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Illa Styles: The Hero Richmond Hip Hop Didn’t Know It Needed

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The latest album by Richmond’s Illa Styles is a tale of love, personal growth, and navigating the ever-changing dynamics of life in America in 2019.

A Quarter Til A Mil by Richmond-based rapper Illa Styles is the latest in the River City scene. Pressing play on the album, listeners are greeted by the voice of the late Nipsey Hussle, and it becomes clear that this isn’t your average rap record.

With a gritty sound and life instruction manual-style lyrics, A Quarter Til A Mil finds Illa Styles rapping over high-energy jazz and carefully-crafted production from Michael Millions, with skits and features as versatile and well-made as the album itself.

Styles isn’t new to the game. Much like a carpenter goes to trade school to learn their craft, he graduated from the school of hard knocks in order to create this new record. It’s a refreshing guide to navigating street life while maintaining personal growth, and even when it comes to the dirty details, Styles doesn’t shy away. If anything, it is through his transparency that he finds his power.

“I am not glorifying this,” Styles said. “I am just documenting things that went down during the course of my time here.”

Styles has lived in Richmond for many years, yet it’s obvious he refers to more than just this area on the album. 

“I’ve lived through many dark fringes of society. I used to manage strippers… and some other things I’d rather not talk about. I was still a slime ball, bouncing from house to house every season depending on who I was dating at the time,” Styles said. “I wasn’t paying bills. Once I had my daughter, I fell back for a year.” 

Under pressure to provide for his newborn and her mother, Styles strove to live for her rather than continuing the life he had known before.

“She put the humanity in my music. She listens to it. I have to be a little more cautious about certain things I put in there, while still giving authentic highlights and certain pitfalls in life to avoid.”

In its sound, A Quarter Til A Mil is well-suited for the present. However, it’s clear that Styles found inspiration for his lyrical “fashion tips” from many different places and experiences unique to no decade.

“Everything in life inspires me,” Styles said. “I can ride down the street and see the clouds cascading over the sun in a certain way, and that inspires me. I try to take inspiration from everything in life. Never let it be wasted — what you consume is what should drive your inspiration.” 

Styles refuses to be limited. He notes that artists should continue to be versatile in all walks of life, acknowledging that there are many different ways to express yourself in the music industry. 

“Why limit it?” he said. “Why pigeon-hole yourself, put yourself in a box… Good music is just good music. It’s not even about a genre anymore. As long as it feels good to you, then it’s music.” 

Photo by Branden Wilson

Pulling from many different genres, Styles has found inspiration from artists over the years with various styles and sounds. He cites Snoop Dogg as the first rapper he found a real connection with. Doggystyle, released in 1993, was the first album Styles ever bought. Although he was always a fan of hip-hop, he was reluctant to dive straight into the culture.

“I didn’t always feel like I could do it, because there wasn’t a whole lot of new life being breathed into the music,” Styles said. “It just wasn’t my kind of vibe. When Snoop came in, even though he’s from California, it was something familiar — the stories he was telling, the music.” 

Across the continent in Philadelphia, Styles found a sense of familiarity in Snoop’s music. Growing up on opposite ends of the nation, the two artists lived different lives with similar battles while Styles navigated his days in West Philly. 

“Philly is a rough place,” Styles said. “I’ve seen a man get killed with a bat right in front of my house when I was just seven years old. That’s one of the reasons I got the tattoo ‘Life Is Priceless.’ You never know; you’ve got to treat your life with the utmost sincerity and respect… You’ve really got to put the time in to make sure you’re living life to the fullest.” 

Styles left Philadelphia to move to Richmond in his junior year of high school. It’s no surprise to hear that classic artists like Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, Donnie Hathaway, and Marvin Gaye were the songs playing in the background of his household growing up.

Today, Styles listens to a broad array of music, from hip hop and blues to Linkin Park and Creed. Noting John Mayer as a major inspiration of his artistic life, he is far more complicated than his laid-back exterior comes across. His blunt but confident inflection shows that Styles only raps about what he knows; and he’s waited years to finally load all of his experience and prowess into one album.

