Unanymous is back, but different.

I watched this battle just this morning as I wanted to have another look at Unanymous to see if he's continuing to go downhill or not. I've been watching Unans situation and status within Don't Flop with great interest and I'm sure many others have as well. He's an interesting character; on one hand he has good bars and some great performances in the past, but on the other, suddenly has lost all of his credibility and people seem to be seeing through all of his aggressiveness - from his opponents to everyone watching at the battle and on the internet. And I was starting to feel for him. Because clearly he loves battle rap and has put in a lot of work.

So here saw him up against a comedian. Someone who eloquently clowns his opponents with multies upon multies and makes everyone laugh with his truthful angles. Juxtaposed with Unanymous, who's currently seen, at least in my eyes, as a bit forced and not believable and so this could be a disaster for him. Pun intended.

However, like a breath of fresh air, Unanymous was a changed man. Relaxed, natural, 3 great rounds and no chokes. I was shocked. Shuffle T did the usual, and did it well, he took the second round when his jokes, truisms and witty angles were at an all time high, but for me Unanymous won the 1st and 3rd convincingly. He also had humour in his rounds as he toned down the seriousness a little. Probably due to the stye of his opponent but I think he should do this way more whoever he's facing. It gives another direction for him to go into to win crowds over because seriousness gets boring after a while. I think that's what was his problem in a string of his previous battles. He also dropped his overly aggressive act which desperately needed toning down and only said 'ye' a few times and a lot of those times he did it ironically. This was a far more composed, intelligent and less ego driven Unanymous. His delivery was clearer as he slowed down a bit and we were less focussed on his performance which previously was over the top.

He attacked Shuffle in the right way. Broke him down really really well and even used Marlo as a prop in the third which effectively won him the third round. Unanymously. Sorry. I had to. Please, Unanymous for the love of god, stay like this.

[My Verdict: 2-1 Unanymous]

Gemini is pretty good.

Watched this last night in my rap battle catch up spree. A rookie versus a vet. And Gemini, who I saw live at Brixton Jamm a while back has vastly improved. He's always seemed confident so that wasn't the issue, I just thought that previously his punchlines weren't connecting consistently. But in this battle versus Unan he brought his A game. 3 rounds of consistently good punchlines. They had humour, venom and clownage and Unan suffered a lot from the crowd reaction that Gemini was getting. He raised the roof with several hard hitting lines. He attacked the usual spots for anyone facing Unanymous; that he's a 'farm boy' his over the top style and hocus pocus content his mothers supposed drug problem, his assault charges against an ex girlfriend and more. As you can see, Tommy has provided a lot of ammo for his opponents and Gemini took full advantage of that and really pummelled him with every one of them.

First round went to Gemini easily. Unanymous choked in his first and was very slow to gain momentum before and after that choke. Round two Unanymous picked it up and Gemini although had a solid round wasn't as good as his first and Unanymous seemed to rap forever in the second, and with good aggressive unfaltered content he took it. At 1-1 it seemed close but when the third was done it was all over. Gemini was consistent again and Unan choked. Again. Horribly. So for me this was a bodybag of sorts. Because Gemini was consistent and Unan frankly, was all over the place and looked troubled the whole battle.

A word on Unanymous style. I don't feel it's natural. He puts on this persona and where it might work for someone who makes it believable and who believes in it, it really isn't working for Unanymous. I don't think he believes in it himself anymore after being grilled so often about it. His aggressiveness is losing it's power and as a result losing its ability to win over a crowd. He has good bars, that's proven, but his current style just makes him look a bit daft and unconvincing. He needs to stop saying 'yea' and heavy breathing between bars too it makes him look like he's copying Dizaster. Rant over.

[My Verdict: 2-1 Gemini]

Watch it back and share your thoughts.

Lux beats Clips.

I've been away for sometime. Not just from this blog but from the battle scene in general. I've not had much time or battles I wanted to write about, till the last couple of months made me compelled to do so.

In this blog post I'm going to judge two HUGE battles: Lux v Clips and Illmac v Pat Stay.

I'm also going to follow up these two with a string of others in the next few days as I look to get more active again. Battle rap took a lul for a while but there's been a re-ignition in recent months that's got me writing about it again. Plus my blog is fucking awesome.

Lux vs Clips

This was a close battle between two heavyweights. I felt going into the battle Clips was the favourite. He ain't lost yet as far as I've seen and Lux took recent L's from Hollow and Mook so he wasn't in his best shape.
All seemed to be going as I thought as Clips certainly took the 1st. Hard hitting punches and broke down Lux who didn't really make the recovery with hard enough shit to counter attack.
Round two was when the battle started to take a turn. Lux seemed to get better as the battle went on and a big thing was consistency of good bars. He just kept pluggin away with clever lines and started to cut a little deeper winning the 2nd round. In the 3rd he continued to break down Clips, it had something of the Calicoe destruction about it how he got right under that guys skin using his fathers past as a reason why Clips is a certain way and even though it was indirect I think it really worked. Clips was clearly pissed off when he started his 3rd and didn't recover from it. First time I've seen Clips genuinely angry at his opponent for cutting him so deep.
Clips is usually the clever guy in the battle but Lux was smarter. Who better to outsmart a smart guy then Lux who does that kind of thing better than anyone. A HUGE win for Lux which keeps him right at the top of the pile with the rest of the legends. He needed this win to still be regarded by alot of people as the GOAT.

