LTBR Award Recipients
Battle of the Night: Nu Jerzey Twork vs Viixen
Performance Of The Night: #1 Viixen | #2 Ms.Hustle | #3 Nu Jerzey Twork | #4 Hitman Holla
Round Of The Night: Ms. Hustle 1st round | Viixen 2nd round
Staff Writers: France, Q Moody, Tai Tai & J Smo
Preamble by Tai Tai, Staff Reporter in The building;
Tai Tai offers a vivid perspective of her time in the building, describing the venue as beautiful and the energy throughout the night as electric, fun, and good vibes.—Not just during the battles but in the downtime between them. The crowd was locked in, fully engaged with the action, and eager to talk about who they had winning, their picks for Performance of the Night (POTN), and Battle of the Night (BOTN). She also commends Duh Boss for being incredibly accommodating and professional, helping the event run smoothly. The only real complaint from both the battlers and the audience seemed to be some mic issues. Similar issues happened to those who watched from home. The stream may have had a different level of quality than people are used to, but it’s possible that the production team may be getting a bit too much flack, as they were able to run events in the past successfully, and it may have been more of an issue with the transitions of the angles. It was a different view than usual.
“I had the ladies with a full sweep with
Aeon winning clearly, Viixen winning 2-1, Ms.Hustle winning 2-1, and Hart and Suge with a bit of a more controversial call. Debatable battle, but I was more entertained by E-Hart.”- Tai Tai
“If you were someone in the building for Power Moves, you would have experienced the same level of energy and fun.”- Tai Tai
Gorilla Monsoon vs Aeon
2.25 ☆ Rating Recapped by J Smo
The first battle of the night was an opportunity for the Bags and Bodies talent to show they could hang on the main stage, with Gorilla vs Aeon leading off. This battle suffers from a few issues, some caused by the battler’s lack of experience and others that were out of their hands. The biggest drawback has to be just how bad the audio and stream were during this battle, with the mic quality low and, at times, going in and out every few seconds, with the stream going off for a while mid-battle as well. If it weren’t for one performance being extremely unclean, it would be impossible for a PPV viewer to track what was happening or being said. While the production during the whole event was lacking, it was at its worst for this battle and really takes the viewer out of it regardless of how good or bad the raps could’ve been.
1st round had the most transparent audio (which isn’t saying a lot), and this round was Gorilla’s best. Both battlers struggled a bit with pacing and crowd control; Aeon, especially in the 1st, had to run her round back a few times cause of the mics, which clearly made her a bit uncomfortable when executing her round. Gorilla dealt with some pace issues as well but just landed a lot more, even early into his round, punching back-to-back to a 1-0 lead. A very random mid-round stop to fix up his durag was also coupled with a stream dropping, adding to the mess of the battle as it went on, and the stream picked up again during Aeon 2nd.
As stated, the audio was very in and out as the battle went on, so while Aeon’s performance did seem a bit lackluster, it’s hard to give it a fair judgment without hearing all the raps. However, Gorilla made judging easy in the 2nd and 3rd, as he choked both final rounds while Aeon was clean and maintained her aggression-heavy style. This was a wasted opportunity by Gorilla. This is the result you get when putting anyone on stage and not developing talents who are ready for the experience. He did have an edge material-wise when he did rap but just sputtered out with a mostly non-competitive showing, and even with a flawed performance, Aeon showed great poise after a rocky 1st and did what she had to do to pick up a clear win on her big stage debut to start the night. We should look forward to seeing Aeon on more big stages in the near future.
Shotgun Suge vs E Hart
3.00 ☆ Rating Recapped by J Smo
2nd battle of the night was a top-tier grudge match, with Suge vs Hart finally facing off on stage. Hart started her 1st with her classic style, combining witty lines with her patent flow. While there were questions of how Hart might handle the big stage coming in vs. a performance-heavy opponent, she had a very respectable 1st to start, and while not as haymaker-heavy as the rounds to come, it was a good start that set the table for her showing. Suge 1st, in response, was quickly his best round of the battle, with name-flipping, drug talk, and an energy-heavy round. While there was no dominant round, I felt like Suge had better pace with the higher highs of the round and found myself comfortably having Suge 1-0 heading into the 2nd.
The 2nd round is one of the more controversial points of the whole night. Hart 2nd was hitting at a high note off rip, going more angle-based this round by attacking Suge for his gang affiliation and having a “YOU ARE STILL FAT” concept the whole 2nd half of the second, going into a comedy bag and landing throughout. Whether it was the character breakdown or jokes, Hart’s material in the 2nd is excellent and showed signs of her writing uphill as the battle went on. However, in the middle of this great round, Hart finds herself stuck on a line, choking in the middle of the round and having to run it back 3 times to find herself and get it back. While she did get it back and finished the round strong, it was an evident stop in the middle of her round. Suge 2nd still has some good material, but the drop off from his 1st is noticeable, and he has a shorter round as well, being around the 90-second – 2-minute mark on the dot. How people judge this round is a testament to how much people care about choking in modern battle rap. E-Hart had better material in the round and was more entertaining, getting better as the battle went on, and Suge’s quality fell off. Choking for me always has and always will be the automatic loss of a round, though, so even with a gap in quality, unless you’re trying to argue that what Hart had was a stumble and not a choke, I have to give this round to Suge simply off the factor of being clean. It’s a round Hart should’ve taken clear, but the slip-up saves Suge and gives him a 2-0 lead heading into the 3rd.
