[The Mag] The RSTL Tribune: Special Edition, Issue 10

[Quriosity]

. . .

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION	TITLE
I	Introduction
II	Back Track: Week 16
III	General News
IV	Playoff Forecast
V	Breakdowns
VI	Headliners
VII	Official Tournament Brackets
VIII	Top 2 Competitors
IX	Predictions
X	Beauty of the Week
XI	Conclusion

I | INTRODUCTION

First and foremost I would like to extend my apologies to each and every participant of this league, whether it be past, present or future, that has taken part in season one of the new RSTL and has grown to expect my presence. I thoroughly regret my unfortunate and equally inevitable absense these past few weeks and I look forward to a great second season with you.

Explanations and(or) excuses are unecessary. However, I would still enjoy the chance of pleading my case with you all. Being that I was the moderator of the year, I know that I have certain responsibilities that need to be upheld. Unfortunately, I have neglected those duties and have reflected lackodaisacol tendencies in these past few weeks since the ending of the regular season. But my reasons are not only understandable, but justifiable even.

I am sure by now that you all know my current situation. I am in the middle of awaiting expungement. Also, I work fulltime at the UPS Store and attend Kennesaw State University as a full time student. Aside from this, my wife is 5 months pregnant and our schedules conflict resulting in less quality time. Therefore, the more time I spend online substantially reduces the amount of time that I have to share with my wife.

But the majority of my free time has honestly been spent catching up in my courses. I am already behind in school, seeing as how my original graduation date was estimated for this year. Not only that, but I am also behind in my current courses due to the late arrival of my text books and therefore I been playing catch up in class for the past three weeks.

Soon, I hope to be steady so that I can better pace myself and utilize my time. I will be here for season two, however I may not be an active participant as I was this past season. But nevertheless, I will be here and I will be moderating.

With that said, I would like to acknowledge those that have been granted the privelege of participating in our first ever playoffs and good luck to the final four that will have the chance of being crowned the first RSTL Season Champion. This has been a topsy turvy tournament with many surprises and surprisingly enough a great turn out. There have been very few no shows and many decent to great verses. Obviously enough, the tournament has not panned out the way some might have predicted. Many underdogs have arguably deserved their acknowledgment of talent by battling it out and making it to the top 4 where the first and third ranked competitors have failed.

Some wins I believe were undeserved but that's what happens with a lack of voting and Jook dropping his worthy opinions. Needless to say, some may be bitter about their losses but there is always another season. I, myself, am content with my talent and rank in the minds of my fellow participants. I was robbed the glory of being ranked second when Nah Son no showed in the last champ match of the season and I do feel that my verse against L Dogg was better than some may have gave credit for. However, I have greatly progressed as a writer and I also admit that Nah Son was more than capable of beating me in that match up and that I did produce a half assed verse against L Dogg, who's verse have yet to read completely. Therefore, all in all, I am proud of my growth and others should feel the same way about themselves.

Season II will, for the most part, be no different than season I. Some slight adjustments in rules to allow for more definitive instruction and maybe a few other details that deserve to be upgraded, but aside from this the general objective is constant. Records will overlap seasons to disavoid confusion. Also, ranks will be determined mainly by the ending of season I with playoff records being discluded from the regular season.

At this time, I would like to extend a warm invitation to those who disagree with the way I write my magazines, or to those who may disagree with my views or the way I express my opinions, or simply to those whom may just want to help out and have a sincere concern for the future of this league. Please feel free to email me at usadesigns1@gmail.com. I am always open to suggestions and help from those who are truly interested.

[Quriosity]

II | BACK TRACK: WEEK 16

THE SHIT LIST

This week was no different than the previous weeks, as far as all the no-shows I don’t care to even bother naming the cock suckers that no-show as they are no longer relevant and they shall not be getting recognition here unless they truly deserve it.

I’ll dedicate this week strictly to TekNeeK, who in my opinion has been consistently one of the worst competitors in the RSTL for the last 2+ years.