[My verdict: Lux 2-1]




Illmaculate v Pat Stay (KOTD title)

We all know what happened, but I just wanted to chime in with my verdict in this epic title battle. I really enjoyed this one. More than the battle above, it was a great match up of two totally different styles and statures of men. However as short as Illmac is, he's a giant in this game. He showed why he is regarded as one of the best ever and respected by every battle rapper in the game. He is that good. This was a big test for him though. He had been a little quiet after losing some battles he shouldn't have, only to pop up last year with that enormously popular battle with Bigg K which was a classic. More importantly he won; with one of the best third rounds I've ever heard. After that buzz he got this title shot. This is how it went from my perspective...
Pat Stay being the much larger, taller guy in the battle, in a home crowd and on an unstoppable streak was always going to have a psychological advantage. You'd think at least and he did take the first round with just pure dominance, crowd control and almost controlling illmac to the point his first was barely heard. He had a decent round but Pats opener was so strong that he couldn't spit past it.
The second Pat had ok bars but that ain't gonna hold up in a battle of this magnitude. He did some of his cocky style but I think he shoulda just been flat out intimidating all battle. Taking his foot off the gas brought Ill right back through the door. His second was on point. Some awesome bars and at one point calling Pat a tribal tattoo was pretty funny. Illmacs whole style was clowning on Pat and the angles were so on point that it really started to win over the Canadian crowd. So round two went to Illmac. The 3rd round was close but Ill definately took it. Pat spent his whole round about not needing the chain that the weight of it was tiring that he is bigger than it etc. Illmaculate geniously predicted this and his whole 3rd rebuttled it beautifully and by the end of the 3rd it was a clear win for Illmac. Great battle, Illmaculate has a 'New Chaaaaiiiin' and we have a new KOTD champ. Salute. I just hope Illmac gets a big match over at URL next. He's gunning for Lux and I think he deserves it.

[My verdict: 2-1 Illmaculate]


Let me know what you thought! Who you got winning for these two battles?

The Don't Flop champ steps down.

I thought this battle was good. Definitely living up to both battlers abilities. But it actually felt like a mismatch to me. If Tony D beat Shotty, he wasn't going to lose to Unan. I thought Dialect would have been a better opponent. Suffice to say Unan did do his thing but his thing just wasn't good enough in terms of quality and it was pretty obvious after the first round the contrast and difference in skill level between the two.
Tony D easily took the first two rounds winning the battle. Unan got very personal in the third and could have got a slap from Tony D and it would have been justified considering the content. But cool as he is, Tony soaked it up and won the third to make it a whitewash.
What was interesting is that after winning this one so comfortably he decided to relinquish his title. I found that to be a bit weak. He should really keep going until he loses it in a battle rather then just giving it up. He had his reasons but as a fan of battle rap and great battlers continuing to showcase their skills, I don't think they were good enough reasons. Tony has lost the passion apparently but it didn't seem like it in the battle as he was highly on point. So I find it a shame he's just gonna give it up like that. But fair play, he has left a legacy as the only battler to successfully defend the DF title not twice but now three times. Congratulations to Tony, and I hope he decides to battle Chilla Jones in April. But don't count on it.

[My Verdict 3-0 Tony D]

Title fight worthy of a title.

I'm long overdue in giving a final judgement on this but now my mind is made up. A great battle and effort from both guys. The nerd finally coming of age to battle the father of Canadian battle rap. It didn't disappoint me.
I'm going to go into my breakdown then talk about my opinion on the controversial third round. So the first round Charron did his ting, good clean clear delivery and great bars but Pat just sonned him. The second Charron had more material and Pat looked uncomfortable. By the third it was one all. The third round Pat won. His material and angle just completely destroyed everything Charron had said.
So I have Pat winning two rounds to one.
As for the third round controversy: Charron was going to use Hollohan as a prop to win the battle. Just before the battle Pat heard about it and stopped Hollohan from getting on stage. Effectively screwing Charron's third round structure. Now you can look at this in a couple of ways: Pat Screwed Charron out of what could have been a title winning round. Or, Charron shouldn't be relying on sneaky tactics and using Pats closest friend to back stab him to get the title. I tend to see it from the latter point of view. You shouldn't rely on props but bars to win titles. End of story. If you need your opponents close friend to get an edge then you were never good enough in the first place.

[My Verdict 2-1 Pat Stay]

Borefest (Shotty vs Holla)

I thought this battle was awful. Firstly the KOTD crowd were unenthusiatstic which dulled the atmosphere. The KOTD crowd has been horrible for a long time I'm not sure what's going on with them, but to be fair this time they had nothing to yell about. Hitman Holla as usual was sub par and without a URL crowd encouraging his over hyped antics it really showed how boring his material is in the cold setting of the Toronto audience. Shotty Horroh brought some much needed clever to the battle and typically out barred his opponent. Shotty was pretty good. He rarely disappoints but it wasn't his best performance and it was difficult for either rapper to gain any kind of momentum in this atmosphere. And the bickering between rounds from Holla and Shotty didn't help the flow of things and it ended up as an awkward one.
In the end, Holla struggled and Shotty came through the better man in all three rounds. Just to say, I really don't rate Holla at all. And to quote part of a bar in his verse 'I put niggas to sleep!' Yeah... you do.

[My Verdict 3-0 Shotty]