The 3rd plays out like the 2nd but with the absence of Hart slipping up. She was a lot better than Suge to close, having better material, energy, and rapping ability as she cruises to a clear 3rd round vs Suge, whose third was another step down from a weaker 2nd. The classic example is one battler rising while the other falls as the battle continues. The battle leaves the watcher with the strange experience where Hart was the more entertaining performer across the whole battle, but with Suge getting the 1st and Hart choking the 2nd, I have her still losing 2-1 despite Suge’s downslope in material. Hart still deserves massive praise, as she lit the stage up, and even with the choke, she still has people arguing she won just off her material. Some even called a gentleman’s 30 with her edging the 1st two rounds. Have Suge escape with the 2-1 but have a performance that is nothing like his recent nuclear outing vs Eazy, The Block Captain. Solid battle, with an interesting debate of just how much choking means to you when deciding your winner.
https://twitter.com/LTBRpodcast/status/1908636466957140463
Nu Jerzey Twork vs Viixen
4.25 ☆ Rating Recapped by France
First of all, a round of applause for this battle.
In the first four rounds of this battle, we jumped on the express train, skipped the ‘Battle of The Night’ Stop, and went to the ‘Battle of The Year Contender’ Station. Viixen has long proven her capabilities, but this battle was another reminder of her ability to rise to the occasion—especially against top-tier male opponents or on big stages. She opened the battle with an incredibly complete first round, intense energy, heavy punches, performance, presence, and bar-for-bar execution, especially with the crowd.
Twork, however, responded immediately and powerfully in his own opening round. Continuing the momentum he built from his previous battle against Bigg K, in this same room, he delivered a first round packed with haymakers and endless highlights. One moment of his 1st round included visual props—photos of Viixen and her parents—which he turned into an angle. However, the creative risk didn’t fully land as intended and somewhat diminished the otherwise dominant round, in my opinion. It felt like the pace of his explaining the purpose of the pictures derailed him a bit. Despite that, he still took the first round convincingly.
Viixen’s second round was arguably her best of the entire battle—and one of the best of her career. She matched Twork’s intensity and crafted an impressive and calculated round that mirrors so much of Twork’s special moves. She flipped Twork’s trademark moves—his slogans, sequences, and stylistic tendencies. In her first round, she started to do this by flipping his “Died with his eyes open.” But in her 2nd is where you saw this on full display. where she mimicked Twork’s “Strapped In/Clap you in Coma.” And made big moments of it. She referenced a Mario Kart bar in a similar punchline format that is coined as one of Twork’s wordplay association’s signatures. Viixen’s 2nd round broke the building and shifted momentum in her favor.
Twork, to his credit, came out swinging in the second with his own “Mario Kart” rebuttal that answered Viixen’s flip and was explosive! He opened his 2nd round with a major bomb to get the room back on his side. He had plenty of highlights, and some could argue that he edged this round on a bar-for-bar basis. Still, the overall impact, I leaned in Viixen’s favor, and going into the third,
I had both my index fingers in the sky. 1-1.
Viixen’s third round continued the trend of high-level penmanship, and she put the finishing touches on this masterful performance with a well-crafted angle. Viixen showed her variety in almost every attribute within all three rounds. Meanwhile, Twork unfortunately choked during his third. There was a major delay and cut-off from the PPV; it went from the end of Viixen’s third, where she asked, “Do you believe in a parallel universe?” to a black screen to the battle coming back to Twork trying to get his material back on pace, a very odd sequence, which automatically gave the round—and the battle—to Viixen. I gave Viixen the battle 2-1.
This performance from Viixen has to open up some dialogue, and it’s time we start talking about where she ranks all the time with the sample size she has against Top-Tier men, women, and big-stage performances.
From her breakout showing and win against DNA, her first time rocking the big stage on her debut with a battle with Tay Roc (where she had a battle of the night). To be a big stage headliner on Chrome 23 against Ms. Hustle. Winning the best female battle of the year in 2022 (vs. Flamez) & 2024 (vs. O’fficial), and her recent elite performance against Rum Nitty at Summer Madness, and now adding the Performance of the night on a big stage event against one of the best big stage battlers of all time.
