Damn.
I kind of feel bad trying to vote on it...two great verses that were really enjoyable to read and feels wrong to try & critique to find a winner.
Chain
Possibly a bit of good fortune fell your way with your opponent. As you were able to weave your subtle approach with some good knowledge about him & therefore interweave some real disrespect. Opening segment made that clear, that was really next level combination of a concept maintained over several punches but flipping between name play to personal diss. That was kind of "school of rhymes" type opening 3 punches really. Can't fuck with it. Then you switched it up with the real disdainful Dizz/perv attack and then the herd immunity punch was dope. "Up in arms like a crowd surfer". Bars. Clique up with the right, lol. Next punch was masterful really...'fillers' almost get to the point of overshadowing the punches for the pure quality. I just fucking love the contrast of the straight talking "I found him as a feature" into the "Council of Nicaea". Kind of said the same thing in the Ash battle, but I don't even know who they are but because of the quality of the setup it's clear what the diss is and doesn't take away from the quality of the punch. You know they are a bunch of dudes who made Scriptures famous, lol. The alliteration in there as well and how it accentuated was awesome, married to the rhythm, those kind of details I love. Papal duty was dope. I guess minor criticism there was it was 3rd "Scripts" play in 7 punches...personally I thought they were all dope & it didn't really too much. I think you were particularly clever to bunch two together and have the other in the opener...so it wasn't like 3 that felt like they were in a row. Closer was really nice. No need to repeat myself on the filler. I liked the punch, I guess another minor criticism is the diss was a bit passive...like I get what you're saying, but it's to a degree implied that you're better than him & therefore you improved him. But I would've preferred you to be a bit blunter/more openly disrespectful in coming out and saying it like that. I guess you could say that's made a bit clearer in the "Dad" reference. I dunno, I think it could've just been a bit more raw and aggressive.
Overall I thought it was a real masterful verse...brought all the expected Chain quality and approach when it came to style but also a real good assault on him as an opponent.
Ill
Clearly you had to fire back on all cylinders and you didn't hold back either. Much like Chain you made great use of the filler lines and that really added a dynamic to your verse. I think where Chain was very consistent at his level you had a bit more rise and fall. Opener good example, first line no quibbles with, punch concept and diss combo really strong. I just felt you lost a little bit of impact by trying to compress the 3 things required to land the punch into one line. Testament to your skill that you managed to do it & successfully land a punch, but I think possibly trying to work the Lox angle into the filler line would've given you a bit more focus in landing the punch more cleanly & getting higher impact. I guess what I'm trying to say there is you had something that was really good but I could see a bit of a missed opportunity at the same time. Next bar was dope as hell. Obviously punch was quality, but I really loved how you integrated the rhyme scheme and it accentuated the rhythm...like it was so nice it was almost easy to miss how complex it was. Again, real high level of skill on display there. Followed up with another real dope punch. I think the exchange in those couple of lines really displayed just how fucking good this battle was...flow on the white supremacy line was real nice, again great example of mastery of rhythm to accentuate your content. Punch I wasn't a massive fan of...I guess a bit like Chain's closer - I got what you were getting at, but the diss felt a bit more implied - again, much like how he had the Dad reference you could also point to the White Supremacy angle in the filler and say that reinforces your diss. The punch itself I think was a bit flatter in contrast with the preceding ones...like I wouldn't say it was a dud but it wasn't a strong point. Next one was really dope, real disdainful but intelligent...really difficult line to tread but you managed it expertly. I kind of dug how that one came closely after the God complex angle. Great example of maintaining a line of attack across the verse as a whole without coming across as repetitive and being fresh with it. Really helps to connect the verse as a "diss as a whole" rather than being 8 individual punches. Next two lines were really dope too, I loved the whole approach and the concept of the diss and the execution of it, married up with flow and rhythm. Really illustrated your ability to marry up of the facets of your strengths as a writer. Closing lines came across to me as more disrespectful as out and out haymakers. First one I preferred as the underlying diss was clear, relevant and highly personalised. I think you probably then needed to follow that one up with a clearer out and out punch. Filler line I kind of liked though, I got what you were saying and even though I don't really think you made much of the reference itself I kind of liked the pure "I'm going to put this in here just to piss you off" tone it was implied with...actually on rereading the line, I can see the "pedigrees" play there & that's kind of brutal. I know I'm reading a lot into that, but I think you wrote that knowing that only a few people would get it & you did it anyway...and I like that a lot. Closing punch was good but again was an example where I felt like it wasn't at the same level as your most potent material.
Overall...I doubt we will see two better verses in the whole of the tournament. It's one of those moments where two people clash where they clearly have tremendous ability and respect for their opponent but they put that aside and just go for it. The result was a really tremendous clash. Structurally you both brought verses that incorporated real advanced techniques but did it in a way that didn't make them a focus & would've been easy for someone to read and go "oh that reads really nice" without them really understanding why. That's real master level stuff.
I don't know guys...like I've written all that and I don't really have a justification to go one way or the other. I think at this point I'm probably going to abstain for now, have a think about it and come back later. Like I tried flipping it in my head & thinking about how I would say "that was better than that one" and the only answer I could give you is personal preference. Then I flipped it in my head & tried to think about how I'd vote for the other guy and it just didn't feel right either. It's a shame you guys met in the first round. It would've been a great final.
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