I have had very mixed feelings about battle rap lately.  On one hand there are sooo many dope emcees in their prime that are simply amazing.  On the other hand, there is so much tweeting, blogging, bad business, and bitchassness fucking up the culture.  It just loses me sometimes.

 

I was genuinely excited for WD4.  To me, this was the resurgence of the beautiful "style clash."  Not only do you have street emcees going against the suburb cats, you also have multiple accents and a wide array of subject matter being thrown around, which makes each battle unique and interesting.

 

I am going off of what I saw live and haven’t reviewed any Pay Per View Footage.  This blog is written with predictions, overviews & final grades.  Why?  No idea, I like to write and be creative I guess.

 

I hope you appreciate my honesty throughout this blog.  Battle rap needs more higher ups keeping it real with the emcees, whether they are friend or foe - its the only way they will get better.

 

*All these pics are from my iPhone5 - sorry I missed flicks from some of the battles*

SIDE NOTES

Me and Organik got some much needed personal discussion out the way.  Got a lot of love and respect for him.  He really puts on for his city/country.

J Pro is my dude.  He’s like fam now.

 

Trevor from KOTD is the funniest dude in the world.  What a BAWSE!

Daylyt’s house was actually the one from San Andreas that CJ grew up in.  He said he saw the videogame people outside taking pictures of the neighborhood before the game came out.  Me and Clips concluded that they made CJ look like Daylyt.  Rockstar games may owe him some bread for his likeness.  I’m not joking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pat Stay is a very nice man who never orders from the menu.  He goes behind the counter and gets to know the workers at the restaurant and has them make custom plates.

 

 

Dizaster had me, J-Pro & Luke from KOTD in some 50 story building that overlooked all of Canada and me and Luke refused to stand up on the patio.  I learned just how much I don’t mess with heights.

 

Myself, Kenny (s/o to Kenny), Daylyt and Charlie Clips could not win a pickup bball game in Toronto.  God literally stopped us from winning multiple times with a bunch of life obstacles.  I was genuinely upset.

Rone didn’t get raped.

 

I love Charlie Clips, but I hate him.

 

DAY 1

 

Pigsty vs Gin-I

 

My Prediction: Hadn't seen these two emcees before, but heard their names tossed around.

 

This was a little messed up because it was the first battle of the day and the staff was still getting the sound right.  I could only hear about 30% of the battle.  Pigsty has a super-rhymy style that reminds me of Anecdote in the jumpoff days.  My advice to him would be to vary his flows and try using different vocal inflections and project towards the crowd when he is on stage.  Gin-I was very energetic, but I think he needed more lines.

 

Final Grade: D+

 

This battle would have probably been better in a closed room.  Wish I could have heard more.

 

My Winner: Pigsty

Definition vs PH

 

My Prediction: PH 2-1

 

I forget who went first, but this battle definitely woke the crowd up.  PH had a great first and Definition had a super great second.  I remember the battle coming down to what Definition did in the 3rd round and he dropped the ball a little bit (seemed like he lost the crowd?), while PH was solid throughout.  Apparently, Definition was drunk at the last world domination and PH Jazzy Jeff’d him out of the hotel room.  In PH’s first round he pretended like Definition did it to him - very funny and creative.

 

Final Grade: B-

 

The battle had highs and lows, but these two definitely sparked up the crowd.

 

My Winner: PH

 

J Pro vs Anygma

 

This was moved to Day 2

 

Pass vs Osa

 

Didn’t happen.  It crushed my life - I was so hype to see this.

100 Bulletz vs JC

 

My Prediction: JC 2-1

 

The only person I have ever really felt that convincingly beat JC was Blackheart Adonis, but apparently not too many people saw that.  In some fans eyes, JC is just plain unbeatable - he just has that very professional approach that is commonly seen in the “Top Tier.”  I knew 100 Bulletz could beat JC, but he was definitely the underdog.  Honestly ... JC kinda got washed.  I remember the third round starting and Bulletz saying “I know people from your town that gave me dirt on you” and JC was shaking his head like “yea right.”  Bulletz then says, “you live with your cockeyed sister.”  I don’t know if that was true or not but JC had a look on his face like, “oh shit ... its over.”  That’s what did it for me.

