Smack/URL Presents: Summer Madness X: Aye Verb vs. Calicoe 9/19 Live on Caffeine at 4 PM EST

[Big Jo]

Watched as much as I could last night, my notes

- Love that caffeine is free. Kind of a pain to hook laptop through HDMI but for free i'll take it.

- Stream was OK but not great. Audio was great but video had weird lags. It got worse when I went non-real time. Much worse actually. I dont think it was on my side bc I did a speed test and I was over 200mps+. Also the production/ "trailers' to the battle were crisper streaming than the battles themselves

- Speaking of the production. Production was absolutely fire. The opening video package was so dope. You can clearly see the investment caffeine is making and its great for the URL brand and the fans.

- Card was very well run and on time. I could do without some of the talking from that one host (Caffeine CEO or something) but overall the event had a super clean look and feel compared to previous non-Caffeine era PPVs. The weird fringe benefit of these small room/ COVID battles is no constant mic checks, fan reactions, chanting, delays, coin flips etc. Just bars. Its awesome and cards run so much better.

- Thought Bill Collector won the battle. Felt like more of a sparring session than $25k battle but BC has turned me into a huge fan. Love his style and wordplay.

- Really liked the fan voting post battle. Any reason why they didnt do a poll for Aye Verb and Calicoe though? felt like they did it for most battles but not all.

- Ill Will vs JJDDs was heat rocks. ill Will is another one of my favorites. JJDD's BLM angle was uh interesting lol

- Aye Verb vs Calicoe wasnt half bad but Verb is too rapid fire for me now. He was so much better against Mook. Cal even talked about this in his bars. liked how Cal ended the battle

- Clips was prepared and got a nice W over Geech. Geech was respectable but by no means on his A game. Clips was. Liked his Avo angle

- Switched from T-top vs B-dot to watch Math vs. Jag which i really regret now in hindsight. Math vs Jag was fire though. Was T-top vs B-dot as good as they were saying after the battle?!

- Went out to get food for Reed vs Rum and switched to UFC for most of Shine vs Chess so only saw bits and pieces of those battles. Looked like Shine and Chess were spittin though. Nice way to close out the card.

- Pumped as hell for Mook vs Tay Roc.


- This was a great event and I think URL only hones in on this formula and gets better from here. Looking forward to the Caffeine era. and love that its free. Just need an xbox one app (or PS4 or w/e) and its the perfect fan experience

 

[T-K-G]

It was a very good event.

-Reed shocked the world and 3-0 or 2-1 clear against Nitty. Reed has absolutely shown his ability to adapt plus he has that old G boost (where people start to give them extra respect because of their age/longevity) like Swave, Moon and Gage has But Reed absolutely wanted to win this and did. I knew this was a possibility when Rum said on HHIR that he didn’t prepare for Reed yet and that was 5 days before the battle.

-Chess showed he’s one of the best writers of his generation and why the URL have spent years protecting him (the talent is undeniable) but I had Shine 2-1. Shine style is so hard to beat and Pat stay has absolutely no chance when they battle.

-Ill will vs JJDD was a very good back and forth with JJDD raising the bar high but Ill will raising the bar higher each time. Ill energy when he raps really adds to his pen.

-Charlie Clips vs Geechi was absolutely hilarious and fun to watch. Clipse material was overall better (especially in the first) but him choking and freestyle that third shows why he’s a legend, even though we all knew it was B.S (Even Geechi had to laugh). I had clipse 2-1 (Ist and third)

Aye Verb vs Calicoe was very generic but Calicoe just had the more notable bars “I didn’t know sandwich bags were made for sandwiches until I was 12”-Calicoe. I felt Aye verb had more energy for Gotti than Calicoe. Overall Calicoe won that.


Holmzie vs Bill Collector

Holmzie won but we fans semi lost because they are close friends and acted liked it

literally none of this suprised me so i didn't miss out on much imo

i wanted reed to win (we needed more nikkas who really rap and have that street feel) but i expected Rum to bring enough for a easy 2-1


outside of that, if i made predictions with a gun to my head i woulda been aight

 

[MJ Truth]

Watched as much as I could last night, my notes

- Love that caffeine is free. Kind of a pain to hook laptop through HDMI but for free i'll take it.

- Stream was OK but not great. Audio was great but video had weird lags. It got worse when I went non-real time. Much worse actually. I dont think it was on my side bc I did a speed test and I was over 200mps+. Also the production/ "trailers' to the battle were crisper streaming than the battles themselves

- Speaking of the production. Production was absolutely fire. The opening video package was so dope. You can clearly see the investment caffeine is making and its great for the URL brand and the fans.

- Card was very well run and on time. I could do without some of the talking from that one host (Caffeine CEO or something) but overall the event had a super clean look and feel compared to previous non-Caffeine era PPVs. The weird fringe benefit of these small room/ COVID battles is no constant mic checks, fan reactions, chanting, delays, coin flips etc. Just bars. Its awesome and cards run so much better.

- Thought Bill Collector won the battle. Felt like more of a sparring session than $25k battle but BC has turned me into a huge fan. Love his style and wordplay.

- Really liked the fan voting post battle. Any reason why they didnt do a poll for Aye Verb and Calicoe though? felt like they did it for most battles but not all.

- Ill Will vs JJDDs was heat rocks. ill Will is another one of my favorites. JJDD's BLM angle was uh interesting lol

- Aye Verb vs Calicoe wasnt half bad but Verb is too rapid fire for me now. He was so much better against Mook. Cal even talked about this in his bars. liked how Cal ended the battle

- Clips was prepared and got a nice W over Geech. Geech was respectable but by no means on his A game. Clips was. Liked his Avo angle

- Switched from T-top vs B-dot to watch Math vs. Jag which i really regret now in hindsight. Math vs Jag was fire though. Was T-top vs B-dot as good as they were saying after the battle?!

