By: Zixian Huang

Battle rapping has become increasingly popular in the past decade, with major leagues hosting national events with the best battlers in the world.

Tyrell Reid, also known as No Mercy, is the founder of Trap NY, one of several other rap leagues that host events throughout New York City.

No Mercy didn’t create the rap league for profit. In fact, he often loses money on his events. According to the NY Times, “the point isn’t to create a successful business, it’s to nurture promising new M.C.s and give them tools to succeed.”

Rap battles usually consist of 3 rounds, in which battlers attempt to outrap each other by using hard hitting punchlines, getting the crowd going, and insulting or humiliating the opponent. There is also no officially announced winner, and it is usually left to the audience to debate who won.

Even though the whole point of rap battling is to humiliate your opponent to the best of your ability, which also includes “spraying insults, death threats and literal spit in their opponents’ faces,” there’s underlying sportsmanship that often astonishes the audience. The NY Times states that “Rappers will often nod in approval or even give a pat on the back when their competition lands a particularly good punchline; if someone starts forgetting what they wrote, their opponent might mutter words of encouragement; and when it’s all over, the rappers will, almost without fail, exchange congratulatory daps and embraces.”

These battles are getting bigger, with the financial support from ticket sales, ad revenue, pay-per-view broadcasts and app subscriptions. A rapper named Chris Dubbs aiming to become one of URL’s (Ultimate Rap League) next big stars promises that ““Within the next 10 years, I guarantee you battle rappers are going to be household names the same way industry artists are household names […]”