This time, for once, there’s no article where we’ll discuss any rappers or clichés. I have always been a fan of Battlerap, until 2015 mainly of Videobattles and since then mainly of Acapellas. Accordingly, I was “sad” when I heard that the VBT will be buried this year. A few years ago, Battlerap had a significant influence on the tournament and made it accessible to the masses.
What once started small and sweet in 2007 with 16 participants reached its peak between 2010 and 2012. In 2013 the tournament even had 1680 participants. Suddenly it was possible for everyone to present themselves to a large audience. MCs had a stage and also the chance to improve through Battlerap. Some (few) of the former artists can hardly be left out of the scene today. 11 years and 13 tournaments later the VBT will be organized for the last time this year. We look back on an eventful history full of mask wearers, splash appearances, label contracts and occasional foreign shame.
The TNM as a successor
The TNM (Tournament) is the successor of the VBT, bringing video rap battle to the next generation.
The VBT at the beginning
For the first VBT 16 participants could be organized. The whole thing was so long ago, by the way, that you could even upload your rounds to MySpace. To my surprise: Myspace still exists? Weren’t they broke? Well, back to the topic: Instead of two to three weeks there was only five days for the rounds, so the tournament was over again very quickly. But at that time nobody dared to think that only a few years later one glossy video with drone recordings would come after the other. Pr!MaR could prevail in the end and was the first and until today probably most unknown winner of the VBT.
Since 2015
The last really cool tournament with many interesting participants was probably the VBT 2015. Jenemy, Frank Hemd, Entetainment, Jaspa, Dima Richman, Cleptomatic, Aytee … The list of good participants is quite long. The range was also there again and in the end a pretty good tournament came out except for a few dubious decisions of the jury. The one or the other RBA head who might have known about it won the tournament and won an album deal including promo with groove attack besides a trip to New York. But Jenemy is the prime example that a good battler rapper doesn’t automatically make good songs. I don’t even know if he’s ever done a track before.
Unfortunately, this was also the last really cool tournament, because while at that time still heaps of unique Battlerap artists formed the field of participants, with a few exceptions today only the same Internet rappers without character are felt, who rap the same boring punchlines on an EPIC CHOIR beat over and over again. After the VBT 2015, an “Elite” version with 64 participants was launched, which, however, didn’t match the Splash! past.
Which is why I can’t say much about all the tournaments starting in 2015: Like probably many readers, I stopped actively following the whole thing. A small reason for this can be found in the previous paragraph. Anyway, rappers.in draws a line with the VBT at the right moment. The VBT was great, brought out lots of talents and rappers and offered a lot of free entertainment for more than ten years. Now that’s really enough. Rest in peace!