After the success of last year’s SMACK/URL’s Summer Madness 2 event, Rap battling continues to thrive in mainstream Hip Hop. Now, Complex has assembled a list of the 25 best Rap battles on YouTube.
Eric and Jeff Rosenthal of It’s The Real fame set out to list the top 25 battles currently on YouTube. In a list that features viral sensations like Eli Porter and industry mainstays like Cassidy, it is Loaded Lux and Iron Solomon who took the top two spots.
“Shrouded in black, Lux’s posse of mourners turned [Webster Hall] into a Baptist hall,” they wrote of Lux’s performance against Detroit rhymer Calicoe. “Yes, it was literal and overwrought; sure, it pandered. But it sold his lines: as he sliced up Calicoe with his words, the women swooned, bursting into hysterics…it wouldn’t have amounted to much had Lux not had the lines to back him up, but ‘You gon’ get this work’ has become an everlasting catchphrase.”
Of Iron Solomon’s battle against E. Ness, they wrote, “E. Ness should’ve done his homework. He walked into this GrindTime match-up against Iron Solomon, coasting off his ancient MTV credits, only to have Solomon pick his resume apart. Line by line, item by item, Solomon tore up his opponent’s lifework like scraps of paper. The Jewish Upper West Sider started off strong, and never slowed. His opening lines included, ‘I ain’t gon’ put Diddy in my rhymes to chalk him out,’ before Solomon choked back a laugh. ‘Who the fuck am I kidding? That’s all the fuck I’m gonna talk about!’ Ness, theatrical but straightforward, never had a chance.”
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Despite placing at the 20th spot on the list, rhymer JC took issue with Complex’s article. JC, who gained notoriety for his battle against Chilla Jones last year, protested the list, saying that “the people making the list…are fucking idiots.”
Recently, Drake co-hosted Toronto-based King of the Dot’s “Blackout 3” battle, featuring Dizaster and Arcane.
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