 

Final Grade: B+

 

Good battle, but a top level JC performance would have made this a classic.

 

My Winner: 100 Bulletz

Loe Pesci vs Daylyt

 

My Prediction: Too close to call

 

KOTD threw a press conference to hype up the battles the night before day one.  Daylyt came all the way from Cali and was so excited to do the press conference.  Loe Pesci did not show up to the Press Conference and Daylyt became infuriated.  I need you guys to understand that Daylyt didn’t necessarily plan to disrespect Pesci on this level until he didn’t show up to the press conference.  He literally freestyled the disrespectful stuff during the battle and didn’t completely finish his verses.  For those of you that are confused right now ... peep: Daylyt stuck his hand down his pants and rubbed it in Loe Pesci’s face, pocket checked him,  pushed him around and opened an umbrella while Loe was rapping.  I personally believe that Pesci should have just pocket checked Daylyt back and dealt with the consequences, but whatever.  Watching Poison Pen & PH argue over who actually won the battle was hilarious.  I tried to insta-video the moment, but I couldn't catch it fast enough.  All drama aside there were actually some crazy bars from both sides:

 

“I’m ahead wit the flo(or) ... DDT” - Daylyt

 

“These lines are over your head like chemtrails” - Loe Pesci

 

Final Grade: B+

 

Without the drama, this battle would have been great.  The drama still made this battle very entertaining.

 

My Winner: Daylyt ... like ... cmon son

 

Charron vs Shotgun Suge

 

My Prediction: Charron 3-0, but somehow Suge would still win

 

For about 10 mins, Charron just stood on the stage while Bishop Brigante called Suge’s name through the microphone.  After a little while, Bishop announced that Suge couldn’t make it and the lights went dim.  All of a sudden, a video of DNA pops up on the back wall.  DNA says he heard Suge couldn’t make it and he will be there in 10 minutes to battle Charron.  Everyone was kind of confused and couldn’t tell whether it was a joke or not.  10 minutes later, DNA comes on stage and the crowd goes crazy.  We had a new main event!

 

 

Charron vs DNA

 

My Prediction: DNA 2-1

 

Let me start off by saying that this battle was waaayyy better than Charron vs Suge could ever be.  Suge vs Charron would have been funny, but this was a classic battle that challenged both emcees in every way imaginable.  Charron went first and set it off with a crazy verse.  DNA responded and bodied it.  Charron responded with (in my opinion) the best verse of Day 1, “Im here to put DNA in someone else’s box (Suge) like artificial insemination” - that line was craaaaaaaaazy. In DNA’s third he did a rebuttal saying “Im not from SMACK, im from Grind Time.”  The crowd spotted me and went crazy.  Organik and Lush pulled me up to the front and DNA did a freestyle about me and the crowd went bonkers.  Every time Charron said something hot DNA looked directly at me like, “yo was that crazy!?!” So i had to keep a straight face those first two rounds haha!

 

Final Grade: A

 

The only thing that messed up this battle a teeny bit was the fact that DNA had to freestyle with no punchlines a few times, but he kept getting the crowd right back.

 

My Winner: Charron

 

 

Arsonal vs Dizaster

 

My Prediction: Dizaster 2-1

 

Dizaster is my friend.  I definitely wanted him to win and though he would win.  Arsonal as a person is mad cool, but Arsonal the battle rapper is someone that I would love to hate. The only issue is that I can’t hate him because he raps VERY VERY VERY well.  My biggest issue with battlers is that they don’t RAP enough, so i’d be a asshole hypocrite if I hated him, right?  Arsonal won the first round convincingly; it seemed like Diz was all over the place.  The second round Dizaster took one line Arsonal said and basically made the whole round a rebuttal about how Arsonal ate a girls booty.  Idk if its true, but that shit was mad funny.  I gave Dizaster the second round.  The third round Ars came with some fire and I honestly thought it was over.  Diz had a very ill angle in the third round (being hood vs being from a third world country), but he doesn’t write regular.  Dizaster writes and freestyles a bunch of rhymes before the battle.  During the battle he improvises and pulls all his lines out of thin air from a vague memory.  I think this sometimes causes issues for Diz in transition because he is literally piecing stuff together on the fly and it is not always smooth.  For this reason alone, I thought Diz wasn’t crispy and I gave the battle to Arsonal.  Apparently, Dizaster’s third round was amazing on camera and he bodybagged it.  If that’s the case, then I guess we have Arsonal vs Conceited all over again.  This scenario = mucho views.

