No Bias. No Narratives.
Recap: Despite some so-so name flips, a pretty solid, punch-heavy at times showing from Brixx while making things competitive, still wasn’t enough to beat a more versatile, angle-savvy and consistently lit Bonus in this 1-rounder from Gates of the Garden.
Verdict: Bonus (W) 1-0
Favorite line: Bonus – “Tre-8, revolver spinning like the cake mixer!”
Recap: Displaying a spitfire (“Well, let me get these bars off my chest, like a bench-presser, killing comes pretty natural for me, like a Winchester!”) punch game (esp. during a superb Round 2) to go along with feisty gun bars, some witty barbs and quality personals/wordplay, a never lacking for confidence Bad Newz takes the first two rounds here against a pretty solid and name flip-heavy, but not-quite-as-consistent Bonus for the win, before the Loud Boys vet salvages the 3rd round with a more (“Head shot, give him a face only a mother could love!”) potent and condensed turn than his opponent.
Verdict: Bad Newz (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bad Newz – “I’m in ya crib, to make sure you dead while you sleep, old radiators, I’m beside his bed with the heat!”
Recap: In this one-rounder from Gates of the Garden, Drugz runs with a witty ‘light-skin lookalike’ theme that’s exemplified by his usual high energy and fanatical punchlines. However, with a couple of dry spots and a slightly shorter turn than his opponent, leave it to Bonus, consistently scoring with fiery set-ups and rigid gun bars, to take advantage of Drugz’ more sluggish bars.
Verdict: Bonus (W) 1-0
Favorite line: Bonus – “Nigga, my pen hot too, but it’s some different that I’m a send by you, I don’t even need a 3rd, it’s like playing basketball in the street…I gotta win by 2!”
Recap: The TrapNY hosts a 3-rounder that sees Bonus use a host of fiery name flips, rambunctious gun bars and rapid punchlines to beat back the slick talk and nifty wordplay of a competitive, but altogether overwhelmed Kush Cloud.
Verdict: Bonus (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bonus – “You piss me off more than when you trying to get pussy and the baby won’t go to sleep!”
Recap: Competitive and close throughout, both Bonus and Yaboy Clip make quick work with steady punchlines, raging gun bars and fiery personals to keep all the light-skin lovers out there tuned in. Still, for all of Clip’s drawn-out punches and the fortitude to highlight the battle on live video, a stronger overall and more condensed turn by Bonus in the deciding 3rd round gives the Loud Boy the vic.
Verdict: Bonus (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bonus – “Fuck an emergency exit, I don’t need to see fire to pull the handle!”
Recap: A confident Bonus uses piercing name flips, witty personals and steely gun bars to push past a mostly average Dubb MG in this one-round, apparent grudge match from TrapNY.
Verdict: Bonus (W) 1-0
Favorite lien: Bonus – “How you say you keep it real when we all know a Dubb is only 20 percent of a hundred?!”
Recap: Rarely wasting a bar, Nunn Nunn flows swiftly with impressive angles, righteous bully (“Bad employee, with these hands, I’ll fuck a Bonus up!”) bars and wide-eyed schemes to edge this Proving Grounds matchup over Bonus, who delivered just enough fiery (“That’s pride issues, and i keep two nina’s, i let them 9’s hit you, rubber grips on both of the hammers, like a bicycle”) wordplay/schemes and (“As far as your snow bunny?, shit I learned from Kobe, that all of ’em problems, but it’s hard, ‘cuz white girls fun, ‘cuz all of ’em swallow!”) personals to comeback and tie things in the 2nd, but moving on suffered from too filler to keep up with Nunn Nunn’s rambunctious (“I’ll put this twenty on two, your face feel Double Impact!”) 3rd round.
Verdict: Nunn Nunn (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Nunn Nunn – “You wanna play? with my bands, I don’t have time, tell ya new bitch get off my damn line, she my last year Yankee, I G’d her for the last time!”
Recap: This was one of the better PG battles that didn’t get enough acclaim, much less made it hard to pick a loser, as both Bonus and Mo Mula brought their A-games to what was a highly competitive and contentious battle throughout. Still, for all of Bonus’ palette of sterling (“I’ll use the pistol to come and get you, shit I’m dope with mine, you’ll get crossed out with that cig inside your circle, that’s a No-Smoking sign!”) gun play, fierce (“You named yourself Mula, which is another word for money, but in this case it ain’t a paying cost, but it’s still a win-win for me, ‘cuz I get to fuck Money up and not take a loss!”) wordplay/braggadocio lines and pointed personals, a few dry spots here and there along with a lack of versatility with the bars as compared to his opponent didn’t help his overall chance at winning. Then too, for Mula to get this one, his bar steed and his performance (“I’m a keep it a buck [swishes down Bonus’ face like a blade] to show you that the truth hurts!”) game had to be superb…and for the most part it was, with the Steams (“….No! The Cake distracts you from the bald head like Amber Rose!”) cameo, in particular, making for a haymaker, while his noted dance moves came off as not only authentic, but useful in a self-deprecating way, esp. when you know your opponent is going to speak to it. That said, the only clear round was the 3rd, thanks to a stellar turn from a resilient (“The .9 with me and I swing the hammer like John Henry!”) Bonus. But that was only after Mula’s more multifaceted 1st and 2nd, which included potent (“Mama said you got nuthin’ nice to say then leave it unspoken…but you get out the ring and then talk about nigger’s, like Hulk Hogan!”) set-ups, singing, dope name flips and fierce shiners at Bonus’ crew throughout, was enough to get a well-earned win.
