Rapped to his friends, mother, anyone who would listen on the street. "Controversy is good in Hollywood," he said, "but not in Virginia."ĭaquan Hill rapped his girlfriend to sleep. Hill said it takes maturity to shrug off the insults. "These kids today are fearless," he said. However, Hernandez backs away from battle raps because they can spin out of control. "There's something really true about it." Pharaoh.Īlmost every time he goes to a house party, Hernandez said, he ends up in the backyard with friends, a boombox and a freestyle stream of lyrics. It's less about competition than collaboration, said Justin Hernandez, a Virginia Beach emcee known as J. More often, rappers form a circle, known as a cipher, and share lyrics to a beat. "I'm going to talk about all your insecurities and put them on Front Street," Hill said. Most do it because they love music, poetry and the face-to-face challenge, he said. Hill, 27, won an emcee and battle rap competition last year at NSU. "It's a chance to be a star, to emulate what you see on TV," said Russell Hill, a radio host at Norfolk State University who goes by DJ Illmatic Beats. The lyrical duels have been around as long as hip-hop, and figure prominently in such movies as rapper Eminem's "8 Mile." The popular video music show "106 & Park" on BET features Freestyle Friday, with rappers dueling on a stage decorated as a boxing ring. Police and prosecutors in other Hampton Roads cities reported no other serious incidents involving rap battles. Seldom, however, do the raps turn violent.
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