 

“The scene will look like the Kanye crash / Paramedics will literally have to pull a baby out the car dash (Kardash)” - Dizaster ... that was CRAZY.

 

Final Grade: B+

 

I don’t know about you guys, but I ruined this battle for myself because I hung off of every single word and was being super duper analytical.  I should have just watched it and had a good time.

 

My Winner: Arsonal

 

DAY 2

Miracle vs Youth Oracle

 

My Prediction: Miracle 2-1

 

Youth Oracle raps incredibly well, but I don’t think his style is made for a big stage in front of a crowd like World Domination 4, he needs the small intimate crowd in a room.  This is the reason he wasn’t getting too many crowd reactions because he was rapping very well and not really dropping crowd pleasing punchlines.  Miracle wasn’t getting too much reaction until the third round, where he dropped 5 or 6 dope punchlines and pretty much ended the battle.  I have been waiting to see that same Miracle that beat Pat Stay years back - that was a completely different animal.

 

Final Grade: C

 

I think this would have been better if it wasn’t on a stage.  I really can’t remember what Youth Oracle was saying - I just really liked his flow and ability to actually RAP.

 

My Winner: Miracle.  That is based off of the third round alone.  I didn’t really have a winner after the first two.

Uno Lavoz vs Purpose

 

My Prediction: Purpose 2-1

 

Out of all the people in the world that I have shared my unbaiased opinions about, the FIRST ONE TO EVER g-check me was Uno Lavoz lol.  I got g-checked twice at WD4, but i'll get to that later.  Uno comes up to me like, “Yo son!  You didn’t even talk about me in the blog.  You just told Purpose to keep banging!”  Honestly, my bad Purpose - I knew who you were.  I just was trying to make sure, but Poison Pen messed it all up in the vlog.  I actually judged this battle.  I am going to say here exactly what I said there: If Uno Lavoz stops stuttering and mumbling, he will be GREAT.  The man is one of the best entertainers in battle rap.  I lowkey think that he paved the way for cats like Daylyt to get love (even though Daylyt does THE MOST.)  Uno had the best fake choke in history.  First of all, it was believable.  Second of all, he said, “I did it on Purpose.”  That was soo crazy - I thought he was going to win after that.  Uno Lavoz, I am speaking directly to you right now.  Please Listen: BE SMOOTH WITH YOUR SHIT!  You are very creative and know how to control the crowd, but when you start rapping on your Philly shit, make sure you deliver that shit crisp and then jump back into the funny stuff.  Every time you stumble over a word, the punchline you are building up to loses impact.  Now Purpose went through all of his rounds straight without messing up and he had one line that was crazy (can’t remember it sorry.)  My advice to Purpose is to throw in more punchlines and try to KO your opponent.  Purpose is a very good rapper (google Pegan Elypsis - his group is dope,) but he needs to up the anty if he’s going to compete with these top cats, especially if battles are on stages now.  Learn how to make the crowd go crazy.

 

Final Grade: B

 

Both did good, but a few more punches from Pupose and clean delivery from Uno would have made it great.

 

My Winner: Purpose

 

Tantrum vs Protege

 

My Prediction: No clear winner.  Had to see it.

 

I am a big fan of both of these guys.  The crowd wasn’t really feeling it and they actually boo’d tantrum at one point.  I was in the back, so I couldn’t really tell, but someone told me tantrum messed up out the gate.  From what I did hear, their battle had too much rappity rap in it.  They were both rapping matching up a lot of syllables while trying to make a point.  I did, however, like the part where Protege rhymed all the different ninjas and such that Tantrum likes to turn into during the course of a battle.  That was real funny.

 

Final Grade: C-

 

My Winner: Protege

 

The Saurus vs Loonie

 

I’m sad this didn’t happen.  Having Pete at an event is always great.  If you don’t know who Pete is ... watch more battle rap.

