RSTL Bi (or in this case tri) Weekly Magazine!!

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

Table of contents if you will lol

I. Introduction
II. Interview with Malosovich
III. Worst Week Ever?
IV. Why do you do this?
V. Where are they?
VI. RSTL Flashback
VII. Voter of the Past Weeks
VIII. Top Ten Verses
IX. Power Rankings
X. Where do you want to take this?
XI. Conclusion

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

I. Introduction

Well, welcome to this installment of the RSTL magazine. Quite a bit of stuff has happened in the past three weeks. We’ve had Runna DaMille tie 4-4 with me to win his second championship before signing out. We had the reintroduction of some old timers, most notably TRAP and Retulen Reactus (not THAT old but whatever). Jook, being the good man that I think he might be, signed back in, I’m guessing mostly to help us out, but also to show that his first run in the league wasn’t a fluke as many suggest. We’ve had folks like Nique, Junio, and I Dunno rip through the league to make it into the top 5 at various times. This dood Vigil has come along and impressed the hell out of me. Pent Up has reeled off a few more victories. Jersey is sputtering along due to an illness but the one piece he did drop before that was electric. NinjaKid is morphing into NinjaMan. His rhyme partner Got Life? has breathed some new life into the league himself. Unavailable, L Dogg, and Defcon_5 are back around. Folks like Complextic, Nefarious, Brandon Thompson, Kareless, and others are trying to work their ways up. Oh yeah, and as far as I have been told, I am now tied for the most consecutive title defenses with 5. Things aren’t so bad.

They aren’t great though. The second week of this three week period sucked magnificently, but I’ll go into all of that later. The other big thing is that Malosovich/Yo Momma/Saddam’s Son or whatever the hell other names you know him by has decided to resign as moderator of the RSTL. Honestly, a few folks might actually be pretty happy about this happening. But those who have worked beside him during his reign know that we are losing our workhorse. This guy is pretty much responsible for the fact the league is even still going at this point. So for that, I think we all owe the dood at least a little bit of gratitude.

Anyways, that is all for this little intro, read the rest of this bitch and please get back to us with your thoughts about what we have written. The best part of these magazines is all the shit they can cause and also all of the good. So let us have it, but try to enjoy it first.

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

II. Interview With Malosovich

TaLi: The question everyone, well at least a few people I'd imagine, are dying to know is what finally brought you to say you've had enough. Was it any one thing or just a bunch of stuff?

Malosovich: Mainly because of time constraints. I haven't got the heart for the league I once had and I didin't want to become dead weight. So I called it a day before it got to that.

TaLi: That's reasonable. What do you think in terms of how the league is going and where is might be headed as is? Better or worse than you found it? Or the same?

Malosovich: I can't think of the word so I'll use an anology. The league is a public bus. I feel that the bus is now clean, road worthy and better and safter to ride. It's just going to take some time before the public (members) start using it again. So yeah, the league is alot better. It's just going to take a while to get the members back because alot of people from my generation are going through the same shit I am and can't be there at the momenet, but when people have the time, the league will be unresistable to them because as a bus (league) its still the best on the road.

TaLi: Haha..Yes..Good analogy. I saw something the other day in some thread in hookups where 6ft. Deep said he wouldn't join the league again until, and I paraphrase, we stop enbracing poetry lol. I think he's referring to the idea that the league used to be mostly stories and now there are more and more topicals, some of which become more like personal ventings. What do you think of that. Do you agree with him at all that there is too much of that or do you think it's all pretty balanced for the most part?

Malosovich: I think it's kinda messed up. Alotta people condem poetry in the league because they loose. Others condem it because it's exploited and some how garners members cheap wins. I mean Insense wouldn't be in the Hall if it wasnt for the this current trend of suporting boring mechanics, an unrecognisable flow and a boring plot/topic. I personally don't understand it, I think people just vote for what seems more intelligable (sp) and polished and poetic writing can provide that with ease. No one looks for originality or entertainment anymore. I see this 'poetry' as people being pissed that a Jigga track on 'Blueprint' is seen to be deeper,smarter than a verse from Mos Def or Kweli, because all Jigga is doing is simply saying the same thing differently and people are so impressed by that face value they don't rate anything worthy of too much taught. It's not poetry thats to blame because what ever this is, its simply not poetry. Poetry is being used to describe the boring, uninspired writing thats written differently and thats percieved as smart or something. Anyway, I agree as far as that, but its wrong to blame poetry because EK, Cigma etc were all doing poetry back in the day and no one batted an eyelid, because they were still exciting writings and original. They maintianed the IV or Dmetrius' originality but wrote it in a more poetic manner. So to me it seems poetry is being used to describe boring writing thats some how winning. And no, what ever your deffinition of poetry is, i dont think its fairly balanced, but its about writing for your audeince. you have to change with their changing tastes. and they perfer an Insense verse to a Jowelz/IV verse these days...

