usual (“Yo Bigg K?, just a bitch that be acting, he Gwyneth Paltrow, one thing y’all need to know about Show I only aim for the head, either put a bullet where his scalp go or face shot, that boy gonna whistle with his mouth close!”; “You a bitch that fear eye contact, you floor watcher!”) vigor, thematic aggression and urban flair–all the while staying away from lazy race angles. But too much filler and the combo of Bigg K, even at an ‘away game’ (when you consider that RBE is his opponent’s main stage), with a steady stream of prideful punchlines, witty (“When you out here it’s ‘Yo son!’, when you go home it’s ‘Yo diirrty!”) jokes/personals, festive (“I’ll [points hand like gun at Show’s head] shoot Show in the basement, Wayne’s World!”) name flips and scheming wordplay proves more than enough to take rounds 1 and 3 along with the win.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Call me a white devil, say y’all the original man like that’s scaring me, I’ll run you over with a jeep…now your ass half Cherokee!”
Recap: A super on-point and witty Head Ice impression in the 3rd round coupled with a continuous stream of sublime punchlines and fierce set-ups/personals that went as far back as the 1st round (which he only lost after Ice came through with one of his most steadiest, punch-heavy, cogent and gritty turns we’ve ever seen from the Harlem vet) allows Bigg K to take the latter two rounds and get the win in this fiery and competitive 3-rounder from KOTD.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “You a champ, he ain’t say nothing nice the whole round, your first record deal?, 65 with Motown!”
Recap: In layman’s terms, if Math Hoffa (understandably) is tired of hearing opponent’s use name flips on him, then veteran battle rapper that he is, he should certainly be able to understand white battle rappers who long tire of hearing lazy race angle’s used against them. Now onto the battle, Bigg K with steady (“It’s just me and the piece, I don’t meditate, bust his head to the white meat, that’s how I segregate!”) punches that landed well versus an albeit hard at times, but filler-prone turn from Math…took round 1. Raising his bar quotient with a better mix of more hard-body rhymes and fiery (“I still got that axe, I give nigga’s the grimy side, the scar will heal [heel] and bubble like an AirMax ’95!”) bully bars, Math evened things up in the 2nd by pummeling an up-n-down round by Bigg K. After that? All Bigg K. Saving his best round for the last, K just went straight in, putting aside his usual assortment of rapid punches for a most-likely embellished, but still entertaining, hard-hitting and (“You put the smack! in Smack, then the Knocked Out in KOTD!”) truth-telling round surrounding Math’s recent fight after his battle versus Dizaster that you could feel through the screen. And apparently, Math felt it too, stumbling to rebuttal K’s stirring personals at the start of his 3rd before seguing to his written’s that contained some nice struggle bars, but which if you’ve seen enough Bigg K battles versus black guys, when it comes to polemics concerning race, we’ve heard enough times before.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Ever since that happened, our conversations getting hell’a short, it’s like he mad at me ‘cuz I didn’t teleport!”
Recap: Bigg K and Caustic make for a spirited, competitive and memorable battle with plenty of mocking personals, lyrical shiners, righteous punchlines, witty barbs and for Caustic, especially during his tension-filled, uber-personal 3rd round, a plethora of real-life drama that let you know he isn’t just about getting a laugh. Even tho his opponent clearly wasn’t impressed, a punch-heavy (“Like you wasn’t a nerd up in prison, I bet you got checked on sight like terms and conditions!”), funny and more consistent Caustic takes a close first round before Bigg K ups his punchline/personal game and easily takes out an elongated and sometimes-indirect turn by Caustic in the 2nd round to even things up. And while the aforementioned turn by Caustic in the deciding 3rd was an at-times emotional and notable one, K’s ability to ‘kick’ his opponent’s real-life struggles aside for a (“But I guess when you’re Mr. Disrespectful, that’s how you do things, walk around Oakland with a cat on a shoestring!”) hilarious, creative and mocking turn on Caustic’s cat, wins him the round and the battle.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Razor to ya face, get severed in cold cuts, you soft, peanut butter and jelly with no crust!”
