Battle Rap Review. Who Won each battle
Here’s my opinion and grades for each diss track and the performers throughout the battle.
Battle Results:
WINNERS:
Kendrick Lamar vs Drake: Kendrick Lamar
Drake vs Rick Ross: Drake
Chris Brown vs Quavo: Chris Brown
Megan Thee Stallion vs Nicki Minaj : Megan Thee Stallion
Rikishi vs Hulk Hogan: Rikishi
Here are the grades:
Kendrick Lamar: A+
So here’s the thing. “Like That” was terrible in terms of a diss track. Was it a great warning shot? Absolutely. However, after that, Kendrick remained pretty much untouchable the entire run. His shortcomings are glaring, as his last album featured Kodak Black. I don’t think I should dive into that much further, but that’s a TERRIBLE decision, considering he called Drake a pedophile multiple times during this battle. His other error was saying that Drake didn’t have any classic albums. Everyone knows that’s false.
Regarding the battle itself, Kendrick established himself as the boogeyman of rap. He knew every step Drake would take, and he had counter’s for Drake’s counter’s counters. It was a masterful performance in making yourself seem like the superior performer, rapper, and battler. I can’t think of a better way to perform in a rap battle, as songs like “Meet The Grahams” could be in the conversation in all-time great diss tracks. Absolute masterclass.
J. Cole: DNQ (decision making ability- A+)
I don’t blame Cole one bit for backing out. We don’t know the information he learned. However, from the outside looking in, his diss track felt full of lies, and as a rapper who built his career on authenticity, you can understand why that would not sit well in his soul. Good job.
Truthfully, the track he released was not a good showing. It felt forced, off, and written by public influence rather than the battle-rap energy.
Drake: C+
Drake began this beef with a purpose. He did below average on “Push Ups” baiting the (in hindsight) already pissed off Lamar, and followed up with a now-deleted “Taylor Made Freestyle.” However, after receiving the proverbial receipt from Kendrick, he followed with his strongest showing in “Family Matters,” however, I felt like his best attack was also his undoing because he attacked too many people, spending four minutes going after smaller artists like The Weeknd and ASAP Rocky.
If he had stopped here, you could argue that he would earn an A-grade for his performance. However, this final diss, “The Heart Part 6,” was downright pitiful. Telling the world that you fed your opponent false information for him to call you a deadbeat pedophile with ass shots, image issues, and another estranged child is one of the worst angles I've ever heard in my life. Also,to say the actual line "This Epstein angle was the shit i expected" is quite possibly one of the worst lines I've ever heard in rap. Seriously, sit back and think about the insanity of that line.
The song itself is an absolute F. But overall, between the use of AI, the evidence of him kissing a 17-year-old, and spending four minutes of a five-minute song saying you're not a pedophile, but planted seeds within your opponent's camp to say otherwise. There's far too much that went wrong in this battle for him.
Rick Ross: C (His IG trolling is A+)
In actuality, he got the ball rolling by calling Drake a white boy, a burn I expect will stick with Drake for the remainder of his career. As a rapper, battling was never Ross's strong suit. His disses have always lacked sting but thrived in being cool; go back and check his battle with 50. While 50 did win, Ross made everything sound like the cool kid at a lunch table.
While Ross only delivered one track, he got the job done, passing the baton to Kendrick, who appropriately finished the job.
Rikishi: C-
We hate Hulk Hogan. He’s racist, buried talent, and was a below average performer. So this diss was very good in my opinion. Big Kishi had the 90s flow going too. Made me laugh.
Chris Brown: B+
Chris Brown has a natural gift for pretty much everything musical. So when his battle against Quavo began, not a single soul thought CB would lose to the weakest member of an already lyrically weak group. Brown was expected to win, and he did win. Everything he did was better than his opponent.
Quavo: C+
His first diss attempt was catchy with one good line. That’s worthy of an F+. However, when he recruited Offset, that’s when business picked up. His diss track reminded me of a baby hitting you in the nuts by mistake. You can’t show that it hurts, but my God, it hurts.
Megan Thee Stallion: B+
She kicked off everything with absolute fire. Her BBL bar, Megan’s Law line, and impeccable flow started the wave of disses and was the most effective diss due to the domino effect. Megan's single song sent Nicki into a two-week rant and caused her to drop the worst diss track since Lil Wayne's diss towards Pusha T. Also, she forced Nicki and Drake to break their one battle-rap rule of never being direct with their opponent. She won her battle and played a role in Drake losing his battle.
Nicki Minaj: F-
How the mighty fall. She sounded tired, beat up, wrong, high, disheveled, late, angry, sleepy, nauseous, and rapped as if she was forced to freestyle with a migraine. It was BAAAAAAAAD. Nicki has not been the same since. This was easily the worst diss of the battle and I hope we never speak of it again.
I never do this, but here are my grades for each diss.
Metro Boomin - Like That (Kendrick Feature), 3/26 - D+ (Calling someone a bum over and over does not make a good diss track. This was pretty bad)
Drake - Push Ups, 4/19 - D+ (This was equally as bad)
Drake - Taylor Made Freestyle, 4/19 - F and disqualified (A.I is never welcomed in art.)
Kendrick Lamar - euphoria, 4/30 - A+ (seriously, every line is brutal)
Kendrick Lamar - 6:16 in LA, 5/3 - A (a great follow up. Felt like an omen.)
Drake - Family Matters, 5/3 - B+ (A GREAT diss track, but he spent more than half the song aiming at others.)
Kendrick Lamar - Meet the Grahams, 5/3 - S+ (Everything from the timing, the beat, the diss, the reveal, and the angle was perfect to the very last detail. Yes, that is an S-grade and not an A.)
Kendrick Lamar - Not Like Us, 5/4 - A+ (They’re still playing this song in the clubs.)
Drake - The Heart Part 6, 5/5 - F (This was a glorified PR statement and a cry for help.)
