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.

           

          

Road To Total Slaughter: Episode 1 Recap

In the Road To Total Slaughter presented by Eminem, Slaughterhouse and Watchloud.com, you finally have an opportunity to watch the inner workings of battle rap. That is unless of course you don't get Fuse TV like me, in which case you're very salty about not being able to watch all of this exciting drama and rap skill take place. But wait, there is this fantastic place we call the internet where you can watch practically anything you want at any time (as long as its posted)!  So for those less fortunate to not be blessed with a Time Warner Cable connection, we'll do this little review of what happens on the show, my thoughts on what happens on the show, and a post of the actual Road To Total Slaughter episode itself. Its just too bad this is only going down for 4 weeks. Anyways, lets get right into it.

So right off the bat there is clear tension with everyone entering in the house. As soon as everyone walks in, they give an introduction to why they're here and why they deserve to be. Everybody meets each other slowly getting settled in, finding their sleeping quarters and whatnot, when the 7 contestants notice that the last contestant is not in the house. Knowing who Daylyt is and what he's known for, they're not surprised to notice him finally stumbling in wearing only a pair of boxers and boots, being very loud and obnoxious while eating all the food that has been put out for the contestants. This does not go over well with the contestants, and Marv Won and Cortez voice their opinions very clearly with the controversial battle rapper.

After everyone settles down following the Daylyt incident, they all make their way to what looks like a living room, with chairs and a chess board set up. Murda Mook states that the chess board is used to clear ones mind when tension starts to set in when living in a house full of testosterone and egos clashing. Cortez also proceeds to challenge Loaded Lux to a chess match as they playfully banter back and forth eventually leading to a Lux victory. After this, everyone seems to get a moment to themselves as Dizaster walks into a conversation being had by Aye Verb and Marv Won. Dizaster goes on to tell Aye Verb that the only fans he had in their battle were his haters, and one of the lines he came up with in the battle was "the most simple shit he'd ever heard."

So yeah, do you feel the love yet?  After this settles down Mook and Lux gather everyone in the house to the living room telling them that they will be having a special guest giving them an introduction to the circuit. It is none other than DJ Kay Slay who shows up and tells them very briefly about the competition and how it will work in seemingly less than 5 or 6 sentences. Makes me wonder if they paid him for what he said or if he will be included in the show later?  If not, very weird that it happened nonetheless, as it seemed he gave his 5 or 6 sentences and just left.

But, as they say the show must go on!  The next morning Slaughterhouse shows up unexpectedly and gathers everyone into the living  room the discuss a sort of "wild card" match up between a new battler they brought in by the name of T-Rex, and a battler of his choosing from within the house. The loser of this match is out of the tournament if they lose, and has to sleep on the couch. I really don't know if its for the night or if its the entire time they're there, but regardless all the battlers see this as a low blow. Bringing in someone unexpectedly and giving them stakes to win or lose at?  It surely didn't seem to go over well with the contestants. This definitely opened up their eyes and they knew to be prepared at all times after this happened.

So there you have it, the episode 1 of 4 recap. With this episode setting the tone in what seems to be a very tension filled house, we'll see how many surprises not only Slaughterhouse, but the battlers bring as well. A fist fight maybe?  Some more insane antics from Daylyt that the battlers seem not to appreciate?  Will we see more unexpected guests?  How about more egos clashing?  We know the latter will happen at least. Stay tuned for episode 2 Wednesday at midnight if you're lucky enough to get Fuse TV. If you do, just know that I envy you, you lucky bastards. If not, then stay tuned for episode 2 online next Monday, and a recap right here shortly thereafter.

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

The Road to Total Slaughter: Meet the Contestants

Battle rap has not gotten the recognition it deserves. I myself would know because well, I haven't known about any of these battle rap contestants in all my years of listening. That is at least until now. If Slaughterhouse has done anything in their years of being on the music scene, its making syllabic, thought provoking rhymes relevant again, and they're about to take things to the next level. Welcome to Total Slaughter: a competitive battle rap league set to name the best emcee out there. Not only do we get the privilege of watching these wonderful wordsmiths work, but we also get to see Slaughterhouse member Joe Budden show why he deserves his spot in the most lyrical group in rap music altogether. With Budden set to battle Hollow Da Don and the headlining match up of Loaded Lux vs. Murda Mook, this is surely set to be one for the ages. But lets shift our focus to the contestants who need to earn their spot in the main event. These guys will be the focus on the Road to Total Slaughter.

