Music
The Twin Cities Battle League gives voice to underground freestyle MCs
Word Warriors
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Relax: Illab does not really want to cut off a piece of your flesh to use as a bike reflector.
Similarly, Shelltoe does not honestly believe your mom is, ahem, a lady of the evening. Spy may or may not actually believe that your rhymes are weak. Like the aforementioned MCs, though, he is nonetheless obliged to boast that his flow is much sicker than yours.
This is the Twin Cities Battle League, a Thunderdome of freestyle rap braggadocio. Twelve rappers enter. One rapper leaves—with a bit more swagger and some cash. But the real point, says event host Truthmaze, is to hone creative skills necessary to practice this original form of hip hop.
"We want to keep it real and authentic to the form, while also keeping it welcoming," says the well-respected b-boy and MC, a fixture on the Twin Cities hip-hop scene. "We want to say, 'Let's be gladiators verbally, but let's be intelligent about it.'"
Battling is a major part of hip-hop culture and history. The off-the-cuff competitions are a way for truly underground devotees of the art to sharpen skills, be heard, and gain a following. In two rounds—one 45-second blast and a second, minute-long round—two rappers go at each other with an array of impromptu boasts and disses. At the end of the night, one MC is crowned the winner. He or she qualifies for the final, which will be held this summer.
Rap music in Minneapolis represents one of the city's most vibrant scenes, says Autumn Compton, one of the league's organizers. But it can focus on the business-side grind, on getting CDs out, on booking and promoting shows. To her, the recurring battle event encourages the spontaneous creativity central to hip hop.
"There's a niche there we can fill, a need for people to have this type of expression," Compton says. Numbers bear this out; attendance more than tripled for the second contest on March 29.
Shelltoe, born Steve Shelito 23 years ago, began rapping in battles at the Dinkytowner last year. "I got eaten alive," he remembers. After months of musical meditation—and practice playing word games with friends—he dropped the $5 entry fee to swing improvised verbal haymakers.
The gregarious, bespectacled MC looks too, well, nice to be nice on the mic. Yet he stepped to the stage clad in a striped button-down shirt and bested 11 others to claim the inaugural title and a $75 prize. Shelltoe says small details are the key to freestyle success. "Everything's fodder in a battle," he says, "so you just try to be observant."
When the dust cleared, the March event's final featured Illab (whose "bike reflector" punch line mocked an earlier opponent's pasty complexion) taking on 21-year-old San Antonio transplant Spy. After two close rounds, the crowd called for a third, tie-breaking verse—to no avail. The judges gave it to Illab, also 21, whose given name is Jake Stone.
What do judges look for? One of three panelists for the second event, Marie-Chante, said she wants MCs to take their energy to the next level—and not to let up when competing against a friend. She felt Spy did that at times when battling one of the members of his crew, S.F. Wrecks. "You can't take it easy," she said. "It's a battle. You have to have the heart of a warrior."
With all the testosterone-fueled chest-bumping, Compton acknowledges, there can be a dark side to rap battles. Feelings get hurt. People take the often vicious (if insincere) insults personally. Hosts must strike a balance between unrestrained creativity and a desire to keep the positive vibe flowing. "The key to that is Truth," says Theresa Rose, the third member of the Battle League's trio of organizers. "He's such a natural facilitator. He knows how to rein people in without disrespecting people."
Truthmaze demonstrated that during the first night's final battle, when a black-clad, beanie-wearing rapper called Schocker took exception to a biting Shelltoe verse. Schocker (whose MC name is tattooed in Old English lettering across his throat) advanced aggressively into Shelltoe's space. A smiling Truthmaze put his body between the two, defusing the situation with his presence and a quick, firm word.
For Shelltoe's part, he kept rhyming. With the other man in his face, Shelltoe altered his flow to point out that he'd shake Schocker's hand after the battle—but if the words had gotten to the opposing MC, then Shelltoe had obviously proven victorious. Words as a substitute for weapons being the point.
"Shelltoe won because he had the sharpest wit," said Compton. "He was the smartest MC on the stage, even though he might not have looked like the dude who would win a battle." But that's what the hosts aim to support—skills over appearances, relentless rhymes without hard feelings afterward, and creativity above all.
"This is a way to teach young men to be warriors," she said, "without being assholes."
The TWIN CITIES BATTLE LEAGUE occurs the last Friday of every month. The next event is APRIL 25 at 9 p.m. at the BLUE NILE; 612.338.3000.