Smack presents vol.6
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Smack presents vol.6

An observation.

Smack Vol.6 was the latest battle rap event that went down a few weekends ago, at the time of me writing this review, these would come faster, but to give a full review and personal opinion, battles need to be watched more than once, what I think at first counts as well, but, for a more educated opinion, and making sure I catch every word scheme and angle, these would have to be viewed more than once. I have the app for such situations as well.

Before I get into the review, I would want you to understand this is my opinion and mine alone, and this comes from how I watch battles and what’s noticeable to me. Battle rap is an opinionated sport, and that’s what these reviews are, I’m not here to urge you to think I’m right or wrong when it comes to these things, you might read this and think I’m talking out of my ass, but, that’s not a big concern, it’s known we’ll have different views on what we saw that night. I’ll get into each battle in the order of how they happened.

The first battle of the night was Danny Myers vs Ill Will.

Looking at this battle on paper, I had Will taking this, 2–1 surely because I felt based on his last performances compared to Danny’s he goes in with a lot of momentum, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Danny pulled a win out of this battle, because both battlers are known to have 3 good rounds regardless of who’s standing in front of them.

It’s needed to say, watching on caffeine can be good or bad, I’m not a big fan of the fan vote because I feel people would go off what that says rather than how they feel about the material being shown to them. People won’t necessarily want to admit how they feel about a battle because they don’t want to be the minority, but I don’t feel that’s a bad thing at all, another thing is how my connection fades in and out on the app, but that’s probably a problem for me, and not for everyone else, but when you’re following what a battler is saying and it randomly freezes it’s hard to react because it drains attention, which is why I like the app, it helps during these reviews.

Danny’s 1st

Looking into the first round, with how they both came out, I feel there’s this strong stigma around Danny because he battles too often, but at the same time, there’s another one based on how he raps, I think today people like to hear personals more than bars but I think Danny keeps that standard in place. Even though his round felt as if it could’ve been for anyone when I think about Will vs Danny on paper, it’s a bar fest and both of them were going to bring a round like that. Watching, it felt like when Danny paused because he got off a bar he knew would hit, he would get a reaction, so I wouldn’t count it as a dry spot, I think the first round went exactly how he wanted it to go and I enjoyed that. I think the tone is set not just for the battle, but the rest of the night was there.

Will’s 1st

The way the round started was so-so to me, but maybe because the parallel universe has been done against Danny better before and better, like Dizaster, (and I must say I am NOT a fan of dizaster) used that better and set a type of standard, even though, maybe I am judging that a bit harshly because that wasn’t the overall focus of Will’s round, he was going to get into other things after. He got into how, someone is making Danny’s house a drug lab when he’s gone and for what it was, I felt it was interesting, maybe putting it together would’ve given it more of a better feeling to me, but what I thought prior happened anyway, a bar fest even though I think both battlers didn’t come out the gate with the type of energy but I feel in the second half of both rounds, they had more bars and energy.

Based on what I said here, I have Danny taking the first round. Edging this round barely, I felt they were both really good, but this was a good tone for the rest of the battle.

Danny’s 2nd

More so, I felt this would become more bars than anything else because at this point there was nothing noticeable I couldn’t spot in either performance, I thought the part where Danny said he took Will’s shoes was hilarious, and I’m a big fan of how that started, the round I mean, honestly, I thought Danny would take a different approach from his usual performance knowing that Will could use satire to help his performance, but I’ll have further examples on Will later. For the most part, I felt Danny followed his first-round well, not slowing down if it wasn’t part of his performance, this was part of him going up, how this round was better than his first.

Will’s 2nd

I like when any round starts with a rebuttal, a good one at that, ”shooters in Michigan? Chris Webber, time ou-” it’s not what he said word for word, these don’t bar for bar examinations, because I do want you to watch the battle in your alone time if you’re interested overall I needed to rewind a couple of times to catch everything Will was saying this time around, and I believe this round was better than Danny’s second. The reason being, in this bar fest it’s my opinion that Will brought better ones is all. Not saying Danny had a bad round. Also, PS, the R.Kelly bar was hilarious as well.

