It’s not very often as a human being that you have the tangible feeling of “I’m about to watch history take place”. But for us battle rap aficionados, that is all we felt in the lead up to the day of for Murda Mook vs Hitman Holla. A bout that I’d argue is the biggest rap battle ever put together. A matchup of two of the VERY few “god tiers” in our culture. A grudge battle years in the making, the stakes have never been higher for either of them.
What unfolded is a battle that is already a juggernaut. The upload for the battle is 1 million views after two days. Interviews regarding this battle are getting 10s of thousands of views. It has dominated the battle rap news cycle. And for as special a moment as this should feel for battle rap and for the men involved and for TBL being able to make this happen, some of the dialogue surrounding the battle has been a bit concerning. But let’s start with the battle itself.
The Game Within The Game
There’s more that goes into a rap battle than just writing and performing the material. This content is about to be broadcast globally and judged by anyone who consumes it. But in this scenario of gigantic proportions, the stuff that’s not about the “raps” means so much when setting the scene for the battle. And in that respect, Mook vs Hitman is one of the most fascinating build ups I’ve ever seen.
Murda Mook vs Hitman Holla had been brewing for a long time, but really got to a fever pitch in January of 2024. Murda Mook did an interview with Black Compass Media that was very incendiary towards Hitman and Hitman responded back with an incredibly well received video that he posted himself outlining the issues between them and providing context and proof of his claims.
There was more said after that, but let’s stay with this January 2024 portion. Then, it would be fair to say that Hitman had public perception on his side. The vast majority of comments on the aforementioned Hitman video are positive and carry the sentiment that Hitman is “telling the truth”, with a lot of people praising him for not being “emotional” in the video. By pulling out information backed by facts, Hitman appeared like the party that would have the advantage if they ever battled.
But a lot can change in a year and a half.
Murda Mook had a very public battle with alcoholism, became sober, and in the midst of that, put on a career-high performance in a dominant win over Arsonal. For as divisive as Mook has always been, this was the most easy to root for that he had been in the modern era.
For Hitman, it’s not as if that time spent was bad at all, just maybe not as favorable. He had a great battle with Geechi Gotti at Power Moves in 2024. He has another well-received battle with Ms Hustle in early 2025. But they’re not “wins” and it’s not uncommon to find people who think Hitman found himself on the losing end of these battles. But perhaps more importantly than the outcome of the battles was the enduring tension with Aye Verb. It’s safe to estimate that Verb being a thorn in Hitman’s side for most of last year played some sort of impact in the Geechi Gotti battle content-wise and has had an even bigger hit to the already not-so-flattering perception of Hitman that a lot of the battle rap community has had for years.
Even in a situation where with everything all lined up and on the table that shows Hitman did nothing wrong in all of that and that all of this was him reacting to being backdoored or disrespected, because it’s coming from the likes of Aye Verb who has been publicly associated with Hitman in the eyes of battle rap for such a long time and brings his own cult-like audience with him that buys into whatever nonsense he spews, people take credence to his words even when they shouldn’t. And because Hitman already is perceived so negatively by battle rap fans as this “emotional, arrogant, hot head” it’s easy for people to want to believe this stuff too.
For everything I already said, the eventual faceoff between Murda Mook and Hitman Holla is its own beast. I’d have a hard time being convinced that this faceoff wasn’t a gigantic part of how the crowd atmosphere wound up being at Bulletproof. Mook, almost deliberately, is stoic and reserved. It’s as if it’s done to extenuate and push the already out there idea that Hitman is “emotional”. And it was a genius tactic, because it made people forget that Mook was just as loud, boisterous, antagonistic, and confident for the majority of their rivalry. Now suddenly, Hitman can’t say everything he’s been saying. Everything he said in that beloved blog back in January 2024. But because he’s passionate and speaks with a raised voice, while Mook talks very dry and monotonously, now Hitman comes across as silly. While Mook comes across as in control.
