Recap: From The Riot, longtime battle rap vet Ill Mac doesn’t come outside as often as he used to, but when he does touch down, one thing is certain: You’re guaranteed to get a goodie. And here in this 3-rounder against Geechi Gotti, it’s a competitive and an impressive showing on both sides. Gotti, with a gang of bullish darts, fiery gun bars, some solid off-the-dome heat, witty personals and wily street tales stayed on point. While Mac’s righteous raps, spiffy wordplay/freestyles/rebuttals, piercing set-up/punclines and braggadocious zingers rarely allowed for any rust. A hard-hitting, but congenial bout between a couple of West-coast elites that also featured a few cameo’s from Geechi’s ‘G.O.A.T.’ cap, with round 1 being debatable, it’s the more punch-heavy Gotti who takes round 2 and edges round 3 for the win.
Verdict: Geechi Gotti (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Geechi Gotti – “This a gangsta vs. a skater, I’m not a hater, but the grind different, you gonna thank me later!”
Recap: From KOTD, in a 3-round battle that was certainly worth the price of admission, despite rhyming twice as long as his opponent in each round, the rarely seen Illmaculate’s solid rebuttals, head-ringing metaphors/name flips, clever punches, witty personals and systematic style breakdowns are efficient enough to handily take the opening round over Rum Nitty before edging the 2nd round for the win. However, never one to go down without a fight, in the final round Nitty would unleash a relentless barrage of fiery gun bars and stinging punchlines to edge the 3rd and avoid the shutout.
Verdict: Illmaculate (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Illmaculate – “You’ve been subconsciously leaving crumbs behind, subtle signs you’re becoming tired, was in a crew Writers Blocque, a blunt reminder your writing’s been uninspired!”
Recap: Nice of Illmaculate to finally show up in the 3rd round what with a punch and rebuttal-heavy turn that was certainly crowd-pleasing. But before that, this KOTD 3-rounder was all Ill Will, the Yak-town battler bringing nothing but steady heat via potent name flips, fiery gun bars, witty A. Ward barbs/personals and raucous punches in the opening rounds (while Illmac was rich-deep in mediocre schemes and punchlines that were hit-n-miss) to earn the win before a debatable 3rd round prevented a shutout.
Verdict: Ill Will (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Ill Will – “But bruh, you ain’t been the man in almost 15 years, still bringin’ up Scribble Jam, Fam’, the nigga that created Scribble Jam don’t remember Scribble Jam!”
Recap: Punchline for punchline, in this 3-round battle from KOTD, Illmaculate and B. Magic are about equal on potency. That’s except for a 1st round Magic edged with a more concise turn. But with Illmaculate mixing in biting breakdowns of his opponent’s style, witty barbs, piercing name flips and a gang of fiery personals along with a solid punchline game as well as Magic struggling with his flow during a shortened 3rd, the latter two rounds are Illmac’s for the taking along with the win.
Verdict: Illmaculate (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Illmaculate – “Good Shepard, Catholic school you, I transcend bars to father greatness, that’s Mutulu, don’t let facts confuse you, top 5 convo’s, you can’t skip past me like ads in Hulu!”
Recap: A little underwhelming considering that we’ve seen better battles from both. But after splitting (I got Illmac taking the 1st and Iron taking the 2nd) the first couple of rounds, this KOTD battle between Iron Solomon and Illmaculate comes down to the 3rd, where a more succinct and less hurried Illmac takes it, beating back a hit-or-miss Iron in what seemed to be personally driven, grudge match that the scheme-heavy and consistently witty Mac was more prepared to win.
Verdict: Illmaculate (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Illmaculate – “You left, thinking you was Jordan with his tongue out, came back…looking like Jordan in the dugout!”
