Jefferson Price vs Caustic

Jefferson Price vs Caustic has to be without a shadow of a doubt one of the most face covering, cringe watch, have to watch it again to believe it battles I have ever watched on Youtube the second for me that comes remotely close on Don’t Flop is Unanymous vs Villun.

Where Villun mentions Unan’s mum’s drug addiction. I will mention that in another post. Back to the matter at hand.

This battle took place on Don’t Flop’s 4th Birthday, in which we saw Jefferson Price  face off against American battle Caustic. Now Before hearing about this battle I had never heard of either battler so was an interesting battle to watch. I had heard it referenced as I later found out after watching this battle the first time that another Don’t Flop battler called Soul, after the battle jumped on stage and punched Caustic before receiving a 5 month ban from Don’t Flop as a result.

Jefferson Price kicked off the battle, his first round was about how Caustic apparently never really takes battles that were a challenge but, Jeff was going to make sure to give him a challenge. This  would mark Caustic’s second appearance in Don’t Flop.  In his opening Jeff addressed that he was excited to finally be given and international appearance with a 7-7 record in Don’t Flop he felt it was about time to be given one.

He then thrown a little personal ball into play, talking about how Hockey (what they American’s called Field Hockey) and how both the sport and Caustic are played by women. 

He then mentioned that he has better stage presence and rhyme schemes than Caustic. In summary Jefferson Price’s round were comedic and full of nice and funny punchlines.

Caustic started off his first round similar to Price in comedy lines along with jokey punchlines for example mentioning that Jeff’s girl i fat and that whenever Price has sex with her his dick keeps sliding out. Then went on to compare his girl to the American White house by saying that she doesn’t have a bush but theres a black guy in there now. Which I thought was a pretty hilarious comparison but kinda peak on Jeff.

He then compared Price’s girl’s vagina being as deep compared to a female battle rapper on Don’t Flop called Deekay, who does indeed have quite a deep voice for a female.

In Jeff’s second round he rebutted how Caustic referred to his girl’s vagina as a white house and how just because America finally voted  in a black president (Obama) that they have reached the 21st Century and are now forward thinking in terms of race& politics, Jeff mentioned how the UK had Margret Thatcher as a Prime Minister and she was of a posh background, was fat and was a woman, now that is forward thinking as now the UK have more woman fighting to be Prime Minister where compared to America still have a majority of Men campaigning to be President.

Caustic’s second round I felt wasn’t as strong a Jefferson Price’s as it was pretty much the same as his first round, he mentioned his girl again but then talked about  had good jokes and nice punchlines, but was weak compared to his first round. What stood out for me the most was when he mentioned how Price paid for Caustic’s flight as Jeff thought it would be a way to gain more views if he flew out an international opponent, it seemed that Caustic thought this was a lame attempt to show that someone is a top tier battler. Another that has sprung to mind was how Caustic addressed how even though another US battle rapper Soul Khan helped Price write for this Jeff will always be shit in Caustic’s eyes and that’s what happens when you rely on a jew to give you a better price, I thought that was pretty clever a bit deep on Jewish people who are viewed as very tight with money.

*Now the third round is where shit hits the fan, and the rap battle world blew up.*

What’s bad about this was I can’t even remember Jefferson Price’s third round as the bomb that Caustic dropped just stole the whole third round and battle. I had to youtube the battle to try and remember if there was anything that stood out for me in Price’s third. Price mentioned  how Caustic is known for destroying rappers and outdoing them, linking back to his first round about how he will be a challenge for Caustic. If only Jeff knew that this was just the calming before the storm.

Now it was time for Caustic’s last round AKA The shit storm.  He started off by saying how someone has told Jeff what Caustic’s third round was going to be, so Jeff has called price up and begged him not to use the material he planned on using in his third round, but during the battle he thought screw it as he wasn’t going to change the kind of rapper he is. He said that he may have talked to Daniel Stefani yesterday (Caustic’s real name) but now he is dealing with Caustic referring to Caustic is his stage name so completely different person.

