Since it went down on Sunday you have probably been hearing things. But I can tell you that with 100% impartiality that what is written here will be pure, unadulterated FACTS!! So here we gooooooo. Since its inception the concept of the Verzuz series has been one of the most entertaining vehicles on the airwaves. Championed by its founders, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, as a method to honor the music and the artist that created it, but when you see people across from each other, couple with the title, natural to conclude that some of competition is in the air, even if the two parties were virtually spaced apart. Now that the pandemic has eased, the concept has morphed into a format that now is rooted in combat as artists share a stage, a live audience through the platform TRILLERVERZ, a medium created to bridge the worlds of boxing and music produced by TRILLER FIGHT CLUB, the company known for pairing world-class boxing with iconic music legends. With these added elements we have now reached what we hope is the standard, moving forward.
MC’s can only battle with rhymes that got punchlines
Let’s battle to see who headlines
Instead of flow for flow let’s go show for show
That verse was laid in the 1995 song “EMCEES Act Like They Don’t Know” from one of the participants, KRS One. It took a while to see it but that challenge was accepted by a fellow Mount Olympus Dweller in Big Daddy Kane. KRS One Vs BIG DADDY KANE!!! That really happened and it really exceeded all the expectation levels. Rhymes, records, bravado, and with lines like:
Me avoiding smoke, I don’t do that seldom, but I stayed out of you and Shan’s stuff…ni#@a you welcome, even some acrimony. All for the sake of business of course.
Deliverer of that fire line, Kane offered of the overall night on Fat Joe’s Instagram live,
“What we wanted to do was show what we do as real emcees; what we do as real performers. Solidify our legacy and teach a younger generation. Show them what stage presence is about; show them what lyricism is about. Right now, we have the Lil Durk’s and the Lil Baby’s but there’s gonna be another generation coming after them soon. They might be the ones that change the game and let lyrics back in. So they have to experience it from another generation and I think me and Chris did a great job of doing that.”
Seconds after that statement Kane alluded that he left the Barclay with yet Another Victory. While he has a right to feel that way, he and his thousands of fans must come to the realization that he was on the wrong side of a close but definitive L! Truth be told, it didn’t have to be that. 2 moves and the outcome could’ve differed. Firstly, it seems like he began to lose steam, in terms of catalog, in the later rounds. One more song though and he would be able to snatch all the energy in not just the Barclay Center but in all of New York. Imagine if he gave a backstory of a performance that happened a few miles away at Madison Square Garden and chides DJ Scratch to drop that beat and we hear the “Where Brooklyn At?” chant from the infamous Biggie Smalls verse coming from a freestyle between BIG, Tupac and often forgotten, Big Daddy Kane. Secondly, though it was no fault of his own, if Kool G Rap had appeared for his verse in “The Symphony” that could have been a death blow. These two tweaks and maybe I would see the outcome differently.
Over and out. Holla next week. Til, then enjoy the nightlife.