Whether you’re and avid battle rap fan like Trillah and I or just someone who keeps up with rap culture in general, you most likely heard about Total Slaughter going down. The TV show where a bunch of battlers lived under the same roof and battled each other in front of Slaughterhouse for a chance to be on what was supposed to be the greatest battle rap event ever, a live Pay-Per-View to be seen worldwide also named Total Slaughter.Backed and bankrolled by former battle rapper turned mega pop star Eminem, holding onto big name battles like Murda Mook vs Loaded Lux part 2 , and a match up between semi-famous full time black twitter celebrity and part time rapper Joe Budden and arguably the top battle rapper in the game Hollow da Don, what could go wrong? Everything, EVERYTHING went wrong. Here’s a recap of what,why,where,who,and how Total Slaughter went wrong?
-They didn’t release the whole card until days before the battle – It left people in the air trying to decide on whether it was worth the purchase. They also didn’t kill the rumor of Royce da 5’9 battling Arsonal leading people to believe it was going to happen.
-The hosting was terrible – Sway was completely out of his element and all true battle rap fans cringed every time he called a round a rebuttal. His small talk when trying to buy time was utterly ridiculous,especially for a guy who hosts a radio morning show. Sway did not have the answers…again.
-The hosting was REALLY terrible – Someone somewhere thought it would be a cool idea to have morning radio show host Ebro be a commentator. For those of you not familiar with Ebro outside of disrespecting hip-hop legend Chuck D of Public Enemy, Ebro went on record and called battle rap immature,corny,and a waste of time a few months ago. Yet there he was last night picking up a check off of battle rap like a true culture vulture with no morals or integrity. Only thing more cringe-worthy than Sway misusing the word rebuttal was Ebro critiquing battlers like he was some kind of expert trying to counter his co-host Royce da 5’9s positive neutrality. He actually told a battler “That line would have hit harder if you were winning.” What a fucking idiot. It was a throwback to the old WWF days with one positive announcer and one negative announcer. Truly not needed in battle rap and watered down the event.
-The stage setup – Total Slaughter made it a point to not have any people on stage outside of the two battlers and a referee. The referee ended up being DJ Kay Slay but it doesn’t really matter cause he didn’t do anything at all. He just stood there looking real out of place. He didn’t keep time or anything else referees do. He literally just stood there. If he had a chair up there it would’ve looked like he had the only exclusive VIP spot in the venue. To his defense, he didn’t have to do anything cause there was nothing to do up there. The stage was big enough to hold an orchestra and only had two people on it. Totally killed any real agression the battlers might have wanted to convey. You can’t get at a dude who can walk away and come back whenever he feels like it. When you have people behind you and nowhere to go it creates a confined space. Agression only sells in battles cause they’re face to face, not walking around. Speaking of round, the stage was and octagon which was a terrible move. Battlers were rapping in a circle trying to connect with the fans behind them so they don’t see their back all match, but all the two cameras (yes two) were in the front so the people at home spent a lot of time looking at battlers backs and watching them chase each other around the octagon. Terrible idea that killed the authentic-ness of all the battles.
-The Judging – The judges had to give no explanation on why or how they picked any of the winners. There was no bullet points, no deliberation, nothing. We didn’t even have the judges speaking from their own mouths to tell us who they thought won. Many people who were at the event complained about not being able to hear battlers at certain points so I’m sure the judges couldn’t either.
-The Battles Themselves – Before I go in on this let me just say I believe every battle match-up has the potential to be good. Whether or not they are is questionable, but as a battle rap fan these match-ups made no sense. Daylyt vs T-Rex had to happen cause it was the climax to the TV series. (not commenting on Daylyt being Daylyt and the antics because they allowed that to happen and you get what you pay for) Murda Mook vs Loaded Lux part two made no sense and was very unnecessary,they kept playing it up as unfinished business but anyone who saw the first battle knows Lux won convincingly. That was just a way to rehash something classic to try and milk it for a few more dollars. Big T vs Arsonal suffered for the already mentioned horrible stage setup and shaky audio. Wasn’t a bad battle to start the night off with as there weren’t too many expectations for it. Joe Budden vs Hollow da Don looked great on paper but was executed as poorly as a battle could ever be. It was obvious from the beginning that Budden was recieving special treatment for being a semi-celebrity backed by the event promoters. Hollow was not even given a mic before the match started and Joe Budden knew the sound guy by his first name. Joe was allowed to do whatever he wanted, even dropping the mic and refusing to rap at one point cause the crowd wasn’t feeling his lines. This was another battle that had the agression deflated by the battlers having so much space to walk around and not be in each others face.
This event somehow managed to suck out all of the authenticity and raw feel that battle rap has to it and packaged up some watered down bullshit. I’m pretty sure it made a lot of money with Eminems name attached to it even though we never saw him,but we all got hustled. Personally, the only thing I took from this event is that we all lost. Avid battle rap fans who know what real battles and events are supposed to be like and people trying to get into battle rap that will think that a shitty event like this is the normal way of doing things.
Flychologist Out.
Flychologist.com 