He then went and dropped the pipe bomb. About how Jefferson Price has cheated on his girl with two other girls respectively and now he will have to live with the guilt of having cheated, as soon as he dropped that you could see Jeff’s body language and facial expression changed as he had just been exposed, he went from a facial expression of enjoyment to that of a mixture of embarrassment and guilt and I'm not quite sure if it was the lighting in the building or on the camera but I’m sure he went even whiter.

He concluded his final round saying the thing he has learnt from being in the UK is never say you're rhymes to Mickey Worthless,  Saying that Mickey was the one who told Price about Caustic’s their round angle, then went on to say that Price has had sex with random strippers and the one thing you can’t do is put a price on love.

In conclusion to this battle. For those who have watched the battle before and knew what the aftermath was Jefferson Price retired from battle rap, as mentioned before Soul punched Caustic after the battle and got banned for 5 months, Caustic I would like to say body bagged  Price but that wouldn’t be the word he “killed” Jefferson Price.

on verse tracker the IMDB version for battle rappers it says under achievements and awards that Caustic got the award in 2013 for bodybag of the year against Price.

He then battled Soul two years later at Don’t Flop’s 7th Birthday and beat Soul 3-0 due to Soul’s major second round choke and was unable to produce a strong third round. Everyone jokingly expected Jefferson Price to make a surprise appearance in Soul’s second round, sadly this didn’t happen.

Quill V Harry Baker - Gaming bars ONLY battle

Don’t Flop hosted a battle between Quill and Harry Baker in a gaming bars only battler. The title pretty much explains itself.

This was my first Don’t Flop video that I had seen Harry Baker and Quill in. I didn’t know about Harry or Quill before this battle. I soon got a taste of what style the battlers come with respectively.

Both battlers brought their own unique flow to the showdown as they referenced current and old school games  ranging from Sims all the way to Space Invaders.  Harry Also referenced himself in the battle addressing the fact that he is also a poet and a published author. 

On a side note his book entitled ‘The Sunshine Kid’ is very cleverly written, with a mixture or  haikus, poems, and a bit of rap. The book also draws great imagery for the reader. I would never have come across this book if it wasn’t for this battle.

Back to the battle, the bars that both Quill and Harry came with drew positive reactions from the crowd, even though it was just one round each it was a perfect. As most of Don’t Flop battles are two battles aiming to out perform the other with punchlines, schemes and rebuttals. Don’t get me wrong I love those kind of battles as well but, it was nice to see a different type of battle as Harry and Quill weren't taking the battle too seriously and were just having fun.

My favourite  bar from Quill was, ‘I’m here to try angles (triangles)…..That’s Lara Croft boobies.’  as well as his verse where he describes making Don’t Flop on sims and creating, Tony D, Lunar C, Shotty Horroh and even Erugh.

Also a honourable mention the lines where Quill explains that when it comes to Pokemon games you are only certified if its Red, Blue or Yellow. Which is true, I will hold my hands up the first Pokemon game I played was Pokemon Crystal……. I know utter sin.Should of started with the original three.

A couple of my favourite bars from Harry was,  when he started off his turn saying that he played Dance Mat with Shotty Horroh, and tweaking Shotty’s intro to fit in with his verse. Explaining that he didn’t expect him to show up, but they didn't have that much to talk about but when the screen showed up they had a showdown  for all of the crowd. Which was met with many laughs from the crowd.

My favourite bar of his was when he told Quill he was going to be his own personal Space Invader while stepping close to him.

It was a good thing this was an un judged battle as for me it would of been really hard to decide who would of won. Maybe in the future Don’t Flop could do another gaming bars only battle and have a winner be decided  at the end of it, as it would not only be great to see what bars and games the battlers come with but it would add a bit of competition to the battle.

Shuffle T & Marlo V Big J & Lefty - Compliments battle

This is my first blog post of my favourite rap battles. This is one of my favourite matches to watch on YouTube,  I can imagine its not easy to write lyrics dissing your opponent but writing bars and verses complimenting them, may sound easy on paper but I'm pretty sure its a lot harder than you might think.

Lets kick it off shall we. on the left of the screen stands Shuffle T & Marlo. What make this duo unique is not only the style that they come with and their ability to feed off one another which makes for a great tag team. It is the fact that they don’t look like your average rappers that have grown up in rough areas from all over the UK, They are two middle class friends  who have performed comedy sketches together.