Danny’s 3rd

I will say, I didn’t like this start, because 40 Cal exposed or, made a rumor about Ill Will not claiming his child if he has a child in which I don’t know if there’s any proof too, the lines including him weren’t all that strong, that’s one thing that took away from him to me slightly, but also, I suppose there was talking of Danny choking this round but it was clear that his mic had fallen off. I’m undecided if I like this round really at the time of my writing this because it’s worded like a closing round, but I felt this could’ve been his first, second, or third round. I think Danny has such a fast performance people don’t catch everything how they should because I felt a lot of things he said should’ve got a reaction. Passed the bars about his baby mother, if Will has a baby mom, I felt was good, but overall I felt this round could’ve been beaten by Will.

Will’s 3rd

I’ll say it now I think Will got this round. The intersecting universe scheme was something I don’t ever think was used against Danny, it’s a mix of bars and personals with an original idea and I felt nobody but Will could do something like that. Maybe I’m wrong but nobody did it before Will so, I wouldn’t say I’m that far off. It was a very strong round and I think it beat Danny’s third by a lot, I think this is the round that’s undeniable that Will outdid Danny.

My final thought on this battle is Ill Will 2–1.

The battle that was after, was Jerry Wess vs Arsonal.

Going into this I was unsure how to call it, I feel Ars doesn’t take every name that serious, depending on who the name is, not to say Ars just goes to lose a battle if he feels the battle is a small name, I can think of his battle with Drugz and how in my opinion, he beat Drugz maybe 3–0? Not to say Jerry was someone to sleep on, in his last few battle I didn’t see any props, but he didn’t need one against Danny, and he won that battle and sent a message at the same time. When the battle was announced I wasn’t sure who I had winning, because I wasn’t that interested in seeing it, speaking honestly, it could just be a shot for Jerry because smack keeps giving him hard matchups, Rum, Danny now Ars, that’s a hard 3 to beat.

Jerry’s 1st

I have to say, I did like this round, I felt with a slower pace it’s easy to catch everything being said, I think one characteristic of Jerry Wess is how he relates his bars to him being a scammer, but at the same time, it’s not like they’re terrible or something because everyone in battle rap has their thing, Geechi has his storytelling, Yoshi G spits her truth, Goodz has money talk, so why can’t Jerry have scammer talk? As long as the bars aren’t trash I don’t see why not, you know? Even though I felt this round was really strong, Ars could beat it.

Ars 1st

It’s like Ars to be a showman, when he took off his hoodie to reveal he had a Jerry West jersey on I felt it would get dark and Ars started going, a style clash at it’s finest, and he went pretty hard and none of what he said was filler, for the speed he would be going I would expect filler material sometimes, but I was proven wrong, even though I feel every vet takes an angle just to say new rappers are new, I wonder if that’s for the rapper or the person viewing. I would assume it does not affect Jerry coming to rap, because I notice time and time again when vets face off against each other, the content seems original but I can tell most vets this is there go-to thing, but he wouldn’t lose points for that at all, because he touched on it a little bit but you can tell from how he put it together he was the OG and everyone sees him as such.

I felt like, Ars took the first but it was an edge, the flow, him giving Jerry bars, and some real shit. I feel it’s an uphill battle for Wess because there’s a lot of ways for him to be attacked. ”Stop making smack all this money, and monetize your pen.” ”I was selling Udub tickets and you were buying them.”

With this being said, I’m scoring it, 1–0 Ars

Jerry’s 2nd

More what he did in the first, after Ars’ first I was wondering if he would attempt to switch his flows or something but I don’t think that was the case, he approached the same way, that and I felt most of the bars hit. A clean performance with no stumble or slip-ups. I feel because his pace was slower and you can tell Ars was more energetic, it would be easier for the crowd to be more engaged as if he’s demanding the attention, and it felt, they wouldn’t give the same attention to Jerry. I’m watching on the app and the comments were saying ”I’m skipping every Wess round, ” which is unfair but the culture isn’t fair, I understand that the consensus last battle for Wess was him getting a 3–0 victory but now I see people aren’t listening, but he doesn’t have any bad rounds, other people might say, it’s levels, but in this battle, I don’t think it’s lyrics that made the difference, it was performance. In my opinion, Ars isn’t killing him, it’s not that one-sided to me.

