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Johnie Alcatraz

Kyd Slade and Johnie Alcatraz [DEBATABLE]

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Recap: Fire 1-rounder on GOTG between a returning-to-the-battle-rap-scene Johnie Alcatraz and Kyd Slade sees the former deliver a gang of haymakers via a bunch of slick wordplay, stifling gun bars and rich punchlines/metaphors. On the other hand, Slade would be equal to the task, using gritty storytelling, some hard-hitting (“No cap, like if you fall off, you probably gonna get lost and need a road map, I’m a take it back to the box, stick and a string, yunno the old trap!”) trap talk, authentic street shit, witty personals and some well-laced heat of his own to force a debatable.

Verdict: TIE

Favorite line: Johnie Alcatraz –  “Mausberg, put the pressure on Kyd like ‘Who you wanna live with, me or mommy?!'”

Steams defeats Johnie Alcatraz

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Recap: Good to see an underrated puncher like Johnie Alcatraz back in the game after a long time away. And the Jersey rapper does well here in this CGBL 1-rounder against Steams, serving up a nice mix of piercing punchlines and rugged gun lines amongst other gritty styling’s. But a confident Steams, consistently hitting on all cylinders with a gritty series of stifling punches, quality wordplay and stirring 4-bar set-ups/boastful barbs ends up getting the win in the end.

Verdict: Steams (W) 1-0

Favorite line: Steams – “I’m not a nigger you could belittle with bars, you hear me? hear ye, lighten your tone ‘cuz you Envy Da God!”

Rosenberg Raw and Johnie Alcatraz (DEBATABLE)

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Recap: Rosenberg Raw gets off to a hot start in an apparent grudge match against Johnie Alcatraz, using some nice personals and witty (“Suge, what part of Jersey this dickhead from, Cherry Hill?”) anecdotes to easily take round one. However, as the battle moves on, Raw’s bars get less potent and his delivery gets enigmatic, allowing Johnie’s rich performance bars and lucid (“…Raw got pissed, walked in and tried to grab his toaster, so I left Rose on the front porch, I’m a Casanova”) punchlines to edge round two. Last round is a lazy round for both with Raw getting laconic but not saying too much and Johnie failing to take advantage with a couple of punches that landed but did little damage. Call it even.

Verdict: TIE

Favorite line: Rosenberg Raw – “…my only question is how many different colors you got?, you probably be matching the mirror like these red Jay’s gonna do one thing and I’mma kill it when I match it with the red tongue ring”

Johnie Alcatraz defeats prez mafia

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Recap: Johnie Alcatraz doesn’t seem to battle often, but as he showed against both QP (Qleen Paper) and Ill Will, when he does appear on stage his flair for nifty repeated punchlines guarantees that you’ll get a good showing. Still, for all the promise a headline match with a usually-on-point Prez Mafia would bring, it’s a bit of a letdown here as after Prez uses a stifling cable scheme to edge round one, he proceeds to take round two off with what one could readily assume was an old mixtape verse–a round he could’ve won considering Johnie’s rurn was pretty short and subpar. Tied going the last round, Johnie takes it in the end with a better variety of personals, wicked bars and nice performance bars versus Prez, who had some hard-hitting punches here and there, but overall not enough left in his tank to overcome Johnie’s versatility.

Verdict: Johnie Alcatraz (W) 2-1

Favorite line: Johnie Alcatraz – “Big strap, Mac, laser and the —-‘s tucked, banging the trey [tray] like the waiter fucked my order up!”

Ill Will defeats Johnie Alcatraz

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Recap: A strong, (“My hands nice, I keep a cannon tho, big ARs, small k’s, all different size like a ransom note!”) punch/scheme-heavy and sometimes (“Silencer on the toast, you don’t know who did it, it’s like a dog fart!”) stirring performance by Johnie Alcatraz is eclipsed by a mightier, (“Hey because, just let him know, he just keep coming with all that bullshit, fronting out his mouth, talking about some shit that he knows nothing about, I’ll cock back, wave the steel and throw of ya cousin’s in his mouth!”) personal/mock-heavy and wordplay (“We don’t bang nigga, but play sweet, I’ll take a red rag and crack ya head till you blue [blew] blood…now you Grape Street!”) crazy 3 rounds from Pontiac, Michigan’s Ill Will in this Proving Grounds matchup from Smack/URL.

Verdict: Ill Will (W) 3-0

Favorite line: Ill Will – “This little nigga talk militant, [but] he Huey from The Boondock, I’m Huey Newton from the rooftop!”

QP (Qleen Paper) defeats Johnie Alcatraz

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Synopsis: Any boxing judge could tell you that sometimes what determines the winner of a fight isn’t the quantity of the punches or who landed the most, but the quality of the punches or who landed more haymakers. That’s the case here–a dope 1-round battle (love the visuals here!) that sees an elongated Johnny Alcatraz do little wrong except land exquisite bar after bar (“I lick shots and then the gun will peel, because hollow heads to the pipe will bring paper to the light like I’m trying to check if a hundred’s real”), so much so that you wouldn’t be wrong to think the sometimes unprepared QP having little chance at winning this battle. But when his turn finally arrives, a confident QP doesn’t break a sweat, launching into an all-encompassing palette of righteous heat that took on everything from ridiculing his opponent’s tongue ring and his hood credentials with well-executed boasts to fiery street talk to piercing punchlines with the “Little nigga, you couldn’t hold piss on a road trip!” bar serving as the nail in the coffin.

Verdict: QP (W) 1-0

Best line: QP – “While you was playing them school games, I was stuck on the block took up a tool trade, for the right fee, your team will step like Spike Lee off a School Daze!”