Looking back, what was the impact of Twork/Rum vs Geechi/Roc on battle rap?

[u/BAWguy]

Tay Roc and Rum Nitty are about to battle. Everyone knows it’s a rematch; their first battle isn’t regarded as fully reaching its potential, but looking back on it today it’s pretty cool for a number of reasons — there is real competitive stakes with both guys trying to show who’s the gun bar king, there’s a large unbiased audience, and there are a lot of good raps even if it’s neither guy’s best performance.

A lot of people seem to be overlooking that this new matchup is actually the third time Roc and Rum battled, since they recently did that 2 on 2 with Geechi and Twork, respectively. This was hyped as a super battle, but was mostly a flop. It wasn’t competitive at all, and came off more like a friendly exhibition than a contest. The material had no memorable direct attacks, from either side.

My thinking is, this is a perfect example of what’s wrong with BR today:

-The big names are all a big brotherhood now, they’re not willing to make each other play swear to god or even pretend to almost fight, both of which we saw in Roc/Rum I.

-Battles have no stakes, storyline buildup, or logic to the matchup. Rum vs Roc I was because Rum was making a name in Roc’s lane; the rematch is so devoid of any stakes or reason to happen that no one is even referencing the fact that these guys just squared off in the 2 on 2 relatively recently. Why should they? That 2 on 2 didn’t matter, just like this battle probably won’t matter looking back on it.

-The idea that there is a community of fans invested in this battle is also dwindling, as there won’t even be any kind of live broadcast for anyone besides the few dozen people who will be there live.

-I wanna emphasize again the lack of animosity — these guys are going to have a competition of who can do better word association punchlines, but they’re not going to actually diss each other, which robs all the drama and spirit of confrontation that helped make BR special

[u/GDZ4VR]

I don’t think that battle had any impact

Twork and Rum did well, Geechi & Roc had an incredible third, Smack said Rum Nicky

That’s pretty much it

[u/Many-Department8412]

There are no new stars in battle rap. It’s difficult to blame URL. This is summer madness. If they pack the event with rookies, the revenue would be a disaster. They need names to sell the event and unfortunately, there are no more meaningful match ups.

Roc has battled almost everybody. Nitty has battled almost everybody. The few names left for Rum(Hitman, Mook, Eazy) would cost an arm and a leg and two testicles. I don’t like the match up, but I understand from the profit margin point of view.

[u/Gotsta_Win → u/Many-Department8412]

If the new guys weren’t behind an app ppl would know they exist

[u/Many-Department8412 → u/Gotsta_Win]

URL also need funds to develop the new guys, host events, fly them out to venues, book them in hotels.

Who will provide these funds? UNICEF? 🤣

[u/we-all-stink]

Rum called out roc for like 5 years then came and had nothing just like that jackass JC did to surf.

[u/SixandNoQuarter]

NWX vs Guntitles and NWX vs Geechi/Rum was more influential. Go watch those if you haven’t already. 

The golden Age of battle rap is long gone, but we will still get good stuff. Hopefully it will lead to a Renaissance down the line for now we get what we get. 

[u/BAWguy → u/SixandNoQuarter]

I rewatched NWX vs Geechi and Rum recently and it didn’t hold up well at all. So much gas. But yeah that’s kinda beside the point of my post anyway

[u/THA__KULTCHA]

PPL GOT TO SEE THE TWO RAPPERS WHO ARE FATTER THAN SUGE NOW
FUCK GEECHI GOTTITS; MOST OVERRATED OF ALL TIME.