TOP 10 PERFORMANCES FROM RBE’S STRAIGHT TO IT VOLUME 2.

Event Rating

Salute to ARP and the whole RBE staff (Winged, Shotta, Lawrence and more) for having a successful event. The 2nd installment of their Straight to it series took place on Saturday, April 10th, 2022. What makes this series unique is that all of the battles are private and unannounced until 1-2 days before the event. And the faceoffs for each battle are shot after the performances.They’re almost like a post battle interview with ARP, fresh off the stage. Credits to RBE experimenting with new wrinkles for this series.

This card was jam packed with 17 battles. 34 Battlers plus their entourage, staff and media in the building. The event started at noon and finished at 8pm. To get through 17 battles in a span of 8 hours is impressive but also tiresome. Only 3 of the 17 battles were one rounders, so when you do the math, add the bars, subtract the pulverize, carry the one… yup that’s right… we stood up and listened to 90 rounds of battle rap in one day!
It’s pretty impressive the building didn’t have any fatigue down the stretch of the evening and they main event got the full attention and energy of the audience.

For this event recap, we decided to highlight the top 10 best individual performances of the evening.

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LTBR Award Recipients

Battle of the Night: A.Ward vs QB Black Diamond | Gwitty vs Remedy Loko | Showoff vs Aktive

Performance of the Night: 1st Rosenberg Raw | 2nd A.ward | 3rd K Walker| 4th Bonnie Godivia | 5th E Ness

Surprise of the Night: Rosenberg Raw | Remedy Loko | K Walker | Heavy Half

HONORABLE MENTION REMEDY LOKO & ILL WILL

Remedy Loko is officially the first battle rapper that is signed to RBE. The 7 foot lyricist has shown RBE that he possess star power potential, can be an above average puncher, shows a ton of personality and a variety of other tools as a battler. He finds comfort in certain pockets to emphasize on his wordplay, he implements humor in his bars, he is aggressive and has delivery that can captivate a room.  He had a good performance vs a great Gwitty. Loko will continue to progress as long as RBE continues to put him in the right position to do so.

As for Ill will, make no mistake, a 70% Will is still better than many battle rappers at 100%. Rosenberg Raw may have gotten the best of him that night but Will had a such a potent 2nd round, that probably could’ve knocked the wind out of anyone that night. Unfortunately his rounds were 2 minutes flat and he had a choke in his 1st round. But with the small sample size he gave us, he still is able to show how good he can be.

#10 JIMZ

Jimz makes his return to RBE after a 3 year layover and he looked extremely comfortable in his element. It’s psychologically proven that humor and laughter can help us neutralize tension and conflict. Jimz was facing Philadelphia veteran Cyssero, coming off a career high performance.

As most Philly battlers, aggression is a key attribute to their delivery and cadence. Jimz found himself in the perfect position to neutralize the aggressive nature of Cyssero with humor, timely pockets of bar heavy content, matching Cyssero’s aggression in spots and also freestyling. Jimz was so confident and prepared in his material he was able to try something new and freestyle in the middle of his round, rapping about some paintings on the wall and get right back into his raps.

Jimz is looking to make a 2nd run back in battle rap. His RBE resume is filled with names such as Cortez, Goodz, Aye Verb, Serius Jones and more. And he looks to continue to add on to the catalogue he’s built, welcome home Jimz.

#9 SHOWOFF

Showoff makes his return to RBE after not battling on the platform since Max out I, back in March 202. Coming off an impressive performance against west coast veteran Aktive, Showoff shows why he is back.

Showoff demonstrates a great deal of confidence in his pen. He enjoys the aspect of being intricate and maintains the same method of attack no matter who stands in front of him. If you are a fan of Showoff, you will enjoy this performance.

#8 GWITTY

Gwitty makes his 2nd appearance on the Straight to it series and showed elevation. Gwitty is a high energy, entertaining battler that is filled with intervals of humor, bar heavy content and schemes. If you are going to battle Gwitty, be sure to have your energy on 10.

Gwitty was comfortable, he was on point with his delivery and he lights up the whole room by just being in attendance. You normally see him providing his voice, energy and comedic ad-libs to other battles but this time he transferred that energy into his performance.

He was landing his material in almost every pocket and got to all the spots he wanted. Gwitty’s motor is filled with confidence, so any further fuel from the crowd will just amplify what he already brings and make him a tough assignment for anyone. From beginning to end, Gwitty gave an amazing performance.