Hitman himself said during the post-battle interview with HipHopIsReal that he had a hard time knowing how to prepare for Mook because of Mook’s silence during the lead-up to the battle. Initially, Hitman was doing a lot of talking once everything got announced. But it just sort of stopped. And that, in large part, is due to Mook staying radio silent and not doing any appearances or retorts to Hitman’s promotional work. Hitman was spitting in the wind, and it risked looking a way if the one-sided trash talk continued. So he fell back, but even months and months back, we can see the semblance of a plan Mook had to make Holla look a way, and that would be the story of their battle.
"I Do Think I'm The Greatest"
More than any battle possibly ever, Hitman vs Mook felt like it decided who the greatest battle rapper of all time is. Whoever won would be firmly undeniable in the GOAT talks for the rest of history—the highest stakes for any rap battle ever.
Hitman loses the coin toss and has to go first, but his first round is fantastic. My one critique is that I think while some of his typical Hitman/Philly flow pockets were excellent, they didn’t really pay off in any haymakers. But otherwise I loved his round and my favorite quotes from the battle are in Hitman’s first. It was a great tone setter and seemed like a good sign of the night to come for him, but then Mook rapped and it became clear that somehow, Mook was the favorite.
I want to preface everything from here on with this: I think Mook was very good in this battle, and I have nothing against him. Nothing written here is really a meaningful critique or a personal dig at Mook.
Mook starts his round off with the phenomenal “A and B side/that’s for the record, playa” segment. That was amazingly crafted. And the crowd rightfully goes crazy for it. But then a lot of what follows is material that I think is kind of clever or solid, but nothing special. How the crowd receives it, though, is totally different, as literally everything Mook said was landing. Once Mook did the pretender/pre Tinder, metadata/met a dater thing, and I heard someone scream in the crowd, it was evident to me that this was an extremely pro-Mook crowd. And that’s not about moving the goalposts or saying Mook wasn’t good, because he was. I love the “URL played the father figure/ a Smack made you Holla” and I thought the 2nd half of his round was great. But a side was chosen early, and when everything Mook is saying is landing and it feels like an avalanche of momentum, it’s hard to convince people that I think their first rounds are actually extremely close.
The 2nd round is the weakest round for both of them in the battle without a doubt in my opinion, but that’s not to say either of these is a bad round. Hitman is fighting out of a massive deficit in terms of the crowd, and that lack of energy from them definitely did affect things, even as he’s rapping mostly pretty good material. This was another round that I honestly thought was pretty close, but Mook gets the leg up here in my opinion because his opening bar with the stars expanding is the best of the round from either side.
"He Rap Good, But I Ain't Lied Yet."
The third round of this battle is ultimately the round I think the battle does come down to, but it is also the biggest point of contention coming out of it.
In Hitman’s third round, he dedicates it to attempting to expose Mook. He alleges that a sexual assault took place, which is why Mook didn’t finish his time at college. He posted a screenshot on Instagram, supposedly of the woman in question, along with a message containing damning things about Mook. Given the current state of the world, where it is possible to doctor information or create fake stories and profiles, there’s no reliable way to verify the truth or falsity of such claims. And honestly, including this was probably the one mistake I would say Hitman made in the entire battle. Because everything else he goes on to mention has some level of legal documentation behind it, the sexual assault does not.
Hitman then pulls out a folder and reads through exhibits of a legal dispute between Mook and his partner with the owners of the apartment complex they were living in. And in these exhibits, there are recountings from workers and tenants of that same building about less-than-savory behavior from Mook. Ranging from sexual harassment of a concierge and multiple accounts of Mook physically assaulting his partner, as well as his child.
It’s genuinely harrowing stuff to be presented during a battle of this magnitude. It honestly made me extremely uncomfortable. But even during it, I felt like Hitman did his best to attempt to lighten the mood a bit by throwing in some bars that had a humorous tone to them. I vehemently disagree with the idea that Hitman presented any of this information poorly. I think his one mistake was including the rape part when he had no paper evidence of that, and it becomes the easy thing to try to pick apart from his round.
After Hitman’s round, all Mook offers for a rebuttal is that his name is “John, not Johnathan” after Hitman did misspeak and say the name on the paperwork incorrectly. However, the paperwork on this situation does, in fact, list the name John Ancrum, but we’ll get to that soon.