Verdict: Mo Mula (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Mo Mula – “Where you from, step-pop’s rape daughters and mother’s blame the child…where I’m from, we use sweepers to bang top’s when my neighbor’s Loud!”
Recap: Loud Boys’ Bonus and Houston’s Statz G compete in what was dope and consistently fiery matchup on the URL Proving Grounds stage. Not that the efficiently (“To the niggas who said it ain’t about the bars, I’m through with you u guys, the only way I know it’s through the bars nigga…I’ve been institutionalized!”) wordplay-heavy and aggressive Statz did much of anything wrong, but the round 1 edge went to Bonus for a slightly more steady flow that backed up fluorescent (“Let me find out you getting that bread and I’mma need it often, get close to him while my eyes on that paper…like I’m cheating off him!”) rhymes that continuously hit their mark. Despite another solid (“Nobody is safe, I don’t care if you a white supremacist or screaming ‘Black Power’!, your bitch can still be the most gruesome unsolved murder in history…that’s the Black Dhalia!”) round by Bonus, the 2nd round was a clear vic for Statz, who when he wasn’t eloquently dissing (“No shot-clock violation, but you’ll get your head clapped, pull the pistol and make him sleep faster than watching a Cortez match!”) a well-known veteran in battle rap, used some crazy wordplay and braggadocio (“Beefing with me like the end of a pool stick, you better chalk it up before I break somethin'”) bars to easily take the round and even things up. Excellent final round from both (“I walk around with it on public, so I know y’all see my cig, trying to see how many shots can ya house hold…nigga I’ll shoot your whole house like T.I. crib!”) Statz and (“Man his whole career’s been up and down, every battle it’s the same game with him, you remind me of a layover, ‘cuz he started off plain, got off for a second and got played again!”) Bonus as each battler stayed hungry and reminded you why they were chosen for the PGs. However it’s Bonus, with more (“I’m Magic Johnson, I done got bigger after nigga’s found out how sick I was!”) haymakers, rich personals and more versatility with the bars, that outlasts his opponent for the win in the end.
Verdict: Bonus (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bonus – “I pop shit ‘cuz the lift of the gun look like mop stick, yeah we could dance, but everybody get hit, it’s like a mosh pit!”
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: Against a mostly solid, pretty (“Face shot [bwoh!], that shot will put Bonus features on the other side of him like a dual disc!”) intense and punch-heavy Craig Lamar, Bonus leaves it all on the table with 3 elongated rounds that were filled to the rim with steady mayhem, whether in the form of stinging (“I’ll go over ya head to put you under Jersey…like shoulder pads!”) wordplay or fierce punchlines or for that matter braggadocio bars that lit up the room. All enough, after getting edged in round 1 by a slightly more condensed opponent, to take the latter two rounds and the win.
Verdict: Bonus (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Bonus – “I’ll start with a round to his head, then line the body up like a stick figure!”
Recap: Too often slow to his punches during the 1st half of his round, Bonus takes awhile to really (“So many bags in the crib, the cops tried to hit me with a ticket to distribute!”) heat up, which ends up costing him in what was otherwise a solid challenge to Reepah Rell’s relentless and more consistent gun theme’s, hitting personals and otherwise (“I find funny that you name yourself Bonus, when you rarely win!”) witty wordplay.
Verdict: Reepah Rell (W) 1-0
Favorite line: Reepah Rell – “I’m thinking Paul George, that’s the last time I heard Bone snap!”
Recap: Another one of those 1-round battles that should’ve been a 3-rounder as Brooklyn Carter and Bonus kept it live, bar-heavy (Bonus: “Speaking of black halls let me pitch this lesson, you act like you out of this world with a Smith-n-Wesson, that .22 I said you had? You need a different weapon, try to ring me with that and get a ring back while I get a star 67”; Brooklyn Carter: “Niggas upper half be tough but they moves fishy, you’ze a Merman”) and competitive throughout their rounds. However, edge here goes to Carter for slightly better wordplay, more variety and nicer storytelling bars
Verdict: Brooklyn Carter (W) 1-0
Favorite line: Brooklyn Carter – “After I earth you I’m with the bitch who birthed you, she could get murked too, they gonna have to pull your mother out the sofa…like the Old Spice commercial”
