Versus and the rest: how rap battles work and how they make money. Versus Battle - What is Versus Battle? History of Versus Battle Versus battle where does it take place

Versus battle is a duel between two performers-participants (Rappers, MC), who in three rounds must verbally, in a close circle of spectators, “take out” the opponent. In this case, profanity and can be used. The duel (versus battle) is judged by judges - experts from the hip-hop industry, rap artists or famous public people.

Versus Battle - History Versus Battle

The battle has always been an integral part of human history.With their help, the world gained leaders, weeding out the weak.Became stronger and better. Times passed, and an attribute battles ceased to be obligatory bloodshed.

The battles were embodied in competitions. And they, in turn, creativity.

First sprouts similarities of poetic duelsoriginated inScotland16th century, when two poets, in a tavern,insulted each other with unpleasant rhymesfor the amusement of the public.

Reminds me of something, doesn't it?

Interesting facts about Versus Battle:

• Since 2017, all participants receive a fixed fee of 70 kr. rubles
• The phrase “Make some noise, f *** b!” came to the restaurateur came to all feasts
• Initially, "Versus" could be called "Suprotiv"
• Initially, SLOVO could have been called “Versus”
• Nationalistic, religious and political inserts are not allowed in Versus
• The first years of the battle paid off to zero

The history of rap battles

hip-hop culture gradually filled the informational noise, transforming from street performances into a full-fledged musical genre.

Apart from rap music starswho boldly took their place in the pantheonlegendary artists, on a par with Hendrix and Morrison,local points appeared around the world in which newcomers gathered,honing your freestyle skills by fights.

These were offline battles in whichcounterpart rappers met with an opponent, inflicting on the enemydamage with rhyming lines, punchlines and extraordinary flows.

“Go forward where no one is expected; to attack where they were not prepared.”

Sun Tzu

By the end of the first decade of the 2000s, this phenomenoncomes out of the shadow of the underground, becoming public.

In USA, Canada and European countriesthe first battlegrounds are born -KOTD , GringTimeNow and Don't Flop , which will become ideological inspirersVersus Battle , who has risen in scale to each of them.Opponents fought with prepared texts, competing with each other.

“Versus Battle is one of the unusual ways of dealing with language, a way to look at language, at versification in a different way, because in the end it is also versification, just with different meters, sometimes without a meter at all, there are just rhymes, there are special meters - for me this is a very interesting experience with the language . ”

Versus Founders - Restaurateur Founder of Versus

After the appearance of suchphenomenon how Versus Battle which has revolutionized the culturethere was a team of peoplewhich ultimately boiled down to two personalities -Alexander Timartsev, he and Yanu .

Firsthandles the organizational part of the event,second- Internet promo.

Besides, to the ideological component and primary organizations had a hand with whom he was well acquaintedRestaurateur .

He helped the guysto bring together and interest rappers before Versus became a national treasure.

How did Versus Battle appear?

In early 2010, returned from the armyRestaurateur was a frequenter of variousfreestyle battleswhile keeping track of their foreigncolleagues on already formed platforms.

One day he saw a battle between a teacher and a student on “Don't Flop”, which gave birth to the idea in his head that it was time to create a local analogue of the event.

On that moment Restaurateur was cookin a restaurant, and the first organized battle(before Versus)passed right there. It's funny that Nick Restaurateur was invented by a rapperJubilee when he came to visitAlexander .

For 2.5 years, the restaurateur hatched the idea of ​​a full-fledged battlebefore the first one took placeVersus. Moreover, the first 200 thousand rubles for providence were borrowed from Ilya Mamai, gender Booking machine - label Oksimiron .

With the embodiment of the ideaRestaurateur managed to overtake the Krasnodar guysPLC and Hyde by releasing the first episode“Word Battle 2012” , six months beforeVersus ”.

“Versus has a more comfortable atmosphere… As for the battles themselves, there is no difference: at these moments you forget about everything, venues, views, etc. don’t bother you.”

Bar 1703 - Where is the Versus Battle held?

This is now a St. Petersburg bar“ ” impossible to imagine withoutVersus , and a couple of years ago he was not at all the samethe home of the battle we know today.

For a long time Restaurateur looking for place, which would be strongpeople associated with his offspring, considering that holding battles indifferent locations will have a bad effect on the brand image.

And he was right. As a result, acquaintances brought him tobar directors 1703named after the year of foundationPeter the Great of St. Petersburg.

Meanwhile, asVersus Battlecontinues to gain popularity1703 collects full housesany day of the week.As the Restaurateur noted, before Versus is herethere were practically no people, and now the place has deteriorated a bit ...