Apogee ... this was just like the same exact style as lucifa.... the short lines u inputted throughout makes it hard for me to digest ..... while u come off with great narrative and vivid imagery... overall for me to critique on the imagery and the wordplay which is ur strong points.... it caries u at a higher score than what should be..... 84


Bonnie - you master the words ... u master in using the right words to colorize the subject in ur topic... the verse is so strengthened when u put flow and narration into effect... ur storytelling becomes so strong when ur choice of wordplay comes into light... it connex so strongly and so perfectly that it becomes an almost impossible story to top..

94

First off, let’s remember Tek is the advocate of the whole RSTL audio league which would encourage shorter bars because lets face it, these stretched bars that most people come with would never pan out in audio. Now lets look at Bonnie’s masterful language…

She arose nude as the moon rose, glowing in its blue tones
Slipped into her new robe and crew socks for her cool toes
Switched the light in the bathroom, admired her reflection
Inspected her silky smooth complexion free of imperfections
When satisfied she put ice blue contacts in her eyes
A nice hue
They were kind and they smiled too, and hypnotized
All types of dudes, but the rest of her features
Were just as blessed with appeal as her breathtaking peepers

Cool toes…wow such mastery of language…lets continue…and wow, calling eyes peepers, that’s mind boggling…needless to say about a lot of the other language here, I don’t want to go further because I don’t want to go on an attack against Bonnie’s writing, but lets be serious…calling anything she wrote this week masterful is absurd and ridiculous.

Now moving forward, what else does this masterful voter bring forward…

real bizaare match...

LUC - one big thing i did NOT like was the short length of words on each line ... didn't fancy me well -- im a read-out-loud person when it comes to that... however..

wordplay: 88
narrative 88
naturalness: 88
imagery: 87

fresh...

condescedning --- unquestionably a bizaare structural way of readaing your verse... as far as rhyme to rhyme line for line readability... it set me off guard.... however.... ur flow and patternization is ur strong points...

flow: 89
patternization: 87
structure: 78
content: 86

vote - lucifa...

The most notable thing here is that Tek voted on this match considering absolutely different elements for both writers…lets also look at this…what the hell is patternization or naturalness…then again what was bizarre about Con’s verse…the structure while not the most friendly is one that I’ve seen thousands of times throughout the net, something that Tek in his 93 years should have seen by now…also if Tek is reading out loud, how did he not find a smooth flow in Lok’s 11 syllables per line smooth as fuck flow? Shit is mind boggling…

Lets move forward though…

Juked's imagery I thought was a 89...

Issue's style was a 85

Juked's wordplay was a 87

Issue's narrative was a 88

Juked's overall score to me was an 86

Issue's overall score was an 85


Juked's verse is more vivid and more smoother in description ... the wordplay makes his piece more colorful.....

vote juke.

Tek knew this in and of itself would land him on the shit list…enough said…

[Quriosity]

CONTINUED...

THE BREAKDOWNS

All in all this actually turned out to be a not so bad week after all, although giving anyone daps for what they put forth this week is rather difficult, it seems a lot of people are on their reserves going into the season finale.

Contendership: 3. Juked (3-0) vs.4. S. Issue (6-3)

With the lack of a champ match everyone’s eyes were on the contenders who actually didn’t disappoint. Juked proved that his 3-0 record although untested isn’t a pure fluke as the kid brought a pretty interesting and unique piece to the table although one big theme huddled around this “lack of clarity”. The same thing could be said for S. Issue’s piece that was on a gore/murder tip although the back and forth progressions really caused a lot of people to wonder what exactly was going on, who were these characters getting introduced, who were the ones getting killed. I think I pieced it together, but did anyone truly get both of these pieces the same way our writers did, I think it’s safe to say that that one is a no.

5. Got Life? (9-4) vs. 6. Macmili (2-0)

I honestly couldn’t read through Mac’s verse each time I tried, eventually I made it through and I can see why the votes were the way that they were. While Mac had a creative idea buried deep under there somewhere his mechanics suffered greatly and there was an abundance of lines that while maybe would sound good in an audio, they crippled his piece for the kind of storytelling craft that the RSTL has come to expect with the exception of a few stray voters who have no logical decision making process. I on the other hand brought out a piece about a brother who date rapes his sister on the beach in Cancun during a masquerade, she goes on to have the child, and he suffers living with the pain of seeing this child and his sisters suffering although he can’t tell anyone. By no means was this my best work, but I enjoyed playing with combining storytelling and topical in this one using the 1st and 3rd person narrations.

