Murda Mook vs. Drake: Drake... What Are You Doing?!

I'm proud to say that I am now a fan of battle rap. I don't know as many battlers as the most avid fan, I probably only know the contestants who participated in the first run of Total Slaughter, but I will say that battle rap has caught my attention enough to tune in to news, battles, and the next Total Slaughter competition. I believe Total Slaughter was a much more special thing than a lot of people made it out to be, its definitely opened up a world of possibilities, and one of the biggest being mainstream rappers wanting to partake in the par-tay. Recently Drake has shown an interest in wanting to step into the battle ring and show his skills. Normally this would be pretty cool for Drake fans, or probably not, everyone has their views, but to me Drake is making a mistake by calling out the king of this battle rap shit right now:  Murda Mook.

If you tuned in to the BET Hip-Hop Awards this past Tuesday, October the 14th, you probably had mixed emotions about it all like I did. We saw an epic Brandy, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah and Yo-Yo performance, we saw Snoop Dogg and Dougie Fresh absolutely rock the stage after Dougie got honored with the I Am Hip Hop Award, and we saw a new twist to the cyphers (which I can't even begin to describe how disappointed I was, there were maybe 2 rappers I was glad to see in all of them combined). One of the more talked about events also included a live cypher, originally put together by Mook and Snoop, and containing verses from Mook and other battles rappers Arsonal, Calicoe, and Couture.

Before this show aired however, there were rumors floating around of Drake wanting to participate in battle rap, and calling out Mook personally. Obviously Mook didn't take this "calling out" very well, and went and dissed Drake live on his BET cypher verse, with this line: "king of battle rap, comfortable in first place, here, finish line is all mine, heard Drake? How you flashbackin to actin it's real here, cripple your career put it back in a wheelchair, get killed here, ain't no chill here, my demeanor, don't play the field here, de-grass-si, it ain't greener."

In case you don't remember, Murda Mook beat another battle rap great in the first Total Slaughter, Loaded Lux. Mook arguably has the most decorated battle rap resume in the entire game, and for Drake to call that out, I can't say I really agree with him. Drake has a history of coming up with some clever lines don't get me wrong, in songs like "Draft Day" he displays arguably the best of his abilities, but Mook does this for a LIVING. What a lot of mainstream rappers today don't realize (and personally I didn't even realize until starting to watch it a myself) is that battle rap and recording rap songs are two COMPETELY different beasts. It's almost safe to say that battle rappers could record songs and be successful (Eminem anyone?), but the other way around doesn't work out very well. If you have no history of battling and you actually have the balls to get into the ring with somebody who does regularly, there's no question you're going to get smashed.

There's even more to it than that though. A few aspects of battle rap are different from the mainstream song recording rap. One big one that Slaughterhouse member Joell Ortiz pointed out in an interview with The Breakfast Club Power 105.1 is the performance aspect of battling, which is definitely a point that I saw was key as well. If you're used to performing songs you certainly have a history of performing obviously, but battle rap is more than jumping around and getting the crowd hyped, although getting the crowd on your side is another huge key in being a successful battle rapper.

So what do you think about Drake stepping into the battle rap ring?  Is he cut out for it, or do you believe he is making a mistake?  Be sure to let me know what you think on Twitter (@SuperNovaRover), Google+, or even the comment section below, and be sure to check out the interview where Joell Ortiz discusses Joe Budden's mishaps in his Total Slaughter battle below, that conversation starts around the 6 minute mark.

                     (*I do not own this video, the rights to it, anyone in the video, or Power 105*)

       






            

Road To Total Slaughter: Episode 4 Recap

And now the moment of truth. With Total Slaughter nearing its close, each battler seemingly more annoyed with the others by the episode and the drama reaching a peak, you know it had to end some time. Normally I would be whining about not being able to see Total Slaughter the night of it airing, but I got the pleasure of actually having a Time Warner Cable connection at my disposal this past Wednesday night (thank you Lil B). Now to kick off the final episode recap of The Road Total Slaughter!

This episode starts off on a different note, but an interesting one at that with Dizaster singing in a room with Daylyt, Mook, and Joell Ortiz present. Mook and Ortiz are clearly impressed with his talent as they give him props for the quick ballad and Mook goes on to say that "nobody would expect that" out of him. And I certainly couldn't correct him when he said that. Diz goes on to say that he has always had interest in pursuing a musical career, but has been sidetracked on sticking with it because of battle rap. If my voice carried any weight, I certainly would encourage him to stick with this path as he clearly has talent not only in his lyrical miracle type of battle rap, but in his singing voice as well.

