BATTLE DESCRIPTION.

I realised I haven’t talked about this battle yet, so why not revisit it with hindsight.

First of all, more fool me for another case of underestimating my opponent.

This and Unanymous are the two clearest examples of me doing this, I think, and I regret both instances quite a bit.

It’s not that I thought Bulletz would be an easy win, I just think that I expected a certain approach from him, which he didn’t do. Which is the clever thing to do. Obviously. And so, a lot of my material didn’t hit quite as effectively as I would have liked.

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As well as that, Bulletz was just really on point with his writing and his performance. He managed to write me into a corner that made me look a bit stupid with an unreal confidence that paired so well. He utilised these qualities to such an impressive extent that he turned a room full of people on my side onto his with ruthless efficiency with fake chokes, an “on-beat” section clever, funny jokes and great wordplay.

I don’t think my writing was bad, necessarily, and I think I may have got the first round, possibly, but it wasn’t up to scratch. I thought I’d have an easier ride than the ride I ended up with.

My first round had good approaches and fun writing with a few good, more aggressive punchlines. My second started to go off kilter a bit. It was almost like I didn’t believe in the material as much, performing it, as when I wrote it. Probably because I was surprised by how good Bulletz was.

I had high hopes for the 2nd that didn’t come out effectively and so it kind of fell flat. That paired with some stumbles meant that it didn’t hit hard in the first half. That paired with forgetting the last 8 bars meant that it was basically a lost round, regardless of what Bulletz did.

The one saving grace of this round is the ‘subtlety’ line, which is one of my favourites I ever wrote. I was ecstatic with that when I thought of it. So, at least that exists.

Round 3, I reclaimed a bit of dignity and had some more hard-hitting elements, but still, overall, it was lacklustre. I stumbled hard on a couple lines. Or, actually, worse than stumbled, I, like, misspoke and garbled the words themselves, which is more painful and embarrassing!

TEKKEN

I had this whole Tekken scheme that I was happy with before, but when I was up there on the stage, struggling against an international opponent on one of the biggest events of the year, I just lost all confidence in it. Gutted, I was.

Looking back at the lyrics now, I probably wouldn’t write them now. It was:

If all you want is references geeky as shit to provide you with
Then I’m Jin with his flying kick in the king of the Iron Fist
Swinging with spiral hits ‘til I finish the final blitz
Yoshimitsu and Brian mixed after fitting their cyber chips
Into their mind and switched it to a violent [glitch]
Spinning a writer’s script with Christy and Tiger’s flip
With Mishima fighting tips or signature lightening kicks

Now… what does that even mean? It’s one of those things that sounds kind of cool (if you don’t fuck the delivery like I did), but really it has no true substance. It just throws as many references to Tekken out there as possible and tries to Frankenstein them together. Maybe if I had said it all with full confidence I’d look back at it with a bit more pride, but as it stands, it just reads a bit sophomoric, you know? Bit 6th form. Bit childish.

I still love referencing the random, geeky things that I enjoy, but, I don’t know… nowadays I think about every syllable and about making every reference feel earned and deserved and as cool as possible whilst also trying to make it feel like it’s relevant to the battle at hand and not just “listen to how cool this sounds”, which is a surprisingly difficult line to tread, but I guess that’s why it gives you a better end result.

Anyway, this battle, immediately followed by the Unanymous battle shortly after, taught me a few things. It taught me to not put all my eggs in one basket round-wise: make sure that all my material is as strong as each other (inasmuch as I can) and not just rely on one strong(er) round to hold you up for the whole clash.

They also taught me not to take your opponent for granted. I now expect that every opponent is going to beat me. I think it makes me a better battler and a better writer overall. This approach means that you’re always going to write to the top of your game and never rest on your laurels. I got lucky and had some success and recognition quite early in my battle rap ‘career’, so it was easy, even for a number of years, to hope that would carry me forward, but you quickly learn that popularity, good faith and support are all things that can fickly crumble as quickly as they’re built. They’re castles made of sand, not stone.

So, now, I never assume I’ll win, I put my all into every ounce of writing, I balance my rounds as much as I can, I think more about structuring and I expect the unexpected from whoever I face. And I would say if you’re a battler and you’re not doing those things, then start doing them now.

WATCH WITH…

Check out this battle alongside Avocado, Marlo and Bamalam on the Ruin Your Day YouTube channel.