Salute to Remy Ma & The whole team at Chrome23 for another successful event.
The second round of the tournament is officially in the books. The quarterfinals of any tournament is the perfect measure that separates the goods from the greats. This round is all about execution and shows who can adapt the most to the short prep time and still bring high-level material to compete in advance to the next round.
All of the battles in this round were pretty lopsided and lacked competitiveness due to emcees being unable to execute and perform the material cleanly. Make no mistake, the difficulty of these tournaments goes far beyond the writing process but much more into actually delivering the material. Being clean is already half the battle let alone standing in front of a competitor that may be just as hungry as you are, if not more.
We’re unable to give this event a higher rating than 7.5 due to a battle on the card not going down. Chayna Ashley was disqualified for not being able to be in attendance due to a health concern. Losing 1 out of the 4 battles results in Losing 25% of the card.
The organization in this round of the tournaments has made many improvements from the first round. The operations ran smoother, the ambiance was set perfectly and most importantly the judging panel was able to read their scorecards and give a full breakdown of the point system that is being used. The judging system is referred to as the 5-Cat (5-category system) created by Battle Rap aficionado, Drect. The judging system uses 5 categories to critique the emcees. Punchlines, Performance/Delivery, Crowd Control, Wordplay, and Improvisation. You give a point score of 1, 2, or 3 per category for each round. So the Highest score someone can have per round is 15 points (5 x 3). And the highest score someone can have for an entire performance is 45 points, a perfect score.
Attention To Detail
The branding of the entire tournament has been remarkable and has caught my attention the most thus far in these two rounds. All of the female emcees wearing Chrome23 sweatshirts and sweatpants are a perfect representation of equal opportunity, which is what Remy Ma is providing with this platform
No one is able to have any advantage by the optics. Everyone is like a SquidGame cast member in this tournament.
It may be a very subtle branding tactic, but by all of the ladies wearing the same sweatsuit, there are some trickle effects that need to be recognized. The sweatsuit creates fewer decisions for the emcees to worry about. There is less time being used on outfits and less energy being wasted. The symbolism of the sweatsuits is similar to wearing pledge gear for fraternities or sororities. The Chrome23 gear represents the grind of your process within this tournament and it’s slowly creating a tradition for the league that will be required you to experience this gauntlet to the end.
Judging Panel
I had the honor to Rep Let’s Talk Battle Rap as a judge for the Chrome23 Tournament and I want to express my gratitude to Chrome 23 to extend this special and privileged offer to me. It was a humbling experience to give value with my opinion and contributions to extensively cover this tournament. I do not have a picture of my Scorecard for Chetta/Miami but I will post my scorecard results for the other two battles. It was an easy day of judging being that all of the battles were clear. (Lucky for me.) But the experience was priceless and the emcees took heed of the compliments and critiques of their performance with the utmost respect from all of the judges.
Judges:
Papoose (Prolific Rapper & Living Legend)
Ms. Hustle (All-Time Female Battle Rap legend, Face of Chrome 23.)
France (LTBR) (Credential Media member from Let’s Talk Battle Rap)
Swave Sevah (Harlem Battle Rap Legend, Team Homi)
John John Da Don(Bullpen Battle League Owner, Top 50 All-Time Battle Rapper)
LTBR Award Recipients
Battle of the Night: Bonnie Godiva vs C-Bri The Lyrcist
Biggest win: Kausion over Yoshi G | Bonnie Godiva over C-Bri The Lyricist
Upset Of The Night: N/A
Best Performances of the night: #1 Kausion | #2 Bonnie Godiva | #3 Chetta
Chetta vs Ms. Miami
Miss Miami sets the tone for the battle with high intervals of aggression, energy, and performance. Miami’s delivery was really the x-factor for her to stand out in this battle. All of the judges really enjoyed her first round. She was thunderous, animated, and captivating.
Mis Miami really implemented a lot of variations into her content and displayed a ton of humor in her second round, she landed a very big joke that garnered a lot of crowd reaction and after the reaction, she had a brief pause where she coughed and basically never recovered from her performance from that point on. She was no longer delivering her material with the same confidence or aggression and her content started to decline as the rounds went on.
Chetta shadow was able to secure this victory by maintaining a very solid level of execution. Chetta was bar-heavy, vert direct, and aggressive and she was able to impose her will on Miami. Chetta remained fundamentally sound during this whole battle and it was to her advantage.
Chetta 29 Points (Rounds 2&3)
Ms. Miami 27 Points (Round 1)
Bonnie Godiva vs C Bri The Lyricist
C Bri Has yet to unlock her full potential and she has such a variety of skills that makes her so dangerous. Whenever she finds a way to put it all together, she can be a real problem to deal with. She is still missing a principle of structure in the way she executes her content. But C Bri is able to punch, chain punch, have multi-syllabic patterns, implement humor, and she also can get very aggressive and bark at her opponent.
Unfortunately, she was not able to deliver a clean performance so all of the nuances of what she brings to the table, don’t get appreciated. There has always been a concern for me if she can shine when the lights are the brightest. C Bri does have a history of being stumble-prone or choking in big battles. But the talent is clearly there.
I will say, regardless if C Bri was able to execute a flawless performance, It would’ve made for a more competitive battle but the results may have still been the same. And that is just a testament to how high of a level Bonnie is performing at.
Bonnie Godiva was clicking on all cylinders. She has really perfected her delivery, aggression, and performance this year. You can make the argument that this is the best she’s ever been in her entire career. It’s almost mind-blowing to think that a battle rapper that has been active for over a decade, can still find ways to improve their game or hit new peaks.
Bonnie has been on a mission this entire tournament. She is the only contestant thus far with two Unanimous decisions and will be rematching Kausion in the Semi-Finals.
Yoshi G vs Kausion
Yoshi G is on the second night of a back-to-back. Saturday evening she battled RX on URL’s Traffic 5 card in Arizona and in less than 24 hours travels from West to East to battle Kausion in the second round of the tournament.
Taking a side mission in the middle of a tournament has never rendered successful results. When you make it out of the first round of a tournament, It’s most favorable for the battler to prioritize all of their energy to the opponent at hand. If you’re sidetracked or multitasking between opponents/performances you’re unable to give your undivided and full attention to somebody that is giving YOU their undivided and full attention.
Being clean in this tournament is already enough of a challenge, let alone putting on any additional stress on your shoulders. We did see Bonnie and Kausion have back-to-back battles in the first round and they both advanced but it’s still a very difficult assignment. Yoshi’s pen is always potent but the execution of her delivery was clearly lacking due to fatigue. She seemed to have suffered some memory loss during her performance. Yoshi was unable to remain clean in her last two rounds and as she stumbled through her material, you can visibly see the confidence leave her body.
Kausion leveled up from her showing in the first round and she displayed all of her attributes at her highest level. Her performance and aggression were on 100. And she actually walked away with the highest score of the night on all of the judge’s scorecards. Which would be equivalent to being the performer of the night. She is now rewarded with a rematch against Bonnie Godiva after battling her six weeks ago.
Chayna Ashley Does not make it to the battle.
Due to a health concern, Chayna Ashley could not be in attendance for the C3 battle and will be disqualified from this round, C3 will advance to the semi-finals to battle Chetta.
We hope and pray that Chayna Ashley is in good spirits and all that is well.