48 hours into the new year and you already know what that means.

The time has come for The Source to announce our top 20 battle rappers and top 5 events of the previous year. Looking back, one thing is clear: The culture is bubbling to new heights. 2018 not only gave platform for the emergence of great talent, but produced some of greatest battles of all times.

Before we get into the list, lets review some of our favorite moments and bars of the year.

In 2018, we saw the return on a few battle rap veterans: Murda Mook , Jae Millz , T- Rex and Reed Dollaz proved that you can go away and do mainstream projects and still come home to an attentive audience. Some were able to deliver their classic flows to an anxious newby crowd that had only seen them on grainy YouTube, others seemed outdated and out of touch with the culture as it is now. Either way, these battlers created quite a stir on some of the top cards of the year.

We also enjoyed the stripped down, low production styled battles that we saw with URL’s new BANNED series and Smack Vol. series and the make-up battle between Ill Will and Calicoe on the RBE Lift His Soul 5.

Speaking of BANNED…

Lets revisit the Nu Jerzey Twork vs Chess for one of our first moments and favorite haymakers. A classic battle indeed, both men traded slick shots back and forth. While we appreciated the disrespectful tone of the bout, we doubt Smack appreciated getting his pockets tapped in round 3 as Twork got ‘strapped in.’

“I’m strapped in… Nah, Nah… I ain’t even strapped. I’m still on strike. Y’all gotta deal with that! All this pay-per-view shit, I don’t like what I’m hearing Smack. You made $2.5 million? Nigga where its at?”

Another bar that we loved also comes from the front man from The Goonies. On SMACK Vol. 2, against Aye Verb, at the top of round three, Twork attempts a kill shot with his trademark.

Let’s go in unison: “I’m strapped in! I’ll clap you in a coma! Madness! I could snap at any moment….”

“I pull a pound! 100 clip, he get the fully round!He don’t know who did it.. I’m over the body with the hoodie down”

Now lets get into the list. We surveyed over all kinds of battle rap enthusiasts for the last three months (including fans, league owners, bloggers/ influencers and the battlers). The surveys were done in s qualitative manner with special attention to what fans have said and what rappers outside of the culture believe. With over 200 submissions, here are the results.

The post Best of The Culture: Top 20 Battle Rappers And Top Events of 2018 appeared first on The Source.

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