She certainly had moments when she took significant losses on a prominent New York stage against Jaz the Rapper and A. Ward. She has certainly taken some lumps in the past against Loso, C3, and others, but she has shown growth and adaptability on every level, with difficulty increasing as each battle gets bigger. After being the first WOTY in 2020, a runner-up in 2021, and coming off of 2024, one of her strongest years in terms of writing and performance—it’s time to discuss Viixen’s all-time ranking seriously. She’s not just surviving against the best—but thriving and often outperforming them. Viixen is cementing herself in ways that were unimaginable in the last 5 years of the 2020s, and it’s time we have a conversation about it.
https://twitter.com/LTBRpodcast/status/1908655299743064380
Hitman Holla vs Ms.Hustle
3.50 ☆ Rating Recapped by Q Moody
Another battle a long time in the making from the promotion and lead up to the battle itself, delivered something quality and worth the years of build-up and anticipation. Hitman vs. Hustle is unique in the fact it’s one of the few true “grudge” intergender battles that battle rap has ever seen, and the final product provided makes it probably the best grudge intergender battle we’ve seen to date, which they both deserve a ton of credit for.
The general thoughts coming out of this battle are that the clearest round of the battle is the first round, with many people giving that to Ms Hustle. Hitman went first, and honestly, it was his best round of the battle. He landed some heavy moments, and it didn’t have the other dry spots or things I’ll critique eventually from his later rounds. It’s dynamic punching and the type of stuff you get from Hitman when he’s at his best at this stage of his career. But Hustle has transformed herself into an unstoppable avalanche of energy, especially in her first rounds. She’s so difficult to keep from completely stealing the room with her delivery and projection. And it shows the level she’s at with that to be able to give the best performer of all time issues in maintaining control.
And her punching and big moments here are some of the biggest standouts in the entire battle. The “B positive” and “.357 for One Night Stand (Nightstand), like IKEA,” are genuinely incredible. But for as good as Hustle’s writing and punching have gotten along with her overall improvement as a battler, she has a habit of relying on some super outdated material that takes away from it. For her super dope stuff, there’s also Colin Kaepernick and J Cole/no features bars that aren’t even like filler material but the culmination of a few bars of build-up. And for how great she has been the last few years, we have to hold her to a bit of a higher standard with her pen.
All this being said, I don’t fault anyone for giving her the first round at all. But I don’t think it’s some clear round in her favor with how great Hitman’s first still was and with some of her bars that took away from the potency of her own round.
The battle does dip a little bit quality-wise after the first, I’ll be honest. After a good rebuttal, Hitman’s 2nd round starts with him continuing to tie the word “Biggie” in his rhymes, which worried me. As great as Hitman is, he can still be prone to bland and sometimes even bad writing. So, to start the 2nd like that, after already having the momentum maybe stolen from him after the 1st, it made me think we’re about to see Hitman in a major deficit. He eventually got back on track by returning to the “Hitman flow” and doing some effective chain punching at that pace we all know and love him for. He seemingly cuts the round a few bars short because the crowd kept reacting, which is a little odd. But he did enough to put that round back into competitive territory.
Hustle’s 2nd is largely directed at Cinnamon and Hitman’s relationship with her. Truthfully, of Hitman’s most recent opponents, I thought this was the worst and most redundant Cinnamon stuff I’ve heard so far. This is not to say I’m taking away points for doing the angle; it just wasn’t done interestingly or compellingly. This really hurts because Hitman had a very beatable round if Hustle brought that same level of material from her 1st to her 2nd. It’s still a debatable round, but I was not moved at all by Hustle’s spin on this topic.
The third round is even weirder, with most of Hitman’s round focusing on Hustle being homeless. Albeit a good bit of it did get some laughs out of me, but it definitely felt like Hitman taking his foot off the gas. It’s not something that closed the door on Hustle winning. Hustle’s third is fascinating because she attempts to “counterwrite” and addresses the rumored falling out with Remy Ma and the homelessness claims. In theory, it’s new stuff for her to be trying, and I’d applaud it, but with the fact that Hitman didn’t mention Remy at all other than a bar in the first round, that falls pretty flat, and all it leads to is a bar ending with “Eazy,” which feels a bit lazy.
Hustle attempts to counter the homeless angle by flipping it into something where Hitman hasn’t had to struggle and hasn’t gone through as much as she has. In theory, that’s a great way to flip that. This might be a bit nitpicky, but her not putting more effort into clarifying when she was houseless didn’t help her diffuse Hitman’s angle. If that was happening at a different stage in her life, she didn’t do anything to clear that up, and ultimately, it winds up validating Hitman’s angle without that added detail. As great as Hustle has been, I think this battle showed the limits to her range as a writer. And for Hitman, it’s very evident to me that he wasn’t exactly sure how to battle a woman, as this is his weakest showing in some.
With them both still being all-time greats, there’s enough good here to keep this from being a bad battle. The fans in attendance seem to have gone home happy. I don’t think any judgment of this battle is all that crazy; it’s a battle where I genuinely think every round has a case for being debatable, and that’s where the fun will exist whenever this battle is discussed.
https://twitter.com/LTBRpodcast/status/1908672085137698892