Styles worked through 60 original songs in the process of creating A Quarter Til A Mil‘s current track list of 16 hip-hop gems. Each track displays a different mood in hip-hop, but can all be tied together by jazz. Having lived in Richmond for most of his life, he felt it would be wrong not to pay homage to the city’s rich history of jazz talent.

“Richmond is all about live instrumentation,” Styles said. “A lot of stuff here has that soul, that grit… When you think of Richmond, it’s live jazz.”

But more than just jazz went into informing the live-instrument sound of A Quarter Til A Mil — and a lot of the inspiration for the album has a local basis.

“The rock scene is crazy here,” Styles said. “D’angelo — those sounds are akin to Richmond. They are married to Richmond. A lot of people try to chase that digital synth sound, but that’s not a Richmond sound.”

His reason behind wanting to use real instruments for the album was a practical one: he wants you to listen.

“For most people, just hearing [analog instruments] brings about an experience much larger than any sound waves moving around the air aimlessly,” Styles said. “Those sounds are emotional triggers that plant themselves in your head, like seeds tossed into reality; when they sprout, they combine the past and present, making what you’re listening to become attached to a specific feeling, smell, or idea.”

Photo by Branden Wilson

Although he possesses a very classic aura about him, Styles’ views of the world are modern. The more you hear his music, the more he shares his world and his perspective. One can’t help but resonate with him.

Styles is the new “classic man.” The man we need now — especially during this time of social change and battle for a mass enlightenment within America. As time goes on, the role of manhood encompasses more than its traditional roles, and brings in a new, nurturing scope of the world.

“I feel like the universe is a feminine energy,” Styles said. “The energy of creation, of motherhood. They hammer into our heads ‘The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost,’ but where’s the woman that’s present in that situation? Anything that comes to you after you start leading with love, that’s the universe bringing it to you.”

In his song “Long As The Villain Win,” Styles raps lyrics like “love leads and the universe follows.” His words are heroic coming from a man who claims to be the villain of his story, but perhaps Styles is onto something — perhaps the world is changing so much that our definition of a “hero” needs to accompany the new face of justice; one that is more representative of the people as a whole.

Styles is challenging old world perspectives with A Quarter Til A Mil, displaying the courageous message of a new generation of American men. His latest album is a jazzy self-reflection as much as it is a guide to self-actualization in the modern world. Underground voices often speak truth in a society of oppression, and Styles uses his words to express his thoughts during this era of American life. 

Top Photo by Branden Wilson

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

The Best of Ohbliv

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Ohbliv’s “Retrospective” is an authoritative collection of the Richmond beatmaker’s best instrumental tracks. The record was curated by Ohbliv and Paxico records owner/operator Chris Hund, who selected the standout songs from his monolithic discography.

Hund said that he was introduced to Ohbliv’s music years ago by Paxico co-runner Josh Hey.

“Something about his music seemed intensely personal and authentic, which is increasingly rare,” says Hund. “As a curator for Paxico I put out things I believe the world needs, and I have no doubt the world needs Ohbliv retrospective. No one can create a groove like Ohbliv, period. He’s on a spiritual level.”

Ohbliv has released countless beat tapes and records since he started putting out music in 2009, and has been influential both nationally and in Richmond’s emerging hip-hop scene. According to Ohbliv, he started making pause tapes when he was in high school in the late 90s using records from his father’s collection, mostly jazz, soul and R&B deep cuts.

“The records in his collection were ridiculous,” he said. “I basically built off of his collection.”

Ohbliv’s first proper release, “Rugged Tranquility,” set the tone for his future output, borrowing heavily from ’70s and ’80s soul, funk, and R&B artists like Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Junie Morrison to make hypnotic instrumental tracks.

Since then, he’s released over 20 tapes and records and has collaborated with a growing list of performers in the Richmond area including Nickelus F, Fly Anakin, Michael Millions, and Radio B. In 2018 alone he released two beat-tapes, “Ohblends II” and “Ohblends Vol. 3,” two collaborative albums, and a full-length remix record, “Southern Blend.”

