The quarter finals of the tournament is officially in the books and yet again we get a thrilling evening of battles. A few upsets, a couple interesting twist, some controversial/debatable situations and of course it wouldn’t be a caffeine event in 2022 without a delayed hour start time and a battle being rescheduled off the stream. To URL’s defense, JC had a 5 hour flight delayed which prolonged him to arrive to the venue in time for us to watch Head ice vs JC live and the battle was taped and aired the following Day. Despite the few hiccups, we receive a lot of stellar performances from all the emcees!
We got to witness some redemption in quarter finals rematch, a thrilling Ultimate Madness classic set by the original Ultimate Madness class and yet again Another major statistical upset! Swamp defies the odds with a career high performance and is now the 4th battler in Ultimate Madness history to win a battle with under 10% chance of advancing.
Normally the 2nd round of these tournaments the content starts to water down a little but seeing all of the contestants actually had more time to prepare gave them a lift. 14 days prep in the quarter finals vs 12 days in the 1st round of the tourney, that extra 48 hours made a world of a difference.
LTBR Award Recipients
Battle of the Night: Real Sikh vs Fonz
Biggest win: Swamp over Rum Nitty
Best Performances of the night: #1 Swamp | #2 Sheed Happens | #3 Real Sikh | #4 Fonz
TRU FOE VS SHEED HAPPENS (II)
Recapped by The Coin Flip
A little under a year ago, Tru Foe and Sheed Happens stood face to face in the second round of Ultimate Madness 4. At that point, we had only seen their first round performances, both of which were standout. A little over a year later, almost like prophecy, Tru Foe and Sheed met again in the second round of Ultimate Madness 5 in a rematch that set the tone for the rest of the night of battles.
From the start, this battle way controversial, as Sheed Happens had advanced past Nunn Nunn in a battle that many would argue was a robbery. That stigma followed through into this battle as well, with Sheed being the massive underdog in the fan prediction votes 84% to 16%.
Despite that, Sheed made significant improvements such that nobody could call this battle debatable. Using the robbery angle to his advantage, Sheed’s unique performance and deliveries floored almost everyone, giving him what was likely the performance of the night.
Tru Foe was also good in this battle, but his performance was marred by stumbles and chokes. Don’t be mistaken however, Foe did not bring light material to this battle. We got to see his best material in the third round, and those fire punches alongside Tru Foe’s signature aggression.
Despite the loss, Tru Foe was a good sport and humble in the aftermath, showing up on spaces shortly after the battle, “I’m definitely a little disappointed, but I’m still happy about the experience.” He also lamented how up-and-down his performances have consistently been and expressed his desire to shore up those inconsistencies, “Man, I don’t even want to make no excuses, dog, I really don’t. I just know I gotta stay consistent.”
Winning this match, Sheed is slated to reach the semifinals, surpassing his previous performance in Ultimate Madness 4.
JUDGE RESULTS
Calicoe- Sheed Happens
JJDD- Sheed Happens
Polo (BCM)- Sheed Happens
Quest Mcody- Sheed happens
Caffeine Fan Vote- Sheed Happens
REAL SIKH VS FONZ
Recapped by Titus
This was a thrilling back and forth. When one battler seemed to have the edge, the other would retaliate and come right back. 3 words can explain this battle, styles make fights.
Real Sikh and Fonz once again proved that old adage to be true as their contrasting approaches to battles met and produced us one of the best UM battles we’ve seen. We can talk about the back and forth all day, but there’s a bigger picture at play here. The PG class of 2019 has been looked at as one of the best, this battle further reinforced that idea. Real Sikh and Fonz are two of the standouts from that class and once they finally met in the ring they showed once again why that class gets so much praise. This battle was a win for more than just Fonz, it was a win for an entire class.
