URLTV: NEXUS 2 Recap

By / September 9, 2024 / Editorials

LTBR Award Recipients

Battle of the Night:   Ave vs Chef Trez

Performance Of The Night: #1 Klutz | #2A Ave | #2B Chef Trez | #3 WooSaah 

Staff Writers: Q Moody (Senior Staff writer), France, Justin Smolenski (J Smo) 

Preamble by France

It’s another installment of the Nexus series, and the URL is truly hitting gold with it. As mentioned in the first Nexus recap, these cards feel reminiscent of the Saturday afternoon events URL used to put on with Caffeine. They feature four to five battles with a mix of names in different tiers for an action-packed afternoon.

While this event had a few lower points than the first Nexus, it also matched — and exceeded—the series debut’s highs. URL has expressed that they can sustain this series and potentially hold it once a month. URL hosting a monthly Nexus event is similar to the UFC’s bi-weekly Fight Night cards, providing a steady stream of action between marquee events, keeping fans engaged, and giving rising talent regular opportunities to shine while maintaining momentum for the bigger battles ahead. Having these events helps restore a healthy dynamic between the league, its consumers, and its app subscribers. The caffeine era truly spoiled us with 10-20 live-streamed events in a calendar year, but it also changed the appetite for the way we watched URL events. Monthly events like this give Battle rap fans the return of a consistent stream, and more importantly, the battlers on the roster get frequent opportunities to stay active, build momentum, and continue developing their skills.

I’m thoroughly enjoying what this series brings to the table. We’ve already seen a handful of top-tier names like Ave, JC, Chef Trez, and Danny Myers featured, and we hope for even more in the future. Shoutout to the whole staff for putting together another successful card, and big shoutouts to Director JB for the production—despite minor hiccups at the start, the audio and visuals were crisp as always. We got through five battles in just under three hours—a Saturday well spent.

Nexus Call Outs

At the end of the event, Smack White gets all of the battlers lined up to make a call out for the next opponent they want to battle, and URL tries to honor some of these callouts for the following Nexus event. We have some interesting possible matches for the near future.

Ave: Calls out Calicoe, T-Rex & Murda Mook

Klutz: Calls out Sheed Happens, Chess & Ave 

Danny Myers: Calls out Serius Jones, Murda Mook & Loaded Lux 

Swervoo: Calls out Tru Foe

Lu Castro: Calls out Shotgun Suge, Danny Myers, Chess, And Chef Trez

Jakkboy Maine: Calls out Real SIkh 

Chef Trez: Calls out Calicoe Arsonal, Swervoo, Lu Castro, Klutz 

Woosaah: calls out Loso, Kyd Slade, & Shotgun Suge

Footz: Swamp, Real SIkh & Arsonal

 

Footz vs WooSaah

3.25 ☆ Rating Recapped by J Smo​

First battle of the battle of the night, started with some top 12 action as Footz made his URL return to battle Woosaah. Coming in as the heavy favorite, many expected Footz to pick back up right where he left off, with this being his first URL battle in close to a year. Footz has been showing brilliant flashes in 2024 and has one of the best battles so far in the year with Elijah Strait, so it’s not a surprise that Woosaah was a heavy underdog, especially after starting his URL career 0-2. But from the 1st round of the battle, you could see this one had the possibility of an upset. In retrospect, the 1st is what decides the battle and also shows some of the best qualities of both battlers. 

Woo got off to a good start with his punching, at points punching about every 2 bars to build momentum throughout the round, with a rapid-fire landing rate and a potent delivery as well. Footz had a great 1st of his own, being more pocket-based and contrasting the efficiency of Woosaah round with the more unorthodox rhyming style of his own. The 1st, as mentioned, is the closest round and highly debatable, but I found myself edging Woo this round with the more rapid landing rate and punch count. Woos’s best round followed this in the 2nd, where he not only punched but also mixed in his real talk bag, which seems to be when Woo was at his best. To add to this great round, Footz also choked during his 2nd, which made a clear round more lopsided and, for myself, gave Woosaah a 2-0 and, subsequently, the battle early on. 

The 3rd I did have clear as well, but this time for Footz. While some may still argue Woo got this round, it felt like his weakest compared to his 1st two, while Footz had some of his best punches and most consistent landing rate and still performed at max effort, while Woo took his foot off the gas just a little. While the battle could be debated 2-1 for either battler, Woosaah walks away the main story here with a win for many and his best URL showing yet. 

With a lot of doubt cast his way going into the battle, Woo made an early statement in the night about why he belongs on URL and has himself a performance that he can work off momentum-wise, as he looked highly formidable vs. one of the higher ranked members of the new classes of talent on URL. Footz also had a solid showing, although the 2nd round choke is an outlier for his usual consistency and hopefully a one-time occurrence, as it does hurt the optics for his overall showing in the battle.