An article in The Guardian news paper have said how most rappers prefer to keep their personal lives separate from the rap battle scene, but both Shuffle and Marlo use this to their advantage and use the middle class white rapper as their gimmick and Unique Selling Point which would be seen as face palming and silly but the fact that these two can actually deliver good punchlines as well as comedic ones makes the fans can’t help but love watching them perform.

So much so, that they have even appeared in a video of them attending a guy’s wedding after finding out from the guy’s wife-to be that he was a massive fan of battle rap, and decided to surprise him by having them perform at the wedding.

On the right  stand Big J & Lefty.  Another comedic duo that work incredibly well together and each brining a different element and style, Big J known for his one liner and jokey style of rap whereas Lefty is known more for his flow and tight lines when it comes to his bars and verses.

These two going two on two would make for a classic,  as both tag team are known for their wit and deliveries. As of today the battle has 449, 941 views on YouTube. I felt this was a great match up  as any duo match with Shuffle and Marlo or Big J and Lefty is hilarious. For these reasons Shuffle and Marlo’s styles compared to other two on two teams out there are completely unique and clever, where as Big J and Lefty I like the whole one has flow and tight bars and the other brings the humour which makes them a great tag team as well.

This was a compliments battle, so would be interesting to see how each team would approach it. It took place at the Brixton Jam in brixton in 2013. I had been watching Shuffle and Marlo and Big J and Lefty’s duo battles respectively on youtube for someone time before coming across this battle, I think both rappers are Dope.

Big J and Lefty were first up.  They straight away showed their different rap styles, with Big J showing his one lines with “ Marlo you are such a G that if you went Jamaica for a week they would let you say cha and wablo.” The duo then went on to talk about Shuffle’s shoes proclaiming that they looked like slippers, flippers before settling with the shoes were just different.

One of my favourite lines from Big J was when he talked about Shuffles long coat saying “I want to rock that long coat. I want to buy that long coat…….Give me that long coat.” which had the crowd cracking up in laughter.  Lefty brought the crowd to laughter this his comedic line of “Catching Marlo in a rave, cutting shapes to Sugarbabes.” This particularly had me in hysterics as I can just picture Marlo doing exactly that.

Big J once again with his comedic bars of “I saw your gran cross the road, so I helped her cross, yeah I did that. Then I stuck out a cheeky leg and tripped her up, then looked around like who the fuck did that. Then because I am such a nice guy I helped her up. Gave her, her false teeth  and her wig back then said sorry love I can’t believe that guy just did that.” Once again had me in fits of laughter.

I like the way Big J and lefty work as Lefty start off with the flow then Big J then jumps and and finishes it off with a one liner.

Shuffle and Marlo  kicked their turn off with the Joke of saying “I get to hang with the popular lads, like I promised my dad.” playing off the whole geeky, nerdy and middle class gimmick they use so well.

Shuffle then compared himself to Lefty saying how he copied his dress sense, playing off Marlo’s bar of hanging with the popular lads, by addressing the fact that they might not have been that popular at school so he jokingly said he dresses the same as Lefty as a way of fitting in.

Shuffle and Marlo then displayed  how well they can work and feed off one another lines such as in addressing Big J’s daughter. Marlo: “When your daughter is 18, she will be a strong, self sufficient….” Shuffle: “Independent person G.” Marlo: “Even thought she went need a bloke, we just hope she finds someone who will treat her……” Shuffle: “With respect and courtesy.”

The verse that had me rolling on the floor with laughter was when Shuffle  cringingly went a tad bit umm not sure how to say it, a tad bit out there? with the verse “I sure that J is fucking turning me gay.” then finished the verse with  saying how he wants to feel Big J’s sperm on his face. Although it was an out there line it still had me in stitches.

The reason this is one of my favourite rap battles is purely because  of the comedy that  both teams bring when complimenting each other, also the different styles that the teams bring with Big J and lefty brining tight flows and one liners to the table where as Shuffle and Marlo bring comedy, witty punchlines and angles  and the way they feed off one another is brilliant.

