Scenes From The "Summer Madness 5" PGs

The main stage battlers weren't the only ones to surpass expectations at "Summer Madness 5." The 2015 PG class stepped up big time in a small room in New York's Lower East Side on Sept. 27, drawing an enthusiastic crowd that included recognizable names like T-Top, Brizz Rawsteen, Tink Da Demon, Kaboom, Danja Zone, Conceited, Tay Roc, Beasley, Smack, Norbes and more.

The tryouts on the card showed the depth of the New York talent pool, which keeps growing thanks to the half-dozen active development leagues, and featured reps from Texas, North Carolina, Illinois, New Jersey and the DMV to help round out the line-up.

BattleRap.com was in the building and got a ton of interviews and photos. First though, some quick recaps of the standout battles.

Cortez vs. Cyssero

This one-off URL battle was supposed to be the night's grand finale, and hopes were high that Philly vet Cyssero would make a statement in his modern-era debut/return to battle rap. His first round set the pace nicely, with some percussive gun bars that got the (occasionally hostile) crowd going.

That was the problem though — several times when he got a reaction, it threw him off his verse, which meant that whenever he built some momentum, he quickly lost it again and had to start from scratch. Not the ideal strategy for someone whose strongpoint is his flow.

He slipped a bit in his first and second, but it probably would've been forgiven if it wasn't for his third, which stalled after one line. He repeated his opening bar about 10 times while trying to remember the rest of his verse, and then kind of pieced some more lines together before eventually ending the round.

Cortez did what Cortez does, making it look easy for three flawless rounds. We'll see if he can escape the curse of The Vault.

Battles Of The Night

Ave vs. Nunn Nunn

This one shook the room repeatedly, and deservedly so. Virginian emcee Ave has been building his name in smaller leagues since before his still-unreleased SM4 PG with Genocide, but he was a gatling gun in this one, spitting haymaker after haymaker with heavy aggression similar to the way Shotgun Suge has been cooking on the main stage lately.

And take note: the dude can rap.

Nunn Nunn did his best to match Ave's aggression and punchlines and definitely had the more complex structure, but it was the tricks he had up his sleeve that got the biggest reaction.

After Ave slandered Nunn Nunn's girl in his round, she actually jumped into the battle for a surprise 2-on-2 antic. The crowd went BANANAS, forcing the pair to restart the verse several times. It may not have quite the same effect on camera (especially now that we've ruined the surprise for you, so, uh, spoiler alert) but in the building the crowd loved it.

http://instagram.com/p/8JblPsMTtp/?taken-by=battlerapdotcom

Hopefully Steams was in frame for the footage because his reactions to the battle sum up the feeling in the room.

http://instagram.com/p/8JdF69sThS/?taken-by=battlerapdotcom

Also, Nunn Nunn proposed to his girl between the end of the battle and the start of this interview. Watch the two of them talk about it here:

Haixian vs. Mike P

This was the second battle of the night, and the first on many "match-ups to watch" lists. Mike P is one of the more charismatic up-and-comers right now, and is getting to be more famous for his Facebook blogs than his battles, but that should change once this footage drops. Here's a taste:

http://instagram.com/p/8JUdtfMTsC/?taken-by=battlerapdotcom

Haixian's bar-heavy approach was a standout at the NOME5 PGs, and the strength of that performance got him another look here. He's also been getting some high-profile co-signs from Danja Zone and Ty Law.

The battle was probably 1-1 going into the third with both guys getting better as they warmed up. Haixian slipped in his last round but it shouldn't be enough to impede the battle from getting released.

We talked to both emcees post-battle. Mike told us he's signed with URL now so expect to see more of him in the future.

The Interviews

In our past PG coverage, we've posted the Top 5 Standout PGs, but we missed too many of the battles doing interviews to make a proper judgement. The names that rang out the most in conversation were the ones above, as well as Scotty, Dre Dennis, Brooklyn Carter and Mo Mulaa.

Though we didn't catch all the battles, we did talk to most of the battlers. These guys could be the future of URL, so get to know them now so you can call all the other fans out for being bandwagon-jumpers once they get famous.