Ars’ 2nd

I didn’t enjoy this round too much. His performance was great, how he got it off was good, but the lyrics behind it didn’t exactly make me react or, have me excited, I felt the line about Twork shooting his grandmother life alert was great, I think before and after that line, not so much, even though, he was getting a good bit of reaction, because granted its different from me sitting at home watching than the people watching Ars close up and see him going through his material. But I can only speak on my point of view, and I felt this was probably his weakest round, it was performed well, but I feel that’s all it was a good performance. So, right now, I have it 1–1

Jerry’s 3rd

This third was good. Ars predicted he would have that prop configuration somewhere, I guess it doesn’t matter what round Jerry did it in, but I’m sure he had to see this coming, it was missing the last battle but it’s part of the things and against a showman like Ars why not do it? I’ve seen Ars used minimal things like props, like his belt or something but not like a radio, what Jerry pulled out. It makes me think about who he got to do those voices for Ars ”family, ” also, Ars name flips, the only other rapper I’ve heard have a unique Ars name flip was Twork. (can’t spell tears about putting that Ars in it) but Jerry himself had some very unique flips, another thing I like about all three rounds from Jerry is that it seems his lyrics elevated each round, and I felt Ars in the second took a major drop, in his second. I don’t think any round is unbeatable, but I think rounds are very hard to beat and I think this is one of those situations where Jerry’s round is going to be difficult to outdo.

Oh and PS

”now you won’t see the stars without putting that Ars in it, ” oh my God that shit was hard. I didn’t say the whole bar, but if you watch that battle you’ll see exactly why I’m saying oh my God.

Ars’ 3rd

I think this was a good way to end, I think how he started was unique to Jerry, because earlier I did go over the scammer bars, and why it works for Jerry but nobody has ever used it against him, and I felt Ars was going to use his son and use him as the ”lead, ” I should say, for this round, and honestly I think it would’ve been precise for Ars to take that route, like how Will utilized Danny’s parallel universe, to rap about a universe where Danny had this completely different career, Ars, could’ve spoken about Jerry’s son having a terrible life because of all the other socials Jerry had taken. That angle would’ve probably won him the round, but I feel because that didn’t happen, and it took a turn, it didn’t feel like the round was strong enough to win in the third, and I felt lyrically he wasn’t as clean as Jerry, he had a better performance through the night, as far as rapping and getting through his material without a slip up and his energy was intense as always, but I don’t think that beat Jerry that night.

My verdict is, Jerry 2–1 clear.

Also, make sure to stream underrated, Arsonal’s newest project.

(I don’t get paid for this at all, but if you’re reading why not go listen while you read, support the battlers!)

Chilla Jones v BDOT

I saw Bdot in his last battle and I knew he has Chilla, and if his battle against Holmzie was an indicator of his next battle, then Chilla did have something to worry about, but it’s not like I didn’t know who Chilla is. Seeing this battle announced alone would give me a certain type of chill, two different styles but both styles hit hard and both work over any type of crowd, they’re both in the running for Champion of the year, and this battle would help both of their cases, but I had Bdot going into this battle, I feel he’s a good counter writer and would be able to naturalize what Chilla would be able to send at him. I was eager to see this one, potentially battle of the night is this battle right here.

Jones’ 1st

I knew this would be good, or at least I hope it would be, everything touched upon in Chilla’s first round was all the things Bdot hears in every battle, but it’s not just saying it, it’s how it’s said, his it’s approached, and one of the first things brought up against Dot is the Loaded Lux mannerisms, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see Lux in Dot, but I don’t think that hurts him too much, because he can rap, what can start to hurt him is him saying black African power but not speaking up about the injustices, not saying he doesn’t do that, it’s not like I’m watching his Twitter or social medias waiting for him to say something about it, because I’m not, but I believe Swave said something to Bdot as well when talking about a similar situation, even though I felt it was worse because he said that Dot was simply making money and didn’t give it to the victim’s family, in which I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I wouldn’t want something like that to be brought up every battle. Jones’ had a lot of wordplay and bars coming out of his first round, but I wonder just how deep it would go after this round, after the list of things Dot stopped trying or ”lacked commitment, ” in battle rap, music, football, his marriage, even with all this, I don’t think it’ll be that difficult to Dot to beat this round, because I feel there’s a window of opportunity for Dot to take the first.

