Versus battle watch new episodes. Versus and the rest: how rap battles work and how they make money. The history of rap battles

Versus Battle is considered the best start for young rappers - no battle platform will give you such popularity in such a short time. How many young performers did she give a way into life: Rickey F, Alphavit, Galat...

But there is a downside - a few defeats at Versus can ruin your reputation. We publish the TOP 5 rappers whose careers were destroyed by Versus Battle.

5th place – Khokhol

Moonstar beat Khokhla, Young P&H and Intego, but by the third battle everyone was bored with his serve. To rehabilitate himself, he applied for Fresh Blood 3.

3rd place – Vitya SD

Young viewers don’t know Vitya SD, but he is still considered a legend of Russian rap. He has participated in hip-hop.ru, dozens of beefs and disses and... five defeats on Versus - to Haida, Johnyboy, Jubille, Chet and Zama. They were the ones who ruined his reputation. If these were five victories, who knows where SD would be now?

In the fall of 2016, he tried to rehabilitate himself and entered into a battle with Zamai. It looked sad, but at least somehow reminded the listeners of the existence of SD. Vitya himself treats this situation with humor and it makes me happy:

What is zashkvar, you ask? I am a scumbag in the flesh!
Well, tell me some nonsense, and it’s also about me.
I'm getting dumber and dumber, dumber every day.

2nd place – D.masta

D.masta is a true gangsta rapper who always raps about how cool and rich he is. He competed at Versus twice and lost both times.

The audience remembered him for his “unsportsmanlike” behavior. In the battle with ST he demanded an extra round, with Galat he interrupted his opponent, and then started fighting. After this, it’s simply impossible to take him seriously, much less a true gangsta rapper.

1st place – Johnnyboy

Denis once won INDABATTLE, made tracks about abortion and his younger brother, and constantly listened to accusations of gay orientation. And then he went to Versus and won a brilliant victory at Vitei SD. And it was a great start!

Next was the battle with Jubilee. And it seemed like Joni should have won, but Jub’s emotionality won. Denis’s last phrase sounded most comical:

To say that you won here means to be a terrible bullshit.
Oksimiron, you're next. I wait for you here.

Yes, yes, Oksimiron was the next one - the next one to fuck Joni on the set. Denis was no longer able to rehabilitate himself, and therefore left rap and started his own coffee shop.

If you know other rappers who buried their popularity on the Versus site, please add them in the comments. Let's discuss them too.

Next year we will see 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 when asked “would he like to fight on Versus again,” he answered, “with only one opponent.” “He knows,” ST answered when asked what kind of rapper he was. On the same day, the Restaurateur made an online broadcast on Periscope and reported that this expected opponent turned out to be Miron Fedorov, aka Oksimiron. The next day, Myron confirmed his participation in the battle. Also this summer, filming of a battle between the two will take place in the United States. The Restaurateur also announced this.
Let us remember that Oxy took part in the Versus battle three times and won all three times. In one of the first editions, Krip-A-Crip was defeated, then in the Moscow club, Miron defeated Dunya. In the same year, Oksimiron fought against Joniboy. Their fight received 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 stronger twice. First, Harry the Topor, who had previously won three times, was overthrown. Next, ST outright won in DiMasta.

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

Resonance battles

In April 2015, the battle Oxxxymiron vs Johnyboy received 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 between video bloggers Yuri Khovansky and Dmitry Larin, which received more than two and a half million views in one day. In June 2016, Oxxxymiron’s battle against him overtook the most popular rap battle in the US at Summer Madness 2 between Loaded Lux ​​and Calicoe in terms of views. In April 2017, a BPM battle between video bloggers Eldar Dzharakhov and Dmitry Larin received 7.7 million views within 24 hours of its release. On August 14 of the same year, a rap battle between Oksimiron and Gnoiny was released, which broke this record, gaining more than 9.1 million views in the first 24 hours after publication.

Battle scheme

A traditional battle takes place without microphones or an accompanying beat. Before the battle itself, each of the participants is filmed separately, where they introduce themselves, talk about themselves, their future opponent and their personal opinion about him. The participants prepared a text for three rounds in advance, which they read in turn, standing face to face with their opponent. After this, 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) involve participants performing against each other on stage or in the open air with a microphone, and the winner is determined by the vote of the audience.

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

Scandals and incidents

Pasha Technique's performance at the Main Event

Member of the Kunteynir group Pasha Technik On April 11, 2014, at the Main Event in Moscow at the Volta club, in a battle against Brol, he came on stage with a mug of beer and poured it onto the first rows of spectators. At the beginning of Pasha's first round, he took off his pants while shouting insults at the audience. Throughout his performance, he threw various objects at the audience, including: bath salts, a banana, a dildo, about six CDs with his album and several bottles of water. As he himself said, he did not prepare for the performance, and showed the audience pure freestyle.