Many Richmond hip-hop artists credit Ohbliv with bringing the community out of a period of stagnation in the late 2000s. Nickelus F, a veteran of the Richmond scene, collaborated with Ohbliv for the “Yellow Gold” mixtape in 2011, and “Yellow Gold 2“ in 2013.

“He’s an architect of an entire sound and wave,” said F. “At a time when everything sounded clean and digitized he had dirt under his nails digging through dusty crates of records, chopping by hand and making pause tapes. He Marty McFly’d the internet and came back to the future with the essence of true hip-hop.”

Ohbliv has also been involved with several projects with up-and-coming Richmond hip-hop crew Mutant Academy. Earlier this year, he produced the full-length record “Backyard Boogie” with Mutant Academy’s Fly Anakin, who has begun to receive national attention in recent years.

“He single-handedly changed underground hip-hop with that Southside groovy shit. He’s the reason a lot of us in this community are even known. Everybody and they mama made an Ohbliv type beat,” says Anakin.  

Although “Retrospective” is a best-of collection, Ohbliv has no plans to slow down his musical output. “I’m always recording,” he said. “I have three or four albums already done. It’s all about timing for me though as to when I’ll release them.”

The “Retrospective” anthology is a testimony to Ohbliv’s production capabilities, but also to the perfection of his process over the years.

“It’s the refinement of a style,” he said. “Same old process though: find a sample, chop it up, add some drums, flip it, mix it… Boom.”

Cover Photo by Marc Cheatham of The Cheats Movement. 

 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

 

Hip Hop Heavyweight Nickelus F On His Latest Album, ‘Stuck’

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It was his first show in two years, and Nickelus F. and a cadre of other local rappers pulled a crowd of over 600 people to fill The Broadberry a few weeks ago, where the local hip hop heavyweight debuted songs off his new album, Stuck. The album had only been out two days, but Richmond’s love for “Sweet Petey” was apparent by the energy and enthusiasm of the crowd. The moment he wanted to create, celebrating the new album was solidified, and it was in that moment one of his fellow performers, turned to him and suggested he do his first ever stage dive stating, “If they’re gonna catch anybody they’re gonna catch you!”

It’s true. Richmond’s love for Nickelus F is deep. He’s been in the hip hop scene for over 15 years, the city loves and respects him for his unique perspective, intentional lyrics, and passion for maintaining that old school hip hop feel throughout his music. And his latest album, which he dropped on May 11, is no exception.

“The process of creating [Stuck] was hip-hop to its core… it started from a crate in Goodwill, old cassette tapes, and sampling off old analog equipment,” Nickelus F said of the project. 

The 14-track album, which was produced by Nick himself and mastered by Richmond rapper Michael Millions, follows the raw and emotional journey of the rapper over the past three years as he navigates a place of discontentment. “I felt stuck financially because I was back in school full-time not working,” he said. “I was making some money from music, but it wasn’t enough to sustain my life being like, mortgage, kids, car payments… so financially I felt stuck, and emotionally I felt stuck.”

However, contrary to what the title implies, the album is not about being stuck. It’s about getting out of the situation he’s in and tackling life’s obstacles. “Even though the album is called Stuck, the theme throughout the album is I got up… I look at my struggles as part of the testimony, and it’s just kinda like when I go through something I’m like, ‘’hey I’m just living the testimony, eventually I’m gonna be able to tell this story.’”

It’s this level of honesty and integrity behind his music, that ensured his fans his eighth studio album was going to be worth the wait. “I take my time coming up with this stuff. I drop every couple years… it’s kinda like an ode to the era of music I came up on,” he said. “Nas didn’t drop an album every year, Jay wasn’t dropping an album every year…it would be two or three years between albums.’

And Nickelus F has followed suit with his major musical influences. He dropped his last solo album Triflin, in 2015, and the collab album Stretch Marks with Namebrand in 2016. The last time RVA Mag checked with him was two years ago when he dropped the video for “Laced Weed” off Triflin‘ so its safe to say he likes to take his time with his work.

