Post-Battle Breakdown: Head I.C.E vs. Serius Jones

Yo, have you ever been to a barbecue or family holiday function and watched your drunk uncles go back and forth over who was that nigga back in the day?

Make said back-and-forth rhyme and you have Head I.C.E vs. Serius Jones from KOTD's "Blackout 5." Not even playing. I showed this battle to my homegirl and shorty woke up the next day with chest hair and an Adam's apple. Why? Well...

Head I.C.E

Ice uses his bars to slap the life out of battlers. Like "Kung Fu Hustle" palm-print-in-the-ground type shit. His strength is his ability to grab your attention. He may not be the most lyrical battler, but that doesn't make his content any less dangerous. When Ice battles, you listen. You wait for the grittiness and grime and of course his wit.

Serius Jones

I'd personally like to know why he isn't given more credit. Jones came back and, if you realistically think about it, he hasn't lost. His lyricism comes off as unorthodox which works in his favor because he hits you with setups that somehow fit. Think of a puzzle piece that you think won't fit and then it somehow does and you have Serius' rapping structure. And that makes him dangerous. He beat clips "debatably." He beat Daylyt. He would've been Math if it weren't for the punch. He's been on a warpath since he came back and I'm not mad at it.

So when they took to the stage, I had a feeling this battle was gonna be the most underrated. Top 3 of the event if you ask me. This battle made me put on some old Wu Wear jeans, grab some Mad Dog 20/20, cop some mid and a buy an Optimo cigar. This battle IS grown man bars. You shouldn't even be able watch this on YouTube unless you're 21 yo. So let's get into the battle.

Related: Check out the battle and the lyrics.

Round 1

Head ICE

That grit is there with a Method Man "Ice Cream" flip. If you're under 25, this shit went over your head. Ice comes with that wit he's known for with a Fruit Loop nutrition facts bar and the Charles Hamilton line was fierce. Ice has his moments where he tends to ramble a bit and it effects his buildups more than anything, but he makes up for it with haymakers that you don't expect. The "Soul Plane" flip was a good setup and transitioned into the Lush line really well. This first round of Ice's wasn't anything ridiculously spectacular, but it set the tone off right.

Serius Jones

Serius starts with a setup that I can rock with. Ice kinda is like the uncle that just got out of jail and that's his appeal in a sense but Serius made it into a good bar. He gets relentless and consistently fires rapid shots about the WOLF acronym. Serius is E Honda 100-hand slapping Ice in the mouth with these punches right now. Serius is using drug flips that the crowd is trying to get but he might as well be speaking Martian at this fucking point. The silence lets me know off rip that the crowd isn't getting the references. The ice box line was fire. This round wasn't the best one but I'm not mad at it. Serius won this round.

Round 2

Head Ice

Ice opens up with disrespect. Wouldn't expect any less. Here's where Ice gets under your skin and just yells out shit like he has Tourette's yo. It's random at times but pieced together well and reminds me of a wino who KNOWS the liquor store owner doesn't do credit, but he's gonna yell at the nigga like it's a new rule REGARDLESS of who's in the store.

And here comes the grown man bars. This round is not for niggas with high-top fades and leopard jeggings with Similac on their breath. Drake had a beard and a deeper voice after this Ice round was done. The desert eagle/hawk line was amazing as well, and went into the stepbrothers flip smoothly. This round of Ice's was incredible.

Serius Jones

Where Ice used his persona to get his bars across, Serius used his bars to get his personals across. There are a lot of lines the crowd is missing like the "Don't Be A Menace/Ashtray" line. There's a four bar stretch of 90s references that I thought were amazing, but the crowd doesn't catch them. I'm not knocking the crowd but this round is for the nostalgic heads. The ones who had seeds in their weed and said "I'll just deal with the headache later yo."

The drug bag flips were pretty dope and Serius is a bit more rapid-fire than he has been in past battles. Mid-round freestyle rebuttals are usually Serius's strength but here led to a few stumbles and cause him to fall flat. I gave this round to Ice.

Round 3

Head Ice

Ice gets into story mode and the crowd falls silent. Listening to every word as he paints a picture. I know there's a Lux metaphor somewhere in there but I'm not gonna be predictable. Leads to a Jacob the Jeweler line. Word. The super nigga flips are working and we get into Juice references. I'm feeling old because I know these references. Front to back. There's a bit of rambling/filler going on in this round, but honestly it wouldn't be an Ice battle if he didn't do that and it leads to an OJ line. His filler works. But sometimes his builds just don't work.

Serius Jones

Serius hits with a rebuttal and gets his round started off right. Serius starts a Jersey battler scheme that does well, and ends it with a KOTD flip. There's a LOT of flips in this battle. At least they're not name flips. The 'Ice knot' line was creative in its own right and Serius is hitting pretty well. There's a lot of schemes in this one. I'm not necessarily mad at them but ok. We get it. It's a scheme. It doesn't fit Serius well to me if he keeps doing them. He's usually more into rapid-fire spitting with bits of wordplay thrown in. But at least it wasn't on some Ah Di Boom "nah son, I'm gonna MAKE this shit make sense even though it doesn't and rape basic wordplay principles" shit. But in all seriousness, Serius won this round to me.

Final Thoughts

That was Serius Jones vs. Head I.C.E...

...

And dammit I have a fucking tweet to retract.

I tweeted that Ice beat Serius 2-1 when it was the other way around. I can admit being wrong. I can see younger fans not really feeling this battle. But this was battle rap's version of two old school heads arguing over a dice game 15 years ago yo. I can see the debates flying over this one and it's generally a preference battle which can make it a debatable, but Serius went harder here and walked away with the W to me. He's better on KOTD. This league brings out more source material you can use to write your bars with. I wish the URL battlers would see that a bit more and write better rounds.

If anyone is going to Don't Flop ATL this weekend, come through and let's politic. I wanna hear your thoughts on this shit.

I'm Majin and I'm out. Peace.

Photos by Dan Gibs and Zach Macphoto for KOTD.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below.