3 Round TKO at the Rap Battle By: Rob Smittix

For months Peshy Kruger’s #LIFEEE BEHIND BARS II battle rap show was anticipated by fans. Who will come out on top? Who will be victorious? And then…for reasons that not even God herself could explain, when it came time to hit the stage everyone was sent packing. What we do know is that it had absolutely nothing to do with Peshy or his team but rather a non related incident that occurred just a week prior at the same establishment. So, what do you do when you have a sold out show and no venue? Well… Peshy made some phone calls and in less than 24 hours #LIFEEE BEHIND BARS II was back on. 

That Saturday morning, I received a message with a secret address. So, what started out as blinking lights on a marquee became an underground event and honestly it couldn’t have been any better. The level of professionalism Peshy and his team maintained throughout the confusion was second to none. I overheard Peshy say, “no one is going to tarnish my good name” and he meant it. So, at last the event was held and it was without a doubt incident free!

A Peshy quote from Nyce Da Beast’s (Building Wit Beast) interview “I’m a man of my word. I’m a stand-up guy and there was nothing that I could do, it was out of my control. I gave you a chance to come out. We promoted it in less than 24 hours and we’re back here making history.” 

The night started off with the battle that by far had the most trash talk build up, Man vs Bletzin. Bletzin came in swinging but Man stole the crowd. At one point Man brought up Bletzin’s family dog that passed away and even had a t-shirt with the dog’s face made up that he offered as a gift to his opponent. The dog verse hardly phased Bletzin though probably because as we found out afterward, it was his mom’s dog that he wasn’t very close to at all. Then Man stole the audience’s attention once more by claiming Bletzin’s girlfriend’s ex, “Mike”, was actually at the venue. For real the entire crowd turned around to see for themselves, but Man was just pulling everyone’s leg. However, this stunt did rack up points for Man because it had everyone laughing. We also found out in the post-show interview that Bletzin actually has no beef with “Mike.” 

The next battle was between CEO Cents and Dre Skeeno. CEO had come out of a five-year hiatus for this one and it was as if he didn’t miss a beat. The majority of the dissing between these two involved the fact that Dre is from Boston. So, there were plenty of New England jokes being thrown out there. CEO went home with the win! 

Now the main event was between two fierce competitors Money Mel and Bamm. Bamm went first and it was hard to tell how Mel would respond to the insults until… well let’s just say Mel won the crowd over pretty quickly after he got on the mic. I believe it was during the second round when Mel pocket checked Bamm and you could see by the look on Bamm’s face this was not well received. When Bamm gave his response he put his fingers in Mel’s chest and for a few moments it looked as though this friendly rap battle was going to turn into the UFC. Fortunately, Peshy got them back on track and the battle resumed without any issues. 

Although some feelings were hurt, I can undoubtedly say that everyone had a great time. And for those that didn’t take home the win here’s some advice: in the words of Diego Coffin “get those bars up!” We look forward to the next event #LIFEEE BEHIND BARS III and I wonder if the show will be kept underground or if Peshy, Hard To Kill Entertainment and #25toLIFEEE will take another stab at the mainstream stage.