TaLi: That is interesting though because none of the champs since I've been here have fallen under that category I don't think so it's like, yeah I agree to a certain extent but it's not like that sort of thing is consistently getting projected above better written or more creative stories or topicals. But yeah I can see his point to an extent. Me personally, I want to see Jowelz and IV lol. Get them back here.

Malosovich: word

TaLi: Well, one last thing, I have to eat lol. Will the league ever see you or an alias of yours signed back in at some point in the future?

Malosovich: With out a doubt, yes. I'll be in the league at some point for as long as I have time to come online.

TaLi: Cool...Last words for your supporters and or detractors

Malosovich: Nooo Biggie Nooo!!!

Malosovich: And Another One!

TaLi: LOL...Splendid

Malosovich: I love that Ad.

TaLi: Haha...You have yourself a wonderful day sir...Thanks for the time

Malosovich: no problem, you too! thanks for having me

TaLi: aww lol

Malosovich: blushes*

TaLi: I gotta get some food before I faint..I'll catch you on here if you're still here when I get back lol

Malosovich: ight man lol

Sidenote: I never got back to him lol -TaLi

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

III. Worst Week Ever?

The week before this past one was god awful. It has to be one of the worst I’ve ever seen. The weeks since the tournament have been pretty good. We’ve had 7 to 9 battles to vote on every week. Then, out of nowhere, we just totally nosedived. No-shows are killing us. Some of you have good reasons obviously. But some of you were just lazy or you had some other priorities that you probably should have known were going to get in the way before you signed in or didn’t sign out. Quite honestly, I don’t care if we only have 20 people in this league. If we all showed, that would be 10 battles! When the hell was the last time we had 10 battles to vote on? The league is a little down at the moment but it’s not for a lack of trying; it’s really a lack of participation and I’m not totally sure how to remedy that. But, as long as there is a solid core of people who still want to do this, I’m willing to do whatever to try to keep it going. It has to be a group effort though. There is no other way it’s going to work out.

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

IV. Why do you do this?

Why do you write? Why are you in this league? What is it that you get out of being in this league? Here’s is what I think based on what I’ve seen since I’ve been back around. It seems like some folks join the league strictly for the accolades. I’m constantly seeing people resetting their records for no good reason. Its one thing if you just can’t remember what your record was (which I find hard to believe lol), but it’s another when you are resetting your record because you can’t take a couple of losses on your record. It’s not like the rankings are set solely on records alone. Why are folks so obsessed with their records? A record isn’t a direct indication of who you are as a writer. Someone like Vigil was 2-2 and all 4 of his pieces were top notch quality. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. That is just the way it goes. Why are you even in this league if you can’t take a loss in stride? I’ve lost 4 times and three out of those four times I felt like I had the better verse but obviously other people didn’t. That didn’t make me want to sign out. If anything, it just motivated me to work my way back up to try again. There was a time when I was more concerned with that sort of shit. But more than anything, I was in this league because it gave me motivation to do what I like to do, which is write and to read other’s writing. Everything else was and still is secondary. I love that I have a pretty good record and I’ve won the title a few times and all those other little accomplishments that happened along the way, but none of that stuff is what gives my writing validation. I get that when I know I’ve given the person I’m against a good match. I get that when I am happy enough with my piece that I’d make a track out of it. I get it out of losing and I get it out of winning; out of praise and out of critique. I get it because I already have it where it counts. But do you?

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

V. Where are they?

One week, he’s making numerous threads in ‘Hook Ups’ proclaiming that he will absolutely dominate the RSTL field and win his third title. The next three weeks he is completely missing in action. The question I’m sure we’re all asking ourselves, or not, is where in the world did Tekneek disappear to? It’s not a particularly odd occurrence to just go missing for a while. However, it does smell a bit funny when someone goes off like Tek’ did and then completely disappears. Perhaps he is one of these new-comers who have signed into the league recently. Perhaps he was on something the night he made all those threads. Either way, the league could use his antics so if anybody knows where dood went get him back here.

