The Social Commentary of Battle Rap

Image Credit: zimbio.com

by: Ashe Samuels

Dearly Beloved,

Welcome again to my column now to be titled, "Seasoning for the Unseasoned." Today we are gathered to speak about the social commentary that is a foundation of hip hop and also becoming one in battle rap, as well.

Hip hop has been speaking on class warfare for decades, the haves vs the have not so to speak. Battling is no different. A few weeks ago, URL released two major battles; Tsu Surf vs. Hitman Hollow, and the young Canadian Charron vs. Shotgun Suge. In Hitman vs. Surf, Surf began to go in about Hitmans upbringing. Surf, from Newark, used his third round to talk about how Hitman, though he comes with Blood affiliation, is from a two parent household and is a college athlete. He used wordplay to illustrate that he was more street due to not having parents and having to fend for himself. It was arguably the best round from Surf in quite some time. Dizaster, who is one of the most highly regarded in the world, has been dissed many times for not only having rich parents but also living with him till his late twenties. Pat Stay even claimed that anyone could be Diz due to him not needing to have a job, therefore being able to dedicate himself to battling while everyone else had to balance work and battling. Canada's Kaliente was often dissed due to being homeless, but used that struggle to hit hard against Tycoon Tax. While you wont hear all the so rich and I have nicer shit bars you do from modern hip hop, there will always be the "I'm harder because i came up harder" aspect to battling. Those are just some recent examples.

Race relations have always been a hot topic in hip hop, and battling is no exception. Murda Mook ended his battle against Iron Solomon with a Trayvon Martin angle complete with a hoodie. Shotgun Suge began his battle against Charron by saying "this ain't a battle this is justice for Mike Brown." Charron, a white Canadian MC who won 106 and Parks Freestyle Friday but was excluded  from the 2013 Cyphers for being too white and Canadian, used his whiteness to his advantage to win over an oftentimes hostile NYC crowd. From a fantastic Columbine name flip (this is Columbine a white kid taking a shotgun to school), to his final round rebuttal about being a skinny white kid in hip hop and the problems it caused (what you know about shaking Norbes hand and he mistakes you for the camera man). Oftentimes the "you lost to a white boy" card gets played, such as the first time Diz battled Arsonal and the reverse happens at times, such as when Aye Verb confusingly called King of the Dot fans racist. I say confusing in that particular case as the battle took place in LA, in front of a mostly black and Latino crowd. Dizaster, of Lebenese decent, used 90% Asian bars, though hilarious ones against veteran A-Class. Cadalack Ron gets uncomfortably racist at times, though what does one expect from a guy who may or may not have shot dope, mid battle, on camera? If you are white and battle in URL, you being white will probably be half your opponents material, and you being white will be half of yours. That is where some of the beauty lies, almost a racial dialogue through dissing.

Image Credit: goodfellamedia.com

With the rise of Young Thug and the Wayne kissin Baby fiasco, homosexual culture has been on the rise in hip hop. Battle rap is the same, but different. Pat Stay battled Rone in a compliment battle, where two battlers literally compliment each other instead of saying awful shit to each other. The lead up was quite, well, gay. They acted really gay towards each other. The battle had many twings of that as well. No Shame is a transgender battler who has had great showings in AHAT and BOTZ, and has shown herself to be far more than a gimmick earning the respect of her peers. Then, there is Daylyt, battle raps Andy Kaufman. In the leadup to his battle with Pat Stay, they have begun to basically send weird prison love blogs to each other. Its basically battle raps version of gay chicken at this point. Day has also said things like he'd fuck Diddy, possibly to get put on, possibly just because. He warned Aye Verb before their battle that he would try to make out with him onstage. He battled fellow Krack City member Cali Smoov at a non battle event with over a million streaming viewers. He also put out a Young Thug diss called "Choppers" and "Pink Skirts," in which he rapped in a short pink dress and twerked with an AK-47. The weird part is that Day is a heterosexual man with a kid, who is doing this to troll battle raps homophobia and the outlandishly gay movement in hip hop at the same damn time.

Though many claim it to be overly mysoginistic, battle rapvis far from pro domestic violence. Bonnie Godiva brought out Uno Lavoz ex girlfriend on stage in her third round to basically put him on trial for rape. Sketch Menace also called out Uno on the allegations. Hollow the Don flipped out on Joe Budden for supposedly hitting women, stopping in the middle of his round. Hollohan has been called out for his alleged mistreatment of women in many battles. A lot of battlers get away with a lot of things, but no one gets daps for actually hitting a chick.

As I said before, battling has something for everyone. Super lyrical aggressive rhymes? Turn to battle rap. You want thought provoking bars with incredible replay value? Battle rap. You want some social commentary on the side? Yup. Battle rap has that too.