URLTV: Smack Volume 11 Recap

By / March 19, 2024 / Editorials

SMACK VOLUME 11

PPV Rating

Staff Writers: France | Justin Smolenski | Q Moody

LTBR Award Recipients

Battle of the Night:  

Best Individual Performances of the night: #1 Ms.Hustle | #2 Tay Roc | #3  T-Top |

Biggest win Of The Night:  Ms.Hustle vs Chess

Surprise Of The Night:  Ocho Cinco vs DNA/Charlie Clips

The Ultimate Rap League (URL) launched its streaming through the website of its app this past weekend, marking the beginning of a new era for the company. As anticipation reached a fever pitch, the debut event encountered some initial hiccups, typical of any ambitious venture, but with the help of people in the community guiding others with instructions online and updates from the commentators Jay Blac & Nunu Nellz, they helped fans get access to the stream. JB, the URL Director was able to deliver a high-quality production. Despite the minor setbacks, the URL’s stream showcased impeccable visuals, seamless transitions, and good sound quality after the first battle. The quality of the battles was not up to par with the production. But nonetheless, this bold step towards independence signifies not only a unique milestone for URL but also a promising future.

We will be introducing our new rating system for individual battles. Similar to the 5 Mics concept, We will give a 5-star rating per battle on the card.   ☆☆☆☆☆

Charlie Clips vs Chef Trez

2.25 ☆ Rating Recapped by Justin Smolenski

Recapped by Justin Smolenski

The opening battle of the night, Clips vs Trez started on Trez in the 1st. Trez has been getting very high and well-deserved praise for constantly keeping up a high level of material with back-to-back punches, seemingly never running out of bars with high-volume schedules. His 1st vs Clips, however, was one of his weaker in some time. While receptiveness with the crowd was an ongoing topic throughout the event, Trez’s 1st material and energy were just down compared to prior performances. Clips, however, and shockingly to some, had a very good 1st in response. While scheming heavy, which can be very hit or miss in modern battle rap, Clips was landing and was performing with good confidence and pace, his scheme about the recent situation with Debo and Angryfan being the peak of his round. While this was a good sign, similar to his performances vs A.Ward and Danny Myers 2, this 1st was his peak for the battle. He was up a very clear 1-0 and had raised some hope we’d get a serious Clips.

Chef Trez response in the 2nd was a much better round, clearly feeling the effects of the 1st, and upping his pace, aggression, and overall material was better as well. While still not getting much love in this round from the crowd, his performance was still a clear level up and much more along the lines of Trez’s recent work with what was his best round of the battle. Clips 2nd in response is where things for him and the battle as a whole take a dip. Once again scheme heavy, the pace began to get choppy and even the reference pool was worth critique, doing a blogger scheme that was very reminiscent of the one he did in one of his last battles vs C3. While for a portion of time, it looked like he could cruise to a close round by being just entertaining, the freestyling frenzy began and led to Clips ending his 2nd on a rough note making it a clear 1-1.

The 3rd from neither side gave a lot to talk about. Trez’s round wasn’t as low as his 1st, but not as good as his 2nd, giving you a fair but beatable round that left the door open for Clips. However, this didn’t lead to any danger, as Clips has one of his all-of-the-place episodes that we’ve seen play out too many times. Talking to the crowd, laughing, and just a lack of any real seriousness. Clips hands Trez the battle in this 3rd, and gives a bad ending to a battle that leaves it as another Clips battle that leaves both to be desired on both sides. W for Trez but one of his weaker showings in some time.

1st – Charlie Clips Clear
2nd – Chef Trez Clear
3rd – Chef Trez Clear 

Ms. Hustle vs Chess

3 ☆ Rating ​Recapped By Justin Smolenski​

Recapped by Justin Smolenski

Looked at as the standout battle of the card with the high battle of the night potential, Chess vs Hustle started out on Hustle. With a round that started a bit slow, this was only for the start of the round, and once Hustle hit her Created Player/2 9’s on everything bar it was a flurry from there. Hustle punched and performed at a high level, something that describes her last 2 years as a whole, and put up a great and what would be a tough-to-beat first round. Chess would go, and nearly instantly as his round started a familiar scene began to play out: burping, stumbling, and throwing up. Tough scene, and no matter what people attribute this cycle to there’s one undeniable part: you can’t win a round that is this awkward, and choppy, and leads to a very deflated remainder of his round once he’s done being sick. Hustle was up a very clear and ugly 1-0 after the 1st.

