Revise the following YouTube comment for clarity and conciseness, also accounting for profanity where possible:

 @maddillz  Thank you for replying, man...it does mean a lot.

It's funny how things happen--sometimes I'll get really interested in something, then I find something else, and eventually I come back to the original thing I was interested in, but now I can look at it from a new perspective and with fresh knowledge.
Now that you mention it, I do remember a lot of those GT battles having landmarks in the background...it reminds me of playing fighting games back in the day (for me, 3rd Strike, MvC2 & CvS2 still beat *everything* out there now) and noticing how no matter what stage you fought on, the backgrounds always had something to clearly identify it as a certain location...even going back to the ORIGINAL Street Fighter from '87...hell, even Karate Champ and Yie-Ar Kung Fu.
(Good lord--I feel old just mentioning those.)

I'll readily admit I'm not into battles as much as before, but I love to revisit the old battles that are still on YouTube.
I will still watch a new battle from time to time, but it's gotten to the point where some leagues are almost unwatchable...between putting 10 minutes of ads at the start, 10 minutes in the middle and another 10 minutes at the end (I'm exaggerating a bit, but it's not too far from the truth now), almost every MC (aside from the veterans who are still battling now, God bless them) coming with the same generic gun bar/wordplay/multi/slogan/forced punch style, and a bunch of drunken idiots chanting '3-0' or 'bodybag' even when it's the middle of the first round (that shit REALLY pisses me off), it's definitely not the same.

For example, the Hollow/Arsonal rematch...I distinctly remember there being literally 15 minutes of ads and promos before the actual battle started.
To me, that's absolutely unacceptable.
I appreciate how Grind Time did it because they kept the ads short and memorable, and most importantly they always went at the start and end, rather than being awkwardly placed in the middle space between rounds.

A big thing that really ruined it for me was when phones became more powerful and you would have assholes taking calls or staring at their screen while the MCs are rapping, or trying to film it...for me, when you see a battle event it's the same thing as going to a concert or a stage show, or a play...these are performers who all deserve to be treated with respect.
It takes guts to do public speaking...it takes twice as many guts to do it in rhyme form.

At this point I think that some serious archival work needs to be done...most of the battles I saw back then are now well over a decade old, in some cases over 20 years old.
If these battles can be backed up on sites like the Internet Archive, it will make it possible for fans to watch them forever.
There are battles I saw years back that I've never gotten to see after a channel went down...and the old Brainstorm/Scribble Jam/JumpOff DVDs are now commanding higher prices than they did ten years ago.
(They weren't terribly cheap then, either.)

On a side note regarding Scribble, I haven't forgotten about those days...it was during the Scribble/JumpOff era that I got into battles, when I was still in high school.
Seeing these dope MCs on stage and in the streets, showing off their unique styles, was one of the coolest things I had ever seen.
I know all the Scribbles aside from the first were recorded, and that footage exists...I am not sure if Kevin Beacham still has the Scribble '08 footage, as I know they had coordinated to have it officially videotaped.
I believe a friend of Parable (I don't want to speculate, I'm going off of something I read literally years ago) also recorded the whole event (or at least the MC battles), but out of respect for Beacham, or at his behest, did not leak any footage out.
I have to think that at this point, if Beacham wanted the world to see this footage, he would have already released it...I'm sure he may still have the master tapes, or at least I really hope he does.
After 15 years, God only knows what condition those masters must be in now.

Growing up, I always respected the skill it takes to be an MC...there's always been a fundamental element of respect, but it wasn't until I got older (again, sorry for the cliche!) that I started to really understand what goes into it.
I've seen battles where one MC dominates the other, battles where both guys pretty much shit the bed, and it makes you more grateful when you see a battle like Hollow vs. Pass, or Saurus vs. Illmac, where two guys are fighting toe to toe, taking a punch for every punch they throw.
Absolute slugfests where neither will give up an inch to their opponent.
For me, one of the guys who epitomized what it means to be an MC was Franco...he was disrespectful as hell, and full of heart.
The guy rarely had a bad performance, and I feel NoCanDo was the Ryu to his Ken.
Saurus and Illmac were the premiers of that era, and deservedly so...but I feel Franco & NoCanDo were right there, just below them in the hierarchy.
Then you add guys like Swann, Mac Lethal and all the others...for me, the 2000s was the greatest decade for battle rap.
That whole decade was the pinnacle of the art form...it was never that raw ever again.

Sorry for writing so much, man...I guess I had a lot to say!
I figure it's the least I can do, because this culture saved my life too...hell, it's one of the reasons I'm still here.
Thank you for sharing your memories.
I remember an old saying: "it's hell to be forgotten...it's nice to be remembered."