Wiley v Kano (2004)
This happened around the same time the UK scene was breaking through. It was a period of a lot of firsts. People’s ears were getting used to grime spitting, like rapping in double time, and Dizzee had signed to XL. Rapping with a UK accent was a fresh thing, and this battle was evidence of how strong the British underground was lyrically, and it’s a clash that’s constantly referenced even now. Kano, with lyrics like “Once I start I can’t hold back/ Who’s gonna hold me back when I start to get crazy?/ I’ll shut you up with a dum-dum you baby” was showing that he was smart. He was definitely the Nas of that battle, and Wiley was the Jay-Z.
Skepta v Devilman (2006)
Skepta and Devilman really picked apart each other’s lyrics in this battle. It was one of the first times that this clashing format was used – where an MC reuses the other’s bars and mocks them. It’s really effective, and it’s a style replicated and used all the time these days.
P Money v Big H (2014)
This is one of my favourites as it has some good examples of the clash format. P Money says to Big H, “What happened to your German Whip?”, which works because Big H was on Dan and JME’s German Whip track but was apparently seen driving around in a Peugeot 206 at the time. The best battles are when MCs have done their research. Back in the day, a lot of clash lyrics were based on old lyrics, but now MCs research lyrics and tailor them specifically for the clashes. And obviously, they are all memorised – no pen, no phone, nothing!
Kozzie v Sox (2012)
These two had really done their research, and they had obviously spent some time getting dirt on each other. For example, Soz made fun of Kozzie for driving a Smart car: “I was like, ‘Wagwarn with your Smart car?/ That’s slow/ Would have been better if you got a Volvo.’” In general, clashes for some people are an outlet to either be funny or to express anger without being angry in the physical – Kozzie uses his presence to make that point, and I think it works.
Yannick Bolasie v Bradley Wright-Phillips (2014)
This was a recent battle, and the MCs really surprised me. Bradley is Ian Wright’s son, and they’re both Premiership footballers; they’re supporters of the scene and they both do some MCing on the side, so I decided to put on a platform to get them in. It was good because they were getting at each other about their football stats, how much they get paid and how many goals they’d scored – they were really battling. I like the bar that Bradley spits – “MC battle? You were in a relegation battle” – and when he says he’s got the same football stats as the ref. That’s exactly the kind of thing that makes clashing so good.
Jammer’s Lord of the Mics 6 is out now.
