Recap: From Bullpen (in Yonkers, NY instead of ATL), against a valiant and gritty effort from Jae Millz who continues to hurt himself when it comes to consistently hitting similes (but might wanna expound on his humor a bit more in future battles), John John da Don uses a versatile palette of stifling (esp. in round 2) punchlines, sturdy name flips, piercing personals and potent set-ups to take the middle round and edge the 1st and 3rd’s for the Gentleman’s 30.
Verdict: John John da Don (W) 3-0
Favorite line: John John da Don – “The best secret I ever kept?, my aim is more accurate with strangers, ‘cuz it’s hard to miss people I never met!”
Recap: A 3-rounder from URL’s ‘Banned’ series sees Jae Millz arguably at this best since the Harlem vet made his most recent comeback to battle rap. The former Young Money signee dishing a trio of sound, quality rounds that while featuring his usual m.o. of earnest boasts and gritty lyricism, was also highlighted when the usually one-note Millz flexed his funny bone a bit and added some witty barbs to the mix. That said, outside of a debatable round 2, this one was all Cortez with the Brooklyn emcee spouting a bunch of hard street rhymes, stinging personals, bodacious punches/gun bars and feelgood name flips/wordplay that especially lit up the scoreboard in rounds 1 and 3 for the win.
Verdict: Cortez (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Cortez – “They say battle rappers can’t make music, well since you put us in that box I’m returnung the favor!”
Recap: One of the early Smack/DVD stars, after years of turning down a return because his asking price was too high, it’s nice to see Jae Millz finally humble himself enough to make his peace with Smack and debut on URL. And outside of a couple of lengthy rounds, Millz wasn’t bad here. The legendary Harlem emcee going back to his roots of boastful barbs, gritty street lingo and in-ya-face/mean personals to keep things competitive. Still even with the effort being there from Millz, making a decade-long comeback against the likes of Geechi Gotti is just asking for too much. And while the EFB capo half-heartedly acknowledged his opponent’s competitive fire throughout the battle, at the end of the day Millz was just overmatched what with Geechi utilizing a gang of hitting wordplay, bruising street talk, witty personals, sizzling name flips and heated gun bars to earn a 30 over a battler who might be better suited for small rooms bouts moving forward.
Verdict: Geechi Gotti (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Geechi Gotti – “Hey fuck what they say, ain’t no chill side, nigga’s thought it was food coloring, i told ’em it was how Millz [meals] died!”
Recap: From RBE, a couple of things we learned from this battle: Bigg K is still hilarious and punch-lit as ever and when you consider that displaying some wit helped him spout his best round (rd. 2) here, in the future Jae Millz may want to consider showing off his funny bone in battles more instead of complaining about battlers who in his eyes joke too much. That said, more condensed while dropping a bunch of crazy similes, rich storytelling and witty personals throughout each round, it’s K who earns the 3-0 despite what was overall a pretty solid, gritty and punch-worthy effort from Millz.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 3-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “Suck a drag queen dick, I will slap and lean your shit, this is personal like asking what vaccine you get?!”
Recap: Yunno, gotta admit, Bigg K gotz a really nice crib there. And props to K and Jae Millz for the fly creativity with the visuals here. Moving on to this 1-round Social Distance battle…a close one with fire punchlines/personals from both battlers. And I like how Millz predicted K would bring up his notorious Cash Money days. Still, a slightly more condensed with less filler Bigg K gets the edge here.
Verdict: Bigg K (W) 1-0
Favorite line: Bigg K – “I’ll get the drop, spray it up, Glock 30, you talk dirty, the mop straighten up, gauge cocked, face shot, your top breaking up, I’ll bring more people to Jae [Jay] spot than a Roc Nation brunch!”
Recap: After such a poor showing in his recent comeback battle versus K-Shine, the reality is that Jae Millz had nowhere to go but up if he were to choose to battle again. And despite still struggling to be more intricate with his bars, here in this RBE ‘Closure’ battle versus E. Ness (an addendum to their classic Making Da Band battle that P. Diddy called a ‘draw’) Millz not only does well in getting back to basics with cocky punchlines, some stinging metaphors/wordplay and steely mayhem, but he also avoided what was a major flaw in the aforementioned Shine battle: dated bars. That combo along with a filler-prone, pedestrian drenched Ness easily gave Millz the first two rounds, before the Ness we know for spicy punches that match his raucous intensity/performance came back to take the 3rd round while beating back a very basic and 90’s-esq. turn by his opponent.
