URLTV HOMECOMING RECAP

By / November 8, 2022 / Editorials

Homecoming

Event Rating

Event Recapped by France, Q Moody & Titus (LTBR Team)

LTBR Award Recipients

Battle of the Night: Jaz The Rapper vs Viixen
Biggest win: Murda Mook over Geechi Gotti| Jaz The Rapper over Viixen
Best Performances of the night: #1 Jaz The Rapper | #2 Murda Mook | #3 Kyd Slade | 

Recap Podcast

Kyd Slade vs Stumbles

Recapped by Q Moody

Slade has been consistent since joining URL, and this performance vs Stumbles was the last question people wanted to be answered about Slade. And he passed the test with flying colors. Stumbles starts off with the crowd in his hands in the first round, but after a fake choke bar that didn’t land and Tsu Surf bar that was in bad taste, his momentum started to dissipate. 
 
Kyd Slade saw that opportunity and dropped one of the year’s best rounds on Stumbles. Slade showcased everything in that round that makes him a future star. Slade maybe could have cut the round short and saved some bars and energy but he’ll strengthen his ring IQ as he goes on
 
To be clear, Stumbles was not bad in this battle. I would even call his 2nd and 3rd rounds good, but they both ended oddly and with no real climax. Slade’s energy lacked a little bit in the 2nd round but still did more than enough to win the round and picked his energy back up in the 3rd and closed out extremely strong. 
 
For Slade it’s nothing but up for him after this and for Stumbles, the potential is there but there are still some things to work on to maximize all this star power that people see in him. 

Swamp vs Arsonal

Recapped by France

Swamp makes his debut at Irving plaza and it proved to be a night full of obstacles. Swamp has made massive progress when it comes to his ability to adapt on the big stage, this year Swamp makes a debut on NOME & Summer Madness, which puts him in a very special group of emcees to share this unique accolade. Swamp went toe to toe with JC and Tay Roc, two of the best battlers in the league and you can make a legitimate argument he won both of those battles. With Swamp’s driving motivation for Champion of the year as a leading strong candidate, you would’ve had the anticipation that he would drive home his campaign and put on another strong performance but that wasn’t the case in this battle. 

Arsonal showed his veteran abilities and experience on the stage, he was certainly able to captivate the audience in a variety of ways for sections of his round, but there was a point in each of his rounds where his material trailed off of being directed toward Swamp. Arsonal was able Garner the command of the crowd a few times after he would lose them in some sections and was able to end every round strong. There were highlights from both performances from both emcees, however overall a lackluster battle. I don’t think this battle has a lot of high replay value in my opinion but nonetheless, it was a great learning lesson for swamp

I did get the opportunity to speak with Swamp after the battle, and he did confirm out of all of the three big stages he’s been on so far this year, Irving plaza was most certainly the most difficult one. The key highlights of Swamp’s performance were how poised and comfortable he looked on the stage in his first round, and how Tailored his material was. Swamp did a great job at mimicking Arsonal style and using his disrespect towards him but most importantly, Swamp wrote uphill and each round he. progressed. Writing uphill is a fundamental strategy to always help you secure a victory.

The battle is extremely debatable and it pales in comparison to other Swamp performances we have seen this year, but he does retain a victory on the Caffeine fan votes.

Jaz The Rapper vs Viixen The Assassin

Recapped by Titus

Jaz the Rapper and Vixxen the Assassin was a master class in strategy and the type of performance that should be studied by the masses. Jaz was so calculated with every move she made in this match, from her decision to go first and coming out with incredible energy we’ve never seen from her.

Then countering Vixxen’s explosive first-round energy with a 2nd round-style breakdown that made it almost impossible for Vixx to bounce back. Jaz killed any doubts about her status as one of the greatest in battle rap and proved why she is the final boss of this game. She had the crowd in the palm of her hand and played to them perfectly. Vixxen deserves a ton of credit for her fight, and ability to remain unfazed in the face of the most adversity she’s seen on stage. She fought for every reaction she had and even in a loss showed why she’s one of the most dangerous in battle rap right now. The culture can’t wait to see what these two do next.

