Step Into The Ring: Mainstream Rappers Who Should Battle

It seems as if a spotlight has been shined on battle rap in the past year. As popular as it has been throughout the years, it has remained underground and has produced a much different audience from the Lil Wayne, Drake or Kanye (etc.) type of rap fan base that you see and hear every day. I say this being a particularly new fan myself, and it's crazy to think about the differences in recorded rap as opposed to battle rap, they're really two different beasts completely. One side of the spectrum is made for your listening pleasure, while the other shines a much brighter light on the technical aspect of rap with competition being aplenty. It's very hard to mix the two, and if you do one and have the balls to try the other, whether you're successful at it or not, there is a respect factor given to you for even trying in the first place. There are very few mainstream rappers that have the skill to battle rap, and I thought it'd be a good idea to figure out who these guys (or girls even, remember the term "femcee"?) are. Here's a short list of mainstream rappers who could probably battle.

Ab-Soul

I'm a little new to Ab's catalog, but if there's one thing that opened up my eyes to the idea of Ab-Soul having battle bars, it's this freestyle with infamous battle rapper Daylyt (shout out to my good friend and fellow rapper Terrell Cooper for showing me this!). Ab-Soul is incredibly smart with novelist-like bars and Einstein-like wordplay, and if you were stuck in the dark like me, listening to this would enlighten your day with facts that Ab-Soul could indeed hang with some of the best battlers.

Lupe Fiasco

Another big writer-at-heart rapper is Lupe Fiasco. If you've heard Lupe (or if you even know about him) you know how smart and politically/socially conscience he is of everything going on around him. His rhymes take multiple listens to process for even his most die hard fans, and if there's anything that draws attention to a battle rapper, one of the biggest would be how smart and well thought out their rhymes are (syllables, double entendres, similes, metaphors, etc.). Lupe is such a fan of the craft that comes with rapping that he even battled his fans for a short period of time on Twitter, and has been called out by infamous battle rapper Dizaster to battle, though it never panned out for whatever reason.

King Los

                            (*I do not own any of these videos, songs, audio, or the rights to them*)

I'm not as familiar with King Los' catalog as I probably should be (I've heard from too many people that he's dope), but if I got just a mere sample of what he can do, his "Control" response (which seems to bring out the best in everyone, at least for rappers who had a response) is a good example of it. He really impressed me with the following bars: "I'm a king I'm elite, I could never dream of defeat, I could Dr. King you a speech while I'm Rodney King-in your beat." Day-umn Los! Guess I got some homework to do.

So those are a few dudes that could probably battle with some success (or so I think). There are probably many more rappers you could name who could battle and do well (I would probably say any of the other Slaughterhouse guys along with J. Cole and Kendrick), but there are many aspects of battling that some mainstream guys just don't have or don't show in their recorded song history as an emcee. A lot of guys show attitude and confidence on the mic (you almost have to, if you rap for a living it's a given), but if they have the mental stability is the real question, along with being able to successfully freestyle and truly go off the top of their head. If you know any dudes who you think could battle right now be sure to let me know on Twitter (@SuperNovaRover) or Google+ and let me know why you think they'd fair better than the rest.






 
 

Why Snow Tha Product Is the Best Femcee

It seems like whenever a girl is on the come up in rap, they're never taken seriously at first, if ever. Few chicks in rap today get the attention they deserve (at least because of their music). For whatever reason that may be, this particular femcee (yeah, that's a twist on the phrase "female emcee", do you like it?  I read it somewhere and I'm using it from now on) could be the one to change that. Her name is Snow Tha Product, and if you don't know who she is, you're about to. I had been introduced to her briefly (one feature verse) before, but the Latina femcee definitely earned my attention.

So obviously if you tuned into the BET Awards, and you're like me, the only reason you really watched was because of the cyphers. Of course it's depressing knowing no cypher will measure up to the 2011 edition featuring the monstrous Shady 2.0 cypher, I watch every year just to see if anyone worthy of watching is participating. This year was certainly another disappointment, but there's always that 1 or couple of verses that you hear and you're left wondering:  just how in the hell have I not heard of this artist before?  Well, now knowing Logic is as underrated as it gets, the other verse that caught my attention was Snow's. This chick got on spitting ridiculous, keeping up with the best of the best, even had a point where she got off some Spanish bars!  After I saw this I knew she was the real deal and like a drug, I needed to have more.

And I certainly wasn't disappointed in what I'd found. A datpiff.com search came up with 3 mix tapes, and like the thorough researcher I think I am, I checked out all 3. Her first effort, Run Up Or Shut Up, was the typical first mix tape you'd hear from an artist on the come up. Iffy production, an over saturation of party tracks, and talks of haters and "shwag" (another new word, but one I like to think I've created, it's pretty much the parody of "swag" and the realization of how dumb the word "swag" really is). Her second mix tape, Good Nights & Bad Mornings, was exactly the potential I believed Snow could reach put into musical form. She comes with a more aggressive style, better production, a better quality in music including more topics and subject matter, and her competitive and confident attitude takes full swing. It's safe to say Snow found her voice on this project. Her third mix tape, Good Nights & Bad Mornings 2: The Hangover, is certainly a continuation of the great music she made on the first edition of the series, the only difference being the addition of some big name features including Ty Dolla $ign, Dizzy Wright, Trae The Truth, Cyhi The Prynce and Riff Raff.

So looking into her music, I was certainly impressed (and I'll be downloading some key tracks from those mix tapes, I'll admit). I cant say I had expectations going in, but if I did Snow has far exceeded them. She definitely made an impression on me with her mix tapes, but an impression being made on me in terms of lyricism, flow, and proving that you're a good rapper is a completely different story. You can make good music without being the "kill you on your own track" type of rapper. To me, this sort of thing shows true ability and the aspect of competitiveness that takes a rapper farther than their abilities alone, and if there was one track I needed to hear to have Snow prove her abilities to me, this would be it.

Ummm... alright. Ms. Tha Product, is it?  You have my full attention. Normally any one rapper (man or woman) being featured on a Crook song doesn't get my attention because, well, I know what Crooked I can do. He's Crooked I. What else need be said?  No other verse I've ever heard on the same song as Crooked I having a verse has come even close lyrically, but if I had to pick one, this one certainly takes the cake.

So who is Snow Tha Product?  If you asked me, I'd simply reply "the best female rapper you haven't heard of yet." The rest of the game has it's Nicki Minaj's, you have your Iggy Azalea's (and people will claim Iggy isn't hip-hop, though it's hard to argue at this point), you even have the proven greats like Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Lil Kim, etc., but Snow is unlike anything you or I have heard before. To say it isn't hard for a female to come up in the music industry (especially rap) would be a straight up lie, but obviously for the ones that have made it, you give props to them because whether you like their music or not, they've earned that come up. Snow isn't quite there yet, the main reason being she has no studio album out yet, but I believe Snow is the next Nicki Minaj. No, scratch that. I believe Snow has potential to represent every woman in America with strength, dignity, and an unrivaled ability to spit with the best of them all, period. If you haven't seen it yet, check out Snow's cypher verse, spitting alongside Vic Mensa, Treach (Naughty By Nature), King Los and David Banner in the 2014 BET Awards below.

                                   (*I do not own any of these videos, or the rights to them*)