Nickelus F also attributes the time between tapes to his diligent process of making music. “You gotta take your time making it, don’t rush it, you know? Like if you’re gonna get a turkey, man, if you’re gonna fix the turkey, season it up, clean it, stuff it, let it bake slow, cook it up… I want people to be able to listen to this years from now and still be like, ‘damn that shit was hard.’”

It’s apparent his hard work has paid off with this album once you give it a listen, but be prepared because this is only the beginning of what Nickelus F has to offer us this year.  Not only did he drop a new album, but he also graduated from VCU with a degree in Strategic Advertising. He said going back to school was one of the best decisions he ever made and he looks forward to utilizing his new found education to, “make this album everything it needs to be.”

He said his coursework in college has helped make his musical work much better and more powerful. “In the past, I put out good projects, and I’ve had songs that could have been a lot bigger than they were, I didn’t have visuals for them, I didn’t work the overall project the way it should have been, but I just graduated college learning how to do all of that,” he said. “Learning how to brand, learning how to do creative advertising, learning how to use photoshop, learning how to shoot video, work video and do everything.”

That was evident in the dope visuals he dropped for the track “I Ain’t Cried Yet” off Stuck on May 17.

No show dates on the books just yet, but Nickelus F has a lot of tricks up is sleeve so be on the lookout for more work, more music, more tours and hopefully more stage dives from the artist this year. 

 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

The Making of Backyard Boogie: A Chat with Fly Anakin

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Last time we checked in with Richmond hip hop artist Fly Anakin it was around spring of last year and he had just dropped Chapel Drive, a collaborative album with Koncept Jack$on. And since then, the Southside native has yet to sit back and relax, in fact, he’s been steadily toiling away in the studio to deliver Backyard Boogie, his new album, which he quietly dropped last month. 

Produced by Ohbliv, the 16-track album features many Mutant Academy members including Big Kahuna OG, Henny L.O., and Koncept Jack$on.

Fly describes Backyard Boogie as magical. The rapper said at first, had a difficult time getting back in his zone and focusing on his music while working hours on end at an unsatisfying job. Once he quit, the album started to come together and Anakin said the process was more like therapy for him to help de-stress from several personal issues he was struggling with at the time. But that struggle fueled his creativity, and he was able to put all of that into his music. 

“I knew it was going to be tough, I just knew I had to like put it together so it would be better than my other shit. The whole plan was to blow my old shit out of the water,” he said.

And he did just that. Anakin stepped out of his element with Backyard Boogie’s “Faceplant in San Bernadino!” and made it his own. With this project, he purposely experimented with different beats and sounds that he normally wouldn’t go for, and it really showcases his range.  “It definitely turned out way different than what I thought it was gonna sound like, but it turned out better,” he said.

That experimentation really comes through on “Thug Bachata,” a catchy song that he premiered when he dropped the album back on April 20. Anakin smoothly, but passionately raps over a background of horns and bongos. Besides Koncept Jack$on, who’s featured on “Several Blunts Later”, and Henry L.O., who lays down some verses on “Gangsta Party”,  Anakin also teamed up with fellow RVA hip hop heavyweight, Nickelus F for the first recorded track,  “Worldwide2x”.

“At the time, I was going through so much shit and had so much stuff to say, I just did the shit…this is one of my favorite projects definitely, like this is a milestone for me,” he said on his Instagram of the project. “Sonically and lyrically, I feel like this is my best shit…as far as how it came together, I’m just very proud of this piece of work…”

Beyond lyrics and beats, Backyard Boogie offers a little something fun visually for music fans. The eye-catching album cover, created by Satellite Syndicate’s BSTFRND, perfectly embodies the party you go through as you listen to the album. After sitting with the project for awhile, BSTFRND started creating the sketches and inspiration for it, which stemmed not from hip hop, but reggae.

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“Obliv suggested that we should make it look like or reminiscent of these 1980s dancehall covers,” he said. The vivid color, comic-like word bubbles and cartoonish characters featured on the cover are a nod to Wilfred Limonious, a late illustrator known for his depictions of Jamaican history and dancehall culture on album covers.

Anakin has a few upcoming projects with Big Kahuna O.G., BSTFRND, Awkward John, Graymatter and more so be on the lookout for those. In the meantime, make sure you Backyard Boogie is on rotation at all your cookouts and house parties this summer. Purchase a physical copy here. 