Recap: Although credit should go to Full Effect for calling out Bigg K’s poor sportsmanship (“You a hoe, stop rolling your eyes in the middle of niggas flows”), battling in what looks like a classroom, this one couldn’t end soon enough as Bigg K’s resident jokes (“I smell like gun powder and kush funes, your mustache look like a push broom!”) and fierce punchlines easily take out Effect’s mostly lame schemes/one-liners and lazy race card angles.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I’ll choke slam ya grandmom’s in a Red Robin, threw a table like — at a press conference, then go out and hide the body like I’m self-conscious!”
Recap: Ill Will and Bigg K live up to their reps with a hyped and competitive battle that pen-wise saw them both bring their A-game. Too many ill verses from Bigg K in round one got him off to a hot start with lines like “What this man drop, hand cock [Hancock], Will’s a bum” and “Bitch, I’mma about to wig on Will like Ron Burgundy” just leaving you dumbstruck. Will had a nice (“How many y’all hear for K [crowd roars], all y’all mamas pussies got athlete’s foot”) first round, but it ended up being his worst as bar-wise there was a little too much filler along with lines that weren’t as remarkable as he would’ve liked you to believe. K, a punchline-heavy feen who be credited with mixing in more (“They throwing me racks on racks, while you on Twitter…everyday, sucking dick, trying to get back on Smack!”) personals in his rounds here than usual, continued to work the crowd into a frenzy with dope punches in round 2, but a couple of nonsensical (“I’ll catch you on a late night, that’s a matinee” lines and less potent bars overall than his first round couldn’t keep up with Will’s second round comeuppance. A round that saw him get more versatile with dope personals, crazy wordplay, righteous (“Back in the day I would’ve dropped you every week, like a No Limit CD”) bars and all-too-nice (“If it start with ‘K’ [makes hands like gun] than it end with K [points hand like gun at Bigg K’s head], like Kodak…you get the picture?”) performance bars. 3rd round was pretty standard fare, but Bigg K scored well with pointers on how he allegedly chose a battle over his brother’s funeral (even tho that’s pretty much how it sounded when he first brought it up in his battle against Half Past 7) and some ill wordplay that kept heads buzzing. But Will did him one better, continuing to display more versatility along with a nicer performance and some rich (“Your bitch got a venereal disease, it’s chewing through the shorts”) joke to take the round and edge it at the end.
Verdict: Ill Will (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Got a brand new chopper, you wanna feel the flame first? This the best M-16 [Em 16] since the “Renegade” verse”
Recap: After getting edged in round 1 thanks to a shortened turn that even a so-so and elongated, but punch-heavy at times Conceited was able to sneak past, Bigg K turns it up in the latter rounds of this 3-round Ether battle (which btw had some fire visuals) with a gang of mocking personals, some killer schemes (most notably, the MTV show’s roundhouse in round 2) and flexing punchlines for the win against an opponent who by the middle of round 3 was so surprisingly pedestrian with the bars that even the booing crowd wasn’t having it.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Stop lying about how you fire tools and your hammer tucked, pussy, you short enough to tie ya shoes while ya standing up!”
Recap: Able to survive an Arsonal (“Y’all got me battling a white boy on Black Friday…I could be in somebody line purchasing some cheap shit!”; “Ya bird give long neck, but ain’t fly, that’s an ostrich!”) onslaught of verbal gymnastics in round 2, overall Bigg K’s more consistent flow, punchline regimen and hard-hitting (“Broad day you get in the intersection, lick one in the air like I’m testing the wind direction!”) gun bars gets him the 1st and 3rd rounds for the win.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Have your wifey and your sister do the dishes, after that they sucking dick, then little stupid bitches…I’mma make ’em split the pole, they ain’t superstitious!”
