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.