Grats on making it the finals of the 2023 Audio Grand Championship. You have until 1/3/24 at 11:59pm Eastern to post your verses. Best of luck to you both.

Congrats to both making it to the final. Should be a fire battle here. Best of luck, gents. 

last round i sandbagged.. it was only theatricshistorectomy: lemme cut it out, since y'all 'over rhe actin'minstrel show: this pussy's overly active 'one hot drop a month' it's all 'over reaction'lock: phroxen embryo.. watch blood flow get him washed.. like an ovary action!!

dps? i blew the roster up as a last tenet, it's whatchu asked innit?threw us the grenade that 'blew up in ya face' its tragic when'glass' hit em his last image death holdin' 'amir' over him.. like his middle-eastern blast victims!!

concussive: his mask dented easy to lose 'face value' when there's nothin' but gas in it ya 'leg to stand on' is in the trash, finishedspine left witha hard disk error.. fragmented!!scheme final: left my comp's 'biomechanical' crashed with it

[no forensic evidence] the lord ain't ya shepard whenya fam schitizin! they spaz hittin' the jack quick n dispatch sent em to hold.. now errybody got that 'jazz' grimace!!

post action: best of champs differentin order to 'see sunrise again as a star' they gon have to asterik'em!!

no doctor or mechanic can fix them weak 'hart transmissons'jussa 'whole body of work on the table for nothin'' ..like ya track listin!!

u ain't got the hands to do the math, know that i been a problemheavy lies the head that wears the crown.. til these divine rights'll lift it off emrooftop: it was lonely at the top, til i pulled up n send him off itlock u the man... that's a mortal flaw when facing a demigod bitch!!

i ain't one for sentence flossin but this written's flawlesssilver bullets.. prim n polished out a big revolver!!...i'll make lock 'cross a t with a dotted eye' they'll print em off nit ain't 'sunday' but today the 'pen accost' em

when i 'cut the key' for this i realized i'm more than a frickin locksmithbut if we 'pickin lock it's' twice,pre-n-post mortem: first, in his noggin then when his broad gets "r-i-p" in embossed script etched in or on it!!

Expo:

- Amir (generic middle0eastern / A mirror)- Lock has an amazing Live Battle resume... and no tracks =/- Lock started the conversation about DPS needing to disband to help voting along on the site- Lockhart lost to Phroxen in scheme finals. original scheme was 'biomechanical' then changed to forensic evidence which Lock used 'lord is my shepard when'- Jazz Grimace (Jazz hold music / Jaz the Rapper's reactions to dope bars - Jazz is also a DISPATCHER in real liferef: https://tenor.com/view/jaz-the-rapper-jaz-smackurl-battle-rap-rap-battle-gif-16038003)

Worthy Final here. Rhet had some really nice lines and some nice hitting punches. Lock came out the gate swinging and maintained the same pace throughout. I've Lock taking this one. Props, lads. Good performance. 

iight fellas congrats on making it to the finals.....ive let this simmer and re listen to a bunch of times...dope bars on both sides..my winner here just came hard at his oppenent espically with the personals, a big factor was energy in their bars. my winner here had the overall better battle verse with all factors combined...dope Battle thanks guys....no easy decision but just keeping it a buck...congrats to whoever wins

Lock had some good lines an personals like the record line and the crew shit freemason line was neat. Rhe was more aggressive with his barz an hittas, he had some christian barz, the pen a cost em, nice etc.. could go either way yeah fv.

YOU. ARE. FUCKING. TRASH. This is SO DAMN TRUE.

He asked me if I wanted to do the 2v2 with him and he was like “it’d be great, man. Me and the BRO CAN’T LOSE”

But why you need me for the “W, R? See” you coulda asked Esso, Odin, SHODAN TOO

So when it came time for me to tag with RhetoriK? The only answer I could give was “NOCANDO!”

I said your style’s old as dirt. For the record: your fans are all OVER FIFTY

Nah I said your style’s old as dirt. For the RECORD: your fans are all O FOR FIFTY!

Without DPS? You can’t see-me-Rhet. Ya whole apPROACH IS IFFY

This finna be a “Classick MURDA” you might as well go to the MOTOR CITY and get a HOLD OF GRIZZY!

Had everyone in one crew when the site’s dead. Saw the opportunity and tried to conTROL IT QUICKLY

Rhet’s mindset was “well if they’re ROLLIN W/ ME they can’t VOTE AGAINST ME!

Everyone else? YOU GET A BLOCK! YOU GET A BLOCK! YOU GET A BLOCK!” Dawg you’re LetsBeef’s OPRAH WINFREY!

Cause you’re really just a bitch and your HOSTIN’S SHITTY!

LOAD A SEMI! The BEAM IS IN HIS EYES

Go ahead ‘n call this “light”: you’re just gonna SEE IT WHEN YOU DIE!

Cornball ass bitch, beating you’s as EASY AS A SNIPE

I don’t wanna hear how “Rhet a cool Mod” - for the longest I had to KEEP HIM IN MY SITES!

DOG IS A HYPOCRITE!

You are fucking garbage. I could get you dogWALKED WITH SOME SIMPLE SHIT

Cause how you gonna outsmart me in your bars when you almost LOST TO AN IDIOT?!

Lemme give RhetoriK-the definition: it SEEMS THAT IT’S OVERDUE

It’s the art of effective or persuasive writing, it ain’t a SECRET, YOU KNOW IT’S TRUE

So when you tried creating a mega crew with the site almost dead??? You were SEEN AS A TOTAL GOOF

Cause how then can you be RhetoriK when you can no longer persuade PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR YOU????