Versus Battle: The Beginning

The first issue of Versus Battlestarts on September 1, 2013, and its participants areand Billy Milligan (ST1M ).

Restaurateur confesses that if it were not for the authorityOksimiron , hardly guysagreed to come . Media support becamepublics and pages in VK dedicated to hip-hop.

Episode by episodeVersus is gaining momentum.The ranks of its members includestars of the first magnitude — , Johnyboy, Noize MC other.

In one episode of the show Evening Urgant versus became the topic for the sketch. Met in battle Ivan Urgant and Sergey Shnurov.

“The last time I performed at the Versus was a hundred years ago. At one time, it was so often that it was already sick of all this so much that I stopped not only going there, but also watching the episodes. Now the battle culture has definitely changed (they said), many superstars have appeared (they said), but I watch a video here where blogger Larin can’t hit the beat for 5 minutes, and I’m amazed.”

Versus Battle—Main Event

December 2013 Restaurateur starts first attemptsmonetization of your project,arranging battles on a large platform with ticket sales. The format of this event was calledVersus. Main event

In it, rappers metone on one or in groups on the big stage. Soon from a similar formathad to give upbecause the organizers facedpremature “draining” of results into the network by people from the crowd.

“Here, like on the football field, you throw out a lot of emotions. I stand in a close circle of people, I look into the eyes of my opponent. Battles are the same sport! There is both excitement and a competitive component. People around you look at you, experience with you. I like it! I have always loved to compete in what I can do, and not just talk about what I don’t have or measure something.”

Versus Battle Fresh Blood

March 5, 2014spin-off startsversion, entitled: freshblood league, which aims to identify young talents.

Judging systemdesigned in such a way that participantsbattling with each other, defeating rivals andround after round climbing up the standings.In the final, the strongest rappers fight for the titleseason winner.

To datefresh blood has 3 full seasons.

Fresh Blood “Battle of Styles”

Not so long ago Restaurateur announced a new seasonFresh Blood “Battle of Styles”, in which the still unknown format will be appliedmentoring.

The battle will be divided into two recruited teams, for each of which an experienced MS is responsible:

Versus Battle BMP

At the end of 2016 Versus Battle introducesanother format isBPM.

If we have not heard music in battles before (except for round 3 against ), now it is possible.

BPM- an abbreviation forbeats per minute/beats per minute. In it, MCs fight under fastgrime beats.

The first participantsVersus BPMbecome representativestwo competing sites- from Versus and from Slovo.

One of the brightest performances in this format without a doubt can be called a battleDrago vs No Limit. Such charisma, artistry and pressure more battles did not see.

Versus Battle Crowd - how to get to Versus?

An interesting fact is T Olpa on Versus. From the very first releasecould only be accessed through exclusive lists.For this you need to beacquaintances of performing rappers, a Restaurateur or someone who was invited to Versus.

True, there are funny exceptions, such as withSeryoga , which imperceptibly slipped onevent, causing astonishment to all. Especially oxy .

Strict adherence to this rulealmost always guarantees the safety of the resultsbattle before release. Moreover, the crowd found its heroes, whose faces appear from time to time onVersuse— Ivan Grachev a.k.a Hindu and Ekaterina Shalnaya a.k.a Horned Baba

Versus Battle Judging - Versus Battle Judges?

Refereeing Versus Battle always been Achilles' heel of the event. Remembering the first battles, we can conclude that inThe judges were almost always people who had nothing to do with rap.Like the group "Amatory ”.

Now the situation has leveled off, although at times there are also gaps. Like a comedianRuslan Cherny, refereeing the legendary battleOksimiron and Purulent.

On standard VersusThe winner and loser are judged by an odd number of judges.On BMP - the crowd decides.

Many rappers voicedpositionthat judges arelast century. Must It's up to the listeners to decide.

Versus X SlovoSPB

2016 was rich in new formats.The next is the battle between battles, no matter how strange it may sound.

Restaurateur and Den CHEYNYannounce a high-profile event - site battlesSlovo SPB and Versus Battle in which the best participants will face.

The most striking and memorable meetings can be called battlesPurulent against and the same against Oksimiron. An event that made the world look at the battles from the other side.

Versus Battle Now

To date, Versuscontinues hisrapid development, attracting attentionall over the world. In addition to rappers, well-known bloggers began to participate in battles. For instance,Dzharakhov, Larin and Judge Yuri Khovansky.

One of the permanent judges on Versus is

After all, not one western site can boast40 million views of their videos,how it was at the battleJohnyboy vs Oxxximiron.

The sponsors of the event arebookmakers, banks and even cars.

No one will be surprised if after a whileEminem or Busta Rhymes will judge the next battlePurulent and , a Lamar decide to fight with . True for thisdinosaurs will have to tighten up their Russian.

