Oh You Mad Cuz’…I Punched You in the Face

I know about the narrative arc of hip-hop seemingly representing this “end to violence” in the South Bronx, giving way to breakers and b-boys to go along with emcees and DJs. But realistically, this is a romantic view of the tension and competition inherent in rap music. Freestyle battles, whether in a public space or at the local radio station drip with oneupmanship and dog-eat-dog fury. Of course, speaking as an armchair social scientist, this means that it ultimately feeds into the disunity complex among black men. It means that something that is partly responsible for a new creative class among blacks has much more of a destructive tendency than a constructive one. So there’s just as much aggression and violence in the outer world in this black art of hip-hop. Sometimes that manifests in good ways, like in Ice Cube’s “Today Was A Good Day” where Cube talked relief from the stresses of L.A. strife. Sometimes it just transfers violent memes to violent acts, as in its traditional stance on all things women.

It yields a humorous distance from reality for me. I like a good rap battle as much as the next fan. But when it deteriorates–like these do–into fights for physical dominance, I still appreciate it for just showing its ass. Hip-hop can never really be bought or framed for the positive or negative because it’s visceral. These reactions come from outside factors even if the music itself has a dandy relationship with violence. Violence courted hip-hop from the get-go, and now we have YouTube to watch the result. Enjoy!

In the storied legacy of rap battles, there have been some heated exchanges on wax. Since the millennium turned, those turned into knockout blows knuckle-up style in the form of Smack DVD clips and YouTube snippets. These fist-fighting battles trumped the tradition of wordplay, and sunk hip-hop into the dregs of other internt sensations like Bum Fights, Street Fights and Kimbo slice marauding.

Here are the HeardonmyStoop faves:

Oh You Mad Cuz I’m Stylin On You

Nikz and ENJ are having a pretty sound, typical street-style battle until ENJ drops the line of the year “Oh you mad cuz I’m stylin’ on you” which throws Nikz into a rage unseen…and then KNOCKOUT!

Math vs. Dose The Gym Brawl

Math and Dose are obviously not on good terms. But something about Dose’s gestures are rubbing Math the wrong way. After a tip of Dose’s hat grazes Math’s nose, all bets are off. Math’s “Yo son get out my face” and then *PUNCH!* starts a crew wide brawl on the gym stage.

(Related: some comedians took the time to translate Math v. Dose for the non-slang viewers. Also funny.)

Saigon v. Prodigy Sucker Punch Brawl

So Saigon was not fond of Prodigy, and had some words about him prior to this show.  Why then perform at a show with someone whom you criticized? Maybe no press is bad press. The blogs covered this immaterial mess for a few weeks. Prodigy said he was sucker punched. Saigon said he was being set up. Blah Blah. Mediocre fight between overrated rappers in the end, but when is a sucker punch not appealing?

And the new favorite…

The Reality Show No-Names Go At It

Note: Viacom makes it a point to take their copyrighted content off YouTube quickly so they can control how this Kesan/E6 thing makes ad revenue. Here’s the link to their site with the official video in case this one gets removed.
Kesan and E6 are part of a show called “G’s to Gents” on MTV, hosted by Fonzworth Bentley. Already it’s a bad start. The show reforms Geez, so to speak, by training them in the rules of etiquette. Fish out of water, class tension, pissing contest and what have you. E6 wants to use this as a way to pump his rap career (because how else would he?) so he drops a Hot 16 on a backstage camera. Kesan, who has beef with EVERYone on the show, drops in for a little sucker punch action and then runs. Watch the hat spin. I haven’t seen someone get punched out of a hat so hard since Bugs and Elmer Fudd got it going.

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