Recap: First, a couple of side notes on this highly anticipated battle between O-Red and Ave. For starters, Jai 400 Block, standing right there behind O’Red and refusing to hold Red’s water bottle in his hand time and time again was just passive aggressive and hilarious at the same time. Secondly, O-Red complaining about Smack supposedly cutting his round short, when Red goes at least 6 to 8 minutes in each round, was just ridiculous. That said, lyrically and punchline speaking, it doesn’t get much better than this one as personals and schemes were for the most part left out. And with the hype around Ave being pretty high before this battle happened as well as the envisage surrounding the veteran O-Red coming back to Smack/URL to take on the hot newbie being a must-see, to see both battles on their A-game (except for s slight slip-up by Red in round 3) made this battle close, exciting and a matchup that was literally drenched with haymakers. A close round 1 that saw a turned-up, (“Bro a goof, and we know O been food, shit everything about Red Cafe!”) punch-heavy and altogether fire Ave, gets edged by a slightly more condensed O-Red not only keeping up with his opponent on the more formidable (“You from Virginia right?, ok when that Baretta tweak, hole through the sternum, your bae, will give your chest a peek [Chesapeake]!”) heaters, but mixing in a couple of fire freestyles with overall, more intricate wordplay and witty personals. Round 2 also goes to Red, who was somehow able to up his showmanship after a superb round 1 with a variety of sizzling (“That foreign ratchet will serve him, welcome to Golden Krust!”) punchlines, stifling name flips/gun play and other noteworthy mayhem to beat back another dope, but not-quite-as-as-nice-as-his-1st turn by Ave. With a win already in hand, an ironically elongated and punch-heavy turn by Red (that contained the aforementioned near choke) makes for a clear loss when it comes to a more condensed, punch-focused and still in his bag Ave in the final round.
Verdict: O-Red (W) 2-1
Favorite line: O-Red – “You want this wreck?, you gonna sit with them on a losing shelf, but fuck it, cool, stitch up your own wounds, that means shoot yourself!”
