BPP Picture Show: Rap Battle
Filed under: Inside The BPP
Here's the thing about freestyle rapping: It's very difficult. That said, there are very few pleasures as potent as the one experienced when turning a well-crafted rhyme "off the dome." Sadly for me, it happens barely once or twice a year, and it's usually in front of my small group of just-barely-tolerant, but nonetheless seated on my couch, eating my Doritos, and thus completely captivated, friends. In those moments, my mouth is on autopilot and it can form rhymes like "One thing life taught me/ was to speak softly when/ havin' coffee with a Jabberwocky." OK -- that only happened once. Usually, it's more like: "What? What? I'm relevant, I like elephants, I eat halibut." You get the idea.
Anyway, a couple of Fridays ago, I was working in my office when (Producer) Ian (Chillag) popped his head in and asked me if we wanted to do a video on the rapper that was coming into the studio. Swamped but clearly momentarily deranged, I replied (half-jokingly) "No, but I'll battle that guy." Ian, being the broadcasting genius he is, replied: "Awesome. I'll set it up." In retrospect, what he probably meant was, "Awesome, You are a sucker."
What I didn't understand was that the guy I was to go lyrically toe-to-toe with was none other than the MC/artist/poet/social critic and all-around nice guy, Doseone aka Adam Drucker, from the group Subtle. Doseone is a very accomplished freestyler and a brilliant wordsmith who reportedly battled Eminem and won. Drucker put me in my place in a big way, and here's the proof:
4:03 PM ET | 06- 6-2008 | permalink