7. vada (7-2) vs. 8. TeKneeK (3-1)

This was easily one of the worst battles of the week considering it was between the two longest serving members in RSTL history. Tek wrote some utter smut peddling trash, it had the bullshit of his attempt to be hard and from LA with an absolutely poor use of not only the English language, but he managed to butcher some Spanish as well. Vern obviously didn’t feel the need to come strong this week and he put together an average vampire piece, pick your poison I guess.

13. TheReturn (9-1) vs. 14. DaAlmightyDolla (6-4)

This was probably the only battle that was close and worth reading. TR did his thing turning a b-boy piece emo about a kid who found peace outside of his parents divorce through b-boying. DaD’s piece was misunderstood by just about every motherfucker in the league, while to me his idea still isn’t over the top creative, but the girl in his story is the RSTL, essentially in my book that’s like doing an ode to hip hop, but specifying the RSTL, although only me and maybe 3 other people caught that. Everyone else simply thought it was about a girl, proving yet again that there are some truly ignorant fucks out there.

15. .ApoGee. (4-3) vs. 16. Bonnie (4-1)

I didn’t read this battle, from the looks of it I didn’t miss out on much, so if you were looking for the breakdown of it here being that you hadn’t read it. You didn’t miss out on much either.

17. Condescending (2-2) vs. 18. Lucifa (9-4)

This battle actually seemed like me vs Dougie G last week. Lucifa came with quite possibly the verse of the week about a female fighter on some unleashed meets mafia betting rings and some other drama, it was actually entertaining and one of the few verses I could read through without wondering wtf is wrong with the people in the league. Con on the other hand wrote possibly the most straightforward and boring piece possible about drugs as he has a young star hooked on drugs until it ruins his life. Thank you studio 54 meets basketball diaries starring Leo Dicaprio…Wooh…exciting stuff right here.

[Quriosity]

CONTINUED...

HEADLINERS

BEST OVERALL VERSE
Lucifa

RUNNER UP
TheReturn

WACKEST OVERALL VERSE
Trybz

WORST OF THE BEST VERSES OVERALL
Apogee

MOST CREATIVE USE OF A PICTURE
Got Life?

MOST CREATIVE USE OF A TOPIC
DaD

BEST OVERALL FLOW
Eye-Rime

BEST OVERALL MATCHUP
TheReturn vs DaD

RUNNERS UP
Vada vs TekNeeK

BIGGEST UPSET OF THE WEEK
Nah Son’s sister getting fucked up by somebody wielding a hammer.

[Quriosity]

III | GENERAL NEWS

Since the elimination of third ranked competitor Eye-Rime, who is also well known as MCQuriosity (myself), the playoffs have seemed to be less predictable than intially imagined. Possibly one of the most assumed conclusions was that of the defeat of L Dogg. Equally assumable was the quick demise of RICO, a bottom ranked competitor who undeservingly was allowed to compete in exchange for Baron Mynd's position. Neither of these prophecies held true to the next round.

In what has proven to be the most unpredictable playoff/tournament to date, many bottom feeders have been allowed to prove their worth as legitimate competitors. Nah Son has flown by the most easy of competitors who have been parralleled by their kindness, allowing extensions that have resulted in their definite elimination. Delivering solid story lines with a smooth flow and story progression, Nah Son is a soul survivor and a direct reflection of the league wide poor predictions in being only one of four favorites originally thought to reach the final four. Ranked number two in the regular season with, I believe, two championship belts, he is a sure contender for the title of Season I Champion.

Got Life?, on the other hand, has also solidified his talent and consistency by sticking to the script and delivering verses with a formula that has worked throughout his entire RSTL career. His verses are cut throat and to the point and yet never dry in flavor. His mechanics are precise and his story lines, although not always creative when compared to his many other gory topics, seem to always produce just what the pupils needed, delivering concise plot schemes with good character development and imagery to accompany his "by the book" verses. With a lackluster flow, but an imagination and vocabulary to pick up the slack, it is no wonder why he has cruised through the competition. That, and the fact that his first opponent was TekneeK, followed by a crippled Vern who failed to produce and still tied in score, only to be defeated by a technicality in which he failed to post voting links.

