No Bias. No Narratives.
Recap: Solid turn by Shotty Horror, but Ill Will just runs circles around the UK rapper here, using some dope wordplay, blazing gun bars, scintillating name flips and a gang of righteous personals/punchlines to score a pretty easy win in this 1-round Social Distance battle from RBE.
Verdict: Ill Will (W) 1-0
Favorite line: Ill Will – “Pale Nazi, I ain’t believing your quotes, white boy be cooking but he ain;t got enough seasoning tho!”
Recap: Well, that was interesting. Charlie Clips returns overseas to Don’t Flop to battle uber-confident, British rapper Shotty Horror and aside from losing a tag-in excessive turn that got a bit too uncomfortable for Shotty’s liking, this one was all Clips, who despite his opponent’s opinion, easily out-punched Horroh in the first round and withstanding the soon-to-be-retiring and well-researched Horroh using almost his entire 3rd round to make pontifications on the battle rap industry instead of direct shots at his opponent, Clips’ abundance of fiery punchlines, stinging wordplay and a host of comedic stylings to just as easily take the deciding 3rd.
Verdict: Charlie Clips (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Charlie Clips – “I said outside this country a lot of nigga’s don’t know who homie be, his career about to give out…Kobe knee!”
Recap: First off, here’s hoping Arsonal doesn’t make riding around on that annoying hoverboard during his opponent’s rounds a regular thing because it sure is distracting for viewers and possibly whoever he’s facing. As for this battle/rematch itself, well up until the 3rd round where he slipped up not once but twice, it was pretty much Arsonal all day as Shotty Horroh’s predominant (tho that ‘In our last battle you blamed me for 100 years of slavery bro, I felt like a Brit for that…but then I did my research and it was 400 years, so you need black history class’ line was fire) mix of speedy filler and basic bars were no match for da Rebel’s delivery, bully bars, personals and hitting (“We white girls in a scary movie, we be tripping for nothing”) punchlines.
Verdict: Arsonal (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Arsonal – “That’s your man’s? good, I’ll kick your dog off a bridge, now you feeling like Ron Burgundy!”
Recap: SMH at this one. Some weirdo interrupts the match during Hitman Holla’s round one (and apparently got his just due when he got knocked off stage), both Shotty Horror and Hitman suffer from slip-ups and the battle is frequently interrupted by silly time limits (really, esp. if it’s the last battle of the night, just let ’em rap). That being said, Shotty’s too-frequent filler and brief first two rounds didn’t pack enough punch against Hitman’s aggressive (“Drake let me get something straight, I’m um-fucking set, y’all threw me in a dunk contest with a nigga who can’t touch the net?!”) bars, hometown crowd pleasers and fiery performance. Close 3rd round, but Shotty had the best line (“Split personalities, persona disorder, you see how quick man flip?, aye lets just say it’s JFK, there’s still questions of who that Hitman is”) to edge it.
Verdict: Hitman Holla (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Hitman Holla – “If Show swing, you’ll land in the crowd, that’s the shit starter”
Recap: A somewhat bizarre match between Math and Shotty Horror as Math shockingly takes a round off (which I don’t have a problem with considering that other athletes do it, like boxers and tennis players) and Shotty besides some nice Tupac schemes, surprisingly underwhelms before totally slipping up in round 3 and having to resort to freestyling in order to save him from a choke. That said, overall an easy win for Math, who despite at times struggling with his delivery, easily took rounds 1 and 3 with better penmanship, consistency and personals to gain a win in Manchester over one of Europe’s best.
Verdict: Math Hoffa (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Math Hoffa – “Now if you ain’t in Manchester, you probably can’t win fights, this slave went to the North so he could land [swings punch] his rights!”
Recap: In a shortened 1-round battle that begs for a rematch, Shotty Horroh makes up for forgetting his rhymes by free-styling some solid punches and witty (“Who the fuck gave Organik loads of protein?!”) personals that had enough bite to earn a draw against a hitting at times, but also not on his A-game Pat Stay.
Verdict: TIE
Favorite line: Pat Stay – “Only thing you have in common with Wolf, is your flow backwards!”
Recap: One of the best performances you’ll see from Arsonal, gets done for via his own doing: being too lengthy (and no, we’re talking filler, but redundancy). Indeed, with a near equal amount of haymakers as his just-as-vibrant, witty, personal-lit, mayhem-bent and lyrically sharp opponent Shotty Horror in a battle that should go down as one of the best of the year, it’s a more condensed Shotty who edges the first two rounds for the win, before Arsonal matches quality with excess quantity during a highly entertaining (on both sides) superb 3rd round (that included a spitfire alphabet scheme from Ars) to avoid the shutout.
Verdict: Shotty Horroh (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Shotty Horror – “U Are Ill, that’s why u hate Smack!”
Recap: Even with Shotty Horroh having the advantage of using written rhymes as opposed to Dizaster who freestyled the whole way (not sure how or why that happened), Diz uses his adept off-the-dome skills and wily personals/punches to keep things entertaining and close throughout this 3-round battle. But Shotty’s ability to score with fervent breakdowns/imitations, a wide range of Muslim jokes and righteous personals/punchlines/mayhem that for the most part hit, ended up being too much for Diz in the end.
Verdict: Shotty Horroh (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Shotty Horroh – “You don’t practice what you preach…you practice preaching!”
