Over 4,000 Recaps!

Tay Roc defeats Rich Dolarz

Recap: With Tay Roc and Rich Dolarz battling each other you’d expect a good showing and they did exactly that. Rich built his rounds around themes (Roc being “dirty”, joining Dot Mobb because he wants to be Mook, stealing ideas for bars and allegedly “lying” a lot in his rhymes) that for most part worked, especially in round 3 which saw Dolarz drop this gem: “When people hear Tay Roc the first thing they hear is Dot Mobb, I built my own name, you wouldn’t even fucking try, it’s Mook, Rex, K then you, for me that wouldn;t fucking fly, you below the son and for you that’s fucking fine, so even when it’s cloudy out you’ll still be under shine”. Still, for all of Dolarz’ originality and subject matter, his set-ups took too long and outside his motifs, there wasn’t much bite in his bar game (that is, outside of repeating other rapper lines to make a point). A worthy performance still by Rich, but with the type of heat Roc was spitting in the first couple of rounds, winning was not an option. If Roc’s first round wasn’t enough in hard-hitting (“Tried to tell you I’m a Hitman you could holler if you want, if you owe me I’m find him with the pump, it’s like I’m St. Louis in ‘Players Club’, I’ll put Dolarz [Dolla] in the trunk”) bars and execution, his second was a pure classic with a steady of name flips, (“i seen you out in Detroit I know your hood’s mad, Factor should drop the ‘X’ off his name you made it look bad”) personals, (“Look at Smack like Alpo because he set up Rich to get killed!”) haymakers, tutorials, jokes, (“…knock his box off the screen like we playing X-box Connect”) execution and even a few shots at Calicoe just in case he wasn’t paying close enough attention. Roc all day.

Verdict: Tay Roc (W) 2-1

Favorite line: Tay Roc – “Two battles ago you was fucking dead, word up, you heard what the fuck I said, I’ll Pop off, dump the lead, knock off a chuck his head or I could put the dots on him like Wonder Bread”

Tay Roc defeats QP (Qleen Paper)

Recap: Tay Roc is both a seasoned vet and a good challenge for anybody, thus one would think that in front of his home crowd a rising neophyte like QP (Qleen Paper) would not only be prepared, but amped to put on a dope performance for his native Detroit. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here as after putting forth a stellar first (“I’ll sweep ya grandma cane, sleep that bitch and tell her get up off the floor and out your teth back bitch!”) round, which featured a lot potent trap talk and hard-hitting bars, Qleen’s stock went immediately downhill as loaded bars were replaced by a whole lot of filler, dry spots and a 3rd round that’ll probably go down as the beginning of Qleen’s “I don’t give a fuck” run. Meanwhile, Roc had a strong and consistent performance throughout, dropping straight (“ya man got an issue, whip out that pistol [points] then Qleen next!”) heat, landing punches with aggressive bars, nice (“I’m in Detroit, where you riding, wack nigga, word is in Detroit is he a lying [Lion] ass nigga”) personals, dope name flips (esp. the Detroit battle rapper lines) and killing it with the (“We pull up right beside of ya, shooting, no photographer, you don’t wanna dance with me, get ya choreographer”) wordplay. Altogether, a sound performance on the road by Tay Roc and another dub for Mr. Maryland.

Verdict: Tay Roc (W) 2-1

Favorite line: Qleen Paper – “I’mma play the bishop role, you could have King, I don’t care if you with your bitch, I’ll make a bad scene, grab weave and pull it down the block…that’s a drag queen!”

Tay Roc defeats O-Red

Synopsis: I loved Tay Roc’s aggression, performance and consistency in delivering hot lines in the first couple of rounds. Roc not only hit O-Red with great bars, but nice schemes and personals….to the point that it made you feel that he wanted this win more than Red did. O’Red had a hot first two rounds too, but wasn’t quite as consistent as Tay was in round one so I gave Roc that one. The second round was Red at his best, in-ya-face aggression, cracking jokes and delivering straight heat (“marksburg open ya chest, I got that asthma pump”) and tho I’m not sure if those personals he hit with Tay with here were true or not they still worked, so Red edged round two. As for the 3rd round, while both calmed down a lot, Roc stayed consistent enough with better bars to get the win.

Verdict: Tay Roc (W) 2-1

Best line: Tay Roc – “What you think of that?, nigga think Tay trippin’, niggas try me before so if they catch Tay slippin’, I’m a catch him outside, go to the whippin’, start bangin’ over top of the cars, Blake Griffin!”

Tay Roc defeats Young Kannon

Synopsis: Roc takes the last two rounds to edge this one from the always energetic Young Kannon.

Verdict: Tay Roc (W) 2-1

Favorite line: Tay Roc – “And don’t speak bad ’bout my city, you ain’t never been through The Wire, you Kanye before the crash”

Tay Roc defeats P.G Skillet

Recap: A battle that’s always in those “Most Awkward Moments In Battle Rap” videos due to Tay Roc nearly vomiting in round 1, this Blood on the Shoes bout versus P.G. Skillet still made for a competitive and intense matchup due to Skillet and Roc’s noted Maryland roots. That said, despite being under the weather and dealing with a lot of hardbody punches/personals from Skillet, Roc gets the edge here, taking both the 2nd and 3rd rounds thanks in part to a wide load of pedestrian bars from his opponent, but also displaying better consistency when it came to spicy punchlines, some fierce name flips, boastful stunting and plenty of flexing gun bars.

Verdict: Tay Roc (W) 2-1

Favorite line: Tay Roc – “He lightweight so I ain’t have to prepare a lot, how you cooking Tay when a skillet ain’t how you prepare a Roc [rock]!”