Another stellar display of talent is that of Mound 10's. Round one was a bye-week for the ninth ranked competitor, winning by way of no show. However, round two proved to be a much tougher road to travel. Facing the number one ranked competitor of the entire season, Mound 10 delivered a creative concept that wooed his readers into voting in his direction. Not the best verse by far and anyone that claims such is a bold-faced liar. But, I can definately agree that the concept was fresh and the entire idea was worthy of recognition. As for the verse itself, there were grammatical erros like many other RSTL verses, the plot seemed to drag in the direction of no real conclusion, and the flow was too wordy and actually made the story a bore to read. But there were good ideas and the overall progression of the story was well done and the ending tied into the picture nicely. The character development was near non existent being that the main character was never revealed and the other characters came and went like men in orgies, however it did seem to work well with the plot being centered around the overall moral which was presented in the end. The moral itself was somewhat cheesy though and I honestly feel that Mound may have received too much credit in this match. Still, he deserves his due for defeating the top ranked competitor and will now face Got Life? for a spot in the finals.

Nevertheless, through all the surprises that have taken place within the playoffs, the real sleeper of the tournament has been Trybz who is rightfully ranked at eleven. His brief stint in the RSTL had initially earned him consistent spots in the bottom of the league. He was overlooked as just another wack writer who never seemed to seize their full potential. It wasn't until his match with Got Life? that he gained the title of 'Most Underrated' by showcasing a solid grasp of writing talent and story telling. Falling short here, he somehow still miraculously advanced into the playoffs and is now flawlessly progressing through the tree. As of now, his presence is certainly feared by his fellow competitors being that no one wants to underestimate, or overestimate, his ability to write and capability to win. Either way you look at it, his opponents better take him seriously because I have a funny feeling that he really wants a shot at that coveted title.

Good luck to you all. This looks to be a promising week and an even better one to follow.

[Quriosity]

IV | PLAYOFF FORECAST

As you all may know, this playoff/tournament has definately turned out to be a parallel of the National Football League in many aspects. So far, nearly all of our predictions have gone awry and the future looks dim. With so many upsets behind us, I will attempt to take a glance at the potential misfortunes to come.

FINAL FOUR

Nah Son vs Trybz
Got Life? vs Mound 10

With four competitors present in the playoffs, I see only four possible outcomes for the Season Championship match. All four competitors pose worthy threats to each opponent and as of now, i would call neither battle a clear definitive decision. The weather is grim and it will be cloudy throughout the week leading to this upcoming Monday, and even after to February 3rd which will determine our first Season Champ.

NAH SON vs TRYBZ

A definite reader for sure, and in most cases the mind would be quick to call this a battle in clear favor of Nah Son, the second ranked competitor of the season. However, there are many reasons to cloud that cloud this prediction.

[1] The first reason, obviously enough, is a personal factor. In case you have not been tuned in, Nah Son has reported to his RSTL familia that his baby sister was run down and brutally hammered to her near death. Accompanied by this catastrophic event is the fact that family emergencies of this magnitude take a major toll on one's mind and also require time and dedication of feelings, heart, mind, and soul towards that individual. Surprisingly, Nah Son has still been able to compete which may lead some to believe that his story was a farse one. I will not tackle that subject, but I will say that Nah Son will be a candidate for potential no show until he reports that either (1) the suspects have been apprehended or (2) his sister is back on her feet and healthy. Until then, I'd watch that clock.

[2] Trybz is a "by the book" type of guy. I see glimpses of a Got Life? through his personality. In past weeks Trybz has not only become the 'most underrated' but he is also a worthy candidate for 'the biggest bitch'. With good reasoning of course, because rules will always be rules and the intent of rules will always be for others to follow. With that said, and seeing as how it is likely that Nah Son will need an extension, I see Trybz declining and taking the win by default. A big possibility, although it would be a terrible and almost humiliating way to reach the Champ match and also to not reach it.

[3] As noted in reason number two, Trybz has been rightfully dubbed as most underrated. He is sailing through the playoffs and picking off opponents that weren't meant to be picked off. With his easy and equally arguable defeat of Lucifa, he has now somehow made it into the final four. Last week he cried about the line limit, forcing Lord Drama to alter his original verse. This week I see him not only posting a solid script, but also pulling the rule book out of his pocket and calling for a win by some default. My most solid prediction is that Nah Son better not only deliver a bomb, but deliver it precisely, or he will meet his defeat.

