Battle Rap’s Evolution: From ‘Playing the ‘Dozens’ to the Super Bowl
‘Playing the Dozens’ is a form of verbal play, a ritualized game, where two people engage in a back-and-forth exchange (i.e., call-and-response participation) of insults and taunts (Bruhn & Murray, 1985). It is often played by two people, where participants insult each other in a playful, competitive way. The goal is often to outdo the other person in the insults, to provoke a reaction, and to see who can ‘hold their ground’ or ‘take the insult’ better. The ‘dozens’ game helps people to establish communication and understanding, especially when they follow the rules of the game.
I realized I could play the dozens when I was around fifteen years old. One my way to class a group of boys rapped the lyrics to a song titled “You Ain’t Fresh” by the Boogie Boys. I immediately responded with the lyrics from the 12" version that were much more insulting and the boys were unable to immediately respond. I remember walking into class feeling like a winner. This was also the moment when I realized that I was far more into rap and hip hop than many girls my age. By then, playing the dozens had become known as ‘battle rap’.
The first battle rap song I was aware of was “Roxanne’s Revenge” by Roxanne Shante. It was released in 1984 and featured 14-year-old Roxanne Shante who was responding to the hit song “Roxanne, Roxanne” by the all-male rap group U.T.F.O. I was/am the same age as Shante. Her feud with the group resulted in the release of dozens of ‘answer songs’ from different rap artists, in what would be called the “Roxanne Wars”. From wikipedia:
The Roxanne Wars were a series of hip-hop rivalries during the mid-1980s, yielding rap music’s first diss record and perhaps the most answer records in history. It is one of hip-hop’s earliest feuds and perhaps the first “rap beef”.
The original ‘street version’ of Shante’s song was ‘freestyled’ in a seven-minute-long take and recorded on tape in producer Marley Marl’s Queens, NY apartment. The beats were copied from an instrumental version of U.T.F.O.’s original song. I still know all of Shante’s lyrics by heart.
One of the earliest battles occurred in 1981, when Kool Moe Dee challenged and defeated Busy Bee Starski. Starski’s defeat signaled to the culture that the MC (rapper) was no longer a ‘crowd-pleasing comedian with a slick tongue’; they were storytellers, thus, the rap battle rendered Busy’s archaic format of rap obsolete, in favor of a newer style. Later, Kool Moe Dee was taken down by LL Cool J in a rap battle that rendered KMD’s style out of date. By then, ‘battle rap’ had become an important part of hip hop culture.
One of the basic premises of anthropologists and other students of culture is that cultural patterns and processes develop and are maintained because they function to meet peoples’ needs… cultural patterns provide solutions to the problems that a group collectively faces. — Bruhn & Murray, 1985
Researchers assert that ‘playing the dozens’ aka the rap battle is more than a game; it has both expressive and utilitarian values. Historically, the dozens were a way for participants to displace aggression. The ritual/game evolved as an outlet for marginalized youth to “take out aggression against (their peers) rather than against the real enemy” (Bruhn & Murray, 1985). Robert Abrahams (1962:213) noted that playing the dozens was a way for repressed men to “counteract (a) strong matriarchal influence.” H. Rap Brown (1969:26) argued that playing the dozens helped people develop their verbal skills, as informal learning. In my opinion, playing the dozens takes something from all of these perspectives. This is especially the case in the evolution rap music/hip hop culture.
We can see how this plays out in rap battles that are still popular today. Battle rap is a successor of the dozens. However, the history that centers the earlier ritual was forgotten over time. Rap music has an enduring reputation for being misogynistic (Weitzer & Kubrin, 2009). Research (Weitzer & Kubrin, 2009) also suggests that rappers whose songs portray women negatively are influenced by gender relations, the industry, and neighborhood conditions. In 1985, Shante battled Busy Bee Starski for the title of “best freestyle rapper” but lost due to improper judging. Kurtis Blow later admitted that he did not vote for Shante because she was a girl (Thomas, 2017). By the age of 25 Shante had retired from the industry.
