POLITICS & BATTLE RAP
Recently, Mickey Factz
ruffled a lot of feathers with
an interview on Hip Hop DX,
proclaiming that battle rap has
been “dead since January 20,
2013” and that “it started to get
extremely redundant”. He argued
that the street feel of battle rap is
fading. It’s no longer about settling
the score with someone; the new
focus is on building your name.
But I wonder, “what’s wrong with
that?” In the come-up stages of
a battle career, you are fighting
mainly for stature, so that when
your opportunity to combat with
a big name finally arrives your
name holds just as much weight.
It seems that even across all tiers,
new matches aren’t being set up
with a rise in status as the wage.
It’s true that a big name versus a
big name doesn’t always equal a
good battle; in a culture where
opinions are the basis of the
judging system, who can really say
that they’re top tier anymore?
The “PG versus Top Tier”
debate doesn’t seem to be going
anywhere, but I stand in support
of the PGs and new breed of
battlers who I see as consistently
being creative and putting on
good performances. At a time
where most of the up-and-comers
seem to be friendly with — or at
least supportive of — one another,
you can’t expect them to bite each
other’s heads off and then mean
mug when the battle is over. You
can feel the spirit of camaraderie
8
in all Danny Myers’ battles, so
much so that his fans have made
complaints about it. For someone
like Ah Di Boom — who has over
15 battles so far — dedication
can not be a question. When 100
Bars Magazine asked Norbes his
opinion on whether or not Top
Tier battlers should be giving
the new generation of battlers
opportunities, he responded, “It’s
on them. It’s not on the vets. No
one gave Rex a break. No one gave
Math a break. They just put out
the work and as time went on they
continued to feed the streets and
get better with it. The guys that
are coming up in the PG’s are not
owed anything.”
Since they are constantly met
with this type of response, I say,
“keep battling each other PGs”.
Continue to make the classics
within your class of rappers and
— organically — tiers will be
made again. The gripes of people
who don’t recognize your shine are
whispers compared to the roars of
support you receive. Is a shot at
the top spot not owed to a rapper
who has prove