Jaz has made a strong push to be in contentions for Woman Of the Year. Two main event battles on URL, wins on the caffeine votes over the reigning 3x COTY, and the first time WOTY in the same year. Alongside back-to-back 2on2 battles in the same weekend, where one of the battles she has a dominant victory and the other battle being a top Battle of the Year contender. 4 out of the last 5 times we have seen Jaz hit the stage, she’s walked away with arguably being the performer of the night. In the year she has finally exceeded her battle volume with the most battles she’s ever done in the span of a year, and she still performs at a high and efficient rate.

Jaz is performing at the level of a top 20 battler in the world right now. Don’t be surprised if she is the first woman to ever end up on both the COTY & WOTY list for 2022.

Murda Mook vs Geechi Gotti

Recapped by France

A battle for the ages, a heavyweight bout, and one for all the marbles.

Geechi Gotti ends his Mount Rushmore tour by Murda Mook in New York, after battling Loaded Lux, Hollow Da Don, and Dizaster within a calendar year. Geechi sets the tone for the battle by going first and while he has some strong material in his first round, he didn’t seem to establish a high threshold. He has a good round, and we are anticipating for him to have. great round. He leaves open a window for Murda Mook to capitalize and steal the momentum, and Murda Mook does just that.

Murda Mook opens his first round with a unique approach and takes full advantage of HomeCourt and puts Geechi Gotti in a difficult predicament. Mook opens up with a very Strategic angle. The battle easily became a West Coast versus East Coast thing with the theme Mook decided to use and it worked perfectly because it altered the way the crowd we perceive Geechi. Mook is delivering his material at a much faster pace, it’s connecting with the crowd efficiently and he’s able to land all types of haymakers that aren’t even punchlines. Mook has implemented the idea of performance and theatrics at a much greater level than we’ve seen prior to this. His performance was electric in the first round to the point where the entire audience was dancing and getting sturdy with him. And some are calling this the best Mook round of his career.

 

Geechi Gotti responds with full poise and confidence in his second round. He opens up with a few rebuttals and some of them land, and some of them don’t. This was a great reminder of the risk and rewards of rebuttals. As of recently, rebuttals have been overly credited, not realizing that if the freestyle isn’t potent enough or haymaker, it could actually derail the beginning of your momentum to start your round. Especially if you’re in a situation where you have to fight back.

Geechi has a very competitive second round With a lot of peaks. His 2nd round was much better than his first and although he’s fighting back, at the very end of his 2nd round Geechi did have some stumbles and yet again opened the door for Murda Mook to capitalize.

New York is a relentless crowd because both Murda Mook and Geechee Gotti got booed in the second round. Murda Mook starts to find his foot again in the second round after being boo’d and he picks back right off where he left. Mook is playing to the heartstrings of everybody from New York and it was the most connected he has ever been on a big stage. He shows that he was mastering the stage and hits a grand slam at the end of the second round. And you can now argue he is up 2-0

The second round is most surely the most competitive round out of the battle but I think the rest of the story ends here, with Geechi’s 3rd round being his weakest round. There was a lot of turbulence through his material and we’ve never seen Geechi Struggle like this with a crowd before. Mook gets a 3-0 chant over Geechi Gotti in the building, and for the first time in Geechi’s career, has he ever heard a 3-0 chant that wasn’t on his side.

If you remove the aspects of the crowd and just focus on the content and cleanliness, this is still a clear victory for Mook in my opinion. The Face of the Smack Era vs The Face of URL/Caffeine era. Now Murda Mook can say he has a clear win over Tay Roc & Geechi Gotti. The two emcees have been regarded as the face of URL throughout the course of this past decade. 

It’s a special feeling to see battle rappers that are two decades into the culture still finding ways to have career-high performances. This was bigger than just a Win over Geechi Gotti, this was a win for all of the old heads that still are connected to battle rap through Murda Mook & Loaded Lux. This was a win for New York. But most importantly, this was a win for all of the people that have believed in Mook and wanted him to live up to his expectation.

Murda Mook mentions at the face-offs that he realizes the criticism isn’t coming from a place of hatred but yet it’s coming from a place of people wanting to receive the anticipation that they know he is capable of. So not only does he deliver, but now he has shattered the narrative of what he can do on a stage. Prior to last night you may have not seen them be electric on a big stage but moving forward from today and on, he has found a formula and he is going to be very difficult to beat in the setting. 

He proved all the doubters wrong, myself included. And we all have to keep that same energy. 

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