 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

 

Through Loss and Personal Struggles, Richmond’s Kaelan Brown Finds Inspiration

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On a dark night inside an old, tired townhouse surrounded by the fractured brick sidewalks and out-of-place murals of West Clay Street, 20-year-old rapper Kaelan Brown’s bedroom exploded with sound and light.

Drums popped, bass boomed, guitar shimmered and horns blared as Brown hopped around his rehearsal space, unfazed that his already cramped room was compressed even more by six other musicians. He yelled and danced as if he was center stage at a music festival, his lyrics resonating over the symphony of instruments. His delivery was forceful and accurate. You could tell he meant every word he was saying. 

Brown calls his style of music “art-hop,” a term he coined referring to the multitude of genres that influence his music. His songs draw from rock melodies and harmonies while still incorporating hip hop beats.

Brown’s brand of music developed organically, originally branching off of an idea to release rock and rap tracks under one moniker and platform. Although this idea never materialized, the initial inspiration for his melting pot of genres came from his own home.

Growing up in Arlington, Va., Brown had the best of both worlds when it came to music. As a kid, his mother introduced him to country music as well as rock greats like Pink Floyd and Boston. His father hailed from Jamaica and brought soul, reggae, and funk into the home. 

“Being in a mixed household gives you a lot of perspective on what you can listen to and how you can mix it together,” Brown said. “I think it makes a lot more sense to reach a variety of people than to say: ‘I’m only going to make trap music or I’m only going to make rock music.’”

His parents always supported his musical quest from an early age. His mother kept a guitar in the house and helped him play when he was little. Even when his mother began her six-year battle with lymphatic cancer, she was there to foster his musical growth.

He was introduced to hip-hop through his love of jazz and cites Chicago rappers Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa as some of his biggest influences. However, when it came to rapping, support from his family was slightly tentative. Brown remembered when he was just introduced to rap. He and his father were listening to Snoop Dogg on their back porch.

“He said ‘Kaelan, I don’t know if I could support you making this kind of music,’” Brown said. “And in my mind, I’m like, ‘Oh man I’m gonna be making this kind of music.’”

His mother on the other hand, was a fan of her son’s new work. Even when she was in and out of health centers, she made sure to support her son.

“She thought I was a good rapper,” Brown said. “And that was before I even really got to know what I was doing.”

Brown’s parents played a special role in his development as a musician and artist, and could be seen at nearly every show he played in high school. They weren’t just there to cheer their son on, but to take in the innovative music Brown was putting down. But the musical bliss that filled the Brown household would be unplugged in March 2016, just a couple of months before Brown graduated high school, his mother passed away at the age of 52.

In her final months, Brown’s mother was in and out of health centers, making it hard for her to attend her son’s shows. Nevertheless, his music left a lasting impact on both of them. Despite dealing with this gut-wrenching situation, Brown turned to writing music to help him stay afloat.

Not wanting to back down from performances, he played the shows and began writing new music to help him cope. 

“A lot of writing that goes into hip-hop is very personal. Obviously writing for anyone is very personal but hip-hop is very specific, and you have to get deeper into what you’re saying,” Brown said. “There are a lot of metaphors obviously, but you have to say a lot more.”

Last August, Brown started school at Virginia Commonwealth University, continuing to hone his musical craft. He teamed up with fellow Richmond artists Shy Lennox and Julien Earle, a local producer, and released a couple of singles before dropping his first full-length album, From Out The Pines, in April 2017. For this seven-track record, Brown channeled his emotions and thoughts into writing as a service to both himself and people struggling with similar situations.

The influence his family had on him is found in spots throughout From Out The Pines. One of the songs on the album, “Before I Go (prod. Wakeen),” revolves around his mother and father meeting each other and the values and lessons they passed on to Brown.

“I think that with that time in my life I was going through that and a handful of other things, and we all go through stuff, but at that time, it was kind of like a perfect storm,” Brown said. “I was able to just vent and get all of that out and give it a story.”