Bdot’s 1st

Dot won this round to me, and I’ll debate anyone who says otherwise, the energy alone had me thinking he was just going to punch, but he was just talking to him at the same, he even had a line about that, ”I’m Ali, I talk while I punch, ” I felt Dot did have a window of opportunity to win this round but he broke through the window and it had me eager to see how it was going to go into the second. What I find funny is that I haven’t seen Nunu for a couple of events and when she came back, the first thing she did was jump in Bdot’s round, well it wasn’t a ”jump in, ” traditionally, but she did get back at Jones for what he did against Prep a couple of years back. I enjoyed everything about this round, him mentioning KOTD to his name flips out of that. Even his style of rap, and making it a hard line. (word association) like I said, I like Dot taking the round easily he put the pressure on Chilla, and it was Jones that needed to fight back in this situation.

Jones’ 2nd

Was it an ongoing angle? He kept on with his walking contradiction angle on Dot, and honestly, I wasn’t expecting it, it’s all about how though because what he said was true in this round about a lot of things concerning Dot. The Avocado situation was a really bad look for him, I won’t go into the situation, but Dot, what he raps about, what his brand is, Chilla just using what he said sounds simple but it’s heart-crushing in a sense because then he spoke about Dot being on KOTD as well, why be rapping over there if what you represent is black African power, then in his match against Top he did downplay dealers a bit but against EK he said if Smack is about selling drugs and such, it should be on the west only, or stationed at. Unless Dot had countermeasures for a round like this, it’s another small window, but like I said earlier that’s one of Dot’s strengths, being a counter writer, and this is before I watched what he said in response so I could be wrong.

Dot’s 2nd

Even though I did like this round I don’t see it as strong as what he had to go against, because he aired part of Jones’ dirty laundry, I don’t think anything was said about the women CJ has messed with if he did, but I didn’t find it too appealing based off what was said to Dot. He did touch on what was said but not enough to be recognized as a full counter to everything said, his performance wasn’t the cleanest either, but I always appreciate with a battler gets through the round rather than just giving up and there were some spots where you can tell he fucked up, but even with those slip-ups I felt it was a good performance, it doesn’t help that Jones didn’t slip at all, and the material didn’t seem as directed either. He did scheme because of Jones scheming but I don’t think that means you need to scheme as well. Sadly, Dot lost this round to me, hopefully, in round three he won’t have that type of slip up.

3rd round

Because I watched it back a couple of times, this part of the review ill out what I think about both of their rounds because this was probably round of the night to me, both of them came and both came heavy, and it felt like a dog fight, Jones finished his angle out and I felt like it’s only right to bring up the last battle that Bdot was part of to make his claims stronger and make his bars hit harder, and I felt his initial point of Dot being a walking contradiction comes full circle at this point, he goes into the year he has had, the family he’s lost, overall the way he ended it was perfect in my opinion. I felt Dot’s third could’ve been his second because it was a great counter writing in a sense, because I felt his third was negated when he started rapping, in the verse previous, I think Chilla showed who he was, and I knew more about him based off that round alone. I don’t think Dot ran out of ideas when going against Jones, but I think Chilla won because he had more of a direct point to attack him with all three rounds and I felt for Dot, that wasn’t the case, the points brought up were slightly repetitive, not to say he had a bad round, but it wasn’t better than Jones’ to me, with that being said, I have CJ 2–1

Next Pat Stay vs Kshine

Now going into this, I remember a interview from Shine that said he wanted Pat Stay because he didn’t know how to beat him and I always felt that was weird, but I knew what he meant, Stay can take anything you’re talking about, or what you’re about and use it against you and that’s probably what makes him so entertaining, Pat Stay is a great and there’s not a lot of people that could take him out, even though, I feel Kshine knows this, he’s the one who said it, so I was eager to see how Shine would approach this battle. Shine hasn’t only been active, but dominant also, his last 4 or 5 battles have been great under his belt, maybe some debatable but I don’t think a clear loss in within those last 4 to 5. But Pat Stay could be the reason that streak comes to an end. Going into this, my prediction was Pat Stay winning, I can’t give you what rounds exactly but I felt Stay would come in and get a win, not a body by any means.

