Chilla Jones Reviews His Own "Double Impact" Battle

The Boston emcee breaks down his URL battle that saw him and B Magic take on Brizz Rawsteen and T-Top.

Yes, you read that right. I am about to review my OWN battle. Wild huh? I will keep this as fair as possible, but who are we kidding? If I say we won, readers will chalk it up to bias. If I say we lost, you'll say I'm being "real" or "honest." Somehow, it has become impossible for battlers to "honestly" think they've won a battle that's debatable. But, I digress (already).

I'll start off by saying, though this was the best back-and-forth battle of the entire event, T-Top and Brizz Rawsteen won this battle in the building.

Their first round started off really strong and the momentum of those first few moments carried all the way through to the end of the battle. For this being their first 2-on-2 battle ever, their chemistry was AMAZING. They had great flow patterns, which can be just as lethal as wordplay in garnering crowd reaction, high energy and strong vocal projection — all key elements to having a strong big-stage performance.

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Watching on camera, I noticed that while Top and Brizz had bigger reactions from the crowd, Magic and I had more constant and consistent reactions from the crowd. Magic and I were creative and thoughtful in our approach in every round, and what we lacked in energy or vocal projection we definitely made up through the strength of our content.

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In Round 1, Magic and I had a "disagreement" over how to flip certain words and began to flip them in our own styles, with Magic taking a more punch-heavy approach and me being more lyrical and multi-driven in my setups. We both had some hard hitting lines before ending that round with an attack on T-Top's weight.

Brizz and T-Top got off to a fast start, hitting a couple of fire haymakers early and mixing in some solid punches and high-energy performance. Unlike their last two rounds, there wasn't a ton of focus on angles in this one. It would prove to be their bar-heaviest round, and it set a great tone for them in this battle.

Brizz Rawsteen & T-Top.

In Round 2, Magic unveiled the secret behind his ability to punchline ... his skull cap. And I revealed the same ... the fitted/snapback. We turned up the energy a bit as I turned into "C. Magic" and began to punch every bar while Magic turned into me and did a PG scheme that incorporated 20 different PGs in eight bars. After that, we weaved in some more hard hitting punches and finally ended that round with an attack on Brizz where I compare his face "to the hyena off Lion King."

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In their second, Brizz and Top took aim at me, calling me "Mr. Jump from Top Tier to the UBER now," touching on the (untrue) rumors that I'm an Uber driver. They threw in some nice punches and then proceeded to rely on angles. They shifted focus to begin attacking Magic's most recent performances. Over the past year, Magic has choked or stumbled against a few different opponents, citing a lost love of, and focus on, battle rap and they made light of that. It was a solid round, but coming off their superb first, to me it felt pretty light and ended a lot sooner than it needed to, unlike the first.

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In Round 3, I told Magic and the crowd that he and I had some "Unfinished Business" and proceeded to pick up where I left off after my infamous choke against Magic in 2012. In all honesty, we lost some momentum with this approach, for one because of a slight stumble I had, and also because against a team with GREAT chemistry, having a solo moment like that can seem like forever, even if it only was only a small part of the entire round. Once we shifted gears into punching back and forth, back to back, we started to wake the crowd up and finished the third round strongly, this time with no specific, personal attacks... ALL BARS.

Brizz and Top started the third round with some good general bars, but then used the remainder to attack us both on not being on the URL main stage in recent years. They continued by saying that our stocks were down and we weren't as in demand as we once were. As with the first two rounds, the chemistry, pacing and energy were high. It was a nice, safe closer round as they put an end on a clean performance.

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After multiple watches, the biggest flaw Magic and I suffered from was easily our chemistry, as the physical distance between us definitely showed. We were probably the only team on the card that relied 100% on technology to rehearse our material and it hurt us in that respect. I think against another team that night, maybe the flaw wouldn't have been as glaring, but against Top & Brizz, who probably had the best chemistry of any team besides Quest/Marv and Surf/Roc, it seemed especially visible.

While I feel we were superior content-wise, I think Brizz and Top were a lot more entertaining to watch and Magic and I were more entertaining to listen to, if that makes sense.

Fans look for two things in these 2-on-2 battles: chemistry and gimmicks. Brizz and Top had the chemistry. Magic and I had the gimmicks. Brizz and Top had the better performance. Magic and I had the better bars. For that reason, the verdict is a bit of a toss up on camera.

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Everyone in the building gave Top and Brizz the first round clearly, and gave them the edge in the second and third. As you can see on the footage, they had steady control of the room for the most part off the strength of their energy and vocal projection. However, on camera, this battle is truly a debatable style clash between bar heavy and performance heavy.

As someone who believes bars take precedent over anything else, I have every round being debatable, even the first. But my honest call of the battle would give them the edge in Round 1, and I'd give Rounds 2 and 3 to Magic and I.

I know, I know, I'm crazy for thinking I won a battle I was in. Sue me.

If URL does another Double Impact card, I would love to see Top/Brizz against Quest/Marv, DNA/K-Shine or Steams/Chess. I would definitely be open to another 2-on-2 battle with Magic, although I'm not sure about who would make the best potential opponents. I think Magic and I would have better chemistry the second time around.

That being said, I'm also interested in doing a 2-on-2 with 40 B.A.R.R.S., Danja Zone or Daylyt at some point.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.

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