Recap: Short, quick and to the point as Bigg K and B-Magic rep their bars with the quickness of two dudes who came through and left like they were late for a doctor’s appointment or something. Anyway, Bigg K gets this one with a more consistent flow, better overall quality (and quantity) of punches and more variety with his (“You was getting by Fox more than Barack Obama”) bars versus Magic who while spitting fire at times, what with 3 straight condensed rounds just came off like his heart wasn’t that into it.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: B-Magic – “I warned dude first, tho we already knew that, i kicked this nigga ass till they asked where my shoe at”
Recap: While Bigg K may never get points or sportsmanship, as he shows once again here versus Aye Verb, no one can dispute his wicked bar/punchline game. So even while Verb uses the race card to offer some competition and a pretty (“Broads, I only fuck with one kind, I’m a racist!”) potent 1st round, from there it’s all K, dishing a fierce (“You just gonna say that I’m white, that is some racist and wack shit, I’ll smack your mother on the ass and call her a black bitch!”) rebuttal, feelgood bully bars, funny (“I heard you taking MMA classes, that’s some of the faggotest shit I heard in my life, you gonna wait till you 35 and try to learn how to fight!”) personals and a way more consistently dope bar game to easily take out a (“When you young and you riding on niggas, you just learning, you gotta make an older ride with you, it’s like a permit!”) hit-or-miss 2nd round and a wasted 3rd from Verb.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I’ll leave you and your bitch stretched out, y’all Team Yoga!”
Recap: Dope battle featuring a gang of hot bars, rebuttals and quality performances by both Bigg K and Big Kannon. Had the 1st round debatable as BK (“You 6-2, football build awww I know how to tackle you, you can see hawks [Seahawks] or the Eagles, which team you trying to get drafted too?”) and Bigg K (“I’m going nuts on the drums like Step-Brothers”) both went full tilt. Second round goes to BK, better bars, more direct lines and the setup for that “You don’t wanna be fucked as a couple, don’t try swinging” line was super nice. Going into the 3rd round I don’t know why BK would say out loud that he lost round 1 (probably overconfident that he’d win the 3rd, but still), however, it wouldn’t matter too much as Kannon went for the jugular, spazzing on K’s wannabee nigga-itis while tossing out dope name flips and feelgood (“You’ll leave here, with nothing but da feet [defeat], that’s Danny Myers”) wordplay. Bigg K’s 3rd was nice, but short (as was his 2nd) and while the roasting session lines were funny, choosing to stick with one angle wasn’t enough to overcome his opponent’s versatilty.
Verdict: Big Kannon (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I do it for the streets, you do it for the sweets, used to battle in the lunchroom and the loser had to eat”
Recap: After splitting the first couple of rounds with an animated and probably exhausted Danny Myers, Bigg K manages to keep his cool and take the last round with a wicked combo of haymakers, biting (“It must be hard having 10 kids and know not one gonna be shit”) personals, crazy punchlines and fierce deliveries.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I’m retarded with a gun, Officer Doofy”
Synopsis: Thesaurus’ trite and predictable style proves no match for Bigg K’s raucous and eccentric banter (hey, K’s confidence has grown to the point where he’s even dropping rebuttals). And while one can certainly appreciate Thesaurus’ perennial love for battle rap, he seriously needs to update his rap flow (did he really say ‘He gonna coach the Hit Squad if we catch K solo’ in round 1???….yes, he did) if he’s gonna stand a chance against these hungry yung’un’s in 2014. Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1 Best line: Bigg K – “I will bag Thesaurus like Barnes and Nobles”
Synopsis: A rare Real Deal slip-up in round 3 and Bigg K not letting his huge first round slip-ups unnerve him to the point of affecting his latter rounds, keeps K in the game (“This is revenge for every kid you ever failed in gym class, every suspension and detention they had to spend with your bitch ass!”) and gives him a victory. Then too, we’ve seen Real Deal come way better than this.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Real Deal – “I love to kill a fat mutherfucker, but hey your diabetes is that type 2”