Hustle 2nd she did not show any signs of slowing down. While there are outdated punches here and there (not see/nazi bar for example), Hustle peak haymakers and back-to-back punching this battle was some of her better writing from any of her recent work. Her Dwarfism haymaker and flip on Chess “Set The Tone” opener was piling on to what was already an elite showing early. Chess 2nd ended up being his best of the battle, and a pretty clean round at that with maybe just a hint of choppiness here and there. While this round was good and came with some peaks as well, the bar was simply set too high as Hustle material was still a level ahead in this round, albeit making the round much closer than the 1st. 

The 3rd, Hustle puts the bow on her amazing showing with a more angle-based 3rd going at Chess for his years of inconsistency. Very tailored and still landing highs, Hustle wraps up a complete showing and the best performance of the entire card. Chess 3rd is clean, but once again could not match up to Hustle’s round and the pace and confidence of his 3rd lacked that spark in the 2nd. Even though his 1st round incident will take the spotlight, as usual, this is a mostly clean Chess showing and just goes to show the level Hustle reached to win this clear.

 

1st – Hustle Clear
2nd – Hustle Clear
3rd – Hustle Clear 

Tay Roc vs Serius Jones

2.50 ☆ Rating Recapped By Q Moody

A battle that was years in the making with a very real sense of a grudge looming over it all. And I wish I could say it lived up to all the history. 

A frustrating thing about Jones in this battle for me is he had segments of material that I thought were very good, but he couldn’t turn it into an actual great round of fully taking control. In his first round, it takes him some time to heat up but I thought the portion of his round with the “stock options/Top Ramen/Top rhymin” setup and cadence was very good and I felt like some momentum was building for him. And then we get into just unnecessary shit that takes the goodwill away by saying some bars I don’t even want to repeat. It kills the round and takes away a chance to make that first legitimately competitive and worth a conversation.

There will be this talk of “gas” and “hate” from Jones’ side and supporters, but the first half of Roc’s round doesn’t get a ton of reaction, even though Roc is rapping super fluidly. It’s a lot of very solid jabs. But the tide isn’t fully swung until Roc lands the “take you out on live, like Mook in the handcuffs” setup and haymaker. After that, there isn’t much to debate. 

It’s really a similar story in the second. Jones takes some time to catch my ear but this segment is great:

“See I got problems I do
But acting like you a stepper and I’m not is what we not gonna do
Separate housing units
It’s no shock, I stood ten toes in the box
Putting batteries in a sock, but it’s true
Every time I step you can feel it in my soul/sole
And it would bother you too
But they would took him off and had him shaking if they had Roc/rock in the shoe”

 

These are good raps! Serius can be a good battle rapper, but once again he starts drifting more towards the same angle that’s been used on Roc. And it’s not just that the angle is “played out”, the way he does it is just really unsettling and weird to listen to and just cringe-worthy. He’s killing his rounds by doing that. It’s not the fans hating or not giving a reaction that makes the battle lopsided. There has to be a level of accountability instead of chalking everything up to being about hate and the fans “not being used to his style” every time something doesn’t go his way. At what point is it the fact that you aren’t doing things right?

 

And when you’re facing someone as potent as Tay Roc, you have no room for those types of errors and he takes full advantage again. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the tension after Jones’ round that the two battlers had. Another thing where I’m just sort of baffled by how Jones chose to handle it is because Roc asked most calmly and respectfully to ease up on the touching during the battle. Things didn’t have to get to the level they did, and of course, it takes two people not calming down, to make that situation hotter, but it didn’t have to get to that level in the first place if Jones had just said “my fault” and moved on. 

