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“If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?” – Vince Lombardi
The above quote was spoken by legendary Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, who most famously achieved three straight league wins, and five in seven years, with his 1960s Packers team. It’s one line, but it is applicable to a great many things in life.
Much is said of equality, and much should be said of equality. If a woman can do a job as well as a man, she deserves equal pay. If you can do anything as well as someone else, you deserve a shot at that activity or responsibility. However, we aren’t all equal. If I am in a burning building, I’m going to naturally feel safer if a firefighter comes to rescue me, as opposed to a woman. If I want a lawyer, I don’t give a fuck. There are things women are better at, things men are better at. To deny this is to deny and stunt intellectual and personal growth.
What’s my point? My point is superiority and advancement. Being better than your peers and embracing that. It’s my belief that you should never lessen your abilities just to satiate the people who are bothered that they cannot do the same. It’s for that reason that I find promo battles to be a mightily confusing animal.
Promo battles are, as all of you may know, battles that aren’t judged. Of course, all battles are ultimately judged by the fans and, more often than not, the two opposing lyrical combatants will turn in performances that speak for themselves. With that said, should all battles be judged? Should none be judged? What are the benefits of promo battles and why are promo battles, in some cases, damaging to the sport?
Case in Point: Hollohan Vs Cortez at King of the Dot’s Blackout 2 event. I am in complete agreement with Cortez’s decision to make this battle promo. Who in their right mind would want to face a returning Hollohan in Toronto, and have it judged? Some could argue cowardice, but you cannot blame Cortez for perhaps fearing bias may be afoot. “YO! IT’S HOLLOHAN, A.K.A. GOD! WHAT THE FUCK?!” With that one immense, sonorous battle cry it became clear that Toronto was on Hollohan’s back. Who can blame them? Impartiality should always be present, but that’s not how life works out. It’s possible Hollohan deservedly won anyway (2-1 in my opinion), but it was understandably made promo.
People like 24/7, a wordsmith who has been referred to as the Hemingway of battle rapping, tend to have lines and bars so criminally slept on that it defies belief and borders on the physically frustrating. After what is generally considered to be a marked robbery in his battle against Dose, 24/7’s following three battles (Daley, Soul and Osa respectively) were all promo battles. Dose was not the first time he had been unduly given a loss after putting time and money into travelling to battles. This is another instance in which I completely understand the desire to ply your craft without taking an L.
There is a downside, though. As with most things, there are ways in which promo battles can ruin a big fight or big event atmosphere. I look at it negatively because legitimate competition is the last bastion of talent. Truly. Nowadays, you can be massively and overwhelmingly successful without being the best at what you do.
Socrates once said that fame is the perfume of heroic deeds, and that is an idea on which we are losing grasp.
You cannot fake greatness. The members of Young Money care not for our criticism. Why should they? All the money, drugs, girls and fame in the world are at their fingertips. Are they truly fooling any of the, for lack of a better term, hip hop cognoscenti? We know Drake and Wayne aren’t seeing 99% of other MCs when it comes to bar-for-bar lyricism.
You couldn’t just play for Barcelona because you were famous. You can’t just win a match with Novak Djokovic because you’ve been on a reality show. This is why promo battles are sometimes a crying shame. Two men go at it for three rounds, lyrically pummelling and verbally abusing each other with torrents of profanity, comedy and mixtures of the two, woven into lyricism. Why is it ok for neither of them to get a raised hand? Why is it ok to get roundly trounced in a battle and walk away without recorded negative results?
We all know Soul Khan absolutely and legendarily demolished Q.P., but Q.P. can stand up and legitimately claim that he didn’t lose. How is that fair in any way and on any plane of comprehension?
How can you take all these magnificently produced, monumentally crafted pre-battle videos that Avocado puts out…if there’s no winner? Is trash talk still trash talk if you know you won’t get shown up? Floyd Mayweather could never give his opponent an earful of abuse and then have the nerve to ask if his fight could be promo. What gives battlers that right, outside of extreme circumstances (Hollohan Vs Cortez et al)?
MCs such as Loe Pesci have gone on record to say that no battle should be judged. In some ways, I see his point. It holds weight if you analyse it from a certain angle. However, I come from the battling school of thought that dictates if you aren’t good enough to win, you should lose. Is that so unreasonable?
- Chad “The Hot” Hotdog.
