50 Greatest Battlers of All-Time: Mac Lethal

[gregrieke20]

I am a graphic designer, and this is a follow up on a book I'm creating noting the 50 greatest battlers of all-time. By now, I know a good number of you are aware of it.

RegularJoe, (a poster on here) offered to write the bios and has begun working on some of them. I tried doing it myself at the beginning, but I figured it'd be best to leave a writer to do that portion of the work, and I feel its been a DEFINITE improvement. Each spread of the book will be set up so the battler's illustration is on one page, and his bio is on the other.

I will be posting them every so often on here, and I encourage feedback, criticism, other info, and whatever else you all can offer.

Below is both the bio itself, and how it will appear in the book. This is Mac Lethal's. Thanks again, all previous feedback has been a huge help.

Also, all the previous spreads that were posted can be found in a new subforum. Here is the link: http://board.rapmusic.com/50-greates...pers-all-time/ (My apologies to the mods for not immediately putting it there, its just that I don't know if people are completely aware of that subforum yet, so I was just going to post two or three here until people are aware, then hopefully they'll sort of gravitate over there for these.)

[CrowdAds]

[gregrieke20]

Some people are born into the battling world. They grow up immersed in hip hop culture, passed down by their neighbourhood idols. They enter local tournaments, gain experience and catch bodies. Some people have a massive scene they can run through, a market to build a reputation in, competition waiting on every street corner. And some people, like Mac Lethal, don't exactly have that opportunity.

Not to take anything away from Kansas City's hip hop scene, but for Mac Lethal, growing up there offered him only a tight knit community to hone his skills. Cyphers and battles would break out at hip hop shows, but the type of events that were going down in New York and California were only dreamed about in the middle of the map. It was 1998 when Mac first came across a flier for Scribble Jam. He was enthralled by the competition. But he didn't feel he was ready.

Mac spent the next three years studying the art of battling online, working up the courage to enter the tournament in 2001. Problem was, he didn't have any footage to prove he belonged. So he faked it. Piecing together crowd reactions with his bars, Mac spent hours creating audio clips to act as footage, earning him a spot in the tournament. When he arrived in Cincinnati, he proved his skills extended far beyond his computer screen. Mac rolled through the competition, putting up some of the most memorable performances of the event, making it all the way to the finals before eventually losing to ADeeM in a heated matchup. His mark officially made on the scene, Mac returned in 2002 ready to brawl. This time, no one would get in his way as he earned his first battle title in resounding fashion. Two years later, he made yet another imprint at Scribble, beasting in one of the tournament's strongest ever cards. His finals loss to iLLmaculate left him with two runner up finishes and a Scribble title, one of the most impressive runs of any rapper in the history of the illustrious event.

Following Scribble in '04, Mac took a hiatus from battling to focus on his music, an eclectic form of hip hop that featured the same originality and creativity he used in his battles. Mac embraced his unique personality, putting it on display in his arrogant, aggressive and ruthlessly disrespectful style. A supremely talented technical rapper at his core, Mac was never afraid to try new and different things in the battle arena, something that he believes is essential to keeping the craft fresh.

In 2010, with Grind Time exploding, and a new era of battling taking foot, Mac returned for two high profile battles before again deciding to step away from the scene. While he won't rule out an eventual return to the sport he grew up adoring, his focus is on creating art and music that he feels brings something new to a stagnant scene. That's something hip hop heads can only respect, from LA to NY to KC.

[MattPORTLAND]

Dope. I'd opt for a different quote though.

[Water_Mage]

i think u should reconsider the quote i mean it just brings to mind mac lethals worst performance and his last kick at the can before leaving... I mean he brought three rounds of face jokes vs the saurus then a month later announces that hes leaving cuz hes jaded with the stagnating battle scene?

Meh..

[RegularJoe]

Man, you guys are going to be really overloaded with reading my flowery battle rap prose by the end of the day today eh?

This was a tough one to write for me. Mac actually handcuffed me for a bit in how to approach his career, especially from the anecdotal perspective I like to try and integrate into these. I think it came together well in the end, and I hope you guys enjoy it.

[Water_Mage]

Originally Posted by RegularJoe

Man, you guys are going to be really overloaded with reading my flowery battle rap prose by the end of the day today eh?

This was a tough one to write for me. Mac actually handcuffed me for a bit in how to approach his career, especially from the anecdotal perspective I like to try and integrate into these. I think it came together well in the end, and I hope you guys enjoy it.

dude i love your writing for this book, its just the way i wanted it to be done when i first heard about this book. im so glad you are willing to make your prose ``flowery`` as you say and a bit sentimental as well i daresay..

[RegularJoe]

Originally Posted by Water_Mage

dude i love your writing for this book, its just the way i wanted it to be done when i first heard about this book. im so glad you are willing to make your prose ``flowery`` as you say and a bit sentimental as well i daresay..

Bro, that's the only cosign I'll ever need.

[gregrieke20]

As with the others, please suggest different quotes. They take all of 5 seconds to change so its no biggie. I'm not completely sold on this one either, so yea, please throw out other suggestions.

[swpstateofmind]

good work



everyone always get on him about his quotes! hah

[mapleleaf]

Originally Posted by gregrieke20

As with the others, please suggest different quotes. They take all of 5 seconds to change so its no biggie. I'm not completely sold on this one either, so yea, please throw out other suggestions.

I hit the roof....You wanna be Unseen? POOF!!!!


You can't stand me.... you're probably wearing Cashemere panties!

Wait...he was gettin close tryin to push me/
He backed up, he smelled his girlfriends pussy!


In fact i don't rhyme for free
little jack wore camoflauge today so he could hide from me!


You the one that punches me? hell no your fake
you punch me that hard your bitch elbow would break!


i would use 2 of those one liners, probably 2 of those last 3 listed

[gregrieke20]

I just want everyone to understand that a lot of things have to be taken into account when I select the quotes. (The criticism doesn't bother me at all btw, lol, but just so y'all know why some of these are selected).

The quotes have to be from 4-bar schemes and I want them all to kind of be "complete" at the end, or end with like an exclamation. They have to fit the layout of the page. They can't be too intricate, or have too much of a backstory, because then the common fan wouldn't understand it. I'd like for the majority to be from big battles. They can't have any racism or homophobia in them, and there are many other things taken into account.

I just want people to be aware that when I've picked some of these its not just as easy as "Why didn't you just pick the 'nigga that's the Don's shit!!' quote for Hollow!?". I DEFINITELY want the best quote possible for each guy, but just so people know that I "get" why some people don't like some that have been chosen.

[iSick303]

i like this one a lot. id say different quote tho for sure.
maybe the hack saw jim duggan scheme from dbd battle
or the 70 ak's?
idk i havent watched his scribble stuff recently enough to remember any good ones from then

[gregrieke20]

Originally Posted by Mapleleaf432

I hit the roof....You wanna be Unseen? POOF!!!!


You can't stand me.... you're probably wearing Cashemere panties!

Wait...he was gettin close tryin to push me/
He backed up, he smelled his girlfriends pussy!

I was REALLY wanting to pick the "smelled his girlfriend's pussy" quote, but the two bars prior to those he says some somewhat nonsenical shit like "you can get my ill testicles" or something, lol. So that'll obviously look odd written out.

[gregrieke20]

That "wanna be Unseen...Poof" quote might work though.

[MattPORTLAND]

I just ran through Scribble 02/04 and I didn't find one line meeting the criteria haha. Maybe there's one in the DBD battle or something. I definitely understand why you picked the one you did now.