I try not to throw the word "classic" around too much, but goddamn, this is a classic. Two fully prepared legends, immaculate audiovisual quality from KOTD, and an inexplicably enduring crowd (the battle ended well after 3:00 a.m.) give this clash insane replay value. Like most Battle Of The Year contenders, who won is entirely up for debate, but there's a lot going on besides that to make this battle noteworthy.
First things first: Dizaster's performance is shocking in a couple of ways. For one thing, his rounds are long, at times intensely personal, and almost perfectly executed. But you ought to know that he's capable of performing like that by now, so a lot of what shocks you may stem from the outrageousness of the material itself. For one thing, as he forecasts from the very beginning of the battle, his rounds are groundbreaking in their anti-Semitism.
Diz's gleefully deranged bigotry ranges from relatively harmless observations — "You know what rhymes with bar mitzvah? Swastika," — to paranoid conspiracy theories blaming Jews for 9/11. As Iron Solomon acknowledged after the battle, despite the obviously shitty idea of slandering an entire group of people, there's undeniable genius in the internal wordplay of these schemes and Diz's ability to maximize offensiveness to a surreal, hopefully completely insincere extent. Also, Diz's decision to drop the N-bomb three times throughout the battle looks pretty odd next to this kind of content.
But try not to get bogged down in the controversy; there's a lot more to Diz's performance than that, and he makes that clear from Round 1. He hits Solomon with outlandish Jewish hate to start, but his attacks quickly become more and more pointed until, all of a sudden, he's breaking down how Solomon let himself and the culture down with his lackluster return performance. Then come the "Iron" flips. Lord, the "Iron" flips. From Iron Man to Iron as a literal element, Diz has a complex, personal haymaker for all of them and absolutely none sound played out. Simply put, this round has everything and represents why Diz is still one of the best to do it.
To be fair, Solomon's first has plenty going for it as well. It might be his weakest round, but he instantly matches Diz's energy and very effectively roasts him for disguising a nonsensical style as complex. Does Solomon spit a couple of played out bars throughout the battle? Yes (apparently he didn't get the memo about "sent/scent"), but there are so many others that justifiably hit much harder. Next to Diz in particular, his projection and pacing seem extremely steady, and it's wild how far he's come even since his Daylyt battle. Still, gotta give Round 1 to Diz.
Diz's Round 2 is a lot like his Round 1 with more jokes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Besides a small slip that he plays off pretty well, the round hits hard with more analysis of Solomon's career mistakes, some Pat Stay-caliber downplaying and yes, more Jewish jokes. To me, however, the second round is the clearest of the battle, and Solomon takes it.
Much of why Solomon's Round 2 is so effective is in its sheer accuracy: he calls Diz out for using homophobia, racism, and anti-Semitism as crutches, showing exactly how easy it is to take the power out from behind those kinds of punches. He also tries out some (admittedly hilarious) racial bars of his own, but only very briefly and far less belligerently than Diz. Actually, I guess "The Torah's the OG; the Quran is just fan fiction" is pretty bold. Regardless, off the relevance of the personals and the strength of the one-liners, Solomon clearly takes Round 2.
Round 3 is a toss-up. Diz charges through more multisyllabic breakdowns and jokes, and his anti-Semitism takes on a much more ... "academic" tone before he ultimately does what WOULD have gone viral had it gone according to plan: whip out a Hitler mustache to end his round by rapping in fake German followed by real Arabic. It's safe to assume Diz just wanted to go out with a bang, but given how the general public tends to latch onto imagery out of context — and I'm not sure the context really helps here — I'm personally relieved that he was sweating too hard to keep the 'stache on.
It features far fewer explosive moments than Diz's third (which also featured a couple minor slips), but Solomon's Round 3 is phenomenal in its own right. His main angle essentially boils down to "You wouldn't be shit without me and where I came from," but he backs it up with history and impeccable writing. "You're from the Fresh Coast? Son, the word 'fresh' came from New York!" Whoa. This round evidently impressed Diz, and for good reason. It's a more cohesive product than Diz's third, and for that reason, Solomon edges Round 3 as well.
So there you have it. Many will disagree, but I've got Solomon 2-1 in a classic. This showing from Diz probably belongs right up there with his performances versus Canibus, Swave, and DNA, so it really could go either way. I don't particularly take issue with his shock content — though it's pretty weird to see the same people who took issue with John John Da Don for his recent anti-Semitic Twitter statements praise this battle — and it's definitely not the reason Solomon wins. It's all about preference, and it comes down to Round 3.
What could possibly be next for Solomon? In his first two battles back on the scene, he's arguably beaten Daylyt and Dizaster, two of the most dangerous and unpredictable battle rappers out. Where the hell does one go from there?
Cover photo by Dan Gibs for KOTD.
Thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.
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