GOT LIFE? vs MOUND 10

Two opponents who were also slated for defeat early on. Got Life? has been a 'here or there' type of guy for some time now always staying consistently within his own set boundaries and standards. Some weeks he's off and some week's he's on, but by that I only mean his imagination and capacity to deliver a thorough plot. All things equal, if Got Life? can find an idea within the topics, it will be a very tough battle. Mound 10, on the other hand, is also a 'here or there' type of guy, but in the literal sense. Throughout the season he has been either here or only God knows where. Assuming that he shows, as he has in past weeks, this will definately be the match to watch. Both opponents are producing solid stories and both are coming off respectable wins, with Got Life? defeating Vern Acular and Mound 10 defeating TheReturn. I see this going in either direction for, again, a number of different reasons.

[1] Got Life? has been a consistent member for 70 some odd weeks now, and is bound to be nearing the end of the imagination trail. For a while, he has delivered solidly written material but with a gore based plot week in and week out. Until now, this has not been a problem. Mound 10, from what I have read, has always delivered a much needed freshness to the RSTL world and will likely continue to do so here. With matches receiving little to no votes and Jook being the main deciding factor, I predict he will vote against Life? on a sake of freshness and votes will end 2-1 in Mound 10's favor.

[2] Got Life? has yet to challenge himself, which can either work for or against him. In one case, you could easily say that he has yet to challenge himself and therefore will be fresh with ideas and concepts now that his opponents pose a threat. Hopefully he was saving talent for the end. More probably though is the fact that he has yet to challenge himself and therefore his creative juices will suffer, while others' brains have benefitted from a headstart. Either way, he has cruised through the ranks and now faces a brick wall with worthy competition that is likely to not only show, but produce at their best where Vern failed.

[3] Mound 10 is the underdog and will feed from this energy. He is somewhat established and yet he is not, being inconsistent with his activity and only showing glimpses of pure raw talent. His record was not as pretty as his skills may reflect. However, I think this underdog aspect will workin in his favor, building his momentum which should already be heightened from his victory and well fought bout over TheReturn last week. He will attempt to show and prove to readers that he deserves a shot at the title. With nothing to lose being that he is not expected to win, I think he will step outside of the box and produce the "freshness" that voters have grown to love in the recent weeks. Reminds me of a more mechanical and cohesive DaAlmightyDolla with better storylines.

[Quriosity]

V | BREAKDOWNS

SWEET SIXTEEN

1. TheReturn - (39) vs. 16. ApoGee - (4)

In all honesty this entire tournament so far has been one giant disappointment. One of the prime examples of that was TheReturn’s verse. He went from being the guy that ripped through everyone to writing quite possibly his most cliché piece to date. A little girl child molested by a soon to be step father when he’s drunk and the painfully emo approach to how she wears her heart on her sleeve in an “ever blacker” dress. The fact that the reason why her father isn’t there is because he died in a car accident was painfully drab. To boot you have her silence to keep her mother happy because her mother seems to love this new guy. It doesn’t work for me as a good piece of writing on any level. ApoGee definitely could have run away with a win here if he just polished up his mechanics because it’s not very hard to beat such a painfully bland story. Honestly though Ap not only didn’t bring a much better story his writing was really painful due to how sloppy his mechanics were. It felt like you were reading the paper of someone in middle school that doesn’t posses much control over the English language, although the story told of a drunken mother and drug abusing father who ignored a slum ridden child until they both died, which led the child to an orphanage where he was raped by another man. From there the orphan flees bringing us back to where he’s randomly here filling out a college app from living in a cardboard box. The events don’t string together well and the piece was just rather disappointing all the way through.