Verdict: Jae Millz (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Jae Millz – “Pussy, I’m a professional and this my profession, my AR like A.I., that’s how I Answer your question!”
Recap: A generational battle between two Harlem vets, a returning-to-the-stage Jae Millz and gritty stalwart K-Shine, the most noteworthy part of what was otherwise a pretty one-sided match, was Millz readily admitting in round 3 to coming back to battle rap for the check: “Who said that I don’t do this shit for the culture?, Little nigger, I was battling for free for the longest, so let’s be honest, why would I not come back and get the bag that I’m owed, y’all actually paying homage!” That said, other than a tight first round that saw Millz’ cocky and punch-heavy bars almost display enough bite to keep up with a more versatile, personal-savvy, scheme-heavy and consistently (“This is Harlem, you know what’s up, double them up, crab sticks?, wasn’t enough, butter them up!”) fire Shine, this wasn’t close. Especially in the 2nd round where Millz literally time-traveled back to the late 90’s/ early 2000’s and brought back a shitload of dated (yes, that was a wrestling NWO scheme) bars that many predicted beforehand would be his downfall. And while Millz was able to pick things back up with a more solid 3rd, his frequent use of very basic bars not only had the crowd bothered, but along with a motivated Shine, who while not quite on his A-game punch-wise, still served up enough exquisite personals, stinging name flips, witty barbs and fiery performance bars in the latter rounds to dominate the battle and receive Harlem bragging rights.
Verdict: K-Shine (W) 3-0
Favorite line: K-Shine – “Lazy chef, I take out Millz when I don’t feel like cooking!”
Recap: A true classic, this matchup between a young Murda Mook versus street battle rap legend Jae Millz is responsible for a lot of people becoming battle rap fans and a lot of heads becoming battle rappers themselves. Going toe-to-toe for 5 fierce rounds uptown around Harlem’s infamous 125th street, spicy quotables along with a gang of braggadocios heat, gritty gun talk and witty personals are aplenty here. Still, it’s an ever confident Mook, more versatile with the set-ups, raucous when needed, fiercely (“Go ahead, turn around if you’d like/’cuz through the grapevine, Millz, I heard that’s how you ask for the pipe/don’t get trapped in the hype, homeboy, you ain’t real/I don’t wanna hear no mess about how you spray steel/’cuz in the pen, they told you to stay still/twenty nigga’s in the shower, waiting to Jay Millz!”) storytelling here, stronger with the wordplay and clearly landing more haymakers in the 1st, 3rd and 4th rounds (a more condensed Millz [“All that bullshit you talking, I ain’t hearing it and you ain’t gotta tell me about your deal ‘cuz (looks at his wristwatch) I’m wearing it!”] does enough to make the 2nd round debatable, before getting more multifaceted with his raps to easily taking the 5th round) who shines best for Harlem on this day and takes the win at the end.
Verdict: Murda Mook (W) 2-1
Favorite line: Murda Mook – “His career? It’s on a treadmill/yeah, he getting run, but he ain’t going nowhere!”
Recap: Classic in-studio battle from 2002 between street battle rap legend Jae Millz and a young up-n-comer from the BX named Goodz (over a variety of beats) sees the latter hold his own for 4 of the 5 rounds here, edging rounds 1 and 3 with a quality assortment of boastful punches and slick/witty barbs. But the ever-ready Millz, armed with a battery pack of raps that makes him so prolific with the lines, edges this one, all the while dropping thoro punchlines with dismissive flair when he wasn’t spouting a gang of graphic/gripping schemes, gritty street semantics and stunted similes/wordplay.
Verdict: Jae Millz (W) 3-2
Favorite line: Jae Millz – “I’m like a basketball coach in love with the 2, 3 dog, you can’t take me out my zone!”