#7 HEAVY HALF

Heavy Half had a stellar showing against Mr. Mills, for what might’ve been the most underrated performance of the weekend. At this point, its time for fans to recognize and remember that Heavy Half is a RBE veteran. His battle catalogue is still under 25 total battles for his career, so there is still plenty of room for him to reach his ceiling. And in this performance, he showed to be more polished, his delivery was sharper, his crowd control was visibly more effective, his content is getting stronger and he really showed elevation in all areas as a battle rapper.

He was in control of this battle from start to finish. It’s always great to see battlers improve. 

#6 QB BLACK DIAMOND

QB Black Diamond is fresh off her battle with 40 BARRS, on Chrome 23. The culture was not very receptive to her Chrome 23 debut and through some tough and negative criticism to her recent performance, she was looking to bounce back. QB got the perfect opponent to be in front of in A.Ward.

QB gets an opportunity to remind the world how good she raps and she can go toe to toe with any male battler in the game. She’s tailored the content to be direct towards her opponent and took head to the feedback she received and showed us why she is an all time great.

#5 E NESS

E Ness was faced against Chicago veteran, Big Kannon. Both emcees have agreed to have their battle judged and put up some money on the line. Big Kannon sets a high bar for Ness to match every single round and yet E Ness found a way to exceed that and even put the pressure back on Kannon.

E Ness has one of the best flows in battle rap…that, we already know. But when he turns up the aggression, his flow gets even more entertaining and thrilling to listen to. E Ness walks with the majority decision win from the judges over Big Kannon for what was a great back and forth.

#4 BONNIE GODIVA

Bonnie Godiva was on one this entire battle from start to finish. Bonnie coming off a strong performance on RBE, where she received a Body of The Night award, against Street Hymns. She displayed that same level of production on the stage yet again.

She was in complete control of the battle and showed Robin Rhymes the levels of performance, lyricism, freestyles, delivery, angles and crowd control. Bonnie checked off every single battle rap box you can think of with this performance. While Robin put up worthy effort, Bonnie made a statement with this performance as to why she deserves to be in the ring with top competitors.

#3 K WALKER

K Walker makes his return to RBE after 5+ years of not touching the platform, to stand in front of battle rapper, Bones Brigante for an interesting match. Bones Brigante has been inactive in battle rap since 2018, so he was making his return to see if he can adapt in this new Covid era of battling.

Whenever an inactive battler, industry rapper or a DVD era veteran/pioneer makes a returns to battle rap, they’re usually off a few beats in their performance on a stage. Sometimes they’re delayed with their mechanics, slow with their pacing and their delivery isn’t captivating enough. Also when making a return to battle, these rappers struggle with having the proper amount of punches to keep a crowd entertained.

This was the perfect moment for a professional and modern day battle rapper to demonstrate the skill and performance gap.  And K Walker did that !

K Walker showed levels in every area of his performance. He had a powerful first round and arguably bar of the night. His performance and delivery has taken a leap. Even ARP has said in his recap this may be one of K Walker’s best performances to date.

#2 A.WARD

A.Ward registers his 5th RBE battle in a inter gender match against QB Black Diamond, who was seeking a bounce back performance after her most recent showing.  A.Ward rose to the
occasion and walks away with the best back and forth battle of the event.

This is the 2nd event out of his 5 showings on the league, where he leaves the venue with the battle of the night. There is value in bringing the best out of your opponents. 

In case the world has short term memory, A.Ward was voted as a Top 5 battler 2021, via Champion of the year(COTY). And he is still performing at that same level. He always shows up and produces high level performances no matter what kind of competitor stands in front of him.

A.Ward brings a unique approach to all of his opponents, he always brings a couple of dope layered schemes, he has an unlimited bank of haymakers and he is bound to give you an elite rebuttal that will rock the room.

A.Ward is having a very prominent run on RBE thus far.

#1 ROSENBERG RAW

Rosenberg Raw puts up a career high performance on RBE as the main event against a top competitor in Ill Will and shocks the world as he walks away with a powerful victory.

Rosenberg has been defying the odds on RBE. Going into the Will battle he was an underdog on most social media polls, 80%-20%.  If we use a implied probability calculator, Rosenberg would have been at least a +400 underdog in the betting world.

In the words of Raw, “We f**ked Vegas up with this one.”

ENOUGH SAID.

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