It was over once the culture valued personal material and stage performance over the art of rapping. Battle rap became a theater, so the theatrics must come with it. Since the inception of The Big Stage, fans have wanted to see a movie. Winning isn't emphasized; losing is often rewarded by the most respected league. I remember watching battles on YouTube in the mid-late 2000s and being in awe of the different styles. Even obvious influences were more diverse back then (Example: Cass -> Cyssero/Conceited). Regions had distinct sounds, crowds reacted naturally, etc.,
Even though battle rap prides itself on being underground, it followed the same trajectory as the industry on a smaller scale. Battle rap is formulaic (now), so personals, gossip, landing haymakers, spaces, and all the other shyt aside from rapping take precedence.
This is what the culture wanted.
So many facts in this post, +rep
This is how I see the Mainstream | Battlerap timeline parallel
90s | DVDera (heavy lyricism, originality, natural performance, heavy culture, real rappers)
00s | Big Stage era (small-room/big stage balance, skill / sales balance, diverse leagues+talents)
10s | 4-bar PunchOut era (TV deals, political rewards and lack there of, views/sales/streetcred over skill/lyricism)
20s | Clout & opp era = (trolls, opp/gang culture, hyperpersonal, formulaic rap, minimal lyricism, heavy politics)
Battlerap didn’t keep its focus on the art of lyricism and rapping.
It’s what made the artform amazing in the first place.
To the point mainstream artists even gravitated towards the artform, because of how insane the talent was.
I think this obsession with “stars” and support of monopolization
is what caused the bubble to burst.
Most of the stars back in the day were stars because they were actually THAT GOOD.
Corny nikkas changed the perception of stardom in Battlerap too.
From a star being talented, to his generated views/ticket sales, pay, streetcred and political shyt shift.
Drawing attention away from the need to be talented skillwise and have good showings in battles in order to reach that status.
Once the focus stopped being about who was NICE and WON,
to primeraly focus on ticket sales, views, streetcred and politics.
It was the beginning of the decline.
It was a bubble waiting to burst.
Certain nikkas in Battlerap have impressed me on a rap level (fukk all them theatrics and pointless shyt y’all)
To the point I’ll always have a form of respect for them.
It’s nikkas like Lux, Big T, Verb, Yung Ill, Nitty, Chilla
Them nikkas pushed and took rappin to a place I haven’t seen a lotta other people take it. What they all have in common is bein unorthodox.
(I could add Prime B Magic to that list simply by taking the way he put his punches together into account.)
Most of their styles fell victim to the 4-bar punch cornball era, but
I’ll always respect em for what they brought to the table when the borders of rapstyles in Battlerap were/seemed limitless.
nikkas like Big T and Yung Ill would Spit 8 bars of FIRE, without the ADD crowd complaining about punchrate allowing them to punch harder then others when they got to it.
That DVD/ early YouTube era was special man, RAPPIN really shined back then 
nikkas might as well call this era Punch Out smh
That freestyle session with Sway should be a reminder how ill of a rapper Big T really is
How he puts his rhymes together is just so cold and unorthodox.
Lux, Verb, Ill and Big T specifically were the ones that rapped unorthodox out of the 4bar format structure.
Them nikkas were so cold in the golden era if you really are into breaking down the technical aspects of rhyming
It's THEM nikkas back then Joe Budden & Mickey Factz were talkin about being scared of at one point
Most of them simply fell off by not caring and being stuck in the current 4bar set up era
I remember having a conversation with Mickey Factz about rhymin and the shyt was one of the most fun conversations I've ever had.
The nikka is dope as fukk to go back and forth with on some rap shyt cause agree or disagree he is a HipHop head.
We both agreed these new battlerap nikkas ain't rappers forreal.
Yeah they can come up with bars but most of em ain't rappers forreal-for-real
Battlerap was so special brehs, shyt done changed.