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

VI. RSTL FLASHBACK

by Mac Flow aka Awedishin 4x RSTL Champ and member of the illustrious 50 win Club

Remember when Peril Eyes owned the RSTL? His somewhat abstract, beautifully written stories ranging from the mushiest of love to the goriest of grotesque always left the reader on the edge of their seats and in turn always left him in the elite of the RSTL. Peril got into some trouble as a mod, got into some beef with members like Tekneek, and got himself out of the RSTL. He tried to come back, only to be cast out as a has-been and washed up, simply because the noobs didn't understand his style, or maybe because of envy. Either way, being one of the founding fathers of this league, I can safely say Peril was Elite and will always be a king in my book.

Speaking of Tekneek, remember when Tek started this league? The skepticism, criticism, nay-sayers and doubt surrounded his idea. I mean a text league for storytelling and topical rap? Few of us believed it would work, however turn out was tremendous from jump and as many skeptics as there were, half of them were signed in and competing shortly upon the induction of the league. The idea exploded, the league grew to tremendous ranks and some of the internet's very best topical writers and storytellers were soon to be found right here among those of the rapmusic.com community. I wanna thank Tek, not a lot have done so in these years since, and I think (although as insane and senile as his old ass is), Tek really drilled it close to home with this one and I myself will always have a small part of me that wants to take a topic and paint a story that no one else can gather to challenge. Good job Tek!

Finally, my last thought of the week. Remember when the league wouldn't dare have less than 50-60 competitors, on a slow week? I know every league goes through this, cats get tired, cats quit, cats leave the site and newer lazier cats come in. This shit happens. It's part of the growing pains and as with anything, writing can get old, especially if the support isn't there. We're not doing each other any favors by leaving for good, and I may seem a bit hypocritical by saying that but I promise you if I wasn't working 60+ hours a week AND modding this league I'd still be signed in at least part time, just because I love writing and I love to compete in this league. Everyone please try to stay signed in if you can, and refer some friends, get a little rivalry going with someone, a little beef, make it interesting for yourself. Search for new angles and approaches to take to writing stories and topicals, and always switch it up. Don't let them tie you down as a Topical head or a Storyteller, keep them on their heels guessing. This league at one time was an incredible amount of fun, and I'm certain it can reach those levels again with a little TLC. Let's all try harder to make it happen, and heck, who knows maybe the ol' Awedishin will want to gain a couple more championships just to remain in the Elite hehe. Peace, and good penmanship!

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

VII. Voter of the past few weeks.

The concept behind this little award here is to give props to those whose votes are undeniably legit. I don’t mean legit just in terms of shady vs. not shady. I’m talking about that person who consistently puts forth the effort to thoroughly breakdown what he or she has just read. There’s nothing worse than knowing someone couldn’t have possibly spent more than 2 minutes reading and responding to your verse. The past three weeks, one person has stood out to me. That is not to say that there aren’t plenty of others who give good votes. I can only pick one. So this week, the best voter award goes to I Dunno. There isn’t much to say other than this fellow breaks shit down to the point where you don’t even mind that the dood just told you that you lost lol. At least you know the guy took some time to make the decision. Congratulations fool. Keep it up.
(Winners Thus Far – TaLi, I Dunno)

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

VIII. TaLi's Top 10 Verses V.2

10. Insense - Contenders Match --- 3. Insense (22-5) vs 4. Ninja Kid (2-0)

This was just Insense doing what he does well; setting up a scene and developing a story gracefully. I think that if he just tightened up his rhymes and flow a bit he’d be lethal.

9. Vigil - 9. Dunno (2-0) vs 10. Vigil (2-0)

This fellow pretty much has the wittiest lines of anyone in this league at this time. I love the wordplay and metaphors, especially in topic/story rhymes. For some reason they don’t always seem to go hand in hand but they ought to.

8. NinjaKid - 6. Ninja Kid 3-1 vs 5. Got Life? 2-0

This is probably the best written rhyme I’ve read from NinjaKid since I popped back in 4 months ago. He is a perfect example of someone who seemingly takes the criticism he gets and actually does something with it rather than writing it off. It showed in this piece.

