No Bias. No Narratives.
Recap: A few scattered shiners for YaBoyClip, but an inconsistent round filled with some lazy punches/set-ups stood little chance against Ru Bando’s delicious gun lines, witty barbs and repeatedly heated punchlines.
Verdict: Ru Bando (W) 1-0
Favorite line: Ru Bando – “He in the window?, that’s cool, now the beam pop, I’ll lock on his home…then I squeeze, he’ll get a screenshot!”
Recap: Adept at pointing out his opponent’s flaws within his own raps, YaBoyClip hilariously does it again here against the unorthodox (“You too light-skinned to say ‘Stop it Black!'”) stylings of L3. That, along with fierce wordplay and some nice punchlines adds up to a win for the WeGoHard vet.
Verdict: YaBoyClip (W) 1-0
Favorite line: YaBoyClip – “See, in this ring this nigga all ass, that Rakishi, but the ratchet trying to take the nigga outta the hood like Dashiki!”
Recap: Using a variety of gritty gun bars, potent wordplay and fire punchlines, Truth Watson survives a couple of mild slip-ups to beat back an overall solid, but oft-reaching and inconsistent YaBoyClip in this PG match from URL/Smack.
Verdict: Truth Watson (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Truth Watson – “Laundry day, I place something under ya chin, then I’m folding ya shit, then scratch the serial [cereal] off like ‘What else on the grocery list?'”
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: Well, here’s something you never see: brother versus brother in a rap battle as Ace Da Great and YaBoyClip go head-to-head in this one-rounder for family bragging rights. And despite Clip being the vet of the two, altogether it’s not a bad battle…really. Granted, Ace Da Great spat some mediocre bars, but he still hit aplenty with a load of nice (“Since a kid I been good with these hands, everything I touch got static shock!”; “I’m emotional behind these bars, like I ain’t get a jail visit!”) punchlines and aggressive shiners, definitely showing that he came to win. However, with big bro Clips getting lit throughout with a variety of witty (“Yo Steams, by this nigga belly, my bro been reppin’ the Came life!”) personals, winning name flips and fiery wordplay, it’s the younger brother who’ll still have to wait his turn at the family reunion dinner table.
Verdict: YaBoyClip (W) 1-0
Favorite line: YaBoyClip – “He be working out, taking pictures at treadmills, but we never see you on ’em….yo I swear you a slow nigga, Austin Powers at Planet Fitness, I’m the reason you came in as a Gold member!”
Recap: Not that a handful of reaches and a shortened 3rd round by an otherwise solid (“Now y’all could look at Spee Dolla as Kerry Kittles, ‘cuz we know the nigga name but we don’t remember any highlights!”) YaBoyClip didn’t help, but Spee Dolla’s nimble execution of pent-up (“Gun so BIG, D-Roc took it to trial!”) gun bars and exhilarating (“Ask ya bitch, that booger knows [nose] I ain’t nuthin’ to sneeze at!”) wordplay steals the show and scores him a well-earned 30 on the RBE stage.
Verdict: Spee Dolla (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Spee Dolla – “It’s getting ugly…that’s Whoopie in boy shorts!”
Recap: What Jay Scott lacks in delivery and performance, he shows here that he can make up for it with some hardbody bars. YaBoyClip however, pronounced as he is with his delivery and able to slip in some wit, nice schemes and performance to make up for not always having the best pen, manages to edge this one on versatility alone after splitting the first two rounds and taking the 3rd.
Verdict: YaBoyClip (W) 2-1
Favorite line: YaBoyClip – “Head shot, y’all gonna need a 1000 sheets to wipe the shit from Scott tissue!”
Recap: Not the easiest battle to decipher as despite YaBoyClip setting up Tyranny perfectly with alleged ‘tranny’ semantics in round 1 that led to plenty of crowd interruptions while the latter tried to spit his more pause-worthy bars, the DMV dude’s litany of potent (“I’ll be riding with a couple of .8’s like a soccer mom!”) punches throughout this battle was only diminished by elongated rounds and a few aggressive, but utterly lame personals here and there. That said, let it be known that while YBC might’ve lost the haymaker count to his uber-confident (“I’ll put 24 in his square like a shot clock, you’ll see a little arm wave like a pop-lock!”; “It’s not her birthday, but you’ll see the heat flashes when she get the .40!”) opponent, his ability to string together a more consistent palette of hot bars, feelgood wordplay/storytelling lines, a nice rebuttal in the 2nd and some very hard-landing (“See with these bars I keep it graphic with good ass rhymes, like when that chainsaw rip [vrrooommm, vrrooommm] you would’ve thought Shotgun Suge just heard a hard-ass line!”) punches of his own, ended up being just enough to edge rounds 2 and 3 and get the victory in this Proving Grounds matchup.
Verdict: YaBoyClip (W) 2-1
Favorite line: YaBoyClip – “They say the devil wears prada, well we rob nigga’s and those two, you’ll see two G’s in front of you like two of them Ugg boots!”
Recap: Can’t lie, it’s funny how even in the face of YaBoyClip’s fiery punchlines/personals, his own slip-ups, loud banter from the crowd and having to freestyle for most of this match, throughout this battle Nico da Don’s facial expression never changes. Yet, as unintentionally funny Nico is at times, YBC, who while potent with the punches here and there, never quite matched his A-game, but still does enough to score a 30, thanks in part to the mostly subpar bars from his opponent.
Verdict: YaBoyClip
Favorite line: YaBoyClip – “I just showed nigga’s I’m more than rap, LeBron James, I put in that show with the Heat to get back where I started at!”
Recap: Bar-for-bar it’s pretty even in this 3-rounder between (“Just know this Mister will Son like Dennis the Menace!”) YaBoyClip and (“I am Legend, I Will Smith, all I got is my dogs!”) Dre Dennis. But Clip’s avalanche of fiery schemes along with a heavy bout Earl-itis by Dre Dennis throughout the battle makes the difference and gives YaBoyClip the 3-0 on the road.
Verdict: YaBoyClip (W) 3-0
Favorite line: YaBoyClip – “But you see that I’m Blind Fury to the fact that it seems absurd, sign language how my hands can exchange with words!”