You knew you would DIE TO ME

This a clear shot comin’ from a 12 like you’re reversing soBRIETY

DPS fell off because of me when I said voting would suffer, and that’s the truth of the HIGHEST KEY

So my status is what you’ll keep-chasin. “Freemason”: to keep it a G with these angles? I am the reason you don’t see the soCIETY!

EXPO: W, R, see?/WRC. NoCanDo was Rheteric's tag team partner in the WRC.

Rhet a cool mod/reticle mod.

The freemason logo has a G and angles in it.

well shit this was some battle - both brought heat. The use pf personals was dope. liked the nocando and pentecost bars. I felt one's cadence and delivery put him over the top. GL to both

Phew. Smoking 🚬😤

First off Congrats to both for making it to the finals. Definitely a finals worthy battle. First few listens a had if pretty close. Then as I comb through it on further listens I started to see the separation between batttlers.  Approach of material determined this for me on this one. FVNH and Congrats to the winner of this bout. 

RhetoriK had some flow some of his punch lines hit. Lockhart I feel came heavy at the end. This was a good battle all around. My winner had more energy and better placed punches. 

Damn man this was hard to call. Both dudes came out firing and I had to listen to both verses a couple times to catch everything. Closed my eyes and pictured it like a live battle while I smoked a joint. I think one dudes presence was a little smoother and the other had some fresher concepts. Congratulations to whoever wins

Yo...the "block list" though!  I get it's a good thing, when used correctly, but nobody here who uses it... is using it correctly. 

Nice finale here. Lock that open was fire. Had to YouTube the wrc to understand and very nice setup to the punch. Oora punch was dope. Great delivery and I hear that live battling out you. Rhet. Nice drop as well. A little laid back delivery. But when ya drop ya verse it really does sound like you're reading off a paper and that takes away from the conviction of ya bars. Nice lock wp. Kinda close but I got lock winning with his punches. Seems they just hit harder here for me ..good luck to whoever wins.

Few listens in, I've got Lock winning. both verses absolutely ripped ass and would've buried anything else on the site. 

that said Lock's approach took this slightly. every line was a personal that dug deep and much of it is shit Rhet can hardly make a response for. Rhet had tons of punches here, but it wasn't enough to take Lock.

fair's in.

dammm so much to say and reflect on. I'm not to caught up on the history between these two, but I do know neither knew the others verse when spittin...that bein said, I love how RET reflected on the crew beef that LOCK refered to in first verse. Multics, metaphors an punches came from every where. I just feel one Mc opener made me wild out...I've picked my winner but know this...these dudes here are the best we have an we should celebrate that. 1 and 1a annrheir ain't no shame in that. The talent on this site is redicolous..respect to all who showed out but this will go down as a heavyweight bout!   VICIOUS!

So my status is what you’ll keep-chasin. “Freemason”: to keep it a G with these angles? I am the reason you don’t see the soCIETY!

fire

I've listened to this a handful of times and have flip-flopped back and forth on whether or not I wanted to provide my thoughts.

Anyway..

Rhet - for some reason this felt like a step down lyrically from your previous round, but a slight increase in your presense/energy. I liked the asterisk bar, lonely at the top and the pentacost bits the most. To me, a lot of the remainder felt awfully stretched and missed the mark some. Your flow is alright, but every now and then you have a significant pause/breath and it gets thrown off when your presense goes down. I am aware of what you're trying to do, but from this end it sounds weird when you quiet down and theres a big pause. All in all though, pretty solid.

Lock - I enjoyed your NoCanDo opener, the second half of this was essentially one long personal, but it was told nicely. Not a big fan of the Oprah shtick, but the lead to it was great. Call this light was clean. Persuasive Rhetorik is a nice concept, and I liked your ending also despite it sounding a tad stretched due to word placement. Your presense and flow is consistent throughout.

Overall - Both had meaningful uses of personals. I have Lock taking presense and flow, and I have Lock with more hard hitting and comprehensive punches that just didnt feel as stretched. I could see this going either way depending on the listener. Good luck gents.

Rhetorik had this easily, the puns. Lockhart had a poor rhyme scheme and repeated himself like yes I already heard you say that line. It wasn't better the second time

Lock: presence and delivery are standouts as to be expected. lines were hard-hitting and clean setups throughout. I was gonna say the Oprah line was done to death, but the line immediately after made it a creative use of the "You get a... you get a..." and was impressive. tons of wordplay throughout and felt like you treated this battle with a ton of respect, the writing was dense and the performance matched. easy 5.

Rhet: Liked your lines and angles a lot. Thought you had some really creative writing that lent towards your strengths well. sunrise -> asterisk was creative, but the delivery sort of crashed a bit ont he line. i actually did like the opener too, but it clicked better after reading it in the comments. middle eastern blast victims and fragmented were also some favs of mine. some of the delivery felt off just a bit, at least compared to Lock's verse and drop which carried just as much complexity and weight.

very enjoyable finals battle and after a TON of re-listens, I think I gotta go Lock here for a very very hard-to-beat drop. Can't imagine many would have been able to match up against it.

gb to both and appreciate the entertainment throughout the tournament.

Ain't been active for a while, so not gonna' drop a vote until I get back up to speed.

Really enjoyed listening to both verses, both killed it. Keep it up homies!

That DPS line put the nail in the coffin and the ontop of that the crew was dissipated... one was more heart felt also no pun intended and punches hit harder combined with the truth of the matter. On that note MAY THE BEST BARS PREVAIL!

These DPS’s are trouble. I was warned about them. Shame DPS’s Sham Shame Shame on you. May you evolve and find peace in the hereafter.

Great verses from both.. good battle here..

Great verse deliveries and ryhme schemes from both. Great battle.