The above quote was spoken by legendary Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, who most famously achieved three straight league wins, and five in seven years, with his 1960s Packers team. It’s one line, but it is applicable to a great many things in life.
Much is said of equality, and much should be said of equality. If a woman can do a job as well as a man, she deserves equal pay. If you can do anything as well as someone else, you deserve a shot at that activity or responsibility. However, we aren’t all equal. If I am in a burning building, I’m going to naturally feel safer if a firefighter comes to rescue me, as opposed to a woman. If I want a lawyer, I don’t give a fuck. There are things women are better at, things men are better at. To deny this is to deny and stunt intellectual and personal growth.
What’s my point? My point is superiority and advancement. Being better than your peers and embracing that. It’s my belief that you should never lessen your abilities just to satiate the people who are bothered that they cannot do the same. It’s for that reason that I find promo battles to be a mightily confusing animal.
Promo battles are, as all of you may know, battles that aren’t judged. Of course, all battles are ultimately judged by the fans and, more often than not, the two opposing lyrical combatants will turn in performances that speak for themselves. With that said, should all battles be judged? Should none be judged? What are the benefits of promo battles and why are promo battles, in some cases, damaging to the sport?
Case in Point: Hollohan Vs Cortez at King of the Dot’s Blackout 2 event. I am in complete agreement with Cortez’s decision to make this battle promo. Who in their right mind would want to face a returning Hollohan in Toronto, and have it judged? Some could argue cowardice, but you cannot blame Cortez for perhaps fearing bias may be afoot. “YO! IT’S HOLLOHAN, A.K.A. GOD! WHAT THE FUCK?!” With that one immense, sonorous battle cry it became clear that Toronto was on Hollohan’s back. Who can blame them? Impartiality should always be present, but that’s not how life works out. It’s possible Hollohan deservedly won anyway (2-1 in my opinion), but it was understandably made promo.
People like 24/7, a wordsmith who has been referred to as the Hemingway of battle rapping, tend to have lines and bars so criminally slept on that it defies belief and borders on the physically frustrating. After what is generally considered to be a marked robbery in his battle against Dose, 24/7’s following three battles (Daley, Soul and Osa respectively) were all promo battles. Dose was not the first time he had been unduly given a loss after putting time and money into travelling to battles. This is another instance in which I completely understand the desire to ply your craft without taking an L.
There is a downside, though. As with most things, there are ways in which promo battles can ruin a big fight or big event atmosphere. I look at it negatively because legitimate competition is the last bastion of talent. Truly. Nowadays, you can be massively and overwhelmingly successful without being the best at what you do.
Socrates once said that fame is the perfume of heroic deeds, and that is an idea on which we are losing grasp.
You cannot fake greatness. The members of Young Money care not for our criticism. Why should they? All the money, drugs, girls and fame in the world are at their fingertips. Are they truly fooling any of the, for lack of a better term, hip hop cognoscenti? We know Drake and Wayne aren’t seeing 99% of other MCs when it comes to bar-for-bar lyricism.
You couldn’t just play for Barcelona because you were famous. You can’t just win a match with Novak Djokovic because you’ve been on a reality show. This is why promo battles are sometimes a crying shame. Two men go at it for three rounds, lyrically pummelling and verbally abusing each other with torrents of profanity, comedy and mixtures of the two, woven into lyricism. Why is it ok for neither of them to get a raised hand? Why is it ok to get roundly trounced in a battle and walk away without recorded negative results?
We all know Soul Khan absolutely and legendarily demolished Q.P., but Q.P. can stand up and legitimately claim that he didn’t lose. How is that fair in any way and on any plane of comprehension?
How can you take all these magnificently produced, monumentally crafted pre-battle videos that Avocado puts out…if there’s no winner? Is trash talk still trash talk if you know you won’t get shown up? Floyd Mayweather could never give his opponent an earful of abuse and then have the nerve to ask if his fight could be promo. What gives battlers that right, outside of extreme circumstances (Hollohan Vs Cortez et al)?
MCs such as Loe Pesci have gone on record to say that no battle should be judged. In some ways, I see his point. It holds weight if you analyse it from a certain angle. However, I come from the battling school of thought that dictates if you aren’t good enough to win, you should lose. Is that so unreasonable?
- Chad “The Hot” Hotdog.
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