Battle rap is believed to have started in the
East Coast hip-hop scene in the late 1970s. One of the earliest battles occurred in December 1981, when
Kool Moe Dee challenged
Busy Bee Starski –
Busy Bee Starski's defeat meant that "no longer was an MC just a crowd-pleasing comedian with a slick tongue; he was a commentator and a storyteller" thus, rendering Busy's archaic format of rap obsolete, in favor of a newer style In the 1980s, battle raps were a popular form of rapping –
Big Daddy Kane in the book
How to Rap says, "as an
MC from the '80s, really your mentality is battle format... your focus was to have a hot rhyme in case you gotta battle someone... not really making a rhyme for a song". The
New Music Seminar (NMS) is a Music Conference and Festival held annually each June in
New York City. The New Music Seminar originally ran from 1980 to 1995. It quickly spawned the MC and DJ Battles for World Supremacy – a fertile showcase for rappers and DJs to make a name for themselves. Participants include a wide variety of very influential rappers such as
Busy Bee,
Melle Mel,
MF Grimm, and
Kool G Rap with judges such as
Afrika Bambaataa,
P Diddy, and many other influential rappers. Some of the most prominent battles that took place on record are listed in the book, ''
Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists'', and include such battles as the
Roxanne Wars (1984–1985),
Juice Crew vs.
Boogie Down Productions (1986–1988), Kool Moe Dee vs.
LL Cool J (1987–1991),
MC Serch vs.
MC Hammer (1989–1994),
Dr. Dre &
Snoop Dogg vs.
Luke (1992–1993),
Common vs.
Ice Cube (1994–1996), MC Pervis & Brand New Habits and
LL Cool J vs.
Canibus (1997–1998) – all of which include memorable battle rap verses. As hip-hop asserted its presence across the country, MC battles were growing in popularity. One of the early predecessors of the contemporary, more confrontational variation of battle rap was the 1994 face-off between
Craig G and
Supernatural. The battle happened organically, by virtue of Supernatural calling out Craig G while he was performing. As it so happened, Craig G was in the crowd, and the host invited him to the stage. Craig G won the battle that evening. The two would go on to meet on two other occasions during the 1990s, thereby establishing a place in battle rap as one of the earliest and most exciting sagas in the subculture. From the late 1990s to the end of the 2000s, freestyle rapping became very popular, with many artists getting attention for new styles, charisma, and witty punchlines in battles such as
Scribble Jam and Rocksteady. Following the resurgence of freestyle battling in the 21st century, competitions began to move to TV shows shown on
HBO,
BET, and
MTV. In addition, Eminem's 2002 movie
8 Mile introduced battle rap to mainstream audiences, generating a renewed interest and popularity in battling. Starting in the early 2000s,
Freestyle Friday is a watered-down battle segment on
BET's popular show
106 & Park. Two rappers compete in a freestyle battle before the studio audience and three celebrity judges (the DJ sometimes acts as the 3rd judge). Each competitor alternates freestyling for 30 seconds in each of the two rounds (originally only 1 round when the segment first began). The rappers are not allowed to use profanities or sexually suggestive lyrics, punishable by disqualification. After the battle, the judges decide the winner, per majority vote. Eventually, battle rap moved to a format which is now the predominant form of battle rap, where two emcees battle against each other without a beat, trading prewritten verses in three-round battles. The impromptu aspect of battling still exists in the form of rebuttals, which are short rhymes (usually at the beginning of a verse) where an emcee either comments on something about their opponent that was thought up on the spot (for instance, making fun of the shirt they're wearing), or responds to something their opponent said during their previous round. While not as prominent as it once was, the art of rebutting is still respected by many as difficult to do correctly, and a sign of a well-rounded emcee. While many creative minds were battling and organizing battles in the early 2000s, Troy "Smack" Mitchell of Queens New York gathered battle rappers of hood renown including
Serius Jones of New Jersey and Loaded Lux,
Murda Mook and
Jae Millz of Harlem, Smack began recording battles, printing and hand-selling the DVDs—a cutting edge technological and artistic hustle at the time. Fight Klub is one of the earliest battle rap leagues and was the only league that aired on TV. It aired on
MTV2 sometime in 2006. It is hosted by international P. A lot of the original rappers on there are now legendary in the battle rap game such as Arsonal,
Jin and
Hollow da don. Jump Off TV's World Rap Championships premiered in London 2006, featuring American and British rappers. In Cuba, freestyle battles often follow organized concerts and juxtapose composed songs with ‘flowing’ lyrics that are relevant to the present situation. Freestyling can allow audience members to integrate into the performance stage. This provides a forum for up-and-coming underground artists to engage in a musical discussion with already prominent underground Cuban rappers. Freestyle battles often turn political when artists incorporate perspectives on social disparities and issues plaguing the Cuban population. ==Battle types==