And for Brown, getting into music wasn’t about making money, but as therapy for not only himself, but for others. He has the album up for free on Bandcamp and SoundCloud, and said the music he’s chasing is about something a little more personal.

“I just do all the stuff to make my mom happy, because I know if I stopped, she would have been losing,” Brown said. “I gotta keep going, do what I love. What’s the point of stopping?”

From Out The Pines received a lot of praise from Richmond’s rap community. For Carlos Lopez, Brown’s former bandmate, the album, and Brown as a person served as a wake-up call, challenging him to start writing again.

“He was just this force pushing me like, ‘hey maybe this is something I can still do and something I still want to do,’” Lopez said. “He’s just {has} a very motivational presence.”

Brown is set to release a few singles and music videos over the summer in preparation for an album in the next year-and-a-half. Some of his unreleased bars are about his mother, and he said excited to get them out, but for now, the rapper said he’s happy to spread his advice to others and spread positivity wherever he goes.

“For anyone who’s going through that stuff, definitely use your head,” Brown said. “All the words are there, you just gotta put them down. It doesn’t make sense to have it up there. Clear it out, make some room.”

Keep an eye out for two songs and videos by Brown in the next month on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube. 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

 

Hip Hop Fight Club

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When the Ultimate Rap League brought their Survivor Series to Richmond this past January, it marked the first time that a national battle rap group established a platform for the talented emcees of my hometown.

The group, known as SMACK/URL, has an international following for their battles, which they usually host in New York City and Los Angeles. Their venue for this event was The Top, promoter EJ Lewter’s club in Shockoe Bottom, and it was packed with rap fans of all ages for the battle, which was streamed live over Pay-Per-View for the folks at home.

Originally printed in RVA #32 Spring 2018, you can check out the issue HERE or pick it up around Richmond now. 

When I stopped in to catch the action on Jan. 20, Lewter introduced me to Smack White, the owner of URL. “It’s my pleasure,” White said of hosting a battle in Richmond. “Richmond has been the city that’s been supporting me throughout my whole career, [from] the DVD era all the way to the battle rap culture. We got like 15-16 years of support from the city of Richmond so I wanted to come back and show the city some love.”

Battle rap has a place right at the heart of hip hop, said Radio B, a Richmond artist and one of the owners of the local Southpaw Battle Coalition.

It is the true sport of hip hop, and the original essence of rap. It’s really high-level lyricism — rap, spoken word, stand-up comedy, and debate, all rolled into one.

If battle rap is the sport of hip hop, Survivor Series DMV is the major leagues of emcee sparring. This event brought out almost all of battle rap’s heavy hitters in the region; Baltimore’s Tay Roc, soon-to-be top-tier performers Chess of New York City, T-Top from North Carolina, and arguably the most exciting newcomer to URL, Nu Jerzey Twork, who has performed in RVA and moved up the ranks in Northern Virginia’s Showtime Battle Arena.

The DMV area is home to a lot of talent, but often overlooked, White said. “I don’t think they get enough light. That’s why I’m here, to show the city some love and to establish a presence in the city. Hopefully, this can be one of many events that I do out here.”

Some of the DMV-area artists included the Goonies Crew, comprised of Twork, League of Champions-member Ryda, Richmond’s own Jakkboy Maine, Young X from Portsmouth, and one of the most anticipated rappers, veteran battle emcee and Black Money Mobb head Moon.

Middle: Moon

Originally from Paterson NJ, Moon has been a Richmond resident since the ‘90s. He has an impressive resume for a rapper, including a feature in MTV’s Fight Klub and a famous rumored battle between him, Wu-Tang’s RZA, and Juice Crew member Craig G.

When I asked him if really happened, he answered, “I got a $30,000 watch from it.” Battle rap is about building legends, and Moon has legends for everybody in the club.

He’s one of the top performers in the Survivor Series, and the word survivor suits him well; the night before the battle, a fire consumed his Southside home. Just like my question about the battle, it didn’t phase him.

After the battle, I met up with Moon outside his temporary apartment to talk battle rap and RVA in general. “It’s a different time of battle rap from what I come from. What I come from, we didn’t even write your battle raps. When you battled somebody, you ran up on they ass,” he said, comparing the calculated approach in today’s game to the more free-form early bouts.

