The return of Tay Roc’s No Entourage league came back into our battle rap lives with a long lineup of battles this past Sunday. I pray for the feet of everyone at the venue; if you have ever been to a battle rap event, you know that your feet are more than likely to be on fire if the card has more than seven battles. Well, guess what? This card Featured a staggering lineup of 16 battles and 32 emcees; yup, you read that right. Breakout the pain relief cream and CBD oil for the feet. This event was a haven for rising talent, emerging prospects, and hungry amateurs. It also gave a platform to some battlers who had more experience. All tiers were welcomed to capitalize on the opportunity to shine.
This event is an excellent pivot for the next chapter of Tay Roc’s career—a window of time where he focuses on fostering newer talent for 2025 and onwards. Of course, Roc is widely known for his legendary in-ring career. Tay Roc is now setting his sights on nurturing the future of the culture.
It’s always dope to see some of the leaders or successful battlers in the culture be at the next forefront to open doors for others. This isn’t his first go-around with No Entourage events; you can find a few events in the past or look back to his virtual No Entourage tournament that he conducted on Caffeine. Tay Roc has already announced that at the top of January 2025, he will be doing his next event in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Special recognition goes to Lady Caution, whose behind-the-scenes efforts were pivotal in bringing the event to life. Her hands-on approach—coordinating with talent and handling logistics—made her an integral part of the ship’s running smoothly. Her contributions to running the event and hosting truly shone through and did not go unnoticed.
Something really stood out to me when I saw the level of promotion and effort Lady Caution put into this event. She was making rounds with the media for coverage; she was on spaces to get fans familiar with the talent; she was working the phones with battlers and managers who booked the talent. Caution has been a very active battler and has traveled to many of these smaller circuits and leagues across the country. So, it comes from a relatable standpoint when you consider that she’s seen most of these names perform live in person. She’s familiar with most of these names or has connections to them. Still, most importantly, she knows what it is like to be in their shoes because, at some point in her career, she was the rising talent that had to make her rounds across various leagues, opening on cards or traveling on your dime to take advantage of opportunities to get your name up.
So she knows what it’s like to constantly grind even when the views are low sometimes, to continually give good performances and material even when the room isn’t always packed out. Because What you do today lays down the foundations for the doors to open tomorrow. It’s all a part of your development because, at some point, all that experience leads to preparation for the right opportunity. Lady Caution knows what it’s like to be in their shoes all too well. She went through the grind of being an up-and-comer who’s battling for the look. To becoming an established name with a decorated resume, accolades, and headliners. She’s been featured on multiple WOTY lists and has received a handful of end-of-year superlatives from Media outlets. But it didn’t happen overnight, and the pathway to those milestones starts in rooms like this one.
Climbing the ladder as an up-and-coming battler is a difficult path, and a very low percentile makes it to the main stage; an even lower percentile becomes a star or a perineal top battler. Sometimes these talent pool events are basically a crap shoot; You put on 16-20+ battles in hopes of converting maybe 25% into talent worth building on. If you follow any sport, the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc… you know, every year, college players get drafted to the league, and very few pan out or make a long-term career for themselves, so this is a part of the numbers game that comes with prospecting talent. Still, when someone who understands the ins and outs like Lady Caution does put you in a position to succeed in the vehicle that Tay Roc is creating, you have a much better chance at beating the odds as long as you deliver when it’s your time to step up to bat.
Adding to the event’s success was a major distribution boost: No Entourage was streamed live and free for an entire day on The URL’s YouTube channel. The URL’s director, JB, lent his expertise to enhance the production quality. The commentary services were provided by J2 and the lovely Hurricane Du, bringing vibrant and fun energy to the live stream.
The few pieces of critique I would give: if you plan to do this many battles, you are better off either 1) Making all the battles one rounders with a strict time limit or 2) splitting up the battles for an entire weekend instead of that many battles for 1 day.
Sometimes, all it takes is for us to see 1 round of someone to know if someone is mediocre if they have potential, if they are good but need work, or if they’re special. There could also be a tighter selection of the talent pool. You expect a bunch of names that fail to deliver, maybe even some names, to not respect the platform enough and no-shows (Charge it to the game). However, there are plenty of names around the culture who are waiting for an opportunity and won’t play with their blessings, and those should be the names carefully selected to be showcased.
Tay Roc’s efforts were bolstered by receiving massive support from the culture! Hopefully, he can continue to build a sustainable platform for the rising talents in battle rap.
Stand Out Performances
Plenty of the prospects made some noise, and that’s not to say whoever isn’t listed here didn’t make an imprint or won’t get a callback. These are the names to were most memorable to me.
Dretti – A standout performer from the evening, hailing from the Infamous KMM (Kelz Murda Management) MOBBBBBBBB.
emcees from OSBL excel in punching and can build off momentum when they’re connecting with the room. He has good projection and delivery and has a chance to be great in those two departments; he can be very solid in the future.
Roheezy – Authentic is the first thing I think of when I watch him rap! First off, outside of the ring, he has the tools to promote himself in a way that is digitally and aesthetically appealing. He creates battle rap reels and does reels for his own highlights, and that alone separates him from the curve, but none of that matters if you don’t make highlights within the ring. He is 100% himself, and what he’s done on Ibattle, fully translated at No Entourage. He walked away with the Battle of the Night vs. RX South Side.
Big Ice – Explosive but needs work. Big Ice’s 1st round was quite literally my favorite round of the night. She has the cadence that hypnotizes you, the delivery to make her punches impactful. It’s hard to want to praise her this much when she choked nearly every round. It’s unacceptable, but from the little she’s shown, she truly does have potential if she can tighten it up.
Rainfire Moon – She is getting a lot of experience in the field, mostly by standing in front of her peers in the department of other rising female talent. To her credit, for the most part, she is coming up reasonably successful against her peers with clear wins, highlights, and standing out on each opportunity she is granted. It may be time for her to see a leap in competition soon. She continues to stay consistent.
Jay Dat Guy – It may be safe to say that someone of Jay’s talent was a bit overqualified for this opportunity. He’s vastly experienced and has battled top names for years now, and that experience ultimately showed yesterday with a dominating performance and good win. I would love to see him climb the scale and get further opportunities with higher competition.
Quis – A guy who has been making waves over the last year. He made a resounding impact at the West World Tournament, coming off a win against Rum Nitty, and a solid showing against Chef Trez, one of the best in the world pound for pound. Chef Trez was overpowering, but Quis made a valiant effort, and if Quis can continue to build off what he’s done lately, he can stay consistent.
RXSouth Side – A Unique style and someone who clearly is well-dedicated to the craft for the level of travel he did to perform at this opportunity, And he didn’t disappoint! Slick delivery and good wordplay to combat the Roheezy for one of the better back-and-forth battles of the night.
MK Ultra – A breath of fresh air and untapped talent. Originality in battle rap goes a long way; it makes you memorable in a room filled with punchers and schemers who just gunbar their opponent to death. Not to say he doesn’t do either of those things, but there is a bit of creativity in his presentation that makes him stand out.
Tariq – One of the better performances of the night. When opportunity meets, preparation is the best way to describe this. Tariq has rocked rooms and shown that he can get to various dimensions with his projection, content, and presentation.