In addition to the main releases, there are two spin-off projects:

Resonance battles

In April 2015, the battle Oxxxymiron vs Johnyboy scored one million views and entered the history of world hip-hop as the most viewed battle in a day. On March 21, 2016, this record was broken by the battle of video bloggers Yuri Khovansky and Dmitry Larin, who scored more than two and a half million views in a day. In June 2016, Oxxxymiron vs. Oxxxymiron's battle overtook the most viewed rap battle in the US at Summer Madness 2 between Loaded Lux ​​and Calicoe. In April 2017, the BPM battle between video bloggers Eldar Dzharakhov and Dmitry Larin gained 7.7 million views within 24 hours of its release. On August 14 of the same year, a rap battle was released between Oksimiron and Purulent, which broke this record by gaining more than 9.1 million views in the first day after publication.

Battle scheme

The traditional battle takes place without microphones and an accompanying beat. Before the battle itself, each of the participants is filmed separately, where they introduce themselves, talk about themselves, about their future opponent and about their personal opinion about him. Participants have prepared a text for three rounds in advance, which they read in turn, standing face to face with an opponent. After that, three (sometimes five) judges give their votes to one or another participant. In the first season, after the host announced the victory of one or another participant, the judges gave mini-interviews one after another, where they explained the reason for their choice, and the participants talked about their impressions of the battle.

Battles of the Main Event format (open event) are held by participants performing against each other on stage or in the open air with a microphone, and the winner is determined by the voice of the audience.

In battles in BPM format, the participants of the competition know the musical beat in advance, they use a microphone. Performances consist of three or two rounds and take place without a judge's decision.

Scandals and incidents

Pasha Technika's performance at the Main Event

On April 11, 2014, a member of the Kunteynir group, Pasha Tekhnik, at the Main Event in Moscow at the Volta club in a battle against Brol, went on stage with a mug of beer and poured it into the front rows of spectators. At the beginning of the first round of Pasha, he took off his pants, shouting insults at the audience. Throughout his performance, he threw various objects at the audience, including: bath salt, a banana, a dildo, about six discs with his album and several bottles of water. As he himself said, he did not prepare for the performance, and showed the audience a clean freestyle.

Fighting on Versus: Off-Season

On September 9, 2014, several fights occurred while filming Versus: Off-Season. Yuri Khovansky, who repeatedly spoke badly about the work of Noize MC, received several times from the latter in the face.

Former member of the group "Sins of the Fathers" Galat was beaten by the St. Petersburg rapper D.masta. The conflict lasted a year and a half, when D.masta "gave bream" to all members of the "Sins of the Fathers" group for unflattering statements about him. During the battle, D.masta violated the rules, interrupted and interfered with his opponent's battle. At the end of the battle, D.masta hit Galat for the quote:

End of Season II Versus Battle

In the last battle of the season, Artyom Tatishevsky and TrikoPyushon were supposed to fight, but the latter did not appear at the event and received an automatic defeat - 3:0.

Some of the following battles are also censored.

Blocking by Roskomnadzor

On December 15, 2016, the video of the “Oxxxymiron VS ST” battle with 15,000,000 views, included a few days earlier by Google among the most popular search queries among the Russian-speaking audience, turned out to be blocked on YouTube in the territory of the Russian Federation “at the request of state authorities”. Roskomnadzor explained that the blocking was caused by the fight between the Federal Tax Service and bookmakers:

In the spring of 2017, the video again became available for viewing in Russia.

Next year we are waiting for another Russian battle of the year from Oksimiron. This time the opponent of the St. Petersburg rapper will be the Moscow rapper ST. At the end of November, Alexander gave a short interview, where to the question "would he like to fight again on Versus" he answered - "only with one opponent." "He knows," is how ST replied to the question of what kind of rapper he was. On the same day, the Restaurateur made an online broadcast on Periscope and reported that Miron Fedorov, aka Oksimiron, turned out to be this expected opponent. The next day, Myron confirmed his participation in the battle. Also this summer in the United States will be filming a battle between "om. This was also reported by the Restaurateur.
Recall that Oxy took part in the Versus Battle three times and won the victory all three times. In one of the first issues, Crip-A-Crip was defeated, then in the Moscow club Miron defeated Dunya. In the same year, Oksimiron fought against Joniboy. Their duel scored 10 million views on YouTube. Also next year, the rapper should release "". Also, let's not forget about the second solo album "", the presentation of which took place this fall.
In turn, Alexander Stepanov, aka ST, took part in Versus twice and was twice stronger. First, Harry Ax was overthrown, who had won three times before. Then ST won outright in DiMasta.