“Back in the day, it was, ‘Let’s bet some money,’ or just bragging rights for your ‘hood. You didn’t have time to prepare for a nigga, you didn’t know his grandmother… It wasn’t about how much information you had on the nigga. You had to be nice, you had to be lyrical.”

One factor that makes Moon a rising star in the battle world is his honest approach to rapping; he still sticks to his rhyming principles. “That’s the difference,” he said. “I respect what they do now. I’ve had to grow into some of the things they do. But I don’t change what the fuck I do, because that’s what makes me me.”

He’s one of the older battlers active on the scene today — something he doesn’t try to hide onstage — and he’s fiercely loyal to the Richmond music scene. Whether it’s a Southpaw Battle or League of Champions (LOC) battle around town, you’ll find Moon and some of his Mobb brothers in attendance. He’s a hardened veteran of the scene, and he’s not afraid of any challenge. He referenced two house fires he’s survived when he joked, “I’ve survived some wilder shit than [a battle].”

As a touring battle rapper who’s been on MTV, Pay-Per-View, and had recent bouts in Ohio and New York City, Moon described the impact Richmond hip hop has had on him. “Richmond Virginia brought me back to life, man. I had really left battle rap, rap period, alone. I wasn’t really doing rap like that, but I was dibbling and dabbling.”

In particular, he credits a few local folks with his return. “Shout out to Rocstagis, LOC, that’s where it all started. Me and Bravo had the city on fire, you can go look at our first battle. We actually brought battle rap back, me and Bravo. That brought my career back.”

Battle rap might be new to some, but hip hop has always had a competitive edge. Everybody talks about who has the best crew or DJ, but it all comes down to skill. This was established in the early days of hip hop, when Coke La Rock and Keith Cowboy became celebrities for their skill with the mic.

There have been hundreds of rap battles on tapes and TV recently, but they’re the tip of an iceberg. Most battles are face to face, held wherever, from the street outside a concert to a quick confrontation in a studio. It’s rare that these get recorded, and they’re almost never caught on video, especially in the early days. But those that are watched 20 to 30 years later and the winners are still subject to debate.

One of the most legendary crew battles caught on tape was between the Cold Crush Brothers and the Fantastic Romantic Five, recorded live in 1981 at the Harlem World Battle of the Heavyweights. The audio is all over YouTube, where commentators argue over who should have won.

For emcees, the most famous is probably one of the earliest recorded, a battle between Chief Rocker Busy Bee and Kool Moe Dee from the Treacherous Three, also taped in 1981. For many hip hop fans, this was the first time we heard one rapper go after another face to face on the same stage.

Since then, the battle has been the proving ground for many up and coming rappers, but many of their early matches have become legends, passed on only by word of mouth. No tape exists showing the DMX versus Jay-Z battle in the early 90s, but every serious emcee has heard the tale.

The new wave of rap aggression in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s brought high profile rappers like Nas, Jay-Z, Mobb Deep, Beanie Sigel, and Jadakiss into rap beefs with each other, and the conflicts drove a spike in sales from consumers wanting to hear more battle rap.

As a college-aged hip-hop fan, I came of age with Fight Klub battles on MTV2, and seeing RVA’s own Nickelus F as the Hall of Fame champion on 106th & Park’s Freestyle Friday. These battles kept it clean for TV, but there were rawer, uncensored battles which we picked up from the neighborhood DVD seller. Floor-to-floor and door-to-door, they’d deliver the latest movies, albums, and plenty of rap battles recorded on DVD for an underground audience of diehard fans.

This is where Queens, NY native Troy Mitchell, alias Smack White, made his debut. His pre-YouTube-era series SMACK (Streets Music Art Culture Knowledge) was a touring show that visited different cities to show street life from the perspectives of local hip-hop royalty and more. In 2003, those videos first introduced me to Big Meech and Black Mafia Family (BMF), with club scenes and even a segment where Bleu DaVinci and the crew hang out in a Miami hotel lobby with the city’s mayor.