7. Pent Up - 15. Pent Up (17-7) VS 16. Tw.ee.Ty (1-0)

This is the best written rhyme I’ve read from Pent Up since I’ve been back lol. The story itself was told very smoothly and there was a pretty decent flow to the piece. It was the emotion that hit the hardest though.

6. Jersey Emcee - 7. Jersey Emcee (21-7) vs 8. Nique (10-2)

This was just an ill rhyme. I like the way this guy writes when he’s really into what he’s doing. He’s one of the smoothest writers in here and I appreciate that he pays special attention to how the verse will read.

5. Nique - http://board.rapmusic.com/rapmusic-audio-league/

Hands down, she has the best rhymes in this league. This piece is stuffed fat with them. The best thing about it is that they never seem to be forced nor do they seem to take away from the message. This is a perfect example of that.

4. TRAP - 8. Defcon_5 5-3 vs 7. Trap 23-7

I for one am glad this dood decided to come back. This was one of those classic ‘one big ass metaphor told with a bunch of smaller metaphors’ pieces lol. The flow was on point as hell and the rhymes were shabby either. This was just a good all around verse.

3. I Dunno - Title Match! 2. I dunno 4-0 vs 1. Tali 24-4 (4 defenses)

Quite honestly, I’m pretty surprised that this match turned out as lopsided as it did. I wouldn’t have been shocked if I had ended up losing by some small margin. It was that good. This piece was imagery packed and I happen to be a fan of that because it’s not usually my strongpoint. I’m not sure what politics you were referring to but I hope you get over whatever that was.

2. Runna DaMille - Champ match --1. TaLi (22-4)(2 Defenses) vs 2. Runna DaMille (11-1)

This verse is a perfect example of a short piece with a lot of content. The rhymes and flow were strengths as always. The story itself was pretty jacked up in terms of what happened but that is what made it so interesting.

1. Junio Sixnine - Contender's Match! 4. TRAP 24-7 vs 3. Junio sixnine 10-3

Who knows if folks will agree with me or not but I loved reading this verse. I said this in the vote, but to me, this was by far the best use of a picture that I’ve seen in many months. Rather than using 20 pictures and barely touching any of them, he took one, and exploited the living shit out of it. The fact that it was well written doesn’t hurt either lol.









Go ahead and belly-ache...I can handle it lol

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

IX. RSTL Power Rankings V.2

(Previously Posted But For Your Information Just In Case)(SO means signed out)

So I was sitting around the other day looking at the rankings thinking, these are nice, but they don’t really tell the whole story. For instance, Unavailable comes to mind. I saw some folks hounding him because he was ranked 2nd but had 29 losses. The cat also has over 40 wins but who’s paying attention right. But more than that, I just noticed that there wasn’t really anything out there that gauged RSTL competitors in terms of consistency. Out of this train of thought, I birthed the RSTL Power Rankings. ESPN does this thing for each sport that takes a whole bunch of variables into consideration and then uses some sort of calculation to come up with and idea of who the all-around best teams are. Well, that is the idea here. What I did was take all of the things that I thought made any given RSTL competitor consistently good. Below is a chart of sorts that explains the point totals I’ve even to each achievement.

At the most basic level, you have to show up to even have a chance to win. Therefore, you get 4 points just for showing up. To me, the next most important thing is voting; hence you see the point total given to those who do their share of voting. Beyond those two things, it’s pretty much all about winning. I thought about making categories for different types of losses, but that just seemed like too much. There are 4 ways you can lose points. The first three are concerned with different types of losses and they are pretty self-explanatory. The final way you can lose points is if you simply don’t vote.

Every week, I go through the battles and record what has happened in relation to these rankings. Then, every second week, when the magazine comes out, I drop the latest rankings. There are two ways I’m keeping track of these. The first way is one’s accumulation of points throughout the weeks. The other way I’m keeping track is by one’s average number of points per week. But I’m not going to start the average statistic until the next magazine.

In a sense, this is corny as hell. That said, I’d have to imagine that some of you geeks out there are into all that statistical shit so whatever, we’ll see how it goes. Obviously, it will take a month of two for the rankings to really start taking shape. So just be patient, and do what you’re supposed to do, and there shouldn’t be any problems.


