The first installment of the Ladies getting their own Smack Volume catered to them. Empowering the women in our culture is essential to the health and social development of families, and growth communities. This has been the year of female emcees receiving an abundance of opportunities within the culture. in 2022, there has been more battle rap events catered to female battle rap, than the last two years combined through URL, QOTR & newly established league Chrome 23.
Having more lucrative opportunities for women isn’t only significant from a financial standpoint but because of the limitless possibilities to climb the ladder of battle, while enhancing your brand more broadly can have a positive impact on others and continue to open doors for others. With the entire landscape of female battle rap expanding its stages, this opens the door for others to reach their full potential. There is a bigger talent pool of ladies contributing their skills & talents.
Biggest takeaways from the night
–Shooney Da Rapper registers her third headliner on URL this year. (Kings vs Queens 3 | Battle of the Bayou | Smack Volume)
–First Lady Flamez performed like the best battler on the card last night and she has a tremendous level of value of bringing the best out of her opponents for high replay value battles
–Myverse walks away with one of if not the best round of the night. She impresses the room and showed her competitive nature.
LTBR Award Recipients
Battle of the Night: First Lady Flamez vs Myverse
Round Of The Night: Myverse 2nd round
Best Individual Performances of the night: #1 First Lady Flamez | #2 Shooney Da Rapper | #3 Lady Caution |#4 Myverse | #5 Toni Blanco
Jay Love vs Toni Blanco
To open the night, we had Toni Blanco vs Jay Love. 2 of the lesser known (to the masses) talents on the card, they were given the crucial task of setting the tone. Toni won the toss and had Jay Love go 1st. Loves 1st is not a bad round, but very average. A lot of T, Blanco, and Tone (short for Toni) flips but none that landed with haymaker like impact. This constant name-flipping without bombs commonly can come off very stale or redundant in room and on cam, which is something Jay Love suffered from most the battle. Toni 1st round response showed a clear difference in energy and crowd control. With much more aggression and the better peaks (Her Swae Lee and Make Love bars as examples), Toni clearly took the 1st and shoved vet like separation.
This theme also bled into the 2nd, with Jay Love taking a step up but not major enough, still lacking in performance and energy, but with some better material as her Blade 2/J2 concept stood out as well as her Achievements and Toni Braxton bar. Toni responds thought, still showing separation in performance while having her own bombs, my personal favorite being “and draaaaag love, like Keisha Cole”. Toni was up a very clear 2-0
3rd was the closest of the battle, neither having a special round but Toni’s 2nd half of her round having tons of OBC (2 Ls aint cool J, in 2022) and ending on a dry spot, letting Love punch her way into an average, debatable round. Overall, solid showing from Toni Blanco gaining a clear win and showing separation in performance and polish, while Jay Love walks away with some things to work on to expand her game.
Result: Toni Blanco 2-1 clear, 1st and 2nd clear, 3rd debatable edge to Jay Love
Recapped b J Smo
Lady Caution vs Cee The Boss
2nd battle of the night saw Lady Caution taking on Cee The Boss as a heavy favorite, and Caution made good on those predictions with a great performance. Both 1st were light, with average punching and performing from each, both only having 1 bar each that truly stuck out of their rounds (Caution’s C 100% complete and Boss’s Life Revolve Around You bars). Truly mucky debatable 1st, but I edged Caution for being slightly more fluid and having better jabs throughout the round.
The last 2 rounds were a different story, as Caution wrote very uphill while Boss stayed at her 1st round level. Cautions 2nd is a highlight, with Sweet Chin Music and Thermostat haymakers that showcase some of her best writing yet, with many more bars included. Boss 2nd simply pales in comparisons, with a shorter round based around some Caution/Roc angles that have grown stale to most of the community.
The 3rd is similar in outcome. While not as good as Caution 2nd, she still consistently punches her way to another clear round, with bars like “ass shot, target the cheeks like Jigsaw” closing out a well-rounded and complete performance. Boss 3rd was her best round, but like the rest of her showing, it just gave off “not enough”. Clear victory for Caution over a decent Boss, continuing her great 2022 campaign.
Result: Lady Caution 3-0, 1st debatable.
Recapped b J Smo
First Lady Flamez vs Myverse
Easily one of the most anticipated battles on the card, Flamez vs Verse lived up to the expectations and above, being the easy BOTN pick. All 6 rounds of this battle were either good-great and really showcased both ladies’ strong suits at the highest level.
MyVerse started off the top of the 1st, and out the gate was displaying her pure rapping ability, which is easily her best trait as a battler. Mixing in fast-paced delivery with witty lines, Verse had a somewhat slept on but solid 1st, her Forest Fire concept being the standout of the round for her. Flamez responds with a HEAVY 1st thought and shows some of the separation that was predicted by many going into the battle. Tommy Hilfiger, Private nurse, and “Turn ya skull into a silencer” bar all are quick highlights that exemplified the level of writing Flamez 1st contained, leading to a clear 1-0.
