Breaking Down The 2014 Battle Rap Awards

So by now you've probably seen our super-feature on the 2014 Battle Rap Awards. If not, read it now.

Despite being incredibly late to the game, I'm happy with how it turned out from an editorial and design standpoint, and we learned a valuable lesson about starting the 2015 awards WAY earlier.

Not everyone agreed with our winners. I didn't even agree with all our winners, but I don't blame the methodology. We had a strong cross-section of experts from all leagues and regions and asked them to name their best. That can mean different things to different people though, and the results showed that.

Congratulations to everyone who won and thanks to everyone who voted. This piece isn't meant to take anything away from them. This is just to show where I'm coming from as the guy who runs this site and to give some insight into how the winners won.

Rookie Of The Year - T-Top

I was part of the 56% majority on this one. T-Top's stock rose like crazy last year, and deservedly so. His delivery and writing put him more in step with the top tier than his PG cohorts and he proved that by stomping through tough competition in Season 3 of "Ultimate Freestyle Friday," the most grueling tournament battle rap has seen yet.

Young B The Future came in second in the category, which speaks to his talent, his potential and the tragedy of his murder.

U.K. Battler Of The Year - Soul

Shotty Horroh won this award with 42% of the panel picking him, but my vote went to Soul.

Knowing that not everyone on our panel follows the U.K. scene as closely as I do, I made the category optional on our survey, but almost everyone still voted, including one person who chose Pat Stay as a write-in candidate.

Sigh.

This could be a case where the experts voted for the person they knew best, rather than the person who actually was best. Shotty won thanks mostly to North American voters, showing that he's still the Brit with the biggest buzz on this side of the pond. That's still an impressive feat since he only had one (massive) battle actually happen in 2014.

The U.K. voters (along with many other North Americans who didn't vote for Shotty) were mostly split between the 2-on-2 team of Shuffle-T and Marlo, Tony D and Soul.

As for Soul, he was phenomenal in 2014, putting on standout performances at events that featured names magnitudes more famous than his. That he's still relatively unknown in North America speaks partly to Don't Flop's more insular approach through much of last year and partly to his role as the thinking-fan's emcee. His syllable-heavy style is dense and highly technical, filled with obscure references from far outside the worlds of battle rap and hip hop. His days of being slept on should be over soon though, with his recent rise to becoming Don't Flop champion.

Female Battler Of The Year - Jaz The Rapper

Jaz only had the one battle this year, but she still got my vote, and enough of our panels' to snag the win. For me it was that her performance was so dominant against 40 B.A.R.R.S. and that her buzz stayed high even without many appearances in the ring.

The other contender was easily O'fficial, whose 28% gave her the second-best second-place showing in the awards. She was more active throughout the year and had a battle for the ages against C3. Still, in my opinion her wins weren't as clear cut and her name didn't ring out as much.

I expect whoever wins their battle at NOME 5 on May 9 will get 2015's Female Battler award.

Male Battler Of The Year - Bigg K

Sure, Charlie Clips had some huge battles on huge platforms and garnered more attention than most battlers last year, but anyone who watches the wider world of battle rap knows he stunk up the stage on several occasions.

There's no denying that Clips was unstoppable when he was at his best in 2014. After Tay Roc, Daylyt and T-Rex, people started asking if he was The Greatest Of All Time, but those compliments faded a bit after his weak appearances against Charron and Illmaculate.

That balance between his highs and lows was the key to Clips winning this award. If you didn't care about his flops, it was easy to vote for him. If you did care, then you probably voted for one of three other options: Bigg K, Daylyt or Danny Myers. Those three split the vote enough for Charlie to hold the majority, even with only 37%, the weakest win out of all the categories.

Bigg K never slacked last year, facing huge names — Arsonal, B Magic, The Saurus, Aye Verb, Conceited, Danny Myers and Big Kannon — though occasionally on platforms small enough to give his opponents and their supporters the excuse that it "didn't count." Still, in my eyes, K beat them all, with performances that would likely still beat those same opponents if they'd brought their best of the year.

What I like best about K though is his skill as an editor. He doesn't really spit wack bars. Not everything is a haymaker, but I've never rolled my eyes at anything he's said either. With the amount of corny wordplay and tired concepts that plague the scene, that's refreshing.

Bodybag Of The Year - Charlie Clips vs. T-Rex

Even with 60% of the vote (the largest win out of any category), I'm surprised more people didn't agree with me here. In the building, Clips absolutely trounced Rex and it looked almost as bad on camera. The gulf between how good Clips was and how bad Rex was remained unparalleled anywhere else in main stage battle rap in 2014.

Battle Of The Year - Loaded Lux vs. Hollow Da Don

As I outlined in my writeup for the awards, this was the highest profile battle at the time it was booked and it lived up to its very high potential. The live pay-per-view (the first in ages) scores bonus points too, making it so the whole battle world could experience history together.

League Of The Year

I actually abstained from voting here in the name of journalistic neutrality. So excuse the cop out, but I love all leagues equally. Besides, every league had its ups and downs last year, experimenting with new approaches, developing new talent, and sailing the rough waters of competition, politics, and scandal.

So congrats to every league, and thanks for all the work you put in to give BattleRap.com things to write about.

Thoughts? Who were your votes? Let us know in the comments below.