J Pro vs Anygma

 

My Prediction: J Pro 3-0

 

Anygma stands for a lot.  I think of him as a political rapper.  Most of the time, its hard for Americans to understand the process that someone from another country may have to go through just to make it to an event like a battle.  There was a flood in the Philippines, people couldn’t get visas - there was all type of stuff going on.  This is actually the reason why Loonie couldn’t make it.  That being said, I didn’t think that Anygma could keep up with J Pro’s punchlines, especially since the battle was on a stage and the crowd probably wasn’t thirsty for “real talk.”  To my surprise, Anygma really shined and had some of the most creative angles of the night, “I don’t need similes to diss like you” is one of my favorite bars EVER.  J-Pro was punching about everything from Cookie Monster to the Philippines economy.  “You guys always been victims of World Domination” smh.  This is the battle that woke the crowd up and threw Bonnie & Gattas the alley oop.

 

Final Grade: B+

 

The battle didn’t end bad, but the first two rounds were very very good.  J Pro had a huge advantage in the energy department.

My Winner: J Pro

Bonnie Godiva vs Young Gattas

 

My Prediction: Gattas 2-1

 

I manage Gattas.  I have to admit ... I go a little too hard on her.  I be like *whip crack* watch 100 battles and develp all levels of talent (LOL.)  Me and her came up with an idea to do a female Slaughterhouse that battles and makes music, since the girls dont have any cliques and are always fighting and whatnot, we knew the fans would eat it up.  Due to all levels of ratchetness and laziness (one day I might publically share some of the stories smh,) it just never happened.  Gattas called me before the battle and was like, “If me and Bonnie is a classic I wanna put her in the group.”  Long story short ... her and Bonnie was a classic, now Bonnie’s in the group.  MAN this battle was crazzzzzy.  After Bonnie’s first round, Gattas looked at me like, “Awwww shiiiit here we go.”  This is going to be a preference battle.  It depends on what type of content you like and what rhymes you prefer in each round.  I’ve heard THE MOST about this battle: Gattas 3-0, Bonnie 3-0, 1-1 with a debatable third - all kinds of stuff.  At the end of the day, they both won.  I was a fan of Bonnie’s “I would give you the finger, but that’ll prolly get your dumb ass wet” and Gattas turning Bonnie into Clyde Drexler.  Daylyt says he wish Bonnie kissed Gattas back and they made out on stage.  SMH no female should ever agree to battle Daylyt - it would be over.

 

Final Grade: A

 

People are calling this the best female battle of all time.  I’m not going that far - we’ll just wait until the footage drops.

 

My Winner: They both won.  Watch their stock rise crazy now.

Tycoon Tax vs Cortez

 

My Prediciton: Cortez 2-1

 

I thought this would be the best battle of the whole event.  When Cortez was announced, the crowd went craaaaaaaaaaaaazy, when Tax was announced, the crowd went craaaaaaaazzzziiiieeeeerrrrrr.  I just knew this was going to be a classic.  I actually heard a round from Tez before the battle and I was like, “If Tax don’t get on that level, its over.”  The battle started and Cortez didn’t get too much love from the crowd.  Tax goes second and the crowd erupts with every line he delivers.  Let me break down what happened: Cortez over-delivered some lines and they didn’t get the reaction he was looking for.  I don’t know if this caused him to keep over-delivering to try compensate for lack of crowd reaction but something was off.  I don’t think Canada would just hate on Cortez for no reason, but there was something that I couldn’t really put my finger on.  Tycoon Tax was getting too much reaction - it was to the point where im thinking, “the crowd is going to kill the footage.”  If you were kind of paying attention, you would have swore that Tax 3-0’d Cortez off of the crowd reaction alone.  I don’t remember everything they were saying, but the crowd is going to look biased on the footage.  I just hope it doesn’t kill Tycoon Tax because I knew this was his chance to solidify his spot and put on for T-Dot.

 

 

Final Grade: ?

 

My Winner: I can’t call it because the crowd was being OD.  At one point I was paying more attention to the crowd than the battle.  I heard they did a rematch in the hotel - anyone got the footage?