The 2nd is clearly what moves this to the BOTN. MyVerse 2nd is amazing and personally the best round I’ve heard her rap to this point. From multis, to definitive haymakers/punches, and even well taken angles, MyVerse 2nd was possibly round of the battle and an amazing response to going down 1-0. Flamez too has a high-level 2nd, once again producing some of the battles peak haymakers with her Vertebrate and Die Lookin Like Your Decisions bars that blew the roof off the room. But her round lacked the front to back consistency of Verses, cutting her round early on a stumble, which lead to a clear 1-1 entering the 3rd.
Battle comes down to the 3rd metaphorically and literally. MyVerse once again gives a solid 3rd with multis and fast paced rhyming at the forefront of her round, with good content like her Crembrule bar being a standout, also sprinkling in angles relating to Virginia and Flamez setting an example for her children. On the flip side, Flamez once again has an elite written 3rd with tons of creative Verse flips and punching back-to-back to end the battle. While the 3rd was close and may have room for debate, I thought Flamez did enough to take the 3rd, with minimal dry spots and once again having some of the best haymakers of the round. A slight stumble by Myverse in the third round could be a difference-maker for some as the margin of error was very minimal for such a competitive battle. Very close and entertaining battle, this lived up to being a true grudge match and should be a great look for both ladies.
Result: Flamez 2-1, 1st and 3rd, MyVerse 2nd clear
Recapped b J Smo
Shooney Da Rapper vs Ms.Miami
A collision of two battle rappers with intervals of high energy. Miami sets the tone for this battle and has a solid round to introduce the tempo, however, Shooney was able to take control of the momentum when she established her presence in the first round. She is connecting all of her punchlines and clicked on all cylinders and looked extremely comfortable while commanding the room.
After Shooney asserts herself comfortably within the first round, Ms. Miami takes the liberation of igniting her engines and turning up the intensity of the performance in the second round. Her projection and effort were visibly noticeable. She understood she had to turn up in the second round. And while she provided a very visual and effort in doing so she’s able to pick up right where she left off and continues the momentum of being able to connect all of her punches with the audience it’s an entertaining back-and-forth battle but on my scorecard thus far, I have shooney up in the first & second in my opinion.
Ms. Miami then flip the switch in the third round and picks back up from the same level of intensity she provided in her second round but this time the content and punch lines were much more potent and she connected with the crowd the most in this round. She had a solid performance of her writing uphill and increased her output in each round.
The third round is arguably the most competitive round of the three in my opinion and I do actually have Miami winning the third round shooting seems to taper off it took a little bit of her foot off the gas in the third and had a shorter round than Miami. But a very strong performance from Shooney none the less.
Round 1: Shooney
Round 2: Shooney
Round 3: Ms. Miami
Recapped by France
Phara Funeral vs Yoshi G
Phara Funeral vs Yoshi G
Another big-time grudge match on the card, with much drama surrounding it, also went down between Phara vs Yoshi, and was the last battle of the night to go down. Yoshi would start 1st, and in a setting where Yoshi had the opportunity to flex her pen and layered writing, she opens with a pretty light round. “Funeral makes dying look good” is the only standout bar and even that was delivered somewhat awkwardly, with a round that had strange delivery and lackluster content. Phara 1st in response brought much more on the content side, using her aggression to garner more love from the room and land more definitive punches such as her “Mario/a shell crack in Yoshi mouth”. But it must be mentioned Phara 1st was plagued with stumbles. Even though it lacked a true choke or hard stumble, the constant stuttering did take away from some of her momentum. Content-wise, Phara had more and without an official choke, I thought the difference in content was enough to give her the round. If you are extremely harsh on cleanliness down to small stumbles, you may argue Yoshi took the 1st, but to me the difference in material was just too evident.
The 2nd can be described in one word: Horny. Both ladies took extremely sexual approaches, Yoshi speaking on the perks of hoeing, Phara responding with an in-depth description of her skills in the bedroom compared to Yoshi. A round that truly is hard to score due to a lack of truly direct material from either, a message-based round in a strange way. Due to a little bit more directness with her angles and once again some turbulence on Phara’s side, I gave Yoshi the 2nd in what would be the best back-and-forth round of the battle.
The 3rd is the clearest round of the battle, with Yoshi choking and cutting her round extremely short. Phara’s 3rd was not groundbreaking, with a somewhat repetitive “we are not the same” concept, comparing her and Yoshi as women, mothers, and in many other ways, going about full round length with the concept. Slight stumbles but arguably her cleanest round and clearly takes the 3rd, giving her a 2-1 W.
While not a bad battle, considering the lead up, it was fairly underwhelming as both ladies struggled with cleanliness. Both were decent though, and even with stumbles it was good to see Phara get all her material out after a streak of 1 v 1 chokes over her last few battles. Yoshi had bright spots but needed extra power in her delivery to match Phara and lacked somewhat in the content department. Okay battle overall.
Results: Phara 2-1 W, 1st and 3rd, Yoshi takes the 2nd
Recapped b J Smo
