"Versus" is the largest rap battle in Russia, it is a prototype of an American show on the Internet, during which the participants take part in the reading of pre-prepared excerpts of texts in the style of rap and hip-hop, being in front of their opponent. In Russia, more than 1 million 33 thousand people subscribed to the Versus Battle page on the Vkontakte social network in Russia. The same number of subscribers is on the YouTube video channel.
Versus is rap without limits
In Russia, rap and hip-hop culture is inferior in scale to the American movement, and domestic performers of this genre have not yet become world-class stars such as Eminem or Jay-Z. And yet there are enough fans of the "black neighborhood style" in the country - and recently the possibility of holding a speech duel between rappers has allowed expanding the horizons of this direction.and attracted hundreds of thousands of fans to the culture.
Stars participating in rap battles and performing at a decent level secure their place on the Russian hip-hop walk of fame.
In this regard, "Versus" is a kind of platform for a splash of emotions through creativity, an opportunity to prove to oneself and fans of the genre that not everyone can adequately "read" it.
A distinctive feature of this channel is the absence of lexical restrictions in statements to your opponent within the round: that is, curses, insults and obscenities against the enemy in Versus battle are allowed if they are not immoral or inciting enmity on the basis of nationality. Such "low blows" will not go unnoticed by the judges (most often there are three of them, but maybe five), and a participant with such a meager vocabulary and inability to use it will not win in the battle.
A little about the creator of the battle
The father of "Versus" is the restaurateur Alexander Timartsev, the permanent host of each issue on the channel and the main organizer of all meetings. He got his nickname due to the fact that the first battle was organized right at Timartsev's workplace - in a restaurant.
Subsequently, he and his friends came up with the idea to transform the venture into something larger. And now "Versus" is a full-fledged, mature project that gave birth to such a star of the rap and hip-hop industry as Noize MC.
Timartsev, notembarrassed, openly says that the project does not yet bring millions of dollars, which many people mistakenly think - the reason for this is, of course, the fact that this movement is only gaining momentum in Russia, and in order for the idea to bring its financial results, you need to wait one year.
"Versus": what's the price?
The rules of rap without rules are simple: there are always two participants in each battle, they know each other in advance. Each of them, before the start of the verbal battle, must prepare 3 passages (one in each round) with an appeal to his opponent and read them out. As a rule, the form of address is "an insult with taste." The brighter, wittier, the sharper the participant's reading, the more chances he will have to win.
Victory is awarded based on the decision of the judges, each of whom is an expert in his field. But the results, as a rule, become clear to everyone even before the end of the battle - the spectators who directly observe the process along with the restaurateur and judges can support or boo the participant.
The brightest battles gain millions of views on YouTube, and are most often associated with the following participants: Oxxxymiron, Khovansky and Larin.
Fresh blood: rappers rock stadiums from the yard
To expand the boundaries of the battle and give aspiring rappers a chance to become famous, the organizers created another platform for those whose name is known only in a narrow circle - "Versus: Fresh Blood". At the qualifying stage, the winner in this category is determined only by the viewer of the channel - whichbalances the odds of all emerging artists, and provides an opportunity to gain instant popularity among fans of the genre.
