The Talent Pool is Unique
#6 Hansel
A true rookie in every sense of the word, but with poise and presence beyond his years. The west coast talent continues to showcase high-quality punchlines at a rapid rate.
While he is an interesting prospect and is easily becoming the vocal force and heart of the class. In comparison to his peers, he still has much room to grow. And that’s not a knock on him. If anything, it can exemplify how advanced he currently is. Especially for someone who is still inexperienced at battle rapping. Everyone else in his class has 13+ battles in their Youtube Catalog. Hansel is still under double digits via Versetracker, at 7 battles in his Youtube Catalog.
Hansel’s punches are getting sharper as he continues to get more opportunities in the league. His battle with Eaze was a good display of his strengths and weaknesses. He showed that he can certainly rock a stage for a round, but outside of his first round, he had more of a downhill performance. As his 2nd and 3rd rounds became redundant and incapable of revitalizing the momentum he built for himself. His lack of structure did much to ameliorate his production.
His aggression and punching are solid, you can expect the potency and depth of his metaphors/similies to enhance over time. His performance will need to be more captivating. But experience is the best teacher. He is coachable, studies the game tapes, and makes adjustments. Most notably In his Holmzie battle, he was able to improve the structure of his rounds and his energy. He proved to sustain the same output of content, energy, and performance every round. He found a viable pace that he can endure and can garner successful results.
We are still waiting for a breakout performance to show his ceiling can hit another level, but patience will be required with him as a talent. He is ahead of the course with a tremendous amount of upside available as he continues to progress.
#5 Eaze
A tantalizing talent with a gritty feel and an array of skills. Eaze is able to talk to and punch his opponent, which creates enough separation for him to really steal or sustain momentum. He will have to find a healthy balance between the variety of his skillset. And he has massive value as far as entertainment.
His performance on Civil War 3, shows that he understands the timing and pacing that is required to be successful on a big stage. He was magnificent in his big stage debut with 3 quality rounds, in fact, he had a better performance in his debut than most of the veterans on that card. He is able to execute performance-based bars, his southern nature shines, he can rebuttal, he can drop haymakers, and he can real talk to his opponent.
It may be a small sample size between his last 3 battles, but it’s evident he shines more under brighter lights and a bigger audience. His style caters more to a big room rather than a smaller crowd. He has the talent he knows how to propel his abilities into his performances.
His battle against Hansel shows he can captivate his material and aura, but his Prep battle showed a little bit of a regression in those areas. But it’s worth noting the disparity in the crowd. What he was capable of doing in a room of 500+ fans, at Civil War 3 is a complete 180 from who he was in a small room against Qleen Paper at the Finals exam. The small details of skillset and persona as a performer resonate better with a larger audience. He has interactive intangibles that have more effective results the bigger the room.
#4 Awthenic
The coming out party is here! Awthentic has been around for some time but has gotten to a point where his talent is hard to keep ignoring. His Jakkboy battle has become the new standard for what his floor should be. He jumps off the screen when you see him, his bars, punchlines, multis, and energy was completely able to rival Jakkboy’s.
He’s extremely witty and creative with his name flips and brings plenty of aggression and dope rhyming pockets to the table too. The most impressive aspect of Awthenic’s performance was how he stood in front of such a powerful round from Jakkboy in the 2nd, and yet he was able to stay poised and committed to delivering his material with high intensity to make the round as competitive as possible. It’s easy to just lie down after standing in front of an explosive round and he refused to surrender. (For the record, he still lost the round In my opinion, but he certainly did all he could to fight back, and that’s all you want to see from someone in that position).
He does have plenty of outdated references and he will need to work on trimming down the length of his rounds. The general ‘WeGoHard’ style long rounds can be self-inflicting to the momentum you build for yourself. You can run into dry spots or potentially out-rap yourself out of a round. But he is capable of delivering big bombs and he maintains the same level of energy in all 3 of his rounds, making him a tough out for anyone standing in front of him.
The only thing ever holding him back is his lack of personality or online presence. He lacks the branding and the involvement to conjure the traffic to transcend his name. But the talent is superb.