- Went out to get food for Reed vs Rum and switched to UFC for most of Shine vs Chess so only saw bits and pieces of those battles. Looked like Shine and Chess were spittin though. Nice way to close out the card.

- Pumped as hell for Mook vs Tay Roc.


- This was a great event and I think URL only hones in on this formula and gets better from here. Looking forward to the Caffeine era. and love that its free. Just need an xbox one app (or PS4 or w/e) and its the perfect fan experience

 

[A.R.$]

Damn,
People are really sleeping on Cal vs Verb. Verb was snapping. Verb style is not meant for one view. I understand if you no longer like his delivery, but I appreciate him being different. Also if you really listen to what he is saying it is fire. Cal is hit or miss for me, but I like the shyt he spitting against Verb. I also think people are disappointed because, we all thought the battle would be more personal and intense. Instead, it was just good rapping, and I’m ok with that.

 

[Black]

Anyone got a link to ill will jjdd? I only caught the last two battles.

 

[MJ Truth]

Damn,
People are really sleeping on Cal vs Verb. VlVerb was snapping. Verb style is not meant for one view. I understand if you no longer like his delivery, but I appreciate him being different. Also if you really listen to what he is saying it is fire. Cal is hit or miss for me, but I like the shyt he spitting against Verb. I also think people are disappointed because, we all thought the battle would be more personal and intense. Instead, it was just good rapping, and I’m ok with that.

That's because Verb and Cal don't really have animosity like that, they're just two guys who are so sewn into their egos and their tough guy personalities that they're bound to clash whenever talking about one another.

 

[cornercommission2k12]

That's because Verb and Cal don't really have animosity like that, they're just two guys who are so sewn into their egos and their tough guy personalities that they're bound to clash whenever talking about one another.

Got to add in the caffeine bag bruh. Going to be a whole lotta sudden beefs and rifts made up.

 

[cornercommission2k12]

Finally finished all the battles

Holmzie vs bill wasn't horrible but it was no animosity there clearly and it felt like Bill wanted holmzie to win. Holmzie did enough though not like he brought nothing his 3rd was great holmzie 3-0 no body

Ill will vs john John I had John john 2-1 but that's really a it could go either way type of battle

I had Cal 2-1 over verb but I agree with others verb was not trash. I just thought that hitman vs verb, shine vs rex type of tension would be there and it just wasn't. But I liked cal attack more that
"I was 12 when I found out sandwich bags was for sandwiches " line hit a breh in the soul. Verb rapped well but he really could have killed cal and he didn't

I got b dot beating t top rounds 2 and 3. Can tell top was really struggling on how he would attack bdot and wore that failure in college angle out to the point it just wasn't hitting no more. Its a weak angle to begin with honestly. Not the best b dot but some of his bars are just too much for t top. His 3rd was incredible in hindsight.

Shine vs chess was great i disagree with most i actually gave it to chess. Shine did perform better but I'm sorry I'm taking nwx gas points away from Shine and t top. It was a lot shine said that got reaction that didn't deserve it. Same for t top. Chess stumbled too much in the 2nd so I gave that one to shine but I got chess in rds 1 and 3.

Dam Reed beat rum. Still in shock over that one

I didn't really like geechi vs clips forced to choose i guess I'm going with clips idk

 

[FreshAIG]

I'm glad ARP is able to separate competition and give a fair assessment of URL. He gave Summer Madness high praise in his recap and said if it was an RBE event he'd be on every camera saying how they just had a classic card.

 

[H. Selassie]

K-Shine’s delivery/performance ability is off the charts. He always seems like he’s spazzing. But for the past several years, outside of the NWX 2-on-2s, I can NEVER recall shyt he said. It’s crazy



To watch how subpar Nitty has been in the Caffeine small room this year has been disappointing, especially since 2 of his G.O.A.T performances (Iron Solomon, Twork) were in the Volume setting. Hella props to Reed for the way he’s adapted. Mook and Lux...take notes.


Ill Will 30ed a very good John John IMO. Dot and Top has battle of the night but Will definitely deserves consideration for performance of night.

 

[Big Jo]

I'm glad ARP is able to separate competition and give a fair assessment of URL. He gave Summer Madness high praise in his recap and said if it was an RBE event he'd be on every camera saying how they just had a classic card.

ARP is a just a good dude and somebody u want to do business with.

Trustworthy, fair, likeable, no games and no bullsh1t.

in an industry with a lot of characters and pitfalls like battle rap salute to ARP for always keeping it 100

 

[Diyhai]

I hate to say it, but i don’t want big rooms back. These events being only 4 succinct hours instead of 8 is something i never want to give up.

Nah I need the "get smack da fukk outta here reactions" the quicker events ain't about the crowd it just about how caffeine is running the events. Even the events with crowds with caffeine were quicker

 

[Big Jo]

I hate to say it, but i don’t want big rooms back. These events being only 4 succinct hours instead of 8 is something i never want to give up.

Nah I need the "get smack da fukk outta here reactions" the quicker events ain't about the crowd it just about how caffeine is running the events. Even the events with crowds with caffeine were quicker

Conflicted on this one. I agree with both of you

 

[EA]

I’m more than happy with these small rooms because you really have to rap to excel. I love hearing people get their bars off with minimal interruptions and when they do get one, it’s because it was warranted (minus NWX battles).

 

[MJ Truth]

I'm glad ARP is able to separate competition and give a fair assessment of URL. He gave Summer Madness high praise in his recap and said if it was an RBE event he'd be on every camera saying how they just had a classic card.

I'll give ARP credit, he's not a hater, and certainly not as petty (or consistently drunk) as those guys on the other side.