Lloyd Banks has earned the right to be championed as the punchline king, a title he seems to embrace. Between his early work with G-Unit --including the star-making "Victory" freestyle-- and the classic Hunger For More, Banks' gruff brand of clever lyricism makes him a rare breed of emcee. One whose presence on a Funk Flex or LA Leakers would be elevated to an instant spectacle. As such, his fans are quick to pay homage when given the chance. It's gotten to the point where Banks is openly inviting smoke from any willing competitor.

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It started when one of his followers inquired about the possibility of a URL battle, provided the bag was enticing enough. Banks replied with the Drizzy special, which is to say, a diabolical emoji. Roughly translated to a) wait and see or b) bring it on. After one skeptic mused that Banks' publicized career will leave the door open for too many personal shots, Banks came through to shut it down with the quickness.

"Nobody on the [Earth] cooking the kid," he writes, a confident declaration of strength. In other words, Banks is accepting all challengers, whether Battle Rapper or overzealous claimant. The Punchline King is growing tired of sitting the throne, his dreams turning to open-field warfare once again. 

Battle rap may not be as prevalent in hip hop as it once was, but the art is alive and well. There aren’t many mainstream artists who step into a battle rap ring these days, but there are some who still have hopes of going toe-to-lyrical-toe with their opponents. Many moons ago, Jadakiss and 50 Cent were two rappers at odds and The Lox emcee even dropped a few bars targeting Fif. There was a point when Jadakiss offered to battle rap 50 Cent at Madison Square Garden with a winning pot of one million dollars, but the Power mogul respectfully declined.

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While they’ve reconciled their differences in recent years, Jadakiss told HipHopDX that he knows he would have taken home the top prize if the battle would have unfolded. “It’s just something I thought of,” Jadakiss said. “Battling is therapeutic for hip hop, but you can’t take it serious. I mean, you gotta take it serious because when you preparing your material for your opponent, when it affects your heart or when you let it get too personal, that’s when it’s gonna take away from your vigorous strike. So, you gotta have fun with it use ways to use it to your advantage.”

“I felt like that was a walk in the park for me,” he added about the potential face-to-face battle with him and 50 Cent. “An easy payday. You asking Floyd to fight somebody that had two fights. Not that same comparison saying Fif only had two fights, but lyrically I thought—especially in the zone that I was in at that time, it was like I hope one of these promoters or one of these fight guys call me and say, ‘Yo, we got the money. We need you to come do the weigh-in and sign.’ Gotta throw it out there.” Watch his clip below.

Anything with Drake's name attached to it is sure to be a huge success, or is at least sure to attract loads of attention. The Canadian rapper's latest venture is a multiyear partnership with live-streaming platform, Caffeine. The deal was officially announced on Tuesday, along with details about the first project that Drizzy and the app will be pursuing. 

The world's largest battle rap outlet, URL (Ultimate Rap League), will be brought onboard to kick-start a new initiative to make Caffeine a hub for battle rap viewing. In collaboration with these new partners, Caffeine will live stream and co-produce the Rap Battles.

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In a statement, Drake explained how he's been a fan of URL, which has been promoted by Troy "Smack White" Mitchell out of Queens, New York for years. "I’ve always loved URL and admired what Smack and his team have been able to create, it just wasn’t easily accessible," Drake said . "It’s exciting to be in a position where I’m able to bring Caffeine to the table and help provide URL with the tools they need to elevate the viewing experience and make it more accessible to fans." Smack White, who also co-founded of URL, echoed this sentiment, calling Caffeine "the perfect strategic partner."

This week, a battle rap video captured the attention of the hip hop community and beyond. The video shows a white battle rapper named William Wolf in a room filled with black people as he went up against his lyrical opponent, a black rapper. Wolf boasted in his rhymes that he was told not to use the n-word then started his next bar with "my n*gga" as he addressed his opponent.

Some lines are not meant to be crossed... even in battle rap. With the current state of affairs in the United States and around the world, it's clear that racism is still a major issue in 2020. Most things, especially personal matters, get tossed to the side when preparing to battle against another high-energy spitter at war. One thing that should never be uttered by a white battle rapper though is the n-word. The word carries so much weight and it's just plainly inappropriate to use in any circumstances. During a recent battle, William Wolf learned his lesson when he was decked in the face after daring to allow the word to leave his lips.

It had been five months since Arsonal Da Rebel and Cassidy went toe-to-toe during a URL battle rap show, and the event still hadn’t been shared online. While Arsonal was sure that his rhymes against the “Hotel” hitmaker would one day surface, he didn’t press the issue until he heard that Cassidy released a diss track against him days after the New Year celebrations.

Arsonal told The Breakfast Club that he wasn’t too worried about the episode’s release until he caught wind of Cassidy’s latest scathing track. He said he called up the powers that be and requested for his and Cassidy’s battle to be released, and within a day, the lyrical tit-for-tat hit the streets. Overnight, Cassidy found himself the butt of jokes on social media because of his performance, with many people teasing the emcee for not making much sense throughout what was supposed to be a lyrical attack.

During his chat with The Breakfast Club, Arsonal explained that prior to the show, he took over Cassidy’s dressing room because the venue tried to give him a small area. Arsonal didn’t acre because Cassidy was running late, and it may have caused a little bit of tension that spilled over onstage. “Cassidy is more of a promotional tactic,” Arsonal said about the “I’m a Hustla” rapper being “the face of battle rap.” 

“The leagues know they’re gonna bank off of Cassidy ’cause he’s a delusional character that everybody’s like enjoying to watch,” Arsonal said. “They enjoy watching him get beat up like that. ‘Cause before me, he battled my man Goodz and he tore him up. It’s like, they know the fans is gon’ watch it. They gon’ pay for it. They gon’ come to the event. So why not use ’em?” Watch Arsonal talk about Cassidy and the art of battle rapping below.

When battle rap was beginning to reclaim its space in hip-hop's mainstream, there were very few studio rappers that were willing to step into the ring. Although the art of battle rap became tril in the success of any signed rapper, a few OGs stepped into the battle ring, ultimately causing many dents in their armor.

Among them is Cassidy who's reputation as a rapper, both as a recording artist and a battle MC, has declined severely in the past 10 years. His recent battle against Arsonal didn't help his case either. The two went head to head in Philadelphia and while Arsonal came in swinging, filled with disrespect, Cassidy's bars left many, including his opponent, confused as to what he was talking about. Things had already got heated even before the battle started. Arsonal yelled "suck my dick" and even got a bit handsy with Cass.

Even though Arsonal was already taunting Cass by the time the battle began, the "I'm A Hustler" rapper's biggest Ls were self-imposed. His lines weren't working the crowd as expected, due to poor execution and generally lazy writing. With Philadelphia being Cassidy's stomping grounds and all, what was even worse is that he began getting booed. At one point, you can hear someone in the background yell "NO!" after one of his punchlines.

Peep the reactions below.