Recap: Surprise battle on, of all places, the RBE stage between West-coast vet Illmaculate and JC lives up to the hype with plenty of dope (Illmac: “This is terminal cancer, he knew he was dead when I hit the terminal, panicked and tried to jet soon as he heard that I landed, I let him carry on, that’s personal baggage, then take flight, that’s plane to see…”) schemes, metaphorical wizardry, personals galore, a load of small guy shit-talk, hitting gun bars and a plethora of witty (“Jay [J-eh] ain’t what he sounds like…fuck it am I speaking Spanish?!”) anecdotes. The feeling here is a 1st round draw with both battlers dispensing equal heat along with equal (JC: “This is wht greatness is, you clown’s are just plagiarists, trying to sneak a scheme past Stephen King, oh wow…well I created It!”) haymakers with steady aggression, nice performance bars and staid crowd control. And while Illmac came hard with more fiery wordplay in a (“They got me preying on Baby Jesus…Talladega Nights!”) personals-driven 2nd round, the vet rapper hurt himself a bit with dated themes and an elongated, 7-minute 2nd round that allowed for equally adept (“We need you upright, because this one night, it ain’t about increasing the peace, shit, you’ll get beat with the piece like you Pun wife!”) JC to edge the round with less dry spots amongst more of those ill (“You about as notable as a wave….in Kevin Durant hair!”; “Shit, I’ll take any shot…I’m ambitious!”) punchlines/personals the Michigan rapper is noted for. But displaying veteran resiliency, Illmac bounced back in the 3rd, what with a more versatile and well-crafted round featuring a load of lofty (“Right hook, jaw gets damaged, mouth sticking out the side like when you talking with a Boston accent!”) punches and a handful of haymakers that beat back a solid, but not spectacular turn from JC. All in all, a terrific battle that deserves to be debated.
Verdict: TIE
Favorite line: JC – “If you looking for a nigga to embarrass you, you couldn’t have picked a better dude, colossal impact, even at eye-level, I leveled you!”
Recap: Close, but a bit of a lethargic matchup between Illmaculate and Chilla Jones showcases some irony in that Illmac’s choice to go so hard on his opponent’s scheme-heavy rep is not only met with a versatile pallette punches, personal and schemes from (“Probably long nose, like it gotta be Gonzo, you’ll hear his [it] Pop so much, you would’ve thought it was Lonzo!”) Chilla, but Mac’s own standing for being one of the wittier battle rappers around, didn’t quite match his prestige here. Still, after edging the 1st round with steadier batch of punches and failing to take the 2nd due in part to Illmac’s comeuppance on the haymakers and dope (“Don’t Flop Chilla, or it’s no shots, you’ll get your soul swapper, Necrophiliac, dead-ass, you getting cold-cocked!”) wordplay, it’s Jones who edges the last, deciding round with a nice rebuttal and a more versatile alloy of heated zingers.
Verdict: Chilla Jones (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Chilla Jones – “Nintendo Punchout the only time Little Mac was a star in the game!”
Recap: In a battle for the KOTD chain, after being eclipsed by a barrage of short jokes and boastful barbs by champion Pat Stay in the 1st round, Illmaculate ups the ante and adds witty personals, piercing schemes and some fly rebuttals to an already substantive punch game to take the 2nd. That’s before Mac repeats the same formula of slick wordplay with edgy personals and bouyant punches to edge an opponent who while still competitive through the rest of the battle, for the most part ditched the humor and personals in the latter rounds for steely pontifications and lyrical darts that while more condensed and solid throughout, couldn’t quite match Illmac’s more well honed polemics in the deciding 3rd.
Verdict: Illmaculate (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Illmaculate – “That Ed Hardy belt style of yours I’m way beyond, say I’m wrong, you are one Affliction shirt away from being a walking Jager bomb!”
Recap: Nice with the rebuttals, piercing with the multi-syllabic flow, pointed with the personals and more consistently solid with the punches/wordplay, Illmaculate also takes advantage of a lackadaisical 1st and 3rd rounds from DNA to earn the win in this 3-rounder from KOTD.
