URL’s “Night Of Main Events 6” is here, and the hype is real.
Derrick Rose in the building. Daylyt is “an unexplained no show” and is trolling the event via social media. The new talent is shining and Ave vs. Chess is going down as a secret battle.
We’ve been following the thousands of tweets coming out of New York’s Irving Plaza today and will do our best to distill the flood of information into some digestible recaps. URL wasn’t allowing cameras into the venue and banned the quoting of bars on social media, so specifics were tough to come by, but shouts to BattleRap.com, Rap Grid, Battle Rap News, Xciled Media, HipHopIsReal and all the other outlets and fans updating from the event. If you’re looking for a more thorough collection of tweets from the event, check out BattleRap.com.
Quick caveat: this is the consensus from inside the building. Once it translates to camera, it might look different.
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Charlie Clips vs. Ill Will
Harlem’s Charlie Clips is used to headlining URL events, but after a series of uneven performances on the New York stage, he opened the night up against Pontiac, Michigan rapper Ill Will. Clips started off the battle with a strong first round, but Will shook the room immediately with his own, and kept momentum high enough to take the first. The second was a similar story, with Clips bringing solid content but being outdone again by Will’s round, which had some high highs but also some content the crowd gave him hell for. Clips’ third was his best round of the battle, where he took an interesting angle about how he isn’t feared in battle rap anymore. Will stumbled a bit in his third but still did enough to take the battle at least 2-1 or possibly 3-0. The highlight seemed to be both MCs bringing spontaneous bars about Derrick Rose’s attendance at the event.
Tsu Surf vs. T-Top
After lackluster performances against Shotgun Suge and T-Rex in the last few months (though both off URL, where he typically shines brightest), Tsu Surf had a lot to prove going into this battle against T-Top, the North Carolina 2014 Rookie Of The Year who has repeatedly shown why he is battle rap’s next elite superstar. Both of them were cooking, with Surf bringing haymaker after haymaker in the first and Top somehow outdoing him to follow it up. They both seemed to slow down a bit in the second, though Surf’s consistency gave him the edge, making it 1-1. A choke from Surf in the third killed his momentum, while T-Top stuck the landing for his third to cap off a career performance.
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Arsonal vs. Brizz Rawsteen
Arsonal had been off URL for more than three years, but returned during his apparent retirement tour to take on another one of the league’s rising stars, Raleigh, North Carolina’s Brizz Rawsteen. Arsonal is known for his intense performances and total lack of respect for his opponents, so this was a big test for Brizz, and he delivered in the first round after taking some time to heat up. Arsonal started hot right off the bat, but cooled slightly as the round went on. Most were calling it either 2-0 for Brizz or tied at 1-1 after two rounds, with Brizz having a standout third that incorporated comedy and went at all of Arsonal’s home state of New Jersey. Ars responded well with his third, bringing some vintage disrespect but didn’t do enough to take the battle.
Ave vs. Chess
This was an unannounced battle that surprised the crowd and seen to most as an upgrade from the canceled DNA/Daylyt battle — if you’ve been following URL over the last couple of years, you already know how insane of a match-up it is. Ave put on one of (if not THE) best battle of 2016 against Rum Nitty early in the year, and then a match-up with master punchliner B Magic fell through for him at “Born Legacy 3.” Chess, meanwhile, just celebrated his 18th birthday and his battle with Th3 Saga from the same event has fans fiending for its release.
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Both kept their momentum up here with a battle that was pretty much unanimously praised as the best of the night. Ave’s non-stop punchlines were too much for Chess in the first round, even though his own first was still strong and filled with creativity. He picked it up in the second, taking the round over Ave’s punch-heavy but slightly-less-electric followup. A real-talk approach from Chess in the third round kept the pressure on, but the much older MC from Norfolk, Virginia regained an energy similar to that he had in the first and had the entire building going crazy.
Both Chess and Ave threw shots at many of URL’s elite, and after these performances it would seem like that type of opponent will be what fans will want to see.
Tay Roc vs. Rum Nitty
The expectations were so high for this main event that it’s somewhat unsurprising that it failed to meet them. They both had their moments, but with so much on the line, the intensity was high and two fights almost broke out during the battle, first when Roc took Nitty’s hat, and then again when Nitty pocket-checked Roc. Mic issues and an exhausted crowd (someone actually passed out during the battle) also dampened the energy. Roc had his trademark fire second round, and then Nitty changed his approach up in his third, foregoing rapid-fire punchlines to take an angle that fell flat with the crowd.
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Overall, it was an ok battle that was tough to call because of all the extra-ness.
Daylyt vs. URL
Daylyt lived up to his unpredictable nature, abandoning one of the biggest events of the year completely without an explanation. He apparently stayed in his home state of California, where he trolled URL and fans throughout the event. The league and Daylyt have had their issues before, but after his strong showing in his debut against Mike P at “Born Legacy 3,” it looked like they’d patched things up. The footage from that battle was plagued with sync issues and bad audio, something Day has been complaining about vocally on social media for the last few months.
Overall the event was a very strong one, with URL’s new wave of rappers delivering what they needed to keep moving forward.
