A Look Back at the Good, Bad and Ugly Lessons Learned at Filmons Fresh Coast Ether Event aka Cassidy vs Dizaster

Image Credit: BattleRap.com

I waited till Wednesday to write about the Fresh Coast Ether event for personal reasons. This turned out to be a great thing. Due to the untimely passing of Young B the Future who was the top tier prospect of 2014, the news cycle on Ether has been rather slow. It was the biggest battle event ever thrown. A billionaire by the name of Alki David, the owner of Filmon, a streaming television company who specialize in live streaming events, joined forces with Lush One and the Fresh Coast Music Group to present Ether, this past Saturday live on IPPV. The other name of this event was merely the main event, Cassidy vs Dizaster. I watched, as did many, the first and unplanned second night. For the most part battle fans were expecting Dizaster to kill Cass. This is his forum. No one expected the most debatable battle of the year or the biggest upset of all time. Its a matter of opinion and you will know mine. Lets take a look at all the lessons we learned from Ether, the event as a whole. Please keep in mind these are my opinions. If they are yours, great. If not, fuck yourselves.

Lets first talk about the battles themselves. Watching from home was, kind words would be "challenging," frustrating, and depressing at times. In fact there were so many issues with the stream, it was in the end, freeview content. More on that later as that was a win in the end, the free part that is. The stream and the event started late and there were technical issues abound, in house and digitally. The mics didnt work half the time. One of, well seemingly two, lavaleer mics broke which led to Daylyt and Serious Jones trading equipment mid battle...yup. Second to last battle of the night, second biggest battle of the night. This was Total Slaughter, except the battle guys were supposed to get it right, do it better. However blame cant really be placed on Lush. FilmOn produced the event and handled the video and audio, not Lush. Battle Rap and Pro Wrestling are very much alike in the sense of you kinda need the people from within to handle the decision making, not the exec who thinks they know better. Just because you pay for it doesn't mean you know more than the professionals. I have watched talented filmographers ruin great wrestling due to no idea how to shoot it. Ether was watching the same treatment for battle rap. Fact of the matter is there were issues with mics, with the stream, sound cuttin out both live and on stream. This was incredibly depressing as was missing basically a whole Bigg K round and all sorts of Big T goodness and like half of Real Deal vs Illmac, and part of Ars vs Saurus. What makes it even more bittersweet is that when you see the official release, what its supposed to look like, and what the live experience of the stream was. Also pro wrestling has proven many times, live IPPV are the motherfucker of clean streaming.

Each battle had a pro wrestling MMA style entrance. Battlers, please step your entrance game up. Why not hype shit, barely playing to the crowd at all? Use it to your advantage, to display your identity. Make yourself stand out, its a show. Part of the issue was a la TS, this wasn't really a battle crowd. That is a true sign of a movement becoming an industry, giant events full of people who are there to claim they were there. Therefore, crowd reaction most of the time, on cam at least, not what a crowd for an event like this would be expected to sound like. But please...dont just walk down steps swiftly, have some fun.

Cali Smoov is an up and coming battler from LA. He is a member of Krack City alongside Dizaster, Daylyt and Aktive. Smoov also is apparently reponsible for bringing Lush and David together, therefore may have been the spark to all this. He was given the gift of Death By Caustic. I would never, ever want to battle Daniel Stefani. I have never met him in real life, I am a fan of his as a battler and as a member of the Dirtbag Dan Show podcast and believe he may have the most evil intentions any battler alive. He has ruined careers, marriages, minds (see Daley battle) and laughs. Cali brought bars, some very good. Caustic decided to make him pay for his ego with hateful personals about his reputation and sexuality. Remeber a rap battle isnt just a competition to see who raps better or has better indirect wordplay, its about making someone look bad, a verbal altercation, a fight with words. Caustic beat 11 fancy yet light spin kicks with a haymaker to the jaw. That simple.  Danny Meyers, fresh off an amazing battle with Aye Verb battled Heartless, fresh off a huge upset over Charlie Clips. Didnt see this, however I'm hearing 2-1 Meyers in what i'm sure was a battle full of wit, wordplay, and Meyers running round screaming like a white woman in a slasher movie after big punches. Two battle vets coming off monsterous 2014 preformances, Real Deal and Illmaculate duked it out in a fantastic back and forth. This was a rare close 3-0 in Illmaculates favor. Real Deal was nearly over agressive while Illmaculate is becoming better nearly each time he hits a Cali stage. Two examples of why tiers exist occurred as well. Billy Boondocks won a freestyle tournament at the previous FC event in early November. However this is the equivalent of a guy winning a touch football tournament and then getting put in the All Pro game. He had the unfortunate task of facing a very on Rum Nitty. Nitty was a breakout star of the new Fresh Coast after an epic battle with Danny Meyers a year ago. Since then, he has had some huge battles, including Arsonal in Nittys home town of Phoenix and B Magic for FC. Nitty is one of the hardest hitters in battle rap, and has shutdown bars every battle, showstoppers. This was watching a tee ball player face Randy Johnson. This was the guy you went to high school with who did karate vs Anderson Silva. It was a bloodbath, plain and simple. The other example of this is Aktive vs Big T. Aktive is also Krack City. He is one of the most legit gangsters in battling and is also very very green. He faced the 600 lb. man with the 600 lb. bars, Big Motherfuckin T. T is a monster who had a classic with Diz the prior month. At Ether, he was razor sharp, with gun sound effects firing everywhere. Aktive got taken to school in a wash. These are top tier battlers for a reason. Dont punish your newcomers that way FC. 

