Aklas vs. Loonie

Even if you don't speak the language, this battle from the Philippines that hit 1 million views in less than a week is still worth a look.

Who: Aklas vs. Loonie
Where: FlipTop's "Ahon 5" at San Juan Gym, N. Domingo, San Juan City, Metro Manila, Philippines
When: Dec. 20, 2014

Since this battle isn't in English, we reached out to FlipTop boss Anygma for an explanation of what's going on.

BattleRap.com: Who are these guys?

Anygma: Loonie - only the most viewed battle rappers on the planet. One of the pioneers of FlipTop, one of the more tenured artists in and out of battle rap, and has achieved somewhat of a The Saurus status over here in that his style has been adopted and butchered by too many aspiring emcees and even emcees that have already made it to the league.

Aklas - resident leftfield emcee of the league. Has come from being one of the more hated, acquired-taste performers to, well, acquired-taste crowd favorite. Was the first tournament champion of FlipTop and is one of the more seasoned battlers of the league, having battled in all major island-group cities, and then some. Very unorthodox (non-standard battle rap) style.

What's at stake in this battle? 

Nothing is really at stake here. Loonie just hadn't battled in two and a half years and Aklas was an unlikely match-up for his 'return' battle given his unorthodox style, and despite being the first (one-on-one) tournament champion of the league.

What are they rapping about?

They're rapping about a lot of things really, haha. I'll try to summarize.

Loonie is saying that Aklas has been possessed by a demon of which he tries to exorcise in the first round (even raps a few lines in latin), a meth head, has bad breath, is a waste of time (despite having personally picked him as an opponent), is mentally challenged, a drugged out parking attendant, a talented snatcher (colloquial term for thief or pickpocket), doesn't even look like a living thing, looks like one of our recently deceased local celebrities, doesn't eat or sleep, his bones are even bigger than his body fat, tries to break down a bit of his style and also tries to outdo his style.

Aklas is saying that Loonie sticks to his arguably mass appeal formula, doesn't bring anything new or experiemental to the table, is also a meth head, is pretty crazy for picking him as his opponent but still not as crazy as his own self, is a pussy for making the battle promo, should also be dead since Loonie has been labelled the right-hand man of one of our local pioneers that passed away from lukemia a few years ago, that he himself is an alien and is only here to colonize the planet, was considering abducting Loonie to make him join his alien army until he realized that Loonie wasn't unique enough to be an alien, and a lot of absurd imagery and punchlines, a lot of insane albeit absurd rebuttals.

Why is it doing so many views on YouTube?

Loonie is the most viewed battle emcee, hasn't battled in two and a half years so his return was heavily anticipated, the match up was unexpected but the style clash was perfect, I'm sure the antics also helped, and yeah, it takes two to make a real classic battle. Loonie is also able to draw back a significant majority of the fair-weather fans that don't really stay updated with the league.

Who won? Let us know in the comments below.

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