Since Rhet Never Posted This...
 

I had a really cool conversation with @RhetoriK a few months back where he was dropping some wisdom and I want to share it with you all. He said he was going to make a thread at some point but to my knowledge it never came.

I want you to throw skill out of the window a minute this is not intended as the millionth old heads vs new heads thread. I think it's fair to say the game has moved on and skill-wise the new heads are better... it would be weird if they weren't.

However during that process we lost track of entertainment-value. We lost track of the swagger and the personality that used to make battles a pleasure to read. In fact Rhet even credited a lot of the lack of voting to this style change which you may agree with or not.

The style really started to shift with the success of @RULE who brought a different style to the site in many ways. Punchlines over everything, hence the name #PunchlineKing.

Credit to RULE, that's an achievement and he carved out his own niche. However people started to follow suit and took the style that RULE fathered and exaggerated it even more. This is when that swagger and personality factor started to become a forgotten aspect.

I'm curious as to peoples thoughts on this. I think there's a lot of truth in it. No one really gives you that smile that you used to get when reading the now HOFers battles back in the day. It's a different feeling now, it's much more that "Oh shit! That's a dope line". Both are valuable.

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Honestly feel like that is a lost art to have a lot of swagger in your verse. I'm definitely one of those dudes that has tried to emulate the punches over everything style because I felt like my original style never got the acclaim that I felt maybe it should have at the time. I think everyone should try to carve out their own niche once they get the basics down and then to hell with anyone else thinks of it.

I got jokes

I would say stating the obvious but then I've been in this shit. Very very long time ...

Interesting. Wonder what the other heads think about this.

I think this is super important, but unless swag and style start winning battles, nothing is gonna change. It's strayed even farther to the point where internal punches are the new thing so you have like 2 small punches leading up to your big punch. A style that currently Manhattan and Rai are using effectively. However, That style kind of negates the use of cool clever set ups and isnt something I personally am a huge fan of. Can't discount the impact it has though.

Actually I've seen a few battles recently (recently meaning in the last few years) that have used that style, but people don't vote for it so it doesn't stick around.

Add @Row to that list ....

I suppose the key to it is to have a build up to the main lunch and stay on topic with your build up but throw some jabs down aswell ....

I think it might catch on

I do too, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Gotta copy the winning formula if you want to win. Then everybodies shit starts looking and sounding the same. People need to realize that that style has merit but shouldn't be an auto win if one person uses it and the other doesnt.

---------- Post added at 12:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:36 PM ----------

Unfortunately the voting around here is becoming a bit of an echo chamber. People are voting based on how they think other people think they should vote instead of what they acting like better. Doesnt help that if battles x wins and someone voted for battled y, people jump on them and call them a shitty votes cuz they didn't side with the majority.

Stoo bitching about votes and people will vote more realistically. I can't tell you how many times I voted against someone and immediately get an angry IM. Fuck off with that shit.

*ahem* @CakedOut