3. Eye-Rime - (32) vs. 14. L Dogg - (5)

This might be the biggest upset of the tournament, you have L Dogg who came into this as the person being bitched out by pretty much the entire league for his antics that almost had every chanting I hate L Dogg, I refuse to be affiliated with him, hell “The New Elite” fell apart because of mention that L Dogg was part of the crew. Then you have everyone’s favorite mod, everyone’s formerly favorite voter, and someone who had a great deal of luck and success throughout the entire season. When you put it on paper no one had L taking this or even coming close, but when you break it down. Q had a piece that described a girl getting fucked for about the first 2/3rds of the piece, then you get the twist as she laces up her sneakers that it’s her father that she’s been getting off on top of. From there she’s walking down an alley where she hears music that triggers her sex drive and as she’s playing with herself in the middle of the street her father runs her over with a truck and kills her, tying it into the topic of “if I can see you, I can kill you.” All in all I know Q was rather burnt out this week with writing, but that still doesn’t excuse how long he took to write and the sloppy quality of his writing. L Dogg on the other hand proclaimed his piece as done since Wednesday, granted I think he could have easily have polished it up over the week while waiting for Q to post, but his piece about an essentially do-gooder who is turned corrupt by the corporate world to the point where he’s ruining people’s lives was as Jook said…a breath of fresh fucking air…the piece ended in the protagonists demise, but in a poetic remorseful sense as the turn around worked and the piece came together properly. While not the best case of writing seen all week and not the smoothest flow, L brought something worth reading to the audience this week.

4. Got Life? - (24) vs. 13. TeKneeK - (7)

Coming into this match I definitely wanted to knock Tek out of the tourney, partially because I can’t stand Tek, partially because I wanted to hear him rant and complain about how his verse was a 98 and mine a 84 or some random bullshit along those lines and well, you’d assume from Tek’s awkward yet methodical attempts at taking shots at me that he’d want nothing more than to shut me up and knock me out himself. I will say this, I never expected Tek to be the bigger man and grant me the 12 hour extension that I had requested. Honestly I took it because I couldn’t be bothered to write Friday night and I hadn’t written my piece or even looked at the topics prior to that night. In the end I pieced together some random ideas that worked in my head about a guy that has 3 wives, he’s paranoid about all 3 of them killing him, and actually ends up killing each one of them in the way he thought they’d kill him. The piece was nothing special and was something that felt rather generic for me to spit out, but honestly after reading Tek’s piece I knew I didn’t need to really go all out this week. Tek’s piece wasn’t necessarily bad by any means, but he ended up making you have absolutely no feelings or connection towards an entire village of people uprooted from their lives and their homes by war, and the drama and brutality that continued from there. It was an idea that could have been executed rather well and could have been the verse of the week. Instead it was just bland and almost dragging. This battle was also rather disappointing and almost painful to get through.

[Quriosity]

CONTINUED...

SWEET SIXTEEN

5. Vada - (19) vs. 12. DaAlmightDolla - (7)

After reading this match I was honestly nothing but aggravated. For the most part this was because I deciphered Dolla’s whole code at the end of a mediocre verse and what I was left with is a meticulous pointless puzzle at the end of an already disappointing verse. I kind of want to go to the hospital that DAD’s sister is in and wait till I see DAD and hit him in the head with a 2 by 4 so that he can share a room with his sister. Don’t you ever pull some shit like that again you bastid…anyways…if you didn’t read DAD’s verse…you’re a lucky person. Vern on the other hand had what you can argue as the best verse of the week and also the only verse really worth reading all week honestly. Vern combined interesting characters, great flow, and vivid imagery in creating a bi-polar police detective and her immense success, yet her inability to catch a killer that has claimed many men including her own husband and seemingly led to the disappearance of her daughter. It then unveils as the daughter approaches the mother about all of this. With the realization at hand the mother kills her daughter in the same way that she killed everyone else and moves it along. A perfect finish to a well scripted piece here from Vern.

6. Lucifa - (16) vs. 11. Trybz - (7)

By the time most of you read this you will have already been irritated by Lok for his “bitching” and complaining regarding voting following his loss to Trybz, but you can’t really blame the guy. Essentially any of us would feel the same way if we wrote a really emotionally charged piece, which to us truly holds a lot of weight, the problem is…for lack of a better term, no body cares, if you make it something that everyone can relate to their own lives and devices the emotion carries over as something worth relating to, otherwise it’s a piece that you wrote for yourself and when you get a decent competitor it’s hard to win with a piece like that. Trybz gave us the typical shit about a crack head young kid who had several abortions, but is now pregnant and is going to keep the child, and we’re left at the end with the question. What is to come for this child? One thing is for certain, hopefully Trybz doesn’t bore us to death with part two for us to actually find out although Jook seems eager to read cliché ghetto tail from captain I pretend to go to an Ivy League school.