Disclaimer: our stream had issues in the 1st round, so we did not publish a Twitter poll from our account. We will be using the URL’s twitter poll for this battle

Lu Castro vs Swervoo

1.50 ☆ Rating Recapped by France

There’s a lot to unpack with this battle, and unfortunately, I have to start by saying this was the lowest-rated battle on the card, leaving me disappointed on multiple fronts. I’ve seen better from both emcees, especially since this is a match they’ve both shown genuine interest in. Yet, despite the anticipation, both lacked the cleanliness we expected, and the bars didn’t reflect the caliber of their names.

Starting with Swervoo, he’s put together better showings since his debacle at NOME 14. With a solid battle against Bad Newz and a decisive win over O-Red, it seemed like he was starting to regain his footing and bounce back. While those battles hinted at a positive trajectory, let’s not forget the context of it: he was still behind the 8-ball. He’s underperformed based on the league’s projections of what we all thought he’d achieve after his breakout in 2023. If we put Swervoo’s last two years on a stock chart, we’d see massive spikes upward from his 2023, with a steep drop from this year’s activity, and now he’s still climbing but hasn’t yet reached the high value he once was at. And there’s a recurring issue with him—stumbles and an overall lack of polish in some. of his performances this year. It’s strange to say, but even though you could argue he’s won his last three battles (against Bad Newz, O-Red, and Lu Castro), those performances don’t hold a candle to the heights he reached against Chess or Cortez. So, even in this possible winning streak, he’s not fully capitalizing on his moments, which raises serious concerns about his ceiling. With fewer events being thrown, URL has had four live-streamed events in 2024; Swervoo’s been on three of them, with two of his three performances falling below par.

In this era, where live-streamed events are becoming fewer and far between, you don’t have many chances to seize the moment—especially with a roster full of talented emcees hungry for the same opportunities. Swervoo’s getting his shots, but it’s starting to feel like the ship is sailing on his potential. And honestly, that’s worrying.

Now, Lu Castro—this was his first battle back in the league since Homecoming 2, where he opened against Swamp. Lu has had an interesting career at the URL, to say the least. His journey has been filled with unique milestones, he’s been featured on marquee events and has had some standout performances. But the good is also accompanied by his moments of inconsistencies, lack of cleanliness at times, and some significant losses. After years of him being at this level, you are who you are. Some nights, Castro can be electric and entertaining; other nights, his material feels pedestrian, his performance isn’t sharp, or his energy lacks impact. Saturday was one of those underwhelming nights. For someone with his experience and the type of opponents and cards he’s been on, you expect much more from him as a veteran. So, while he fell flat here, it’s not the first time—and it likely won’t be the last.

I know this recap isn’t a deep dive into the battle itself, but it felt like a performance where neither emcee should walk away feeling proud. They should both look at the footage and know they’re capable of much more, given what’s expected of them and what we’ve seen from them in the past. If I had to choose, I might edge the battle to Swervoo, but honestly, neither emcee came out as a true winner in this one.

Danny Myers vs Klutz

3.5 ☆ Rating Recapped by J Smo

Pen vs Pen, Danny vs Klutz stood out instantly on the card with a battle that style-wise fits perfectly in the smaller Nexus room. And the battle proved to be just that, with one of the better battles of the night. The way Danny first can be described really speaks to his performance as a whole; it was very good, and very few bars were wasted. Outside of a couple of ill-advised rebuttals, Danny gave one of his best showings of 2024, punching, scheming, and jumping into different pockets throughout his whole performance. There is no critique of Danny’s performance in this battle, and any Danny fan should be happy with his performance and the writing he gave in this matchup.

But the story of this battle, and damn near the story of the whole card, is Klutz. Already with a few excellent showings vs. top-tier pens, Klutz himself said this to be his most challenging match yet, and the level of performance he brought speaks to that. It’s not just the layered writing, which, of course, will be emphasized, given the nature of the battle. The real separating factor here is how tailored the material is and his surgical approach from his 1st round to his 3rd. While various angles were taken that we’ve heard many times vs. Danny, a proper career breakdown is always going to go over well, and the 3rd round angle comparing both of them as fathers is an angle that is so tailored it brings a new look to an approach we’ve heard many times before.

“And I gotta toddler / and when it comes to him I don’t miss shit but his momma.” 

It’s a very sound bar for bar performance, but the risk he takes creatively and trying to do something different vs opponents (whether it always works or not) makes him refreshing to watch. He faced off against a very good Danny Myers and, in my opinion, took the battle clearly in a gentlemen’s 30. However, it is worth mentioning the battle is split 50/50 among many voting metrics, with a good portion of fans giving Danny Myers the battle as well. It’s a debatable battle despite who you may have had winning, but what’s undeniable is that Klutz gave us his best URL performance to date and also gets the best battle he’s had on the league. You start to run down Klutz’s resume on the league against top names, with battles like JC, Chilla Jones, Cortez and now Danny. He has shown a successful trajectory that is still trending upward; the future was already bright for Klutz, and it’s only getting more colorful. As for Danny, it’s a remarkable feature that this was a standard showing that we love to see from Danny, and it matched the intensity of a young rising talent’s best efforts, a true testament to the value the Bar God brings to the ring. 

