Tagged: Real Deal

Top 10 battle rappers of 2013

Combo2
[UPDATE: We have a new list that reflects what’s been going on throughout the first six months of 2014. Check it here.]

Here it is, our last list of 2013.

It’s an attempt to boil down every aspect of battle rap culture, by looking at every battler in every league, to find the definitive best battlers of 2013. It is an ambitious task, and it wasn’t an easy one. Our final picks come after much debate among the writers at T.O. Battle Blog, as well as a few expert sounding boards.

The criteria we used to make our choices include: quality, consistency, impact, achievement, frequency of battle, and difficulty of opponent.

We broke it down into a ranked Top 5, a “Next 5″ for numbers 6 though 10 (in no particular order), and a few honorable mentions. The last group could’ve included a lot more people (namely J-Pro and Lotta Zay) but we had to draw the line somewhere.

But enough explanations. You’re here to read about 2013′s top battlers.

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Top 10 KOTD battles of 2013

Bigg K

King of the Dot spent much of 2013 trying to find a balance.

In Toronto, Blackout 3 had the biggest audience a KOTD event had ever seen, but the massive crowd meant that it was difficult to see and hear the battles in the venue. For Vengeance 2, the venue was too big for the smaller crowd and for World Domination 4 the venue was fine but the audio in the footage was hit-or-miss and the crowd was often unruly.

The California division rebuilt the West Coast battle scene to its former glory, providing a platform for both returning legends and a slew of new talent. Each event (Resurgence, Alcatraz and Takeover) showed progression, eventually culminating in the year’s best: Battle of the Bay 6.

Calgary’s Quarantine and Vancouver’s GZGP semi-finals events featured those cities’ best matchups to date and hinted at even bigger things to come.

But as for the battles, KOTD put out more classics than any other league this year. The quality of content from WD4 and BOTB6 was unrivaled and most of the big-name matchups lived up to or exceeded their expectations.

Honestly, picking the 10 best battles from KOTD’s releases this year wasn’t easy, so if your Top 10 list varies from ours, we won’t necessarily say you’re wrong.

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Top 5 Don’t Flop battles of 2013

Marlo vs Shuffle

Don’t Flop has had an incredible year. They continued to develop a strong stable of domestic rappers able to compete with international opponents, and built a massive fanbase. Twice they hit mainstream media coverage, first with the Probposal (currently at 1.6 million views and counting) and again with Micky Worthless bodybagging pop idol James Arthur’s career.

They’ve hosted stacks of international battles, featuring some of the biggest names in battle rap, including Math Hoffa, Conceited, Real Deal, The Saurus, Daylyt and about a dozen more. But as you’ll see from our list, most of the best battles came from U.K. on U.K. matchups.

High-visibility disagreements between Eurgh and a variety of North American MCs clouded the league’s shine and left fans wondering if they’d ever see some of their favourites in Don’t Flop again. Still, it could be the impetus to draw fresh international faces in 2014.

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Top 10 biggest bodybags of 2013

Real Deal vs Tony D flyer courtesy of KOTD
Real Deal vs Tony D flyer courtesy of KOTD

There were a few high-profile, one-sided battles in 2013 – Pass/DNA, O-Red/T-Rex and Shuffle T/Anton Murphy all struck us as clear 3-0s (at least). But decisive wins aren’t enough to make this year’s Biggest Bodybags list. We’re not focusing on how well the winner won, but how badly the loser lost. This list is reserved for performances so dismal that the opposing battler could’ve just stood there laughing and still won. Continue reading →

Battles of the month: October

Remember October? Neither do we. Here’s our (late) take on the best battles to watch.

RONE VS REAL DEAL

This battle was our personal favourite from the WD4 event. The footage… less so. The audio isn’t great, but it is representative of how the battle went down in the venue. It happened around the time the crowd was at its worst, and it speaks to the quality of the performances and content that both battlers were able to reignite the energy in the venue.

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Everything you missed at KOTD’s World Domination 4 (Day 2)

Day 2 of World Domination 4 was another great night of battles, featuring a few classics with definite replay value. Like all big KOTD events, there was a contingent of assholes in the back, so a few battles were affected by an unruly crowd. Regardless, the biggest battles of the night found a receptive audience, and there were no wack performances from the big names, all of whom brought their A-games.

Once again, we watched the battles from the VIP section in front. The event popped off around 8:30 p.m. — which is probably a KOTD record for earliest start time — and it was clear that attendance was higher for Saturday’s edition.

Here’s our breakdown of the Day 2 battles. If you haven’t read our Day 1 recap yet, it’s here. Spoilers ahead:

PAT STAY VS ARCANE

David vs Goliath
David vs Goliath

The title match was significantly closer than most will admit. From the start, it was clear the audience was fucking with Pat heavy. For instance, the crowd went bananas after his first five words: “Arcane, that’s a hard name.”

And the NEW...
And the NEW…

We could see The Saurus saying “It’s over” just barely into Pat’s first round. Pat also pulled out his patented scheme: “He mad right now. Trying to log into PayPal right now. He wants to get the mobile app so bad right now.”

Credit must be given to Arcane for making the battle close. His writing was impeccable, and without the surrounding drama, he might have had a chance. There was a small slip-up in Round 3 from him, which likely gave the judges their reason to unchain him. Either way, it’s Pat’s chain now, and the league is probably relieved to put the Arcane/Caustic/Dizaster situation behind them.

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