#3 Klutz
The Pen of the class. Klutz is a layered & witty writer. He is the best writer in this class and it’s more than just double/triple entendres and unique metaphors. He makes his writing unique, creative, accessible, and tailored to his opponent in a manner that can be explosive. His JC battle perfectly showcases how much purpose he uses in all of his setup lines, and how potent his haymakers could be.
Take into account that his 3rd round for JC was a masterpiece. Klutz’s vulnerability was able to foster closeness, trust, and intimacy between him and the fans. This was a brilliant move because he showed his passion and his pain. He told his story, and still tied the round into attacking his opponent. This round was deeper than just the story or a battle, it bridged a bit of the gap fans had with being unfamiliar with him. Being this open tells the fans sends a message to them, that you trust them. This allows for both parties to truly get to know each other a little more: how you think, what you value, and what you aspire to.
His presence & performance are the aspects of his game that can very easily be exposed. He doesn’t garner crowd control and still has to implement more fluidity in his stage movement to really impose his will. He can stand in front of an energetic performer and find himself in a whole heap of trouble and his pen would struggle to climb out of an insurmountable deficit.
He will have to learn how to increase his presence, and performance over time to magnify the impact of his lyricism and more importantly, combat opponents that excel in those attributes more than him. But with a convincing win against one of the highest-ranked battlers in the league and an Emcee regarded as one of the best writers, it showed what the potential can be for Klutz once he polishes his fundamentals.
#2 Footz
The wildcard of his class. Footz has the comedic chops to keep us laughing the whole battle, but can also out-rap a lot of people and punch anyone’s head off with unique references & name flips. He has the most distinctive skillset out of everyone in this class. His originality stands out in his delivery. To have such intricate flows and patterns while punching often is not easy, but Footz makes it look like it is. And he’s not just standing there getting by on a pen, he’s a highly energetic and entertaining performer too.
He is the battler that is most likely to have a battle of the night on whatever card he is featured on. And you can make the argument he may be the most tested individual out of the class. He has stood in front of more difficult assignments so far within the small sample size of his class. During finals exams, he walked away with the Battle Of The Night against a really good Lu Castro (arguably one of the best performances from veterans that night), he also had one of the best battles of the weekend at Outside 2 and stood in front of an avalanche from Jerry 2nd round. You can also argue he has a debatable win over Saflare Sole, in their rematch battle at Smack Volume.
Footz will soon discover his pacing may need adjustments in certain spots. At times, he tends to run into some elongated build-up for punchlines, and it’s possible he can lose a crowd in these instances. The larger the crowd, the less patient they are with you. And the glaring weakness of his Jerry battle was the inability to snatch back momentum. Footz stood in front of a powerful round, and in often instances, all you can do is give maximum effort against a round of that caliber to make it a conversation. While you can still argue Footz won the battle, he never regained the momentum he built for himself from his first round and he had more of a downhill performance, where his first round was his best round.
There is a legitimate argument that he can be number one, regarding his talent and his ceiling, but moments like this can derail that argument.
#1 Saflare Sole
Ranked at the top of the list, Saflare Sole was graced with battling URL vet Chess, as a main event on the Finals exam, which was followed after his debut on Summer Madness. All questions were answered after his main event battle against Rum Nitty, the reigning Champion Of The Year at Outside 2. To go toe to toe with the #1 ranked battler on the URLTV App, and arguably the most valuable battler of 2022, shows how potent his pen is and how hard Saflare can land a punch.
He walked away with the highlighted round of the battle, which was highly revered with his explosive 2nd round. And showcased some unique name flips, tailored punchlines, explosive drug talk bars, and a great delivery to connect with the crowd. He will still have work to do with some of the editing processes of his rounds.
Into his first few battles in the league, Saflare has registered 2x URL Headliners, an appearance on Summer Madness & Smack Volume. His trajectory on paper & his production on the stage is on course to becoming a premier talent for the league. A battler that will have perennial appearances on major cards like NOME, Summer Madness, & a Smack Volume.
Coming into this Rum Nitty matchup, most doubted Saflare because that’s what comes with being a rookie and his opponent is one of the greatest to ever do it. Long story short, he was consistent all three rounds, combining hard-hitting lines with projection and conviction. Saflare was a crowd-pleaser that night and a star in the making.
