This is Battle Rap journalist Michael Hughes reporting on the events that transpired at the Smack/URL Summer Madness 3 event during the Math Hoffa vs Serius Jones battle.
Last night, September 8th, Stage 48 was packed with fans eager to watch the most anticipated Battle Rap event to take place in the United States for 2013, Smack/URL's Summer Madness 3. At 2pm the line stretched all the way up the avenue on 48th street between 11th and 12th avenue, and around the corner covering the next block entirely. It took a while for the actual show to begin, as Smack and his associates first put on a screening of the never-before-seen battle between Yung Ill vs Conceited for lucky fans who purchased special tickets granting them access to see the exclusive battle.
Hours went by as VladTV and other media outlets of all kinds gathered photographs and video interviews with various battlers on the card. I personally interviewed both Swave Sevah and Daylyt, among many others, who were fully prepared to bar each other to lyrical death, but sadly the battle never got to take place.
The first battle between Arsonal vs K-Shine didn't kick off until around 7:30pm, but it was a very entertaining bout nonetheless. The crowd hated on Arsonal heavily after the first round and made it hard for him to spit his verses, but they both put on for the crowd, and despite getting physical with each other during the battle, they managed to keep things professional.
The next battle to follow was Big T vs O-Red, which was one of the best battles of the night as both came loaded with great lyrical material. Next up was the QOTR & Smack/URL battle between Jaz The Rapper vs Ms. Hustle. Despite an insane amount of technical issues with microphones, which delayed the battle for a long time, both ladies came solid despite Hustle getting off to a rocky start, and arguably had one of the best battles of the night as well. After this was a fairly random intermission that lasted a bit too long, with various battlers on stage trying to entertain the crowd, and the return of Reed Dollaz was eventually announced.
After all of the side matters had concluded, the event carried on with Calicoe vs T-Rex, which was a truly great and classic battle and a great return for Calicoe. The crowd gave him unnecessary problems in the third round, but he did his thing and so did Rex. Following that battle was Tay Roc vs Ill Will, which in my opinion might've been the best battle of the night. It was extremely entertaining on both ends and filled with bars and hard-hitting punchlines from both sides.
After this battle finished up it was already close to 1 am, and the crowd was growing tired and restless, yet there were still three battles left to go on the card; However, only one got to see the first round. Next up: Math Hoffa vs Serius Jones.
As many have probably heard already, Math Hoffa and Serius Jones got into a physical fight during their battle. Here is how things unraveled from my perspective. I was standing pretty close to the stage and had a great view of everything going on. Math was on the stage waiting for Jones to come out, and he eventually did, along with three attractive women who were all naked with nothing but body paint covering their boobs. The ladies were wearing booty shorts or thongs to cover their lower areas.
Smack flipped the coin and Hoffa won and chose Serius to go first. However, before Serius began his verse there was a brief argument about having 4-minute timed rounds, as Serius previously thought he was going to be granted unlimited rounds. After a short while of bickering over the time limit, Serius began his verse. While he didn't really get booed, he also didn't get much crowd reaction at all. He used his three naked ladies as props a few times, and one or more would randomly turn around and twerk on occasion. The 4-minute mark came and Smack and Hoffa called time, but Serius tried to continue rapping. This prompted Math to continuously yell "Time!" loudly in Serius' face, with Math wearing a smile on his own.
Serius eventually stopped rapping after he asked the crowd if they wanted to hear him continue and they basically replied negatively. It was now Math's turn to go, but one of Serius' ladies dropped down and twerked a bit, which might've thrown Math off, but who knows? He began his verse, and while I personally feel it could've turned out to be better than Serius' if he had gotten through the entire round, he didn't receive much crowd reaction at all for the lines he spit as well. There was one time when Math said a bar and Serius shook his head to mock Math. The next time he tried to mock Hoffa it lead to violence.
Math said a bar which he most likely expected the crowd to react to, and when they didn't, Serius Jones yelled "Wooo," in response to the crowd's silence as if to say "do you really got bars like that?". Now before I say more, there is no way to determine what was going through Math's mind after Jones did that. He could've reacted off of instinct rooted from his Brooklyn upbringing, but who knows. But the fact remains, after Serius said "Wooo" Math punched him very hard in his face.
Serius appeared to be looking in the direction of the crowd or at his ladies when the shot was landed however it may have been possible that Math hit him while Serius was making eye-contact with him, which made him do a 180 degree spin and leaned him back to the point where he nearly fell. Serius regained his footing slightly, even though he seemed a bit shaky, and swung back at Math with a two-punch combination. However, it appeared as though Math either weaved the punches or just ate them and kept on coming, and it looked like he hit Serius again, then grabbed him by his neck as he fell to the floor. Let it be known, it didn't appear as though Math attacked Serius once he was down. The naked ladies seemed to try to jump at Hoffa for going after their man but they were quickly pushed aside by others on the stage. Swave Sevah got in the middle to separate the altercation, as did D. Chambers and others.
After Math got pulled away and Serius rose to his feet again, Smack quickly got on the microphone and yelled to the crowd, "That's it, it's over! It's over! It's done!" Everyone in the audience had to evacuate the building after the violence ensued, which only spurred on more drama outside of the venue. JC vs John John Da Don was left undone, as was Swave Sevah vs Daylyt. Daylyt flew in from California along with some of his Blue Flag associates and was very upset that he didn't get to make his official URL debut, as he was decked out in Blue bandannas from head-to-toe. He wound up getting into a heated argument with Smack and others outside of the event while seeking payment for showing up and being ready to battle, despite the fight that occurred which was out of his control.
Look for exclusive VladTV footage of that altercation followed by an exclusive post Summer Madness 3 and post Math vs Serius Jones fight interview with me and Daylyt dropping very soon.
Twitter was buzzing late last night, September 8th, and early this September 9th morning around the hours of 2am-6am, with numerous fans and battle rappers commenting or joking on Math punching Serius. Serius posted tweets letting everyone know he was ok and also posted an Instagram video of himself showing his undamaged face. Math took to Twitter to apologize to his fans and everyone in the battle community, and acknowledged that he acted inappropriately and that he is extremely disappointed with himself. Smack, URL, Dirtbag Dan, Calicoe, and many others tweeted about how Math's actions have affected the image of Battle Rap culture. Dizaster took to Twitter to call out Math to a battle, stating that he was angered by Math resorting to violence again, which is a negative look for Battle Rap.
Unfortunately as everyone knows, this is Math's second fight in front of Smack cameras, and also his second rocky showing on the Summer Madness stage, his first being against Calicoe. URL has announced on Twitter that Math Hoffa is officially banned from the league following his physical altercation with Jones. Hopefully Math and Jones can work things out peacefully in the future, and hopefully Math can find a way to remedy this situation with his fans and the battle culture. Most importantly, hopefully the growth of Battle Rap as a whole transcending closer to the mainstream won't suffer too greatly as a result of this.
Check out the tweets from various individuals involved with the Battle Rap culture commenting on Math Hoffa fighting Serius Jones at Summer Madness 3 above.
Serius Jones has since put up a blog recalling the events that occurred from his perspective and showed off his face, which had no sign of injury.