First up, Daylyt. Now this guy is an interesting one. Originating in Watts, California, there is never a dull moment in the ring with him. He tells interviewers he wants to be a "gimmick rapper," and he certainly lives up to his claim. His energetic delivery, great punch lines and never taking anything seriously type attitude will definitely bring a different perspective to the league. Any battle of his will definitely put on a show, as he likes to put on a black ski mask, sometimes even making his opponents do the same, and just rap!  His skill level is what should be focused on though, and if he's not taking it seriously as he says he's not, it'd certainly be a scary result for the opponent if he finally does decide to take it seriously.

Next up is the ever confident Math Hoffa. His smooth, cool, calm and collected style is something to marvel at, and he's been called an underdog, and one who could win it all. The thing about Hoffa's style in particular is his lack of lyrical, power-packed punch lines, but he makes up for it in severity of how personal his lines hit against his opponents. Claiming he "doesn't lie in his raps," he has been said to be one to perform well with the odds against him.

Now we come to Arsenal. From Newark, NJ, he is probably one of my choices to win it all, just from seeing the emphasis of his punch lines in his battle against Shotty Horroh, as it is evident they both get more personal and more fed up with each other after every round, definitely worth a watch in my book. Arsenal is known for his in your face, kill you, murderous type battle raps as it is clear to see in the Shotty Horroh battle. He is very lyrical, and is definitely one to make you think with his lines, look out for this guy!

Next up we have the one and only Aye Verb from St. Louis, MO. His style can be classified as "ignorant, braggadocios rap, as he is very cocky and confident in his abilities. He holds a lot of extra in the tank and can turn it on when he needs to. But like any good reality tv character, I expect more attention to be drawn to his personality in Total Slaughter.

This next guy is a big one, literally he is Big T from Chicago, Il. Looks are definitely deceiving, but lend him your ears and you shall not be sorry. His power packed flow is topped only by his haymaker like punch lines, seemingly every line is one to end you, and as he draws in the crowd he only gets better. His flow is endless, his wordplay is flawless and his simile and metaphor game is on point. If there's one contestant that will make you think about what he's saying in this competition, my pick is Big T. A quiet favorite of mine to win it all.

Cortez is up next, reigning from Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, NY. Another deceiving contestant just from looks, but his great punch lines and energy build up by round and definitely makes him a sleeper. His energy is a big part of his rap, as his main favorite topics are street tough, killing, gansta-like raps. Another underdog who can turn it on when he needs to, in my opinion.

Next we have Dizaster, the one and only. Reigning from Los Angeles, CA, this guy's track record shows with his defeats and his experience, and his performance itself shows no limits. A very descriptive rhymer who can get to his opponent with personal content, he is very lyrical and can adapt to any sort of flow, and once he gets going its very hard to stop his energetic, in your face sort of rhymes. A decent pick to win it all if he can get the crowd on his side like he's used to.

 Last but certainly not least, is Marv Won from the dirty D, Detroit, MI. Interesting candidate due to his friendship with Royce Da 5'9, and hailing from one of the most decorated rap originating cities in Detroit. His style definitely differentiates from the rest, as he doesn't seem to use energy to get the crowd on his side. His smooth, laid back flow is a very nice change of pace. But it's best to pay attention to what he says, as his smooth, clever punch lines and underrated flowing ability are only topped by his evident confidence shown in his rhymes.

Well this here is just the intro to a battle rap fan's wet dream. Despite not being maybe the biggest fan, or having any real knowledge of the style myself, I must admit I'm very excited to see how all of this plays out, especially since the man Marshall Mathers is at the helm. Who knows what could happen?  All this ego, all this skill and intensity colliding, anything can happen. Stay tuned for more posts as the show goes on.