Pat Stay’s 1st

I… I made the wrong call, I’ll admit. The way to start this was terrible in a way, everytime it felt like Pat was starting to go, it would just go south. He said mid round that he had things setup for actually being in the small room, and I wonder why they switched it last second, because I think it did throw him off a bit, but I would rather him just spit whatever he had for the small room other than him being out of sync with himself. I appreciate him not just calling time and him fighting through this round. Certain things still made me laugh though, he pulled his ass out towards Shine and then said “he’s straight buns,” that’s just funny but sadly it barely helps his case anyway, because it didn’t seem like it really mattered. With all the stumbles, dry spots and him not really saying anything, all Shine would have to do in his round is rap clean and it’s a sure thing for him. The showmanship was there still, so it’s not like Pat came out to bullshit and I appreciate that, he took out the tape measure at the start of the round so I felt it would be something to view and even Shine doing the sidestep while Pat was rapping was funny too. But I don’t think Pat was going to win this if that’s how he started.

Kshine’s 1st

All Shine had to do was get through the round to win, I like that he would announce that he would need more than gun bars to beat Pat Stay, so he definitely brought everything, it’s a bit more wordplay than what I’m used to with Shine. I have to say, this was a funny looking match up physically because Pat Stay so damn tall, and certain places had Shine looking really short, that had to be part of the reason shine would rather rap to the crowd for the majority of the round, it’s like Shine would be screaming at his chest or something. Either way, Shine won this round by a lot, and there’s not a lot to contest because Pat Stay wasn’t able to get through his round without stumbling. He had bars and a really clean performance, at this point I did start to wonder, why wouldn’t Pat use what he had already, I’m sure the bars would’ve hit, unless it was certain things about the set that he was going to use, because I really wanted to see this matchup, I didn’t want either of them to have a bad outing.

Shine took the 1st clear.

Pat’s 2nd

Yeah, what I wanted in the first round. Pat can rap and that’s nothing that goes over heads, but it’s like, because he has everything else, people forget that’s his strongest attribute. Part of that, his showman side always comes out, how he heckles the crowd at the start of the round and towards the end he panders to it. It’s really entertaining and good to see how casually he goes into those modes. Listen, that shit is difficult to do, to win a crowd over that sorta wants you to lose. This was a strong round with clean performance but I still think Shine can beat it, but how? I don’t know.

Shine’s 2nd

After watching this round twice, I think Shine went stupid that time around, he did come with counter writing and I felt a little surprised, that’s not what I’m used to out of him, whenever I see shine it’s more of, “I can do me better than you being yourself,” but I think he knew counter writing might’ve been the best way to go. I appreciate his approach and if I were to match his bars to Pat’s in the second, I would take his, even though I do think he got some slight gas from the crowd behind them, but not to some overwhelming degree.

(And I know at the same time it might not be gas, my view from home is different from them being there, but this is how I see things from the URL app. Haha)

With that, I feel Shine took the second round pretty clear.

Pat’s 3rd

I really don’t have a lot to say for this round, I think it was a good way to approach Shine, only in a way Pat could do. The basketball line was hilarious but at the same time I think it was the only high point of his round. I felt the energy was off and things he was saying just wasn’t really hitting that hard, hopefully next time we see Pat he comes with something better, but this round was incredibly easy to beat. I don’t think it’s anything to hold against Pat Stay, unless you count the fact that he was locked in with shine for a really long time. But people fuck up, and that’s ok.

Shine’s 3rd

Ok so… this angle, I think everything landed in a way, but because of that damn handshake at the start of the round. I felt it was funny, Rest In Peace to Trevon Martin of course, I’ll mark it off as dark humor from the start. Anytime I see a battle between white rappers and black rappers I feel that racist angle is almost certain to come, but like I’ve said plenty of times before, it’s all about how it comes off and how the battler approaches the angle. Nobody has become Pat Stay and themselves in the same round and I felt it was so unique for Shine to do, in a way, I don’t think he’s ever become someone else after professor Shine. How it’s performed and the originality of the round itself would put it above Pat’s. I have Shine winning this battle 3–0 very clear.

The last battle is Geechi vs Goodz, but I think I’d keep that for another review, that being the main event and I would need to have my thoughts fully constructed on that one battle which is a true style clash.

I hope you enjoyed the review, or just my thoughts on paper, if you can, leave some thoughts. Because I want a full construct of thoughts and these happen on my time, I’ll try to be as consistent with battles as I possibly can.