Summer Madness weekend kicked off Friday night in front of a crowd of about 75 people, at Harlem's legendary Black Star Music and Video -- the same place Loaded Lux battled Midwest Miles all those years ago.
BattleRap.com was in the building for all of the battles, a few of which featured some breakout performances.
Top Performances
5. Hazey
This spot could've gone to a few different rappers on the night, but it was Hazey's third round that clinched his spot. The Hartford emcee (pictured on the left) brought a comedic angle about the lengths upcoming rappers have to go to for a spot on a SMACK card.
The list of bribes and favors included: buying fries for Norbes, doing Nunu's nails, combing Smack White's beard, and polishing Beasley's head.
This was the last battle of the night, so most of the crowd had already cleared out, but that meant there was more room for some of the remaining fans to literally fall over laughing.
4. Gutta
Austin emcee Gutta was put in a tough spot in his battle against Gjonaj, who tops this list. He never backed down in the face of the stronger opponent, confidently delivering three solid rounds that mixed punches with comedy. It helps that he can really rap too. Had he been up against most other emcees on the card, he would've won.
3. Presidential Dubz
Prezzy caught the body of the night against Yella Mane, whose thick Memphis accent and reference-heavy style made it hard to land many punches. Either way, Prezzy (pictured in white) was getting the win. His delivery was on point and his entertainment value was high. We didn't catch too many quotables, but overall his writing was tight.
2. Tink Tha Demon
Tink is a different kind of beast. While everyone else was spitting gun bars, Tink vividly described how he would torture and kill every member of your family. His first round catalogued the violence he'd inflict on a baby, including anti-freeze in its bottle. His performance had the crowd spazzing and someone compared him to Hannibal Lector.
He had a couple of stumbles when he lost his place after massive audience reactions, but he did enough right to still thoroughly impress.
His opponent Dre Dennis kept pace throughout, making this one of the best battles of the night.
1. Gjonaj
Michigan emcee Gjonaj (pronounced "Jo-Nai") was a revelation last night. His first round lit the crowd on fire over and over, to the point that when it ended someone was shouting "We got two more rounds of this!?" like they'd just won the lottery. His second and third were just as good.
He landed haymaker after haymaker, including one about stabbing Gutta at a red light ("tell yo bitch you got stuck in traffic").
We heard several people compare him to Dizaster, and though his intensity (and skin tone) is similar, his writing and focus in the ring are actually sharper.
It seemed appropriate that after the reaction to his first round died down, we could actually hear drums outside. It felt like he'd somehow summoned the drums of war, but it ended up just being a marching band walking by.
Also of note
In the building: Rain, Charron, Sco, Danny Myers and his wife, KG The Poet, Konshis Pilot, HA Double, Ah Di Boom, Prez Mafia, Sara Kana, Beasley, Smack, Norbes, and probably a bunch more guys from the most recent PG class that we're forgetting.
There was some tension during the Jimz and Bad Newz battle that boiled over into a quickly-broken-up shoving match. Both emcees have a confrontational style and Jimz was taking up a lot of room on the stage during his opponent's round. Newz kept trying to move him back but Jimz stood his ground. When Newz pulled a pocket-check as part of his round, Jimz pushed him and set it off. By the end of the battle, everything was fine and Jimz apologized to the crowd.
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