Verdict: Illmaculate (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Illmaculate – “See, it’s all a perception game, marketing plan, but this the heart of a lion versus the heart of a lamb, my words pierce through the facade of a man, it’s like punching through his chest and holding his heart in my hand!”
Recap: Capped by a killer 3rd round classic that him flexing with a shitload of spicy punchlines, Illmaculate’s casual but potent rebuttal game and winsome 4-bar punches/wordplay throughout this battle earns him a 30 over a more-raucous-than-usual and personal heavy, but overall topsy-turvy Real Deal in this dressed up 3-rounder from FilmOn TV.
Verdict: Illmaculate (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Illmaculate – “It would get ugly if a strap on me like Barkley kicks, but I’d rather take his top and leave something missing like Barbie’s tits!”
Recap: A pretty beatable Charlie Clips, free-styling half the time with mostly B-grade punchlines/name flips along the way, still lands enough haymakers here and there to beat back a drawn-out-with-the-schemes and outside of a salacious, breakdown-heavy 2nd round, mostly pedestrian Illmaculate in this underwhelming 3-rounder from KOTD.
Verdict: Charlie Clips (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Charlie Clips – “I don’t talk about pulling guns out on Twitter because these ain’t the shots to follow, I’m on Eastern time, I kill him tonight that mean he died tomorrow!”
Synopsis: Illmaculate makes for a dope rebuttal in the middle of round 1, spazzing on Verb for complaining about the timekeeping and that’s pretty much the highlight of this match as Verb not only chokes, whines and recites a whole ot of filler, but clearly just showed up for the check.
Verdict: Illmaculate (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Aye Verb – “….I see Mac and smash the gas till a 100 it hit then downshift and make it rain while I Tokyo Drift”
Recap: Close battle for the first coupe of rounds with Arsonal using bully bars, street talk and the Rick Flair backwards to take the 1st while Illmaculate took the 2nd with some nice personals, rebuttals and esoteric (“Now your life’s in a downward spiral like a double helix”) bars. But any momentum Illmac gained from winning the 2nd round is quickly dissolved due to a complete meltdown (Was he drunk? Does it matter.) and choke in round 3, leaving Arsonal to pick up the pieces while pretty much having to complete his round without choking to take the win, which he does with ease.
Verdict: Arsonal (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Arsonal – “Your new bitch seen my dick said ‘I’mma try my best with it’, she couldn’t fit it down her throat so your wide neck ex did it”
Synopsis: “And another thing that got me real pissed about you, your nickname’s Ill but besides your health there’s nothing sick about you!”, “Since this battle’s for cheese it’s gonna be Easy Mac”, “When the scope is on it’s like Pokeman, I’ll peek at you and blast toys!”….literally raining down punchline after punchline on an earnest Illmaculate, a fully loaded Conceited catches a body on the Fresh coast and doesn’t leave fingerprints.
Verdict: Conceited (W) 3-0
Best line: Conceited – “Once I let all the guns and the clips blow, for the first time y’all gonna see a Mac running through Windows”
Part 2 Synopsis: From Grind Time, a classic 3rd round by a punch/personal-lit Hollow Da Don that featured a crazy Hulkamania impression gets the Queens, NY battler the win. But let it be noted that Illmac practically gave it up this battle with some wack freestyling after edging round 1.
Verdict: Hollow da Don (W) 2-1
Best line: Hollow da Don – “So why you wanna battle a street nigga?, stick to the computer thugs, cuz you come thru the hood, I’ll smack you down, pat you down…then roof your drugs!”
Recap: More intricate with his schemes and more gripping with his personals, but also helped by a steadier flow and some witty bars, in this 3 rounds plus OT battle from Grind Time Illmaculate takes the 1st, 2nd and 4th rounds from the always aggressive and very solid, but not quite as consistent here Dizaster.
Verdict: Illmaculate (W) 3-1
Favorite line: Illmaculate – “Dude is getting mad hyped but you sound stupid and you cram rhymes, only thing natural about Dizaster is losing my a landslide!”