7. S. Issue - (11) vs. 10. RICO - (8)

What was it with the child molestation this past week…maybe you can call it a weird coincidence, but there were a whole lot of people re-hashing and butchering the step father fucking a little girl concept, which was certainly rehashed by RICO although his girl grew up to be a ruthless woman in the corporate world, the origin of the piece was the same painful cliché. RICO on the other hand had also a somewhat predictable story, but it read smoother and just felt more natural. About a girl with a bright future ahead of her and everything going properly until one night she makes some bad decisions and ruins her life. It really makes you reflect as to how things can really change with one bad decision regardless of how you may have spent your life making nothing, but the right ones and in truth, after a car accident where this girl kills a mother and her two kids, no matter how many things she does right from then on will ever make that one wrong decision right. I think I’m taking away more from the piece then was really ever meant by it considering RICO’s history, but it works.

[Quriosity]

CONTINUED...

ELITE EIGHT

1. TheReturn vs. 9. Mound 10

If anyone still thought that a topical can win in the RSTL, this battle should make you realize that this is far from the case. TR came with a pretty solid topical piece about religion, but to no success, essentially pretty much everyone in the league is bored to tears of pieces like this that don’t offer anything new or fresh and beat the subject to death. Mound 10 wrote something that in all honesty wasn’t as dope and fresh as Jook made it out to be, but then again mound’s piece was creative in how he tried to connect so many different stories together tying it all together with the last few lines. In all honesty if TR wrote a story and not a topical I think you’d be seeing a different result, but as it stands Mound 10 moves on.

2. Nah Son vs. 10. RICO

Well, if RICO was gay he could have taken the win and not given nah the extension, but instead he did this battle justice. In fact RICO has to be the biggest surprise in this tourney, coming from a 2-8 record and given Baron Mynd’s spot RICO actually came with a pretty nice verse. It was about a woman who was raped, she kept the rape a secret, grew pregnant and came to love the child that came from it all. Nah Son came out and pulled through though. His verse showed us all a part of ourselves that I think he’s starting to see possibly in light of what happened to his sister. At the end of the day as much as the girl in this piece loved the guy, she ended up loving herself more and saved herself rather than risking her life for her “lover”, it was an honest and refreshing piece delivered with solid mechanics moving Nah Son onto the semi-finals.

4. Got Life? vs. 5. Vada

I have to say that what had the potential to be one of the better battles of the entire tourney proved to be one of the battles that was so dragged out and drab with a lack of inspiration and desire to write on both sides that only 2 people even put up with us to actually vote. However you want to call it, Vern wrote 80+ bars about something that I still don’t clearly understand nor do I care to try re-reading it to clarify the points of his verse. I wrote about a true life experience between me, a girl I loved, and what transpired between us, it’s a story I’ve covered before in the league and I’ve covered it on wax as well. The piece is much more suited for audio, but it seems enough to move me onto next week to see how the cards will unfold against Mound 10.

11. Trybz vs. 14. L Dogg

L Dogg made the mistake that it seems Lucifa made, he slept on Trybz. I still haven’t seen Trybz pull the kind of shit that he pulled out against me, but the kid came on point in the elite 8 and cruised past L Dogg although if more than 3 people actually voted on this match maybe it wouldn’t have had the same results, once again, voting truly dictates the direction of the league. L Dogg came with a piece that was about a boy watching his parents seemingly love each other on the outside, but in reality he knew how his father cheated on his mother. As the father went to finally reveal the truth to his wife, the boy kills the father to prevent him from speaking. Driven mad by the loss of her lover the mother cuts out her son’s eye leaving him scarred. Essentially there was nothing really compelling about any of that. Trybz wasn’t necessarily compelling either as he covered the whole guardian angel topic, but his piece ended with a solid few finishing bars that really pulled the piece together. We’ll see if luck can continue to carry Trybz past Nah Son in the week to come.