Here's my GENERAL criteria for any rap battle...this translates between text, audio, and live...peep...
Originality - Easily (Commonly referred to as Concepts, etc.)
Wording - I think wording puts a lot of writers under their potential. In a text battle it's all about the 'read.' Wording takes major precedence. Subsets of this are flow, structure cadence, 'multis' (lol) all that shit falls in with how you word your verse. CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, the multi-syllabic shit and big vocab aren't as high on my radar because someone who schemes 2 syllables with relevant backing will eat a 10-syllable execution with no relevance any day. Same with vocab.
Versatility - Being able to display skill in more than one fashion (in the same verse or over multiple battles) This feeds heavily into ones originality. The new generation needs to pay attention to this because many of the 'legends' are successful because they had that ONE skill that put them over the top. Aside from being fundamentally sound, they had an area of excellence (ex. Chizzy-Wordplay, Multiple Madness-Multis, UA-Punchlines, DaDDiO-Character, personification). This is why I don't classify greats the same way 90% of the site does
Content Development - You can have a million ideas, but how you crescendo into the punchline or idea plays a huge roll with it's effectiveness. Where a line is placed in a 32 line battle can make or break the whole damn verse.
Character - The personality and imgery you provide is also a factor. Your turn of phrase or usage of regional slang can either flourish or decimate a hot bar or verse. DaDDiO, DNP and Mahv would be examples of that.
like i said this is where I start, most people don't make it to level 2 with me anymore, but there's some prospects out there.. just saying
Last edited by RhetoriK; 02-15-2012 at 07:12 PM.
Reason: 32 line battle
|