Up next we had an intermission which included a beautiful young lady fuckin up her own songs and inspiring a movement. After Ether, #Yaki and the decently hot chick rapping it will forever be ingrained in our memory banks. Arsonal battled The Saurus after the whole Yaki thing. This was a great battle from what the feed didnt fuck up, Ars is the most viewed battler alive, Saurus is the most decorated with possibly the most battles. This was street vs backpack between legends on their A games. Though some may say the whole race card 2nd round by Ars was played, the way in which he did it was not. I gave it 2-1 Ars for more quotables, better presence and the fact that Saurus may or may not have left the er at the end of the word.  The next was the battle of the puchline kings, Bigg K vs Concieted. Con is a trailblazer who has influenced battle rap more than nearly everyone and currently appears on MTVs Wild N Out. Bigg K is street battlings great white hope. Con came light, K did not. This was Ortiz vs Shamrock as battle rap. A one sided beatdown of a veteran.  Bigg K is a problem and proved it again. The semi main event was the battle of the night. Serius Jones is an icon, uncrowning Jin in the "good ol days," signing with Luda and DTP, and two giant return battles. Last we saw his face, however it was helping Math Hoffas fist shut down SM3. Daylyt is the king of antics and one of the most advanced writers in the game. His major battles since the summer included dressing in a Spawn costume, stripping down and pulling out Mr. Hankey vs Rex, dressing as the headless horseman vs Real Deal and trying to shit onstage 3rd round, battling Krack City teammate Cali Smoov. He twerked on Smoov and simulated head. Two weeks prior vs Pat Stay for the KOTD title, he dressed as a slave, and basically proceeded to do 3 parts of a one man show which happened to take place during a battle. He came into LA and rapped his fuckin ass off. Days bars usually are better on camera due to being so complex. I got Day 2-1 close, as while Serius was more direct Day was on some other shit. Serius did take the one round freestyle battle after the show got shutdown.

That brings us to the nearly crippling debacle that was the main event. It was the highest profile battle in history. Cassidy the self proclaimed founder of modern day battling, mainstream for over a decade, the first platinum rapper to battle vs Dizaster, Eminems favorite battler, arguably the face of modern battling and a killer on stage. $175,000  for that battle alone. This was the most hyped, most promoted, most anticipated battle ever. A bodybag was expected, a debated classic insued and nothing went as planned. It took nearly 20 minutes to clear the stage, as it was being ordered by fire marshalls. On camera it looked like entourage bullshit. In reality it was, according to Dizaster, a stage full of rival gang members, with Diz having a crew consisting mainly members of the notorious Grape St. Crips and Cass hiring members of Comptons Blood set. Chubby Jag has disputed the paying thing, not the gang thing however.  Half the stage exited, and Cassidy began to spit, four bars. They were, however, four bars that showed he studied Diz. Then more stage fuckery for twenty minutes. Then Cass spit again. He started hot, Charlie Clips impressions and schemes. Yeah, there was the whole use of "gun got a long nose like an elephant" in 2014. After two minutes of writtens, shit got weird. Cassidy began a series of Ar Ab prebuttles and other freestyles for nine minutes. Lush couldn't stop him, Diz even began a round and was stopped, by Cass rapping over him. Diz was shocked but said let him go. Cass went for 9 minutes to us, or five minutes to Cass. Diz then began to spit, and got about 8 bars out before the boos hit. He blamed Cass people in the pit, they claim it was Diz doing the whole fixate on one topic thing that he lost to Arcane by doing. None of that mattered as it took 40 minutes for one round. The biggest battle ever got shut down, the building and the feed dark. The scene took an L on its biggest night, once again. 

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.

An Education on Battle Rap for the Uneducated

Photo: Slaughterhouse (Joe Budden, Royce da 5'9, and Joell Ortiz) at SOBs in New York City.

by: Ashe Samuels

Dearly Beloved,

We are gathered here today to talk about the pro wrestling of hip hop, that is battle rap. Now half of you reading this may have no knowledge of this beyond 8 Mile, so lets break it down for a second. Battle rap in the form in which it exists now is written, not freestyle, and takes place acapella or without a beat. It has evolved from cracks on peoples attire and mom jokes, to the place to hear bars in hip hop. In fact, your favorite rappers are huge battle rap aficinado. Drake has hosted and currently sponsers King Of the Dot based out of Toronto. Method Man has hosted multiple battles. Diddy and Busta Rhymes have showed up at URL. Eminem & Slaughterhouse had Total Slaughter this summer, and the Fuse series Road to Total Slaughter.  Joe Budden battled Hollow Da Don, Ab-Soul ended his major label debut by battling Daylyt, and Canibus battle Dizaster and Cassidy is about to. YouTube is filled with thousands of battles and they have amassed 10s of millions of combined views. However, it has remained relativley underground, but even that is now changing.