Fights on Versus: Offseason

On September 9, 2014, several fights occurred during the filming of Versus: Offseason. Yuri Khovansky, who repeatedly spoke poorly of the work of Noize MC, was punched in the face by the latter several times.

A former member of the Sins of the Fathers group Galat was beaten by 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 making unflattering statements about him. During the battle, D.masta violated the rules, interrupted and prevented his opponent from battling. At the end of the battle, D.masta hit Galat for the quote:

End of Season II of Versus Battle

In the last battle of the season, Artyom Tatishchevsky and TricoPuchon were supposed to fight, but the latter did not show up for 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 battle “Oxxxymiron VS ST” with 15,000,000 views, included a few days earlier by Google among the most popular search queries among the Russian-speaking audience, was blocked on YouTube in the Russian Federation “at the request of government 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.

Three rounds of two minutes, two participants, one winner. It's almost a sport - rap battles. Rhyming showdowns break all records of popularity, collecting 20–30 million views on YouTube, and bring income to the organizers

Photo: Sergey Platonov / Russian Battle League

A battle (from English battle - “battle, fight”) in rap is a verbal duel between two or more opponents. The launch of Versus is considered to be the beginning of the rise of so-called offline battles in Russia—face-to-face meetings between two rappers who, without music, read out pre-prepared rhymed lines. They were preceded by freestyle battles, in which performers came up with and rhymed insults on the fly, and online battles, says Versus battles judge, one of the moderators of the hip-hop.ru forum and organizer of online battles Dmitry Egorov.

“Online battles went like this: a topic for the round was announced, for which you needed to record a track. Participants sent in entries, and judges chose those who advanced further. The battles had a serious prize fund - up to 100 thousand rubles, and many of the performers we know today started there,” says Egorov.

At one time, they tried to launch rap battles on TV: in 2008, the show “Battle for Respect” started on Muz-TV. The composition of the participants was serious, but the project turned out to be insipid, and these rap duels are remembered only for one finale, which was attended by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, says Egorov.

“Internet battles are dead. Freestyle battles are long dead. I know this kitchen, the Restaurateur is with you, welcome to the Versus battle!” — these words of the founder and host of the battle platform Versus, Alexander Timartsev, or Restaurateur, begin the first video on the Versusbattleru YouTube channel — “Harry Ax vs Billy Milligan.” The broadcast of offline fights between opponents on the main video hosting site, free of television censorship, became the reason for the explosive growth of Versus and battles in general.

At the heart of a rap battle is a conflict: participants, with the help of punchlines - lines that are designed to “hook” the opponent as much as possible, try to piss off, humiliate, and discredit the opponent. Essentially, this is an alternative to a street fight, so in battles you can use any dirty tricks, except for direct physical violence, explains Dmitry Egorov.

Some people use direct and primitive jokes about appearance, illness or loved ones, while others prefer more complex words and constructions. “The strongest battles happen when rivals have real complaints against each other, when they have something to say to each other,” says Anton Zabaev, organizer of the battle rap platform RBL (Russian Battle League).

The battle Oxxxymiron vs Johnyboy collected almost 38 million views. This is a record so far. (Photo: video versusbattleru / Youtube)

For participation in the main Versus league, competitors receive fees from 20 thousand to 150 thousand rubles, in other leagues it is usually less - from 10 thousand to 25 thousand rubles, says the current head of the Slovo project Dima Kapranov. But the main thing is not money, but the opportunity to show yourself to a large audience and prove that you can compete in this difficult genre, Dmitry Egorov is sure. “Many big artists refuse to participate in battles because they are not ready for a serious level of aggression: after all, battle rap is a very dirty thing. And not all famous artists can perform well, and battles are recorded live, and this is a big risk for the image,” he says.

For quite a long time, battles in Russia remained competitions for rappers and people with the appropriate background. But a year and a half ago, when rap battles reached the peak of popularity, the first video appeared on the Versus channel with a “battle of bloggers” that had nothing to do with rap. The most popular rap battle on the channel - Oksimiron vs Joniboy - received about 38 million views, and in second place is the battle between bloggers Khovansky and Larin: it was watched about 32 million times.

The founders probably didn’t like connecting a new audience. In rap battles, too, it all started with an abundance of swearing and jokes about genitals, but this quickly became boring, recalls the head of the #SLOVOSPB battle platform and the organizer of the “Rip on the Bits” battles, Dan Cheney: “The participants realized that the one who looked cooler in the battles was the one who who will choose the angrier words and the more interesting phrases, and over the course of several years the battle audience has matured quite a lot. And the viewers who came after the bloggers - according to my calculations, there are about 2 million of them - did not have time to go this route. Therefore, now many, in pursuit of views, involuntarily return to the most primitive jokes, the development of culture is slowing down.”

