august 2nd 2019.
the last time i decided to even REMOTELY put my thoughts to paper in THIS way?…i’ve always told myself i would come back…write something bold…energetic…thought provoking…something to bring me back into the forefront of battle rap news. Make a vain yet fruitful attempt at maybe leading the battle rap journalism zeitgeist instead of just following it.
then i came to two realizations.
one. i was making up excuses to hide not laziness but fucking writers block. selective writers block. which is FAR worse for anyone making an attempt to do what you’re truly good at. i couldn’t write what i wanted to in THIS format yet here i am…currently writing for a texting battle rap league known as erbl rap battles (you might have heard of us. we dope and we fuck baby mothers. shoutouts to yall!) and it has given me a way to write with ease. thats the selective writers block. i can write bars with little to no problem and even freestyle with the same ease. but when it came to this? i’d have a title and shit…but that blinking cursor would 3-0 me every single goddamn time.
two. when you catch lightning in a bottle…you WRITE. asap. i never utilized this for writing thinkpieces. its been happening more frequently and im scrambling to write this and cleaning it up when all is said and done and shit. oh and i had to go through HELL to get this wordpress account back so i better get at least 40 reads from you niggas or i. will. REACT.
no seriously. one of yall gettin beat the fuck up. the hands work and its in the car. play with me if your bitch ass WANTS TO.
all kidding aside (keep thinkin im playing though) i was chillin out…maxin…relaxin all cool and all shootin some b-ball outside of the school and went into this rabbit hole of the steps rappers have to take to get on. and the process is a dangerously well known one.
you figure out your lane, you stay in that lane, you gain notoriety, you hopefully get signed or have that one song/record blow up independently, you tour, get the riches and the spoils, make an embarrassing folksy woke or ill advised rap rock album, realize that you were past your prime WAAAAY after you were past your prime, end up as an antagonist on an episode of law and order s.v.u., make the occasional guest verse for the hot young artist’s song that your old ass has NOOOO business on, and gracefully bow out the game.
and then i thought about those that attempt to take another route to that approach and i realized something.
battle rappers are the hardest working yet dumbest artists in writing today. let me explain for a second.
do any of you that DON’T battle know the bullshit we have to come up with? the phrase “consistency is key” doesn’t even REMOTELY give you a bead on the shit we have to do. we are CONSTANTLY writing. about different opponents with different styles, walks of life, appearances, lyrical capabilities, ethnicities, day to day experiences and my favorite…weapons and the ways we kill each others mother fucking asses with while being digestible enough to for a sometimes unappreciative crowd that 80% of decided you were losing by round 2.
and that’s TEXT battling for me so amplify that by a MILLION FOLD with the added pressure of thousands of people watching live and your peers judging you and giving you pity dap if you fucking lose…
now picture doing all of THAT and going right back to another sleepless night in a studio to put out a format of your talent that the culture turns a blind eye to because they view you as an aggressive gun poet and thats the ONLY facet of you they seem to have emotionally invested in despite some of your best work being in what you pour your heart into most…music.
i really feel for the poor bastards that got into battle rap SOLELY to battle rap…no realistic outlet to REALLY relieve some of that tension they must obviously possess…no melody or harmonizing beat to really let that ability fly…ciphers with beats shouldnt be unfamiliar territory to any lyricist but ive seen it first hand…now i loves me a meltdown as long as it isnt me or any of my loved ones but fewer things are more depressing than a talented battle rapper that CAN’T ride a beat and seeing them realize it. that shit will make you want to jump off something high onto something jagged.
but i digress…
so on top of memorizing bars for 1 person to entertain thousands, now you have to memorize bars for smoky studio sessions to hopefully capitvate a much bigger audience. anyone who said battle rap is the perfect way to get on as a mainstream rapper deserves to be punched…then watch their loved ones get punched…then be forced to get punched by their loved ones because it is the most CRUELEST of lies. that system has been DESIGNED to not give you the wiggle room necessary to join the established in the music industry. a cruel twisted deception…a rose garden with thorns dripping with the blood of those that have failed and viciously scarred the successful.
and heaven help you if you’re a christian battle rapper…now you have to REALLY prove yourself to the most bloodthirsty of savages while coming out without a speck on your cloth…THEN establish yourself as a problem…THEN create music for a market that hasn’t always been the kindest to its artists…THEN break through to the mainstream market which hasnt been the easiest thing to do without a slight bit of deception (i.e. creed, jars of clay, amy adams etc…) and…and…
i see now. i see why many come up and fall back from doing both battle rap and music entirely. not because of a loss of dedication to either craft but because maintaining them both is exhausting as FUCK. it was exhausting just TYPING that…and now i REALLY feel for the battlers that do both now…especially the ones that arent fortunate enough to battle for a living…imagine doing all that i’ve written…and having a fucking NINE TO FIVE ON TOP OF THAT.
the stigma of “battle rappers cant make music” was created to stop a market that was already at the time becoming overly saturated with flash in the pan artists from becoming overly populated…i can see the fairness in that.
i don’t agree with it considering the bullshit that’s blasting through most airpods and car speakers i hear these days but i feel that the mainstream rose garden needs a clipping and the one battle rap hasn’t been keeping an eye on thats grown more than it should’ve these days needs more attention…ESPECIALLY for battle rappers who make quality music and thankfully accounts like ruin your day and url and kotd do what’s necessary to make it easier for battlers to present their TRUE artform.
so dear battle rapper…i support and appreciate everything you do and no…i don’t feel like you owe me anything…but maybe…just maybe…the rest of the world does.
a rose by any other name smells just as much like bullshit like anything else…dont wither.
i’m maj and i’m out.
peace.
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