As the battle movement gains more American momentum and capital with every passing month, Europe is also looking like an optimistic front. Just a week after Don’t Flop celebrated their "Sixth Birthday Weekend," German league Don’t Let The Label Label You donned their party hats for the end of their debut year.
The league is run by the YouTube channel of the same name, which, crucially, did not start off as a battle league but was instead a place for music videos and session content in Germany and the U.K. They have, for example, footage of Don’t Flop’s Ogmios sitting in a tree rapping about being a cat, which already sets them above much of the internet.
Resultingly, one year ago, established U.K. battler JollyJay and DLTLLY co-founder and co-emcee H-to-O set up their league, with the technical running start and attentive following that many other leagues aren’t blessed with from the outset. As testament to that, its first birthday was bustling, lively and rammed with people. It’s been a speedy climb for a league many American battle fans wouldn’t necessarily stumble across.
Photo by Daniel Molenaar for DLTLLY.
Not being a fluent German speaker, much of the content in the non-English clashes was lost on me. But the atmosphere and cadence were the same as a Don’t Flop or KOTD event (although it was far smokier than either, what with the inhalation of pretty much anything being permitted in the venue) and the crowd was a raucous bunch, lapping up as much of the culture as they could get.
I even bore witness to a German 2-on-2 clash — a highlight of the night going by audience volume. The surprising element of the event, at odds with the guttural harshness of spoken German, was that the battlers did not, on a performative level, seem to take the angry approach. There seemed to be much more in the way of self-aware nerdy white comedy rap championed by the U.K. scene. They could’ve been comparing the sizes of their missile launchers and gang credentials without getting angry, though. I’d have no way of knowing.
Photo by Daniel Molenaar for DLTLLY.
The highlight of the night, however, was me rapping. Because I’m brilliant. One Nils m/ Skils was my opponent and we made many raps at each other. I’ll be as impartial as I can possibly be whilst recapping my own battle.
Nils was operating at an even more relaxed pace that he did against Ogmios at the aforementioned 6BW. His material was sharp, simple and hilarious. His flips were abundant and brilliant. I tried to match him on flips, and obviously couldn’t because he's Nils. I feel like I out-wrote him but stumbled a little over some of my flips and simply couldn’t say one of the lines I wrote.
Mos Prob vs. Nils m/ Skils. Photo by Daniel Molenaar for DLTLLY.
That being said, I’m not sure you’ll see more flips in any other battle this year. The battle was verbal ping-pong, and should have great replay value online. It was thankfully received very well by an entire audience (and an opponent) stuck listening in a second language.
Also my jumper was literally fucking awesome.
Prob's battle, as well as the rest of the event, is available on pay-per-view.
DLTLLY // B-Day Battles // PPV - Trailer from DLTLLY on Vimeo.
Photo by Daniel Molenaar for DLTLLY.
What other countries would you like to see start written battle leagues?
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