 

When you factor in Serius’ inconsistency in the 2nd round and the tension between rounds, it’s like he just gave the round to Roc. And while this is a solid round from Roc, I do feel like once again he didn’t heat up or take full control until the Owen Hart bar. If Serius hadn’t insisted on going back to less interesting and just flat-out hard-to-listen-to material, this might have been a close battle. And I feel like that’s reflective in the 3rd round where we get the least and probably the best attempts at humor with that angle. The 3rd is the most debatable round and if someone gave that round to Jones I don’t think that’s crazy at all. The “My Aim on Shampoo and Thriller moves/head and shoulders” was my favorite bar from either guy in the round. I still think Roc was consistent enough as to where I do edge Roc the round.

 

All in all, I find this battle to be a bit of a letdown, because I feel like Jones had flashes of turning this into a dope battle. It was within reach, but his desire to give into some bad habits and opt for less interesting material after creating momentum kept it from reaching those heights. And while I think Roc was good and would have given anyone problems, this is a Roc that’s in the midst of this ridiculous run of battles and is probably a little worse here than he was for Bankhead. This was THE opportunity to score an upset, in THE setting best for him to pull it off and Jones flat out got in his way. It’s not the fans, it’s not the gas, it’s not anyone understanding you. None of these DVD-era battlers will improve if all they tell themselves is everything is hate or a lack of listening comprehension on the part of the fans.

Ocho Cinco vs DNA & Charlie Clips

Chad Johnson, famously known as Ocho Cinco, brought his presence to the URL event, surprising fans with an impromptu freestyle battle alongside seasoned rap duo DNA and Charlie Clips.  Ocho had gone on the breakfast club talking about battle rap, and even brought up Loaded Lux to his NightCap show with Shannon Sharpe. Ocho has been putting all the battlers on notice, that none of them have the skills to compete with him.  “I will run through all these battle rappers in alphabetical order but due to my ability and my elite penmanship. I Can get it done.”– Ocho (LOL)

Despite how ridiculous this claim sounds, he stood on business, came to the event, and showed up for the smoke!
He gave us an entertaining little intermission with DNA & Clips responding with some fun freestyles of their own.  
It was one of the highlights of the event. 

Nu Jerzey Twork vs T-Top

2 ☆ Rating Recapped By Justin Smolenski

The final battle (although not the main event) of the night, Top vs Twork is a battle that came in with worries about it being “too friendly”, and it didn’t exactly fight that stigma either. The 1st round started on Twork, and the choppiness we’ve seen much less frequently from him made an appearance early. While having some stumbles in battles like vs Chef Trez and Murda Mook, Twork hadn’t choked on URL for a little over a year and had a streak of being clean in his last 19 battles. That changed though, as Twork lost his place in his 1st and was not able to get it back. Followed by T-Top 1st, it was a solid but not too crazy round. T-Top seemed to be another battler who didn’t get much reception from the crowd but bar for bar there’s not any real negative to Top’s rounds, just lacks the explosiveness of his usual top-shelf showings. But with a clean round, there already was no question who was in the lead with T-Top up 1-0 clear.

The 2nd round of this battle is one of the most frustrating, as Twork delivers what can’t be described as anything else but a fire mess. Twork has an abundance of stumbling in this round with nearly no pace to it at times but is still getting out most of the material in the round and the bars were high, high quality. The amount of stumbling is something that can’t be looked over or excused, but the bars that were heard can’t be ignored either: this is the dilemma an immensely talented but under-prepped battler can madden their fans with. TTop 2nd was another standard round, if not a step down from his 1st, but for nothing more than being cleaner this put TTop up a clear 2-0. Worth mentioning, through both rounds from each battler, the lack of intensity and seriousness is evident. Not that any grudge or fake energy is needed, but when the lack of competitiveness is this overly evident it makes what’s already a not very sharp battle have even more of an exhibition type of feel.

The 3rd round is simply a continuation. Twork choking and stumbling through the material, and taking whatever energy remained fully out of the building. So much so, that Smack even thought the battle was over after Twork’s 3rd and started to do the event outro before Top even rapped his 3rd. Top was a regular pro for the battle, as stated he didn’t have a standout showing by any means but he brought 3 decent and clean rounds, and for this battle that was all he needed. 

1st – T-Top Clear
2nd – T-Top Clear
3rd – T-Top Clear 

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