Do You Remember Battling?

Watching "Notorious" got me thinking about how much I miss Hip-Hop in the 80's and 90's. Who remembers the ancient, Hip-Hop art of battling? Notably, Biggie battled a lot of people throughout his neighborhood growing up and eventually became one of the best lyrical threats of all time. And Biggie wasn't the only MC known for rapping in his local neighborhood either. Rappers such as Eminem, Jay-Z, 2Pac, Nas, Hip-Hop legend KRS-One, Cannibus, LL Cool J, and many others, embraced the very culture that garnered them fame and notoriety.

Battle rap or freestyling is an important element of Hip-Hop that I feel has been lost somewhat. It originated back in the '80's on the East Coast. A rap battle basically involves two people showcasing their lyrical skills back and forth. In my opinion, a true rap battle involves freestyling. If one contestant in a rap battle wrote down their lyrics before the battle took place, it would take away from the general idea of it. To me, a true rap battle involves spitting lyrics from the top of your dome; no thinking involved.

Nowadays, it seems more prominent that battle raps appear mostly in the form of a diss record. Basically, rappers are creating beefs or dissing each other through music in an attempt to generate attention or media hype. Over the past years, there have been many battle records, in which MC's diss each other over someone else's beat. We all know the whole "beef" scenario reached a high point when Biggie and 2Pac were killed.

I recall watching a lot of battle competitions in the past and they are so exciting to watch actually. Watching MC's come up with original content at the spare of the moment is just fun and entertaining. BET has a battle rap competition on 106 and Park, but it's not as raw, original, or real as some of the competitions that I've seen. In real battle competitions MC's can say what they want to say, so I do understand why BET has to censor their competition.

Anyway, I just wanted to shed light on an important element in Hip-Hop. Battling truly involves creative, raw talent. It takes a talented individual to freestyle creative words, phrases, metaphors, etc. And I hope that that lyricists today pay more attention to lyrical content; not just rhyming to sell records, but take the time to really incorporate the essence of Hip-Hop into their music. It would be cool to see some of these rappers have a battle competition face to face; in it's original form.