Just been catching up with thread so pardon the flood of posts.
The first take away is that Rza won the battle - I had them about neck and neck in the original 20 then RZA edged it in the extra rounds. IMO Dre, RZA and Primo are top three and this certified to me RZA is above Primo in the top two with Dre, not just because he won the battle but I think this showed that RZA has a lot more range than Primo in terms of production from kicks, snares and drum patterns used to creating a vibe. Where RZA went clear in the battle is that Wu have too many high energy tracks that are certified Riot Starters that not a lot of producers can match. In the beginning though he managed to showcase the soulful and cinematic aspect of his production - just goat level shyt. Yep he fell off in terms of consistency when he started to focus on movies but he showed his style is timeless when he showcased his stuff from the last decade with big hittas like Kanye, Nas and Jay.
The second takeaway is that while Rza showcased he is upper echelon as producer, he also showcased that for the 93 - 98 period, Wu had at least 6 upper echelon MCs which is why he never had to really stray out the camp. Primo had the Biggie, Jay and Nas tracks but all the verses that RZA was playing from Deck, Genius, Ghost, Rae, Meth and ODB was holding up against those ones from who are now considered the elite. Wu as a rap crew may not have gone on to have the careers or be immortalised like those rappers did but it was great that the showcase was being used remind people that in that era, they have verses on that level. And that’s why Wu is the goat group
The best thing about this battle though was to see the comradary between the two, especially as people have been creating narratives of a rivalry between the two to suit their own agendas, a lot of the time to discredit RZA - the amount of slander and disrespect going around last week AND in the comments on Saturday was disgusting. RZA taking the W is gonna majorly wind up those ‘real hip hop’ bums who’ve been talking slick about the about the Abbott so they gonna have to fix their mouth properly when speaking on a king
But hearing them chop it up and speak about how much they love each other’s work was amazing and hearing the back stories of the tracks and how they met each other. Two legends. Amazing that all these parties came together to put this on for the love of the culture and for no money. This definitely was a big moment in hip hop history for me and will be remembered for years.