8 things we learned by going to the UK and Ireland’s biggest battle rap event

Introducing Don’t Flop rap battle league.

Battle rap is a funny sort of phenomenon. After all, say the words ‘battle rap’ to somebody and it’s likely that they’ll conjure up a faint memory of a viral video they saw once, or picture a hoodie-fest in a dingy Detroit nightclub like in 8 mile.

Words like eloquence, creativity, expression and inclusion will not immediately spring to mind. After all, where’s the creativity in ‘dissing’ someone’s momma? Where’s the inclusion in doing your utmost to humiliate an opponent?

When we walked into Brixton Jamm, a bar in London’s now-gentrified Caribbean hub, all the battle rappers were congregated in the smoking area. They greeted one another with hugs, dragging on each other’s cigarettes and slugging early-afternoon drinks they  had bought for one another.

This was their preparation for Sunburn 2, a two-day battle rap event where more than thirty young, hungry emcees were getting ready to tear their opponents heads off. While sharing laughs in sun might seem like a strange way to get ready for locking lyrical antlers in a pit surrounded by bloodthirsty fans… Once you get to know the scene, it makes much more sense.

1) Nearly none of it is freestyle and that is a very good thing

Remember that scene in 8 Mile? Where Eminem’s character mystifyingly matches up a bunch of multi-syllable rhymes off the top of his head, stunning his opponent into silence because he’s revealed to the crowd that Papa Doc’s real name is Clarence and he went to a private school?

Modern battle rap is nothing like that. These people all know each other very well, and the crowd is as familiar with people on stage as they are with the characters of their favourite TV show. Thinking you’re doing something big by revealing somebody’s name is likely to be met with a few hundred vacant stares. You’re going to need a lot more than what’s on the top of your head.

Modern battle rap is concerned with finding far more nuanced ways to pick your opponent a part. A flaw in their style, a blotch in their history, jokes about their appearance and their life that have crafted over time and rehearsed to the point of flawlessness. Trust us, it’s a lot more entertaining to see someone lyrically torn to shreds in near-perfect prose than it is to see some guy stumble through half-rhymes about his opponent’s runners.

2) Battle rappers are phenomenally talented people

There are as many ways to approach writing for a battle as there are to painting a picture or writing a song. Some emcees rely nearly exclusively on being able to make the crowd laugh. Others forego jokes entirely and relentlessly disrespect their opponent, going after their wife, their mother, their baby and the bathwater. Some emcees will do both of those things and more again will do neither.

What is really crucial is the performer’s prowess at putting words together. Once you’ve started watching battle rap, single-syllable rhymes do not count as rhymes any more. Almost every successful rapper will make abundant use of double-meanings and multi-syllable rhymes in order to show off just how good they are with words – and it often results in things having to be said twice just so the crowd can keep up.

3) It can ruin your life

It helps to be clever. It helps to be a good rapper. It helps to be a natural performer. But there will never be a more effective way to win a battle than by exposing your opponent…

And don’t use the word ‘expose’ lightly. In 2012, Don’t Flop rapper Jefferson Price was exposed as a cheat who’d been unfaithful to his fiancé and the mother of his child. His Californian opponent, Caustic, used his third round to tell the world that Price had been running around Britain betraying his wife with battle rap groupies (aside: there are battle rap groupies). Needless to say, there’s no coming back from that one. The devastating loss ended Jefferson Price’s four-year battle career (and his engagement) in one fell swoop.

Caustic was unsympathetic, clarifying in his next Don’t Flop battle that “if he didn’t want to get exposed, he should probably cheat on his wife better.” Touché.

4) But usually it’s a huge force for good

Sunburn 2 was catered entirely (and immaculately) by former convict-turned-award-winning chef Sam Lounds, a beneficiary of the Jamie Oliver Fifteen programme. Not only that, but a collection at the event succeeded in gathering over £300 for Irish recording artist Funzo, whose apartment recently burned down. Internationally, fans of battle rap raised thousands of dollars in order to finance the funeral costs of PH, a Brooklyn battle rapper who died unexpectedly earlier this year.

Ryan Whamond, who has been a part of Don’t Flop as a fan and a performer, spoke of ‘the battle rap community pulling him through’ after the loss of his younger sister. Everyone involved in the scene thinks of it as a family. A dysfunctional family? Perhaps. But a family no less.

5) There’s a battle rap champion of Britain

Three different emcees have held the title of the champ of Britain. At the moment it’s Soul, a Scottish Don’t Flop veteran known for his incredible command of the English language, aggression and Tasmanian-devil levels of energy.

He seized the throne after previous champion Tony D, of iconic UK hip-hop group Poisonous Poets, gave up the belt. Tony D is a legend on the Don’t Flop scene, considered by many to be unbeatable as long as he ‘spits three rounds’. Soul vs Tony D is a match-up that many fans now want to see in order to decide who truly is the best in Britain.

Here’s Don’t Flop’s most recent title match.

6) Inclusion and respect are of the utmost importance

Battle rap is a community that exists to supports everybody who wants to be a part of it. You might expect that people who actively seek out  an opportunity to insult other people might not be the best to be around. Nothing could be further from the truth. Don’t Flop is designed so that every participant feels equally welcome – and therefore equally well-positioned to give and take some serious abuse.

Don’t Flop comprises rappers from all ethnicities, all genders, all sexualities and religions aplenty. More and more, battlers who espouse misogyny, racism or homophobia will have it turned back on them and used to defeat them. Tony D believes the sense of community present in Don’t Flop is “a reflection of the inclusive nature of hip hop itself.”

7) There is nothing else in the world like it

There simply is no succinct way to describe battle rap. Most accurately it’s a Comedy Central Roast conducted by rappers and, in some cases, poets – with a huge emphasis on proving just how clever you can be with words and just how badly you can embarrass your opponent. The combination of competition, quick-wit, creativity and theatrics is something that is simply unmatched by any other medium.

8) It’s only getting bigger

As YouTube channels are wont to do, Don’t Flop goes viral from time to time, which boosts the league’s popularity and profile a bit. Recently, however, battle rap’s rise has been steady and strong. Rapper Drake has funded events for King Of The Dot (Don’t Flop’s North American counterpart) and Don’t Flop have made their way onto Channel 4’s 4OD streaming service with the pilot for Everyday Battle Raps, which can be watched here.

Those involved ‘see it going mainstream with the right push’, with Don’t Flop legend Tony D, who has been on the scene since the eighties, says that since the advent on battle rap on YouTube, ‘telly is the logical progression.’