Championship Match Win (+10)
Contender Match Win (+8)
Ranked 5-10 Match Win (+6)
Ranked 11-20 Match Win (+4)
Ranked 20+ Match Win (+3)
No Show Win (+3)
Ties (+ Whatever Level)

No Show Loss (-5)
Shutout Win (+1)
Shutout Loss (-1)
Consecutive Wins (+2 per consecutive win)
Consecutive Losses (-2 per consecutive loss)

If You Vote (+3)
If You Don’t Vote (-3)

Attendance Bonus – Showing up Period! (+4)

Perfect Score = 20

________________________


Power Rankings After Week 5

If you don't see your name, it means you're in negative numbers lol

TaLi (95)(5 Weeks)
NinjaKid (54)(5 Weeks)
Junio Sixnine (52)(5 Weeks)
Nique (46)(4 Weeks)
Complextic (39)(3 Weeks)
Vigil (38)(5 Weeks)
Got Life? (33)(5 Weeks)
Pent Up (25)(5 Weeks)
L Dogg (21)(2 Weeks)
Jersey Emcee (21)(5 Weeks)
TRAP (16)(2 Weeks)
Nefarious (14)(3 Weeks)
JOOK (13)(1 Week)
Kareless (11)(1 Week)
Defcon_5 (10)(3 Weeks)
Brandon Thompson (8)(2 Weeks)
Unavailable (6)(3 Weeks)
Retulen Reactus (5)(1 Week)
A-Bomb (1)(1 Week)
Green Chronic (1)(1 Week)


I Dunno (60)(5 Weeks)(SO)
Eternal Path (39)(4 Weeks)(SO)
Insense (35)(SO)(5 Weeks)(SO)
Runna DaMille (35) (3 weeks)(SO)
Soul?uest (17)(3 Weeks)(SO)
DeadKing (15)(2 Weeks)(SO)
Tw.EE.Ty (13)(3 Weeks)(SO)
Cereal Killer (12)2 Weeks)(SO)
Atreyu (11)(2 weeks)(SO)
Blas NYC (10)(1 Week)(SO)
Kool G. Rap (8) (2 weeks)(SO)
Doyen (7) (3 weeks)(SO)
Tekneek (6) (3 weeks)(SO)
6ft. Deep (2)(2 Weeks)(SO)
Mirage1 (2) (2 weeks)(SO)

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

X. Where do you all want to take this?

I don’t remember what I was doing when it happened, but I came up with an idea for how we might take the league into next year with some sort of freshness to it. I like the league the way it is to a certain extent. The only problem is that there is never a universal end to the league. In reality, it’s really not run much like a league. Well, I haven’t thought it through all that much yet, but I had a little idea. What do you all think about starting next year with a different format of sorts? I was thinking we could have something like 10 week season and then a playoff-like tournament at the end of it. And if it worked out, we could continue to do that sort of thing the rest of the way. It just seems to me like right now, there isn’t a whole hell of a lot of excitement surrounding the league and I think it has something to do with the fact that there is never any finality. You can become champ, but you’ll eventually lose it. But, if you were to win the season, then that is something that could never be taken away in a sense. It’s something final. For that period of time, you proved that you were the best or whatever the case ends up being. We’d still keep track of overall records in a records thread or something like that, but in terms of the league, everybody would start off fresh every new season we start. I don’t know. That is as far as I’ve thought it through. There are a ton of details that would have to be ironed out. That is just what I was thinking the other day. Regardless of what we all decide to do, the league will most likely continue as is until we hold the ‘Winter Tournament’ whenever that is. Anyways, chime in on what you think of that idea if you don’t mind.

[TaLi RodrigueZ]

XI. Conclusion

Get the hell outta' here lol

[Allah.]

coolness

[J o o k]

Fluke? Yea man, beating you and riko was luck, beating insense in the ppv was luck, and wiping defcon out the face of the tourny was luck. I guess I am a lucky guy it was all a fluke.



**TALI speaking**

Holy shit man my fault LOL

I was trying to quote you and reply and somehow I ended up editing your post LOL...

Sorry about that man...Seriously

[Anonymous]

I'm in until I take the title. Then I'll leave again. But you got me for a little while. Hell as rusty as I am it might be a long while before I can make it to the title lmao.

[Pent uP]

i love UNICORN!

dope ass mag, took me way the fuck to long to read but nice

[Mac Flow]

dope mag brotha.......dope