Mook’s round has a fantastic flip on the “my silence is bigger than anything you could ever say” quotable from the face off, and the crowd gets into his round a good bit by the end, but this round is pretty dry from Mook. The most notable thing he says would be the idea that Hitman Holla is a “cancer” to battle rap, pointing to the issue with Verb and making comments about Verb’s mother, his issues with various people within the battle culture. Basically, taking the approach of Hitman being unhappy and being the common denominator of problems. And Mook raps it amazingly well and does a great job at painting this picture, but it’s a round where it doesn’t do much for me when almost all of these things Mook is trying to say or bring light to, Hitman was in the right, depending on the lens you look at it from.
We Gotta Do Better As A Culture
Almost an entirely separate topic from the battle now is the content of Hitman’s 3rd round. The immediate reaction people had was wanting to see proof of Hitman’s claims about Mook. In his round, he provided the case number and the website where you could find this information. With content that is this level of defamatory, the general rule in battle rap has been to have evidence. And it was made available.
But then something weird happened. The goalposts started moving. The evidence of the claims wasn’t enough, because people saw these as “complaints” and not arrests or charges, so then it doesn’t matter, and it could be anything. There are so many issues I have with this, but let’s get to the first one, being the people saying “well, this doesn’t say he was charged or arrested, so this doesn’t mean much”. That’s straight up incorrect. Arrests and charges are both mentioned in the online documents. And those charges stem from the infamous night when Mook was going live as police were attempting to enter the apartment. Mook was arrested and charged that night, and documents even show the plea he entered when arraigned.
I do want to be fair and point out that Mook’s partner was there on Mook’s side during the battle, and that after this incident, Mook checked himself into rehab. Mook and his partner appear to have been able to stay together, and Mook did the work to try to become a better person. This should be mentioned because none of this writing is meant to be an attack on Mook. I should also point out that an arrest and charges don’t have to imply guilt.
But even knowing that these incidents do have charges behind them, people are still being dismissive about these details, and it has reached a gross level that makes me ashamed to be a battle rap fan. Battle rap at its worst is a cesspool of negativity with plenty of misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia to go around. That’s not new, though. I know and have seen all of this and have kept watching.
But to watch one of the biggest battles of all time take place, and that sort of stuff that Hitman brought up with Mook get treated as if no one cares, is a level of disgust I haven’t had with battle rap in a long time. Our humanity doesn’t need to be checked at the door to enjoy battle rap. We don’t need to commit so hard to these opinions on rap battles that we move the goalposts for the possible physical abuse of women and children. I’d much rather people be honest and say they don’t care that Mook might have assaulted his partner and daughter than to make it seem superficial and irrelevant. With the culture’s behavior following the battle, I can’t be convinced that even if there was harder evidence of the alleged sexual assault that got Mook kicked out of college, people would even care then. The same mental gymnastics would still take place. People aren’t even taking the time to just consider if the alleged sexual harassment of the concierge subsequently gives more credence to the sexual assault story. I’m not asking anyone just to assume Mook is “guilty”, but the fact we’re not taking this seriously at ALL is genuinely alarming.
I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around why this is happening. Do we only care about the idea that someone is a snitch or a rat here? Is that truly the only “sin” in battle rap? Is this the manifestation of how tribalistic Mook vs. Hitman is that people don’t want to be forced into changing their opinion regarding the battle? Would people still be so unwilling to take this information seriously if it came from someone else and it wasn’t Hitman Holla?
These are all questions I’ve had in the days after this battle, and to be honest, I’m not sure if any of them I’ll be able to answer or truly figure out. But all of this turned a night that should have been a massive celebration for battle rap into a historic battle in the record books, finally. Instead, I’ll remember this as yet another time battle rap reminds me that we use this as a place to hold no morals or values or accountability for others. But on the other hand, silly me. This was already a place that continues to platform non-black people who say “nigga” and bloggers who groom children or have multiple rape cases against them. And this is just who battle rap is proud to be.