Rone vs Real Deal

 

My Prediction: Real Deal 2-1

 

This battle was hosted by the Grind Time staff.  Me, Kap, Lush & Pen - oh how amazing!  Remember I said I got g-checked twice?  Well Rone got at me for not being in the top 100 (Him and Prophet was in the 50 Honorable Mentions.)  Sorry Rone *icing the black eye he gave me.*  Anyways, Real Deal killed Rone in the first round to the point where everyone on the stage is like, “its over.”  Rone comes back with an amazing second round and the rest of the battle was just amazing.  Amazing on top of amazing to the third power.  This fool Rone said, “If you got the mac in the back of the ac ... you are stealing your neighbors wifi.” #Yikes!  Real Deal went in on all the guys from SMACK/URL that are ducking him ... I rep Boston all day, but that shit he said about Chilla Jones being the biggest Mark in Boston since Wahlberg was nuts lmfao.  Crazy battle.

 

Final Grade: A+

 

My Winner: There is no way to tell who won without watching this footage back.  Sorry.

Charlie Clips vs Hollohan

 

My Prediction: Charlie Clips 2-1

 

Charlie Clips did THE MOST in this battle.  This may be my favorite performance from him ever.  He turned into a white boy, made the crowd boo him on purpose, made the crowd feel racist if they didn’t cheer, did a tribute to Rosa Parks, dissed SMACK and opened a Sprite Can.  Hollohan may be the only battle rapper on Earth that does all bars with minimal gun references and no personals.  I think Hollohan’s style is very dope and its refreshing that he doesn’t use personals as a crutch, but he needed SOMETHING cause Clips came at him with that Ray Allen 3 pointer in game 6 heat.  This battle was a 3-0 live, but Hollohan was rapping so well that I know he will probably win a round on camera or people may prefer his style.  Hollohan said Clips got caught driving his getaway car through the Drive Thru LMFAOOO!

 

Final Grade: A-

 

If Hollohan had personals, this would have been an A+

 

My Winner: Charlie Clips

 

 

Pat Stay vs Arcane

My Prediction: Pat Stay 2-1

 

I remember thinking, “Why is Arsonal vs Dizaster on Day 1?  I hope everyone stays for the title match.”  When I tell you that Canada put on for their title match ... damn the crowd was crazy intense.  Best reactions of the whole entire event.  I understand a lot of people feel that Arcane may have won and i’m not mad at that, just let me break something down: I dont know how well fans can grasp this, but when you rap, sometimes it takes a lot for you to respect another mans pen game.  As an emcee, we respect things that have not been said before and are delivered in a creative and original way.  Pat Stay was saying things that were making all of the other battle rappers look at each other like “this man is great.”  For instance, Pat Said, “I don’t care if you poppin oxy moron, don’t get smart idiot” - wtf that was mad original.  Wait til you see his geometry scheme that ended with “a cute angle” -  it was soo crazy.  Pat Stay has a charismatic aura that can’t really be matched.  Ever since he battled in Nova Scotia, I knew he was one of the best, but now I feel like the man is one of the 10 best battle rappers in the world - NO DEBATING!  I know this may sound very biased towards Pat, but I just met the man for the first time in my life this past weekend.  I am saying all of this based on his skill set.  Arcane was dope, but I think his first round should have been as good as his third.  If those two rounds were switched, the battle would have went down to the wire.  I felt like Pat Stay had already won going into the third.  Arcane had some crazy chess line and ended with, “We all seen him make crooked moves dodging Bishop tryna get to the king” - crazy.  I honestly don’t hold it against Arcane for the whole stealing bars thing.  I’m not going to ruin anything for the fans, but a lot of battle rappers do way worse than Arcane did, they just don't get caught.  I'm not a fan of exposing people that you are supposed to be cool with anyway.  Shit is messed up, but I do think Arcane is dope and he deserved to hold the chain for that long.  He defeated the odds and had a lot of classic matchups that I give him credit for winning and having classic performances.  He really looked destroyed when he lost ... I felt bad as hell, but thats the game - you win some and you lose some, but you live to see another day.

 

Final Grade: A-

 

If Arcane had convincingly won the first round, it would have been too crazy.

 

My Winner: Pat Stay

 

Conclusion

 

Congrats to Organik, Gully, Avi, KingFly and the whole KOTD staff for having a classic event.  There are always bumps in the road, but they made a lot of last minute adjustments and pulled through.  I was proud to attend and get to know some of these guys on a personal level.  Great Job!

 

- Drect