Don't Flop 7BW

On November 14th I attended my first EVER rap battle even, Don’t Flop’s 7th Birthday at Ministry of Sound in South East London.

I would say it was one of the best experiences of my life so far. Watching and experiencing  those kind of rap battles on YouTube doesn’t even come close to experiencing it LIVE. The moment I saw the event advertised on Facebook, I knew I had to attend as soon as I had purchased and paid for my ticket I was hyped for the event.

Since this was my first ever rap battle event I decided to get there ridiculously early and even got a retweet from the Don’t Flop twitter page. At least they acknowledged my dedication and readiness. I arrived at Elephant and Castle tube at 7am, yes you read that right 7am, after going the wrong way, that is the last time I ask the first person I see I had to back track and after the third person I asked and he pointed me in the right direction, I was set. I arrived at the venue at 7.42am.

I was the first one there, after standing around listening to my iPod, I will admit it was not rap, although the only rap songs I had on my little iPod shuffle was ‘Major’ by Shotty Horroh ft. $ha from the album Sixteen Minutes Past 3 and ‘Just Sayin’ again by Shotty Horroh off the Mosh Team latest mixtape ‘MWO Mixtape.’ I eventually decided to get some breakfast in me as a single can of Monster energy drink was not going to last me, so I headed to the nearest shop I could find which was a Tesco Express, after spending £3 on a sandwich (BLT), a drink (Lucozade, another energy drink) and a packet of crisps  I devoured the meal deal in under a minute.

By that time it was around 8.35, still the only one there. Looking back on it maybe arriving at the venue for 8.30 would of probably been the best thing to do. after chilling by myself as none of my friends like battle rap, I finally saw another person, after a brief awkward ‘Umm, are you here for Don’t Flop?’ and I replied with ‘Yep’ we struck up a little conversation of which particular battle we were most looking forward to and both gave the same answer of Shotty Horroh vs Charlie Clips.

His friend rolled up in there car, and he then left me again to be by myself just when I thought I had found a friend, he deserts me now I know how Wilson must of felt in Castaway when Tom Hanks deserted him and left him to be carried away by the ocean.

Finally it rolled to after 9am and more people had arrived, I struck up another conversation and made some event buddies meaning those kind of  people you make friends with and talk to at the event then by the time it ends you part way never to see them again.

The doors opened at 14.10. After one of the guys I had met offered to buy me a cheeky beer which i graciously accepted, then 5 minutes later we were allowed into the main arena where the stage was. I will still incredibly excited for this. I made sure I got towards to front, as getting up at 6am and not getting toward the front was not going to happened on my watch.

The first battle to kick off the 7th Birthday was for the best newcomer which saw Heretic vs Craft-D. I didn’t know much about Craft-D and had only watched one Heretic battle  on YouTube and that was when he mentioned the name of the welsh town as one of his bars. After some very good bars said in all three rounds by both artist, the judges scored it 4-1 in favour of Heretic. So there we have it ladies and gentleman the best newcomer in Don’t Flop is Heretic.

What a way to kick off the show, the next two to enter the arena was Gemini and Dialect, again not too familiar with Dialect, but had heard that he was good (the comments on YouTube) and Gemini I had only seen his battle against Unan. Both brought a lot of energy to the stage, with great punchlines that had the crowd in laughter. Gemini tore Dialect apart in which I felt was a body bag and a 3-0 win. I have now since been watching a few more of Dialects and Gemini’s battles to get more familiar with them.

The third battle on the card was one I was looking forward to. Charron vs Juan. Now I was pretty familiar with both these battlers but I did not rate Juan, as his voice is so one toned that he could read me a bed time story and I could fall asleep from the opening sentence, but he did have some good bars and his delivery was very good.

Charron was all the way from Canada. I had watched one of his battles from Don’t Flop’s event Check Point 2 where he went one on one against Unan, where after Unan confronted and insulted Villun for being albino. Charron came to Villun’s side then comedically looking to high five Villun then said I will never shake hands with an albino.

