we’ve landed on my last write-up and the final three Grime clashes from the Lord of The Mics 8 DVD. I feel as if as the DVD continued, the levels became higher and the brutality of the situation became more, well, brutal.
Funky Dee vs Mischief
This clash was promoted so perfectly that if you didn’t see all the teaser trailers on socials, where were you? This clash is filled with the craziest, most shocking, most amusing, BAD BOY moments that I can’t believe I got to view this for free (big up Apple Music).
Round 1
This started off at a nice pace, beginning with Mischief showing off his first set of lyrics against the infamous Funky. I felt as if Mischief came with a lot of ‘Are You Gonna Bang’ bars within this first round, which isn't a negative aspect, but it is something that was predictable and did not show off his range of ideas in the best light. However, right from the jump, Funky Dee had explosive energy, was dominant. As I said in the intro, the promotion was executed perfectly, as Funky knew his actions would become almost ‘front-page Twitter news’ with everyone on the internet bussing the most amount of jokes. I would be lying to myself and the masses if I was to say Funky didn't win this round, because he so obviously did. 1-0.
Round 2
Mischief came with strong flows and focused clashing content, showing his talents more than he did in Round 1, but this round was iconic for Funky Dee, unfortunately taking your attention away from Mischief. I will never be able to hear ‘shaq’ or ‘attack’ again in my life without screaming ‘SHAQ ATTACK’ in my best Funky voice, which is what I mean by iconic. This round truly shone light on the creativeness of Funky Dee, with his use of sound effects (KOING, KOING) only increasing the entertainment factor. However, Mischief was prepared and stood his ground against his opponent, proving himself worthy of the war. Even so, the winner of this round was Funky Dee.
Round 3
This started off very strong with Mischief, as he was holding a good amount of aggression alongside his flows and content, showing he is an all-round talented artist. Funky Dee upped his entertainment levels again during this round, with an entrance that if performed on me, I probably would have shat myself. Anyone mocking Mischief for his reaction to this is a melt, like they wouldn't react exactly the same. Mischief held himself very well through-out this round, even when he flopped a bar, he recovered in the strongest way and pushed himself through. However, Funky is truly a self-promotional God, knowing exactly how to attract all the attention, giving the audience a lot of memorable and entertaining content, which would naturally earn him the W in most viewers eyes. Both artists worked very hard during this round, and the clash overall, but the winner was Funky Dee.
This clash was one of my favourites, sitting nicely in my top 3. The overall winner of this was Funky Dee, 3-0, but you can see that Mischief worked hard on his content and delivery, so I think he deserves a round of applause.
Yizzy vs MicOfCourse
I don't really know what I expected from this clash, but what we were given was several plane journeys away from the most basic of expectations. Before I even get into each round, I want to say that this clash was the biggest anti-climax, following the insane amount of smoke that graced Twitter from both sides. Disappointing, but we move.
Round 1
Honestly it wasn't overly exciting, bringing on the first lot of ‘anti-climax’ feelings. Without sounding rude, I actually have no notes for this round, meaning I was either smoking a zt or looking at my phone, both showing how uninteresting this was. There was a whole heap of fat bars from Yizzy, and badly timed content about MicOfCourse’s mum bars, which he actually had not sprayed yet. This showed, to me, that Yizzy wasn't thinking about his choice of bars, and probably wasn't actually listening to anything Mic was saying. The winner of this round was MicOfCourse.
Round 2
This was a bit more interesting than the previous, with MicOfCourse and his strong delivery. Both artists are talented and supported, some more than others from different groups in the scene, but I feel as if MicOfCourse was more on-point with his content and how he was holding himself. It didn't particularly look as if either party was 100% interested in what was going on, relaying that feeling onto the viewer, meaning this round was still a bit ‘meh’. There was a laid-back, comfortable style of interaction, which did not reduce the ‘meh’ feeling, but built on it even more. There was not a high level of aggression, energy, passion or even fun during this round, but even so, MicOfCourse was the winner.
Round 3
just kept the same vibe going. Still very little energy, and the level of interaction from Yizzy reduced even more, really making this clash lack any iconic or memorable moments. MicOfCourse had much more focused clashing content than his opponent, showing he at least prepared for the war to a certain standard. There was nothing overly special about this round, so let me just declare MicOfCourse the winner and move on.