Synopsis: Contrary to Bigg K’s earlier exclamation Shotgun Suge definitely came with bars, but too many stumbles didn’t give him a chance against an up-n-coming phenom like Bigg K who took this with relative ease.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Best line: Bigg K – “I seen him tap Bill Collector’s pockets I said damn he vicious, come to find out he only tapped his pockets because he thought there was candy in it, let him try that shit with a gangster, a true to life lawbreaker, I got some candy in my pockets Suge…and it’s a jawbreaker”
Recap: “Every bar that I made is as sharp as a blade”, “turn white into green like incredible hulk” …basic lines like that might’ve worked in the 90’s, but a couple of decades later you need heavy wordplay, metaphors, similes, etc. in order to hang with the big boys and as shown here 9DM isn’t equipped with any of those. That said, easy win for Bigg K…and yes that’s ‘Bigg’ with two g’s…how dare he.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I’m from Shark city where the goons ride and the bricks cook, where you from y’all make moonshine and hunt Big Foot”
Synopsis: As impressive as Bigg K’s round 1 was, so too was Rosenberg’s last 2 rounds, which combined with K’s stumble in round 3, got Rosenberg Raw the win here. Personals factor in as much as any other category within rap battles in my book and not only did Raw hold his own bar wise, but putting Bigg K on blast for dissing Smack (but then showing up “4 weeks” later to battle on URL) as well as showing up for his Ill Will battle (instead of his brother’s funeral….which Bigg K would later deny, tho he stated it on record) shows you what an inspired and highly prepared Rosenberg (“Instead he out here chasing battles, see what they do for views?”) can do against a talented newcomer.
Verdict: Rosenberg (W) 2-1
Best line: Bigg K – “30/30 with the red beam giving hickey’s (???), my vision is 20/20, six eyes like Mississippi, but I said I got this 30/30 with 20/20 vision did you dig me?, when it blast I’mma split you in half, 50/50”
Recap: Noticed a few things in this battle: 1) Even tho he would’ve lost anyway with too many basic bars, if I was Half Past 7 I would’ve been frustrated too with all the noise going on in the background onstage while he spit. 2) Bigg K announcing that he skipped his “brother”‘s funeral for this battle. I know he’d clear that up later on, but the way Rosenberg Raw used that info against him when they battled was classic. 3) As the face of the URL Smack has gotsa do a better job of keeping a poker face when dudes rap, not just because it comes off as favoritism, but because it’s professional and the right thing to do esp. when you so many other people onstage making expressions at hot bars. 4) Bernard Hopkins almost “executed” by the state?!? When the hell was that???
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “His girl said ‘Can we shoot a DVD?’, I said yeah if ya’ head slamming like a DDT”
Recap: Up until the 3rd round, King was able to dispense some witty {“You worked at Dairy Queen, giving nigga’s extra scoops!”) lines to stay competitive with Bigg K. The 3rd round, however, presents a different story as a more animated K’s spitfire barbs and potent (“When I post up, I get the set and go ham, when he post up, he hit the ‘Net and go spam!”) set-ups leads him to an earnest victory.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Broad day shooter, lick a hundred out that yopper, and it’ll crack that skull like I’m drinking hundred dollar Vodka!”
Recap: Using loaded 4-bar set-ups, prolific braggadocio bars and witty personals, Bigg K makes this one a wrap pretty early as the aggressively loud grunts of Lil Nay continuously lack depth, much less any signs of intricacy.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “If God don’t like ugly, I bet he put out a hit on you!”
Recap: Rarely changing expressions, but dipped in enough confidence and swag to make Phil Ivey sweat, Bigg K uses a steady stream of gritty wordplay, hardbody street rhymes and stifling punchlines/storytelling bars to handily get past the ill at times, but mostly pedestrian bars of Nico in this 3-rounder from Head Hunters.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “My whole squad getting money, your click broke, as far as bread, you don’t get it liek an inside joke!”
Recap: Even with only the first two rounds being available for your viewing pleasure, Bigg K’s rampant punchlines and steady wisecracks are able to run circles around Soprano.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 2-0*
Favorite line: Bigg K – “While I was toting my pistol, doing bids, shaving crack, you was blowing ya whistlend telling kids ‘Take a lap!'”