As the match got underway, I was surprised with the flips and bars that Juan came with that easily put away Charron what I hoped would be Juan getting body bagged was instead Charron getting bagged instead. Juan’s comeback to when Charron brining up Juan getting pocket checked by Callum back at Sun Burnt 2. Juan then came back with “Why are you checking my pockets? I thought autistics hate change.”  For me I that changed my view on Juan entirely.

I also got to see Rob Wilson as well and cheekily asked him, while pointing at his shoes ‘ What are those!’  like Soljitsu did to him at Sun Burnt 2, at least he laughed it off.

I have now found a new respect for Juan as he battled really well against an international opponent.

I was loving what I had seen so far, and the electricity in the air.

After experiencing many more great battles such as Oshea vs Kid Twist,  Which had the audience in  stitches with the comedic delivery and energy. Another great battle was one of the founding members of Don’t Flop Cruger battling Fresco all the way from USA, although both rapper brought fire to the stage with punchlines and delivery Cruger was just too much for Fresco and easily won the battle 3-0.

Pedro vs Uno Lavoz was a great match up as both rappers come with insane amounts of energy and hard hitting punchlines. what added to the electricity of the battle was the bear brawl between the two, when Lavoz as apart of his gimmick bought someone dressed as Pedro’s mum onto the stage and Pedro didn't take too kindly to it and the two went face to face before it got broken up and they had calmed down.

Raptor vs Pass was going to be a classic match. like Juan I never liked Raptor, as I just felt he was a copy of Shotty although, I do feel sorry for him though being referred to as the carbon copy of Shotty due to lyric flow, and how he dresses. Pass a veteran of the rap battle scene, I still remember his bar against Hollow Da Don on Grind Time “Your Hollow Da Don? NAH! I will Hollow the don, I can’t even see you, you're see through, you're hollow, your gone.” it’s still a bar that  give mea goosebumps.

Raptor has come along way throughout his career as a rap battler, as he although, his punchlines are a lot harder his delivery is a lot better. A particular bar that he said was “ 1,2…1,2….Like a mic check” that bar right there was brilliant.

Pass did show why he was a veteran  and why is one of the top battlers on the scene but I felt that Raptor took the win on this one. If anyone should receive a title shot Raptor should be amongst the names.

Soul vs Caustic, where do I even begin with those two. Three years in the making as it first kicked off when Soul jumped on stage at the 4th Birthday event after Caustic humiliated and exposed Jefferson Price so badly to the point, Price quit the battle rap scene. Everyone has seen the YouTube battle, if not then go check it NOW!. Soul jumped on the stage and punched caustic which resulted in Soul being banned for 5 months.

After a good first round by both Soul and Caustic. When it came to the second round Soul chocked on the delivery of one of his verses, maybe it meant a lot to him so emotionally he couldn't get his verse out, or maybe it was the crowd reaction caused him to choke? Whatever the reason that lost him the match, as you could see that it had annoyed Soul as his third round was weak compared to his first two, and in my opinion resulted in a body bagged and a 3-0 win for Caustic. 

Which let down such a talked about match.

The Final match on the card, after two surprise battles. It marked the end of Shotty Horroh’s rap battling career. His last ride would be against Charlie Clips.

This was another talked about and hyped battle. Both rapper gave it their all and didn’t hold back, after round one was done. I felt Shotty took round one. Round two had a confrontation between Shotty and Clips, as Shotty thought that he was going to get jumped. So his Mosh Team crew  jumped on stage to back him up. Now I am also a huge wrestling fan, and it looked like a meeting  the NWO (as Mosh Team have released MWO t-shirts, homage to the famous stable in professional wrestling NWO) and Nation of Domination.

I am probably going to get a lot of hate for this, but because Shotty flipped out at this, I awarded the second round to Clips. Shotty then bounced back and without a doubt took the third round winning the battle in MY opinion 2-1.

All in all it was an amazing experience to now say I have attended a Don’t Flop event or even to say a rap battle event. Exhausted from being on my feet all day and not having food since 8.35am and not having a drink since 14.10pm. I lost my event buddies on the way out so didn’t even get a chance to say bye.  I then hit the pub and ordered a water, a coke and a strong bow then got on the tube and went home. It took me two days to fully recovered from the event, is that a side effect?

Next event I want to attend is a King Of The Dot event.