I mentioned mainstream rappers battling. What i did not mention is that they get fuckin roasted. Ab Soul had by far the best preformance. His bars were great actually, but then Day spit and it was clear whos realm they were in. Joe Budden got booed, dropped the mic and walked off stage in the third round. He tried but Hollows stage presence and battle savy style took that battle for him. Canibus....well Canibus acted like a total fuckin nutjob and pulled out a binder in his third round. This is not because they arent talented MCs, but because this is not their realm. Budden is one of my favorite rappers to be honest. Its not just about your words but your projection, your movement, your performance as a whole. There is no beat to rock over and a crowd that is not there to hear a song but to watch a battle and will boo the fuck out of you for not coming correct.

We live in an age where lyrics are no longer what makes or breaks an MC in hip hop. For every Budden, Royce, Ortiz, and Crooked, there are 6 Young Thugs. So where do you go to hear bars, to hear that aggression and wordplay that hip hop was raised on? Battle rap. There is a reason why your favorite rapper and there people watch battles in the studio, because that is the new place to hear bars. Fans rewatch battles and hear something that went over their heads the first time. Bringing it back or repeating a bar became the live version of rewinding because it was so damn nice. Concieted slows it down so the crowd and his opponent can hear the double meaning. Loaded Lux repeats things not because he thinks it wasnt heard but because he wants you to listen. That is the beauty of battle rap, its not something you hear, but you listen to.

It is something you listen to, but you watch as well. A Daylyt battle needs to be seen. Where else can you see a Crip dressing like a Klan member for 2 rounds only to reveal he was Black Jesus in the third round. Days battle with B Magic had a Matrix theme to his rounds but a 3rd round told as much through visuals as it was with words, complete with bullet time twerking. That is just the tip of the Daylyt iceberg but thats for another article. From hand gestures to pantomime, props to facial reactions, Battle rap isnt just something you listen to, but also something you watch. How else would you know what Caustic meant when he battled Aye Verb and told Verb he, "showed up looking like Goldust."

Just like pro wrestling there is lead up, the only form of spoken word anything where people cut promos on each other before the event. There are rivalries, Lux vs Hollow made UW into a much larger entity and was almost a decade in the making. Math Hoffa put himself on the map by punching out Dose onstage, and a few years and much shit talk later, a rematch occured. Dizaster and Math had a rivalry based on Maths penchant for throwing hands in a battle that ironically ended with Diz punching out Math in the third round of a fantastic battle. There are stables that rise and fall; Dot Mob, Innuendo, S.O.N.S., Krack City and many more. Worked shoots, those are called personals. You want a prime example watch Pat Stay vs Hollohan from KOTD as two former best friends air each others dirty laundry for the world to see. Shit there are even tag teams which can be amazing if done right. Dirtbag Dan and Caustic battled Shuffle T and Marlo from England in an amazing 2 vs 2. Illmac and The Saurus both champion battlers by themselves are also legends as a team.

So there we go, my dearly beloved readers, an introduction to battle rap. Wanna know why Jay-Z was sayin "you gonna get this work?" Watch Lux vs Calicoe. Wanna hear aggression, and raw raps? Watch battles. Backpacker? Watch The Saurus, Illmac, Charron, A Class and a number of underground inspired battlers. Want guns and street shit? Watch Hitman Holla, Hollow Da Don, Arsonal, Big T, B Magic, shit just watch URLs big battles. Like weird shit, watch Daylyt, shit like backpack or street shit watch Daylyt too. Watch Dizaster to see Eminems favorite battler, Pat Stay to see why hip hop lives in the North. The list of names goes on and on and as time goes on Ill expose you, the fair readers to more. But for now, as they say, TIME!!!!

   

Battle Rapper Daylyt, From "Total Slaughter" Says He Wants To Have Sex With Puff Daddy!

image credit: kingofthedot.com

Whoa. Total Slaughters own, (and currently one of the most popular battle rappers) Daylyt, wants to bang P. Diddy! 

“I’d fuck Diddy” said Daylyt, according to BattleRap.com. "I’m not gonna front. I’d fuck the shit out of Diddy… Why not? Diddy’s attractive. Get him off like a bottle of Ciroc, a shot of Ciroc. He got plenty of Ciroc. Get him fucked up, I’ll fuck...I’ve always been infatuated with how he dances–it’s something about like the arms and shit. That shit’s sexy, yo. Like, pause. No homo. Let’s really be honest. Diddy’s thick, yo.’”

This is not the first time he's spoke so openly about being gay. He refers to himself as a "Gay Blood," and made accusations about Lil Wayne quietly being gay as well. He also said of "rapper" (pop star) Macklemore, "all he raps about is gay shit." 

To read the FULL "wild" interview, go to www.battlerap.com 

by: Dana Pelotta

Blog Owner/Editor In Chief

Twitter: princessdanaox