K-Shine defeats Tay Roc

Recap: Can’t recap this battle without mentioning how funny it is seeing white people walking past outside wondering what the fuck is going on in there. That said, spazzing left and right with heated urban colloquialism’s, aggressive braggadocio bars, graphic schemes and fierce punchlines, a righteous and aggressive K-Shine, takes the first two rounds to win this one before Tay Roc salvages the 3rd round with more potent heat and more gut-wrenching/wittier bars.

Verdict: K-Shine (W) 2-1

Favorite line: K-Shine – “Run up on his whip, leave a stained dash, change masks ‘cuz I’m overloaded like Aaliyah in the plane crash!”

Tay Roc defeats Ronnie G

Recap: Annoyed at the strength of his competition, Tay Roc punishes his subpar (and mixtape using too, judging from the girl in the back of him seemingly reciting his rhymes) opponent Ronnie G here for two rounds with a barrage of boastful punches, local Baltimore wordplay, rigid gun bars and stifling personals to catch a body and keep his hood on notice.

Verdict: Tay Roc (W) 2-0

Favorite line: Tay Roc – “I got extra weapons, I’ll leave ya brains on a wall, looking like some 3rd grader did some Etch a Sketch-ing!”

Tay Roc defeats Shotgun Suge

Recap: Besides finding out that Shotgun Suge is a huge “In Too Deep” fan, this outdoor battle between Suge and Tay Roc doesn’t amount to much more than who can talk that real shit and spit potent, more authentic bars. Staying consistent while laying into Suge’s realness, Roc wins with a better overall delivery, (“You say you’ll eat me, rejected, not even if he had cheerleaders with him like B-E aggressive”) jokes, hard-hitting (“And since a nigga back on, tell him back off or I’ll put a nickle to him like a scratch-off”) bars and punchlines. Suge had some funny (“I wish I could pick the world up and drop it on his fucking head!”) lines and gutta bars, but too many movie couplets and filler eventually did him in.

Verdict: Tay Roc (W) 2-1

Favorite line: Shotgun Suge – “I control the block, you got lookout status”

Kaboom defeats Tay Roc*

Recap: Over a decade later and this classic Lionz Den battle between Tay Roc and Kaboom still has a cloud of controversy over its head. The debate centering around whether or not this was a 4-round battle to begun with or if it went the usual 3 rounds with an OT round thanks to the judges or if the 4th round was just Roc and Boom giving the fans an extra round for fun, knowing that it wouldn’t count in the end. I’m going with the latter and got Boom winning this in 3. After all, most Lionz Den battles were 3 rounds long. Then too, the fact that Roc turned around and spit his bars 1st (after going 2nd all through the earlier rounds) in the extra round should tell you that this was a bonus turn. That said the decision here is pretty clear with Roc’s consistently lit, street themed bars handily taking round 1 before an elongated, but aggressive, witty at times, mocking, boastful and punch-heavy Boom clearly took rounds 2 and 3 for the win over what could arguably be seen as two of the two most basic rounds Roc has ever spit. However, let it also be said that Roc’s 4th is a certfied classic with its fiery storytelling, brazen punches and stellar intermixing of noted Philly rappers.

Verdict: Kaboom (W) 2-1, Tay Roc (W) OT

Favorite line: Kaboom – “You wack, your mixtape is a frisbee, take this filthy nigga back to Walt Disney!”

Tay Roc defeats 45th Focus

Recap: Slow start by Tay Roc here in this Lionz Den 1-rounder versus a gritty 45th Focus. But with the second half of Roc’s turn featuring more piercing punches and righteous boasts, the Maryland spitter ends up getting the edge here.

Verdict: Tat Roc (W) 1-0

Favorite line: Tay Roc – “That chopper like Red Lobster…you could inhale shells!

Charlie Clips defeats Tay Roc

 

Synopsis: Not much more can be said about this battle that hasn’t already been spoken. A battle that put Clips on the map and literally gave him “legend” status all the way through to his battle with A-Verb a few years later on URL. As for Tay-Roc, compared to the high-caliber version of Roc that we see now, the version we see here just seemed happy to be there (tho his 1st and 3rd rounds weren’t that bad), which killed the B-more legend’s rep until he’d later take it all out on Kaboom in that famous OT round on the Lion’s Den later down the road. Other than that, peep Clips just dropping fire punch after punch while roasting on Roc for 3 rounds as well as Teyana Taylor in the audience for your added viewing pleasure.

Verdict: Charlie Clips (W) 3-0

Best line: Charlie Clips – “See the reason I go crazy and I be blacking it out, is because my grandmother said, ‘If you lose to this Tay Rock nigga, don’t bring yo ass back in my house'”, What, can you picture me losing for that good-ass cooking? For my grandmom’s I do time in that hood ass booking, he wanna fight I throw a left then a good-ass hook and, have him like, ‘woop-woop!’, you know, when you used to get that good-ass whooping”

Tay Roc defeats Skarr

Recap: In what was a mostly one-sided matchup, a young, loud and aggressive Tay Roc spits nothing but mayhem and fiery boastful barbs at a gritty, but ultimately overmatched Skarr in what looks to be a local battle brought to you from Orv BornReady.

Verdict: Tay Roc (W) 2-0*

Favorite line: Tay Roc – “Slugs like teabags, they hit your mug and sink in!”

Asterisk denotes that Skarr’s 3rd round wasn’t made available in the video.

Michael Wayne defeats Tay Roc

Recap: Able to combine slices of wit to his spicy punchlines and boastful barbs over the course of 3 rounds, a gritty Michael Wayne is able to beat back a young, disrespectful and aggressive, but mostly pedestrian Tay Roc in what looks to be a local battle from Baltimore.

Verdict: Michael Wayne (W) 2-1

Favorite line: Michael Wayne – “He 16?, I got a bullet for every year in his life!”