The founders of Versus did not want to communicate with RBC magazine. “We’ve already said everything in numerous interviews, and there’s really nothing left to add,” the founder and host of the battle platform Versus, Alexander Timartsev, better known as the Restaurateur, answered questions.

Versus and others

Platforms for offline battles are not a Russian invention; all the first projects were made on tracing paper from the largest foreign leagues: Canadian KOTD, British Don’t Flop, American GrindTimeNow. “There are about 50 battle leagues in the West that are five to ten years older than ours. Everything new that comes to us has already been tested there; we are not pioneers,” says Cheney. But Versus is already more popular than the English-language originals: the official Don’t Flop league channel on YouTube, created in 2009, has a little more than 400 thousand subscribers and 128 million views, while the Russian project has 3.1 million subscribers and 370 million views.

“Today Versus is the brightest project in Russia, it would be stupid to argue with that. But he is not the only one, and in the future he may have very strong competitors,” Dima Kapranov is sure. In total, there are five fairly large platforms in Russia today that can compete in terms of content popularity: Versus, Slovo, #SLOVOSPB (a former branch of the Slovo project, which became an independent platform a year and a half ago), 140 BPM Battle and RBL.

It was Krasnodar Slovo that was the first offline battle platform in Russia, which started operating six months before Versus. It was founded by a former member of the Krasnodar group Mary Jane Hyde (Anton Belogai) and the organizer of the first hip-hop community portal in the south of the country, South Rap PLC (Sergey Trushchev). “From the very beginning, Versus relied on famous rap artists who tried their hand at the battle genre. Slovo featured guys unknown to a wide audience who specialized in battles, not music,” explains Dima Kapranov. “Undoubtedly, Versus is the brightest Russian project, the main popularizer of battles in Russia,” says Dan Cheney.

Anton Zabaev spent about 300 thousand rubles to launch the Russian Battle League (RBL). (Photo: Sergey Platonov / Russian Battle League)

Nowadays, beat battles—short performances to music with a predetermined rhythm—are becoming increasingly popular. The third and fourth most popular Versus episodes (20 and 19 million views) are the Versus BPM battles. This is a completely natural phenomenon, Dan Cheney is sure: “Beat battles are more dynamic, they require the skills of a rapper, not a poet. In performances without music, good lyrics and charisma are very important, and not all participants can boast of this. And the beat as a cheat code solves this problem: when it sounds, people are already rocking, and to look good, it’s enough just not to make a complete mess.”

The first in Russia to do battles to a beat were, again, not in Versus, but in #SLOVOSPB: its team six months ago launched the 140 BPM Battle project, which then merged into an independent platform (the name means the approximate rhythm of the recordings to which battles are held - 140 beats in a minute). 140 BPM Battle is the first battle platform in Russia, which began collecting several million views of its videos just a few months after the launch of the project. In May, #SLOVOSPB launched the “Rip on the Bits” team battles project. In just a couple of weeks after the launch, several videos with fights in the new format received more than 1 million views on YouTube.

Battle economy

For each of the site organizers, they are the main activity that takes up all the time, says Dima Kapranov. Anton Zabaev, known in battle rap as Zabe, spent about 300 thousand rubles on the launch of RBL. "It's not that much. The fact that experienced and fairly strong participants come to me without demanding fees, otherwise I would have to spend at least a million, helped a lot,” he says.

The main expenses of the project are logistics for participants, equipment rental and filming; this is no less than 100-150 thousand rubles. for the battle, explains Zabaev: “Meetings are held once every month and a half, part of the expenses is covered by tickets, but for several months I had to “throw” about 100 thousand into the project before the site began to make a profit.”

Today, all major battle platforms are profitable, says Kapranov, but most of the money goes into advertising and promotion of projects. From an event that costs the project 300 thousand rubles, the organizers of Slovo receive approximately 150 thousand net profit, he continues.

The creator of the RBL league names approximately the same numbers. “From one meeting in the new season, which will begin in the fall, we will be able to receive at least 150-200 thousand rubles. net profit,” Zabaev shares his plans.

The most popular Russian battles

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

Versus Battle - History Versus Battle

Battle has always been an integral part of human history.With their help, the world gained leaders by weeding out the weak.Became stronger and more perfect. Times passed, and the attribute Battles no longer required bloodshed.

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

First shoots similarities to 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.k. rubles
• The phrase “Make some noise, f***ing!” came to the restaurateur came to all the feasts
• Initially, “Versus” could be called “Suprotiv”
• Initially, SLOVO could have been called “Versus”
• Nationalist, religious and political inserts are not allowed in Versus
• The first years of the battle paid off at zero

The history of rap battles

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

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

These were offline battles in whichrappers met with an opponent, causing the enemydamage with rhyming lines, punchlines and extraordinary flow.

