Mistah F.A.B. vs. Arsonal: What To Expect

Okwerdz breaks down the main event for "Battle Of The Bay 7."

For this preview piece, BattleRap.com reached out to Stockton emcee Okwerdz, who battled Arsonal at BOTB4 and who is familiar with Mistah F.A.B.'s Bay Area credentials.

Mistah F.A.B. vs. Arsonal is FINALLY going down on Jan. 23 at KOTD's "Battle of the Bay 7" in Oakland. This battle is years in the making, spawning (I believe) from some tweets in 2012 by a promoter friend in Sweden and then almost happening at UW's "High Stakes" event last year.

It's Da Rebel's turn to get the industry artist he deserves and he's in for the fight of his life. He's up against one of the most successful emcees to have a background in battling and the match has potential to be the best crossover battle yet.

These two couldn't be more perfect opponents for each other either. They're both known for high-energy, animated performance, rhyme patterns, charisma, comedy, disrespect, endurance and effortless freestyle ability. Though they are very different emcees overall, it's still almost like a weird mirror match.

Arsonal has been active in the written format for years so he'll definitely have an advantage in the experience department and in dealing with that crowd. But F.A.B. also has his own dangerous upper hand with the element of surprise. Industry artist or not, we never truly know what anybody is going to do after a long hiatus or in their first time stepping into the format, an unpredictability that adds mystique to any battle. Make no mistake, this is going to be one very loud, long, technical and disrespectful bout that shouldn't be one-sided either way.

Mistah F.A.B. Mistah F.A.B.

For those not familiar with Mistah F.A.B.'s body of work, he is a Bay Area general — someone who has influenced me in terms of where you can really get from battle rap. It's a big deal for the culture that he is returning to the ring. This guy is on a very fucking successful Snoop Dogg SINGLE w/ Too Short for fuck's sake, he's got numerous radio smash hit records of his own out here with a fan-base/status to match, and even more recently has ghostwritten a handful of your favorite artists' biggest singles of last year ... Among way too many other things to list.

So yeah, he's done some cool shit musically, but what about battles you ask? Let's not forget that he torched Royce Da 5'9 in NYC off the top, battled Jin at an import car show (basically suicide for anyone else), and won consecutive a cappella battles on KMEL (one of the biggest radio stations in the country), which helped his music break on the radio the way that it did. The format may be a little different since the last time he stepped in, and that may or may not effect him this time around, but I know F.A.B. is such a well-rounded emcee and fan of the sport that he will adapt accordingly. Much respect to him for even being willing to still do a battle and put his status on the line regardless of who wins.

Photo by Valerie Sakmary for BattleRap.com. Photo by Valerie Sakmary for BattleRap.com.

Arsonal has become somewhat of a Battle Of The Bay (and MOB) staple himself after classic battles with me, Conceited, and the infamous one-rounder with Dizaster, so he should still be very well received even if he is battling F.A.B. in the Bay. The event being in Oakland can actually work for and against him: on one hand, it is F.A.B.'s hometown and he'll have many loyal fans in the building. On the other it's also where he's the most known, so personals can be much more effective in that situation, which is why I get the feeling he may go that route even more than usual. One thing we know about Ars is, hate him or love him, he's always consistent with the level of performance he puts on, so I expect no different from him on the 23rd.

Bars aside, any match-up like this raises the question: "Will the industry artist be able to handle the battle environment?" Let's just get that out of the way now. Out of all the industry artists I envision doing well in a modern battle, I can't really think of one that would be more comfortable on that stage than F.A.B. No matter what happens in this battle I can say with 100% confidence that F.A.B will not choke or be underwhelming like the others, even if he somehow forgets all of his bars, his unmatched freestyle skill would find a way to still make a show out of it. It's what he does.

Since this battle was first conceived, there has been a lot of trash talk between the two emcees via Twitter, YouTube, Sway in the Morning, the "Ether" event and even between them privately, so there's been more than enough hype and build-up for this one. I remember F.A.B. telling me and Diz that he would wake up in the morning and text fucked up videos to Arsonal and thinking to myself that this battle is going to be hilariously personal and disrespectful.

Just look at them go at it:

It's hard to pick a winner for this one. The match has the backstory, the chemistry and everything else needed to produce a classic on paper, so don't count either one of these guys out. I've been friends with F.A.B. and Ars for many years so I'm excited to see how it all plays out and I wish them both the best of luck!

The city of Oakland is buzzing, the stage is set, and the only thing left to do is get your tickets or find out where you're watching that PPV and hope we get some creative bus driver jokes from BOTH sides for a change haha! See you there!

Who do you have taking it? Let us know in the comments section below.

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