The local culture was fascinating, but not the main attraction. Somewhere in the middle of the DVD would be a battle or two. Sometimes they were set up at the park, sometimes a clothing store or a project hallway in NYC. These weren’t the battles in movies like 8 Mile or The Shelter. There were no beats, no backing tracks, no famous actors. They’re just two rappers, mostly unknown outside their city limits, standing across from each other, ready for lyrical war.

Early DVDs showed a three or six-round battle, but as the series progressed, you’d see a lot more trash talk between rappers, some who weren’t even in the battle. The conflicts sparked anticipation, and we all looked forward to the next SMACK DVD as the battles and conflicts took center stage.

Still pre-YouTube, we’d meet up outside Foster Hall at Virginia State University, and argue over whether Murda Mook beat Jae Millz or vice-versa. Every emcee wanted to make it to a SMACK DVD; this inspired White’s creation of the Ultimate Rap League, which took off immediately.

Today, URL’s artist roster features the best rappers from all over the country, from different leagues in every region, and they all head up to New York City or Los Angeles to battle.

As battle rap has grown, other leagues have sprung up, especially here in Richmond. The two prominent leagues in the city now are the long-standing League of Champions, owned by Sonny Kolfax, and the upstart, Radio B and Bravo’s Southpaw Battle Coalition, who count Chance Fischer as a member.

Left: Smack White

During the photoshoot, I sat down with Kolfax to talk battle rap and what it’s like to be live on stage during the battle. “You can’t buy [the feeling] nowhere,” he said. “It’s so easy to have a concert and people rock with the music, the lyrics don’t necessarily have to be there. But when you’re battling, there is no music. Everything you say counts. If you on stage and there’s no music and you’re giving everything to your opponent and the crowd is rocking with you, that energy transfer is a high almost.”

He noted Richmond’s place in the history of battle rap, and the impact of SMACK coming down I-95.  “You look at the DMV area and you look at the URL and it’s heavy here now, it’s prominent…and people never realize that those guys started out here,” he said. “Ryda came up through LOC, Jakkboy Maine’s first battle was on SRL [the Southern Rap League].”

Kolfax noted that it’s just getting bigger here. “The growth that I’ve seen in the scene from 2014 to present has been tremendous,” he said. “Because now battle rap is almost synonymous with hip hop in the city. When I started out battle rap wasn’t that big, like, ‘You’re a battle rapper? OK’.”

Kolfax thought URL’s battle was a good sign for the city. “It’s a blessing to see where it’s at now, because this is only a precursor to what can happen — and we showed the city what can happen.”

But more important, he said, will be Richmond capitalizing on the newfound attention from the rest of the battle world. “Don’t think just because Smack came that’s the end of battle rap,” he said. “No, we still have leagues out here. Pack our events now. Because URL already took notice, now it’s up to us. Even if you never been to a battle rap event, [you’re] just a fan of music, check it out.”

Gigi Broadway, from Kolfax’s LOC, shared his sentiments regarding hip-hop in RVA and battle rap in general. “Battle rap in this region is exploding,” she said. “URL is invested in the battlers here, and are always looking for talent out here. The music scene is really growing as well. The industry hasn’t quite set their eyes here yet like battle rap has, but it’s definitely turning in our direction.”

Broadway gave shoutouts to some local talent that’s been in the news lately. “Artists like Michael Millions, Mutant Academy, Noah O, and more have gotten a lot of national coverage last year, so it’s coming. I would say now is the time to get involved, because they are looking at how the city responds to and supports the artists. The time is now,” she said. “Once battle rap becomes more mainstream here, it will open the door for RVA to get more respect in the hip hop culture in general.”

Every person I spoke to about the future of battle rap and hip-hop in Richmond agreed; the time is now. When the #1 battle league in the world shows you this type of love, it’s time for the whole city to take notice of the crews, the leagues, and the venues like Lewter’s The Top.

Battle rap may have started underground, but it’s driven hip hop for decades, and with this type of buzz, it’s time for the form to take its place at the front of the scene.

Photos by Branden Wilson. Art Direction by Natalie Jackson

 

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