Arsonal vs Jakkboy Maine

2 ☆ Rating Recapped by J Smo

In a matchup, many foresaw being based around disrespect, Arsonal vs. Jakkboy played out to be one of the weaker but not flat-out bad matchups of the night. Jakk was coming into this battle off the momentum of his win over Loso on the first Nexus card, and while he brought the energy and pace of that performance, the results here were not the same. 

Both battlers suffer from content issues in this battle. While Jakk’s very animated style is his biggest strength, at times, it can also be his biggest weakness, with moments that become so unorthodox that they start to confuse some watchers. You add that to examples of wordplay like “aunt heart ticker/Antarctica”, and you get a Jakk performance that has seen much more critique than his last showing. Arsonal is also guilty of some content problems in this battle, with more than a few examples of outdated material, especially in his 3rd round, that can also be seen as causing dry spots in the battle. However, in a battle where neither was creating much separation content-wise, this one was about the pure rapping and more all-around skillset of the battlers, and this is where Arsonal showed his greatness as just that: a rapper. 

Flowing seamlessly the battle, with witty lines scattered throughout, Arsonal showed a difference in showmanship as he seemed to find more a rhythm early in the battle, also taking the crowd early, which seemed to bother Jakk through the battle, with a couple of complaints of them sleeping or it “being Ars crowd” as the battle went on.  

Arsonal simply outrapped Jakk in the 1st two rounds, and while some debate the 30, Jakk pretty clearly gets the 3rd with maybe his best round, as Arsonal took his foot off the gas a bit as well with his weakest round of the battle. Jakkboy’s ending segment of his 3rd round with the “I’m so blood” Was highly creative and should’ve garnered a bigger reaction in the room than it received. A battle like this comes down to Ars being a seasoned vet, winning off some of “the other” qualities we don’t always emphasize or give credit to in Battle Rap, and getting a Win vs. Jakk, who didn’t have his best day in the office. 2-1 Arsonal in what’s probably his best showing of 2024. 

Ave vs Chef Trez

4 ☆ Rating Recapped by Q Moody

The quality of this battle was never in doubt. When you put two of the top ten battle rappers in the world, two individuals who are the models of consistency in the culture, against each other, you’re bound to get positive results.

As I sit here and try to think of what to say about the battle, I realize it’s not really done justice by the written word. There are so many bars and punches to parse through because these two say something fire every other line. Ave has a good first round, and honestly, most nights, the level he brought to his first would beat most people. 

But Trez’s first is excellent. Immediately, he takes control with the Gilbert Arenas bar, which I found super creative in how it got set up, and it’s off to the races from there. Trez was on his way to clearly taking the first anyway, but the end-of-round rebuttal he landed made it basically indisputable. 

In a story similar to almost all of Ave’s 2024, he writes uphill, and his 2nd and 3rd are both fantastic. The “I feel like a chef too, I brought a K to (cater) the event” was one of my favorite “chef” flips from the entire battle, and from this point on Ave is flawless and firing on all cylinders. But once again, while this performance most nights would be more than enough to clear most opponents, Trez has firmly cemented himself as a top-tier quality name and opponent over the last two years, and it’s a tough out to beat him clearly. His 2nd and 3rd are more than strong enough to keep the battle competitive, but the 2nd and 3rd are both highly debatable rounds, in my opinion. If someone gave Ave those two rounds, that’s not wild at all, I suspect a lot of people will give him the 2nd, but neither round is evident in the way the 1st round is for Trez

This is for sure one of the better battles we’ve gotten in 2024 and, for some people, might even be as high as a top three or four battle of the year, and that’s a massive testament to the quality we’ve seen from Ave all year. But Chef Trez has been a battle-of-the-year machine for a couple of years now. His encounters with Nu Jerzey Twork, Swamp, Fonz, T-Top, and now here with Ave are all extremely high-level battles. Trez is flat-out one of the very best the culture has to offer. If, for whatever reason, people still aren’t paying attention, that’s an indictment on them because someone with the quality Trez provides should be at the forefront of every discussion of who the best in the world is.

And the same thing applies to Ave. He’s gotten a lot of love and praise for his 2024 run, which has featured a ton of dominance. He’s handled the people he’s supposed to; he took full advantage of his legend plates, and in the ring with another of the year’s elite, he left with one of the best battles of the year. 2024 is shaping to be one of the defining years of Ave’s career. With a 40 BARRS battle around the corner and whatever else he has on the horizon, he’s shaping up to be the strongest challenger to Tay Roc’s chokehold on COTY.

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