The Bonus Round of the clash was definitely the most interesting part, if you can even call it a bonus round. This section showed true hunger and preparation from MicOfCourse, and definitely made me lose a bit of respect for Yizzy with his refusal to take part. Yizzy was against the bonus round, which is a massive let down in a clash that has been so uninviting. It was very one-sided, with MicOfCourse getting his bars out whilst Yizzy was just complaining to Jammer. In my opinion, this round (despite the entertainment of it) shouldn't have been allowed, and Jammer should've done better to stop it rather than letting it continue. It almost made it seem like MicOfCourse was on a bully-boy flex, which was not the case at all, but Yizzy’s refusal to take part in the bonus round made him seem vulnerable, and MicOfCourse too horrible. MicOfCourse won this round by default, and took the whole clash 3-0.
Ten Dixon vs Tana
This clash was brilliant and disgusting in so many ways, and there really are a few aspects of this battle that people shouldn't even try and condone, but we see you. We see everything. This clash, before and after release (maybe more so after), almost broke the internet. If you're a bit on the sensitive side of life, I would avoid this final clash completely, and it's a shame that what happened made the final cut and wasn't presented with a trigger warning. But again, people in charge, we see you.
Round 1
This was filled with strong energy from both sides, showing that both Ten and Tana are very passionate artists who we’re waring for a reason. Ten had a cockiness about him during this round, which works in his favour considering the type of artist he is. He came ready with that growl in his voice, as always, but you could also hear the passion breaking through in Tana. The interaction between the two was strong, showing they knew who their target was and they understood the dominant energy they needed to have. The winner of this clash was a draw.
Round 2
This round got heated real quick in regards to aggression and energy. Ten Dixon knows how to keep the attention of the viewers, with his natural style and body language, and used this to his advantage to create a fiery atmosphere and vibe between them. He missed the drop which was unfortunate, but caught it perfectly, showing his recovery skills and confidence. This is when things started getting mad, as even though Ten knows how to contain his aggressive and release it in a controlled way, Tana’s hat still took a trip across the room after a brilliantly executed lyric. The room might’ve well exploded into flames at that point because things could have gone very left. Tana was pissed, you could feel it, but I don’t think it excuses what happened next. Tana saw it a good time to whip out revenge porn, a badly executed prop (which shouldn’t have been allowed) which was meant to cause pain and embarrassment, but only fueled Ten’s fire. The round quickly came to a close after that scandal, and I think it’s fair for me to say that if it wasn’t a set-up planned by the heads in charge, then it was something that the heads in charge condone. I, however, do not. The winner of this round was Ten Dixon.
Round 3
Ten took control of this round, and so rightly since he had so much fire burning away at his insides. The energy and passion pouring out of Ten Dixon made him temporarily leave the planet, and I can’t begin to imagine the shade of red covering his vision. I felt as if this round related back to the ‘real Grime’ days when the performance was fuelled by anger and wrong-doings, making it feel a lot more raw and real. Ten really showed during this round how he can control his aggression and release it at the correct time, somehow keeping his cool when most people in that position would be looking at an M charge. I don’t have too much to say about Tana during this round, I completely lost interest in him as an artist and a clash MC after his stunt, and I couldn’t see around it afterwards. On a final note though, what happened to Ten’s mic during this round? I said earlier that the sound issues shouldn’t be an issue considering the platform, so you’d think it would’ve been fixed or mics on the chest area would’ve been avoided. The winner of the third round was Ten Dixon.
The overall winner of this clash was Ten, 2-1. The level of control and domination through-out on Ten’s half was unreal, and Tana showed the skills of his artistry. I wholly do not agree or condone with some of the actions during this clash, which really affected my overall opinion of my viewing (I actually don’t care this is slightly bias, there’s only so far I can look past things that I really disagree with).
Reading the variations of LOTM8 scorecards across Twitter was incredible, seeing how music affects people in hundreds of different ways. Take these posts as that as well, just another opinion of how music touched a person. To LOTM, we’ll see you soon, but hopefully not as long as you made us wait this time.
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