But this leads into one of the two final battles heading into the headlining event of Total Slaughter. The first battle up is T-Rex vs. Big-T; the battle of who would be the better T (better, not bigger, clearly Big T earned his name). This battle I had many questions for, especially after the battle, mostly stemming from why they would bring T-Rex in out of nowhere 1 episode in and just have him dominate everyone the way he has throughout the show? And when Mook says "may the Rex man, I mean, may the best man win." What is that? Why were they pulling for this guy throughout the entire show like they did? Personally I hated seeing it. I give respect where it is due, and Rex is one hell of a battle rapper, but why bring in a guy who no one has any clue about and have him dominate everybody? It almost ruins the competitive aspect of the show I think. It certainly added to the "expect the unexpected" aspect of the show, but watching it and not having a clue of who he was at first really threw off my focus from the other battlers. I like the unexpected a lot, especially in a show like this, but to bring him in with the timing they did, it didn't seem right to me.

Now aside from all the T-Rex hoopla (you can call it hate if you want, haters), we still had a whole second battle to deal with, and that battle was Dizaster vs. Daylyt. With all the drama surrounding these two, inside and outside of rap, how could this not be entertaining? Diz has come out saying if he didn't succeed he was going to quit rap for good, just recently the two had apparently gotten into a pretty big fist fight with each other before Total Slaughter aired (Google it, Twitter it, wherever you'll find it), and on top of that they're best friends? I didn't even know that until I watched this episode myself. This battle was nothing short of epic, very hard to pick a winner for anyone, although I had a winner in mind. No spoilers here except for the Cain and Able references for each? How did they even know to do that? Must of had discussions with each other beforehand. Regardless of all the chatter outside of the microphone, this battle was something to see.

And that does it for this recap of  the final episode of 'The Road to Total Slaughter." Despite the downs and the negative attention it might have gotten, with the fights and egos colliding, all the way down to some contestants getting banned from battle rap circuits outside of Total Slaughter, most of the attention it got from people was very good. But you know what they say, any press is good press. Whoever those rap fans were that didn't know about battle rap before certainly know about it now, I know that was the case for me. As for the Total Slaughter event in NYC? Some disappointing news for Budden fans I hear. I haven't seen any of the footage yet, but I'll certainly be checking that out as soon as possible. All I can say is it sucks that it's over, but it's cool that it happened. I'll definitely be tuned in for next years edition, if they choose to continue it. Check out episode 4 in full below.

  


(*Disclaimer: I do not own this video or the rights to it*)
             

Road To Total Slaughter: Episode 3 Recap

The Road To Total Slaughter is just about wrapped up fellow hip hop heads, how will you manage without it?  No really though, welcome to the official recap of episode 3 courtesy of yours truly. I'm not entirely sure what makes it the "official" recap, but saying it just made it sound that much cooler. Now I know you're dying to know if Arsonal had anything else to say about Joe's downright awful ruling of his and Daylyt's battle the last time out, so let's see what went down in episode 3.

With what seemed like a less drama filled episode at least in the beginning, this one starts out with the usual confidence of this week's contestants, Big T and Aye Verb, going back and forth telling each other that they are indeed not ready to battle one another. Big T goes on to say that his confidence comes from a different perspective, part of it knowing that rappers are not really about the life they rap about (who knew?). Big T goes on to discuss his getting shot, followed by driving himself to the hospital after getting shot. Needless to say, Big T is not too worried about what Verb, or really any rapper has to say in their raps. That's really about it for this one, don't worry folks, no spoilers for this battle, although I will say who I thought would win, did end up winning.

Now the next battle I will always question, only due to the fact that one of the battlers was a late entry, but another good one nonetheless. That battle was Marv Won vs. T-Rex. Much speculation in the house was that Marv Won had the upper hand because of his experience battling Eminem as an extra scene as part of one of the 8 Mile extra battles. Battling Eminem is certainly a great thing to have on your resume, but T-Rex is certainly no slouch either, as he proved when he quite literally kicked Cortez to the battle rap casting couch in his first battle. I will say that this battle probably wasn't quite as close as the Big T and Aye Verb match up.

After the battles, obviously 4 battlers are left in the Road to Total Slaughter tournament. The 2 losers of these battles (of whom I won't say lost) are left with a salty taste in their mouths, and it is definitely made known that their performances weren't at their highest levels. This discussion between all of the battlers is had in the car (I'm assuming on the way back to the house), where everyone decides that it just isn't right that the losers had to go out the way that they did. So one thing leads to another, and before you know it every battler, whether still in the tournament or not, is back at the house free styling to one another, some going straight off the head, some using material from earlier battles. This is actually quite a sight to see as everyone in the house gets some laughs off and it is clear that some stress had been relived during this process.

Say what you want about the results, at the end of this episode it is made very clear why every one of these battlers was chosen to be a part of The Road To Total Slaughter. True skill is shown by everyone who jumped in, and the best part about it was that you could tell no matter what the results of the tournament were, no matter how serious the competition got or will get, the battlers were having fun with it. After all, if you aren't having fun with it, why are you doing it anyways?  At least that's how I view it. Anyways, another late post courtesy of that salty guy who wanted to see The Road To Total Slaughter when it aired on TV but didn't have Time Warner Cable. No, I will never get over this, don't ask me. Check out episode 3 below.

