Back in the 1990s, there was a major pop culture war in which it was impossible to not take sides, and the side you took revealed what kind of person you were. What? – Blur v Oasis? Friends v Frasier? Get out of town. We’re talking, of course, about the 1998 asteroid-disaster-movie war, in which you were either lovely emosh Deep Impact (yay!) or loud explodey Armageddon (boo!). Nineteen years later, and we’re all going to get the chance to relive those thrilling times as the world readies itself for not one, but two battle-rap films in quick succession.
The filmic dust-up is also a transatlantic affair. In the red corner, there is Bodied, produced by Eminem, written by Canadian battle MC Kid Twist and directed by pop-promo veteran Joseph Khan. And in the blue, the BBC-backed VS, which stars the UK’s most successful rap battler, Deadmau5-collaborator Shotty Horroh, and boasts Brit battle bigwig Rowan “Eurgh” Faife as its chief consultant.
Rap battle, for the uninitiated, is an artform in which two or more opponents insult each other, in rhyme and almost always a capella, and at the moment it is insanely popular, both in English-speaking countries and, oddly, in the Philippines, where the top battlers routinely rack up tens of millions of YouTube views. Lyrically, no angles of attack are off limits – battles may frequently be offensive but they are egalitarian as well.
Bodied has already harvested rave reviews after it debuted at the Toronto international film festival, but is still awaiting distribution in the UK. Its story, about a middle-class student (Calum Worthy) discovering an unexpected talent for battling, has been hailed for its subversive streak, as it makes points about race relations, cultural appropriation and, above all, white privilege, while featuring a who’s who of US and Canadian battlers.
VS, meanwhile, seems on first glance to be a rather more straightforward tale: newcomer Connor Swindells plays an angst-stricken teenager who battles his demons by becoming a battling demon.
Interestingly, the films have arrived while the UK battle scene is in something of a tailspin, with Faife’s market-dominating Don’t Flop league disintegrating in a cloud of recriminations, allegations of staff non-payment and general social-media four-letter abuse. While it may seem uniquely British that an organisation founded on horrific insults should end because staff fell out with each other, it does at least pave the way for a new generation of battlers inspired by Bodied and VS, ensuring that mothers everywhere need not fear they will miss out on a comprehensive dissing.