Fonz gets the win and will be advancing to the semi finals for a second time. Fonz is officially the only battler to make it to the semi finals twice in Ultimate Madness. Just like the quarter finals in UM1, he won the majority of the judges but lost the fan vote. Its becoming evident that Fonz has mastered a formula of knowing how to write for the building. He is focused on leaving a lasting impression towards the judges and doesn’t leave his fate in the hands of the fan vote. Fonz was one judge vote away from being eliminated
As for Real Sikh, its evident the intricacies of his style was able to registered more with the audience at home as opposed to the judges in the room. Real Sikh is able to showcase the range in his game with his elite flow patterns, punches, good sets up, angles and humor. The versatility in his skill set was the clear advantage Sikh possessed over Fonz. A well rounded battle rapper vs a pure puncher is the perfect recipe for a preference battle. If you enjoy a variety of angles, jokes, multis, flows and the directness, you’ll probably favor Sikh in this battle. If haymakers, performance and chain punching is more of your grove, you’ll have a more profound connection to Fonz performance.
JUDGE RESULTS
Calicoe- Fonz
JJDD- Fonz
Polo (BCM)- Real Sikh
Quest Mcody- Fonz
Caffeine Fan Vote- Real Sikh
RUM NITTY VS SWAMP
Recapped by Tai-Tai
In the top of the 1st round, Swamp was well received by the crowd getting reaction after reaction with strong and direct material. In the bottom of the 1st round, Rum Nitty commands the crowd with just his energy alone. It goes without saying that you arrive mesmerized by his presence and the crowd is left hanging on to every word.
In the end, Swamp defied the odds. He is now the 2nd person to win a battle in this tournament with under 10% of a chance. He won this battle sticking to his own game and not trying to punch with Rum Nitty Nitty but by out battling Nitty and staying true to himself and has a career high performance. Great Battle!
JUDGE RESULTS
Calicoe- Swamp
JJDD- Swamp
Polo (BCM)- Swamp
Quest Mcody- Swamp
Caffeine Fan Vote- Swamp
JC VS HEAD ICE
Recapped by France
This battle was a unique situation. JC had a 5 hour flight delay and was unable to arrive at the venue in time for the battle to be streamed live. A handful of the people in attendance stood around waiting for the battle to take place and 2 hours after the stream ended, JC and Head Ice were getting ready to take the “stage”.
The battle happened outside of the venue which gives us a vintage/nostalgic battle rap street feel. Many would consider this environment an advantage for Head Ice, It’s almost felt like watching Head Ice of the Lionz Den era. Ice was in his prime during the battle rap days of Black Star in Harlem, but it seems fans are forgetting that JC also comes from an era of battling in Black Star too. In fact, JC’s first catalogued performance on Youtube are battles that took place outdoors. JC is just as comfortable in this setting and out the gate it shows. JC is landing punches back to back in the first round with conviction, precision and perfect execution. He makes it look effortless.
Head Ice establishes his presence in the first round by landing some of his bars quickly and having faster set ups to his punchlines. He was punching at much more quicker pace in this performance as oppose to his Shooney performance. Ice was in a zone. He getting into his spots comfortably but the material was not up to par and could not exceed the high bar JC set in the first.
I personally have JC also taking the second round. JC has punches in his second that are even more potent than the punchlines in his first round. JC gets into a pocket where he gets into these slick internal rhymes before he lands a punch and was clicking on all cylinders just like his first round, arguably better!
Head Ice shows a tremendous amount of creativity with his 2nd round. He takes a risk going toward a more comedic approach for this round and it paid off and was rewarding as it resonated very well with the judges. Ice opens up the theme with EFB, ‘Every Fuckin Bottle’ where he makes fun of JC for being an alleged drug addict. Ice pulls out a bunch of props of medicine bottles and a variety of items that fit the theme. It was a well executed angle that gave ice a chance to defuse the momentum of JC and capture it for himself. His whole 2nd round is mixed with humor, punches and some slick talk. As creative as the angle was, it did not surpass the level of content JC brought.
As for the 3rd round, JC takes a bit of a dip from the level he was at in the first two rounds leaving the door open for ice to snatch this round. Ice cuts his third round a little too short with an opportunity to have a strong lasting impression to really close the margin of this battle. I scored this a 3-0 victory for JC, (no body). None the less, Head Ice found himself in favorable circumstance to secure a win. He was unable to go the distance and close out strong which ultimately costed him the battle amongst the judges
JUDGE RESULTS
Calicoe- JC
JJDD- JC
Polo (BCM)- Head Ice
Quest Mcody- JC
Caffeine Fan Vote- JC