 

(*Disclaimer: I do not own this video or the rights to it*)

      

Road To Total Slaughter: Episode 2 Recap

Welcome back to another recap of The Road To Total Slaughter. For those of you who don't have Time Warner cable, or any sort of connection at all, know that I'm here for you. But seeing as you'd have to have a connection to see this anyways, maybe I'm not as much help as I'd like to think I was. But that's not the point, the point here is to recap the second episode of The Road To Total Slaughter! Many questions were left unanswered in the last episode, like is it possible for Daylyt to piss anyone else off?  Did more egos collide?  DO ANY MORE PEOPLE CARE ABOUT BATTLE RAP YET? Hopefully so, but we'll get into that right now.

Episode 2 begins with the battle coaches, Murda Mook and Loaded Lux, bringing out the big board, showing the contestants the bracket of the tournament match ups. The winner of this tournament gets the chance to make it to the Total Slaughter stage in New York. Today's match ups include Math Hoffa vs. Dizaster and Arsonal vs. Daylyt. Right off the bat, Dizaster makes it known that he's not as prepared as he believes the other contestants to be, but sending a direct message to Math, he sweats it little to none at all and shows all the confidence in the world going against Math unprepared.

Math Hoffa on the other hand gets pulled aside by legendary DJ Kay Slay, who really does sort of a check in with Math to see how he is feeling after getting banned from URL (Ultimate Rap League) for punching fellow battle rapper Serious Jones in the face during their battle. You can tell by the way Math is moving and talking about it that he's still hurt by it, and Kay Slay tells Hoffa to come forward and be a man about it and to apologize to Serious Jones for his action. Kay Slay continues on to say at the end of the day, Hoffa is still a man and he is responsible for his actions.

But before you know it, the first battle kicks off in rather spectacular fashion. Unlike any other battle rap league, Total Slaughter's tournament is set to 1 round for each battler, who get 1 minute and 30 seconds each to spit their verses, whereas in other leagues the norm is 3 rounds to about the same time on the clock. Now I won't spoil the match for people who want to watch, all I will say is in the beginning it is evident that there could be some bad blood between the two battlers as Dizaster hits the coin out of the air during the coin flip to decide who goes first. The tactics used by every battler are different, but very effective and may be visible throughout the series if you pay attention to them.

Now the second battle is personally one I was looking to be one of the best of the entire tournament, no matter what is still to come. That battle is Arsonal vs. Daylyt. I'll try to put it without spoiler alerts, but that may be hard. But both of these guys have bars for days (as Arsonal says, you can't spell bars without ars, which is true in a way I suppose), and both bring tons of energy to the stage in only a way the 2 of them could. Both bring a very unique flow and a sort of aura to the stage that makes them different from the rest.

But here's where the spoilers may take place. Before the battle, Arsonal talks about how he isn't sure how the judging would rule in his favor, because him and Joe Budden had a brief beef (say that 5x fast) where the 2 went back and forth. Only a song each for both emcees, Budden putting out a song called "Spring Training," mentioning Arsonal multiple times by name on the song. Arsonal says he was flattered by it in a way, I mean how often do you have Joe Budden diss you on his song, but being the true competitive emcee that he is, Arsonal fired back with his own song "Spring Cleaning," where Arsonal says he was "antagonizing and hurting that mans feelings." Because of this, Arsonal feels the battle might have been shifted in Daylyt's favor. Needless to say, Daylyt wins this battle, but by a split hair it seems.

Sorry for the spoiler, but I have to give my input. I believe Arsonal won this battle, it was an extremely close match-up, and Daylyt even says so in the interview after the battle. He basically says "there was a slip up or 2 by Ars, and although they were small, they worked out to my advantage." In my eyes, Arsonal brought not only better lines with a more effective crowd reaction, but he brought the energy as well, although his energy is always there. His in your face style is his trademark, but I believe confidence and how you come off rhyming is definitely a key factor in how successful you are with your delivery, and in this battle Arsonal's energy overpowered Daylyt's.

But there it is, I normally don't like to be that guy to spoil things, but it was kind of hard not too in this situation. I have a right to do it now anyways, because whoever has Time Warner Cable practically has no excuse, at least to me. Yes I may still be salty about not being able to see it on the regular Wednesday nights like the lucky people, but that's not the point. What's in store for next week?  It's hard to tell right now, more battles and attitudes brewing, seems to me it's only a matter of time before they boil over. Will Arsonal confront Joe about his feelings on if their beef affected the outcome of his battle?  We'll find out next week I suppose (or at least I will, you guys will find out before then, rub it in why don't you). Anyways, I should go before I start rambling. If you haven't already seen episode 2, check it out below, and stay tuned for episode 3 and a review next week.