Liam Graham | WhatTheHYPE Battle Break-down
The motor-city underdog is proving to be a monster on stage. Shotti P ventures to the land down under to take on Vega, check out the battle below.
First Round
Vega kicks off the first round well, getting the rooms attention with the Kurt Cobain bar and then keeping an aggressive progression through his material before ending with a good Terminator 2 punchline. Shotti takes the bars well, seeming relatively un-phased before getting into his first round material.
Shotti opens up by breaking the ice calmly and humorously describing his journey to Australia. After a few light-hearted Aussie jokes, Shotti ramps up his delivery and stage presence, landing increasingly aggressive punch-lines with the audience and finishing with a shout out to his roots on 7-mile road, Detroit.
Edge|Shotti P
Second Round
Vega answers back in great fashion with a rebuttal geared towards Shotti’s oral hygiene. After getting the crowd back on his side, he progresses through his material relatively calmly, breaking the calm demeanor with intermittent rage added in for emphasis on his punch-lines. Vega really rallies the crowd behind him mid-way through the round with a great name-flip, before finishing strong with a “gun-bar” that doubles as another name-flip.
Shotti looked un-phased yet again (aside from acknowledging the mid-round name-flip), and decided to begin his round calmly again. After a good double entendre using a “movie trailer” punchline, Shotti again gradually increases the heat, leading up to a good crowd-moving line about having “more choppers than a fink biker gang”. After getting the crowd at attention Shotti moves into a rapid-fire sequence attacking Vega’s vocal techniques (good touch adding the stutter in while delivering “cadence”), and finishing with a great gun bar sequence that covers everything from The Men in Black movie franchise to the Australian Open tennis tournament.
Edge|Shotti P
Third Round
Vega proved his tenacity throughout this battle, as he answered back to the relentless bars from Shotti’s second round with great vigor. Opening with a decent bar focused on his opponents age, Vega gets eases some of the crowd back to him with a good bar referencing Ike Turner near the end of his third intro. Vega really rallies the crowd behind him with a sports themed scheme involving soccer and hockey, and keeps his aggression consistent through to a mean scheme involving Netflix Marvel Universe programming. The Austrailian emcee had his best showing this round, landing good punchlines with great delivery consistent through to a good close that reinforces his ambition as a battler and Australia as a contender country.
Despite his third round ferocity, Shotti shrugged off Vega’s hits with a great opener comparing Vega to President Trump and describing the battle as “taking on his biggest fan”. After the laughter dies down, Shotti gets right into the aggression with a good Anchorman reference geared towards the dog-kicking scene on the bridge. Shotti then breaks the aggression to humorously compare Vega to various celebrities/fictional characters (Jesse Pinkman, Action Bronson mixed with Magic Johnson etc.) before getting right back into the aggression. Stating that he, “came only for the free trip”, Shotti gets mean, landing a solid double entendre utilizing the word “Manta-Ray” to describe his aim on his opponent and following up with a room-shaker that compared Vega to a puppy. Shotti closes with another room shaker, poking fun at the idea of an Australian White Supremacist group and saying he will handle anyone belonging to the “Kangaroo Klux Klan”. Overall, a solid third round on behalf of both parties in the battle.
Edge|Shotti P
Shotti had a lot more consistency to the fire behind his material (Aggressive delivery, confident stage presence during opponent rounds), and seemed to have a better clarity to his cadence. Considering the fact that he touched on the difference in technique execution during his second round, I feel that nets him more points.
Vega did not go down silently or without a fight and I feel he utilized this battle to further establish himself as a good international contender for other leagues. With more consistent pacing and structure in his first and second round I personally feel he could of edged Shotti out of a few rounds, but the level of experience behind the emcee’s 30 years of age showed in his performance during this battle. The third round was definetly Vega’s best showing during the battle, as he held the crowd in his favour throughout his whole round and didn’t lose much in regards to reactions. If Shotti didn’t combine so much comedy with his heavy hitters in the third round, I would have edged it towards Vega’s favor.
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