In rap music/hip hop (‘the culture’), the ‘real enemy’ is the establishment (‘the industry’) that, historically, exploits artists, especially ones from poor, under-educated, or disenfranchised backgrounds. For years, rappers have battled record labels/conglomerates over contracts, creative control, and financial disputes, with notable cases including Lil Wayne vs. Cash Money Records, Snoop Dogg vs. Death Row Records, and Lil Uzi Vert vs. Generation Now. This dynamic was famously lamented by Q-Tip on A Tribe Called Quest’s 1991 single “Check the Rhime,” where he rapped, “Industry Rule #4080, record company people are shady,” which resonates decades after the fact, with acts like De La Soul raging against the machine.
Rap, like playing the dozens, has always been educational. In the early 1990s, I facilitated a workshop for NYC English teachers that explored the use of metaphor in rap lyrics. Metaphors are a common and powerful tool in rap lyrics, used to create vivid imagery, convey complex ideas, and add layers of meaning, often by comparing seemingly unrelated things. Years ago, I played Eric B. and Rakim’s “Microphone Fiend” and, as a group, the teachers discussed how they could use rap to engage their students. Also, #HipHopEd has become the premiere platform for hip-hop in/as education. It is both an online chat and offline movement dedicated to bringing scholars, teachers, students, and other stakeholders together to engage across a number of topics related to hip-hop and education.
Last night, West Coast rapper and music producer Curtiss King assembled several Black male ‘YouTube reactors’ to mark the one-year anniversary of “Like That” a rap song by Future and Metroboomin, featuring Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick’s verse attracted significant media coverage as a diss aimed at fellow rappers Drake and J. Cole in response to their 2023 collaboration, “First Person Shooter.” A battle had been brewing between Drake and Kendrick since the latter rapper did a verse on Big Sean’s 2014 “Control” song that ‘took shots’ at several rappers including Drake. The only person who responded negatively was Drake and this is where all of the battle rap rules/protocols went out of the window.
Battle rap, which came from ‘playing the dozens’ is a game. However, with the invention of social media and streaming platforms, rap/hip hop entered a mainstream pop culture that did not know or care about its history and rituals. Drake crossed over into pop while never fully understanding or belonging to hip hop culture. After the release of Drake’s “Family Matters” in 2024, Kendrick Lamar responded with “Not Like Us,” which Drake deemed defamatory. Drake, who was embroiled in a legal dispute with Universal Music Group (UMG), lost the rap battle. He decided to ‘kill two birds with one stone’ with a UMG lawsuit, setting a new legal precedent that threatens the culture of battle rap and maybe even hip hop.
“Always rapping like you ‘bout to get the slaves freed… You just acting like a activist, it’s make believe. — Drake, “Family Matters”
and then…
You’re not a rap artist, you a scam artist with the hopes of being accepted
Tommy Hilfiger stood out, but FUBU never had been your collection. — Kendrick Lamar, “Euphoria”
Kendrick used metaphors to label Drake as a visitor to the culture or even worse as a “colonizer” of ‘the culture’. Drake’s past and present actions have mimicked ‘the industry’ that has always found ways to extract what it wants from hip hop without properly compensating the artists who are part of the culture. During the 2024 battle, Kendrick often addressed Drake as a member of the establishment while masquerading as a peer. The ensuing Drake vs. UMG lawsuit blurs the lines between creative expression/commodification, between culture/industry, and between creative peers/enemies. At risk is the very culture that created space for rappers like Drake to thrive in.
References Cited
Abrahams, R. (July-September 1962). Playing the Dozens,” Journal of American Folklore, 75 (p. 213).
Brown, H. R. (1969). Die Nigger Die! (p. 26). Dial Press.
Bruhn, J. G., & Murray, J. L. (1985). “Playing the Dozens”: Its History and Psychological Significance. Psychological Reports, 56(2), 483–494. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1985.56.2.483
Thomas, D. (September 2, 2017). “How the best rapper of 1985 was sabotaged because she was a girl”. Vice.com.
Weitzer, R. & Kubrin, C. E. (2009). Misogyny in Rap Music A Content Analysis of Prevalence and Meanings. Men and Masculinities, vol. 12, no. 1. SAGE Publications.