“Go forward where they are not expected; attack where you are not prepared.”

Sun Tzu

By the end of the first decade of 2000, this phenomenoncomes out of the shadows of the underground, becoming publicly available.

In the USA, Canada and European countriesthe first battle platforms are born -KOTD , GringTimeNow And Don't Flop who will become ideological inspirersVersus Battle , increasing the scale of each of them.Opponents battled with prepared texts, competing with each other.

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

Versus Founders - Restaurateur Founder of Versus

Behind the appearance of suchphenomenon How Versus Battle , which radically changed the culture,there was a team of peoplewhich ultimately came down to two individuals -Alexander Timartsev, he is also Jan .

Firstis involved in the organizational part of the event,second— Internet promo.

Besides, to the ideological component and primary organizations put his hand in with whom I was well acquaintedRestaurateur .

He helped the guysbring together and interest rappers before Versus became national treasure.

How did Versus Battle come about?

At the beginning of 2010, returning from the armyRestaurateur was a regular at variousfreestyle battles, simultaneously keeping an eye on their foreigncolleagues on already formed platforms.

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

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

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, general director Booking Machine - label Oksimiron .

With the embodiment of the ideaRestaurateur the Krasnodar guys managed to overtakePLC and Hyde , releasing the first episode“Word Battle 2012” , six months before “Versus ”.

“On Versus there is a more comfortable atmosphere... As for the battles themselves, there is no difference: at these moments you forget about everything, the venues, views, etc. do not 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 wasn’t the same at allhome of battle as we know it today.

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

And he was right. As a result, his acquaintances introduced him todirectors of bar 1703, named after the year of foundationPeter the Great of St. Petersburg.

In the meantime, howVersus Battlecontinues to gain popularity1703 sells outany day of the week.As the Restaurateur noted, before Versus is herethere were practically no people, and now the place has deteriorated a little...

Versus Battle: The Beginning

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

Restaurateur admits that if not for authorityOksimiron , hardly guysagreed to come . Media support waspublic pages and VK pages dedicated to hip-hop.

Episode by episodeVersus is gaining momentum.Its members includestars of the first magnitude — , Johnyboy, Noize MC and others.

In one of the episodes of the show Evening Urgant Versus became the theme for the sketch. We met in a battle Ivan Urgant and Sergey Shnurov.

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

Versus Battle - Main Event

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

The rappers met thereone on one or in groups on a big stage. Soon from this formathad to refuse, because the organizers were faced withpremature “leaking” of results to the network by people from the crowd.

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

Versus Battle Fresh Blood

March 5, 2014spin-off launches this yearversus, entitled: “Fresh Blood” league, which aims to identify young talents.

Judging systemstructured in such a way that participantsfighting with each otherdefeating opponents andround by round, climbing up the standings.In the final, the strongest rappers fight for the titlewinner of the season.

To dateFresh Blood totals 3 full seasons.

Fresh Blood “Battle of Styles”

Not so long ago Restaurateur announced a new seasonFresh Blood “Battle of Styles”, in which a 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 -BPM.

If we haven't heard music in battles before (except round 3 against ), now it has become possible.

BPM- abbreviation forbeats per minute/beats per minute. In it, MCs battle to fastgrime beats.

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

One of the most striking performances in this format can undoubtedly be called the 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 release thereIt was possible to get in only through exclusive lists.To do this you need to befriends of the performing rappers, the Restaurateur or someone who was invited to Versus.

True, there are funny exceptions, such as withSerega , which slipped unnoticed ontoevent, causing surprise to everyone present. Especially Oxy .

Strict adherence to this rulealmost always guarantees safety of resultsbattle before release. Besides, the crowd found its heroes, whose faces appear time after time onVersus— Ivan Grachev a.k.a Hindu And Ekaterina Crazy a.k.a Horned Woman

Versus Battle Judging - Judges at Versus Battle?

Judging at Versus Battle has 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 out, although at times there are also gaps. Like a comedianRuslan Cherny, judged the legendary battleOksimiron and Gnoyny.

On standard VersusThe verdict for the winner and loser is given by an odd number of judges.On BMP, the crowd decides.

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

Versus X SlovoSPB

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

Restaurateur And Dan CHEYNannounce a high-profile event - venue battlesSlovo SPB and Versus Battle , in which the best participants will collide.

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

Versus Battle Now

Today Versuscontinues hisrapid development, attracting attentionall over the world. In addition to rappers, famous bloggers began to participate in battles. For example,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 your 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 battle with . The truth for thisdinosaurs will have to improve their Russian.