In 2006, legendary rapper Nas declared that hip hop was dead with his album of the same title. In my opinion, I never felt that it was dead but I felt that at that time it lacked balance in terms of mainstream radio play. In a recent interview with Bill Simmons, Nas said that he felt that hip hop was indeed alive because of the variety of artist out such as Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole & Drake gaining mainstream notoriety. When it comes to lyricism, there’s no better way to display one’s poetic skills than battling another emcee. Battling has been going since the birth of hip hop; whether it was DJ’s, emcees, or break dancers battling each other was always part of the hip hop culture.

Battle rap is a fix for any hip-hop nerd or someone who’s just a fan of bars overall. With competitors like Loaded Lux, Murda Mook, Hollow Da Don, Arsenal, Tsu Surf, Cassidy among other battle emcees provide fans of bars with the display of hip hop at its purest form. Whether you watch Smack battles URL or Total Slaughter, there’s an abundance of battle rappers battling for cash and entertaining fans all over the country. Battle rap isn’t the only form of competition in hip-hop that has help the genre evolve and push the culture forward. Diss records being exchanged between established artist have also been pushing the culture for years.

While diss records may sometimes unfortunately lead to physical altercations or even sometimes fatal incidents (ex. East coast vs. West coast feud) it’s great to see two artists to push each other to the limit of their craft. Battling forces the competitors to produce their best music, or get left behind in the dust as if their career never existed in the first place. A great example of this could be seen after Kendrick Lamar’s “Control” verse back in the summer of 2013, where he blatantly told everyone that while he was cool with them he was striving to be the best emcee in the game and that he would do everything in his power to steal their fans from them. The record gained over a dozen responses from rappers all over the country; similar to when 50 Cent released “How to rob” back in 1999 or even when Roxanne Shante released “Roxanne’s Revenge” back in 1987. But back to Kendrick, since he released the “Control” verse you have artist like Dave East, Freddie Gibbs, Young M.A, Joey Badass among many others that are gaining more popularity for their lyrics and their content being brought to the forefront of the Rap Game.

This year has seen some crazy battles, ranging from Troy Ave vs. Joey Badass, Meek Mill vs. Game, Drake vs. Joe Budden and many more that probably will arise before the year is over. Whether you hate it or love it, battling is a staple of hip hop and has always been a way to force artist to give the fans their money’s worth, while also elevating their status as a dominating artist at the top of the food chain.

*The opinions and ideas expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the opinions of The Bronx Brand*

Shawn Hudson is from the Sack Wern Housing Projects in Soundview.  Living in the Bronx has inspired him to keep fighting and striving. He loves the fact that the Bronx is like the underdog of New York City.