Shotgun Suge vs. O-Red goes soft on The Nicest

Same format as always: 2 battlers, a crowd and a stage, but every bar is supposed to build the other guy up. This time the 2 battlers have known each other a very long time.

rone’s gamblin corner

@rone

Shotgun Suge vs O Red compliment battle. If you watch battle rap you know how special this is. @RealShotgunSuge vs @ored973

Rone isn't overselling it. Shotgun Suge built his name as the biggest bully the sport has ever had, a Newark guy whose whole act was aggression. He came up in the early YouTube era of battle rap as part of the New Jersey wave with O-Red. The 2 have mostly shared a stage as teammates, not opponents. They went at Calicoe and Hollow Da Don together on URL, and they were 2 of the 3 Jersey names in URL's first TripleThreat battle with Arsonal. So watching Suge point at O-Red and rap that he would never turn on him lands differently when you know the history.

That is why The Nicest works. Rone, a battle rapper himself before he was a Barstool podcaster, built the show around flipping the sport inside out: 3 rounds, and the bars are compliments. Plenty of comedians can write a nice verse. It hits harder when the guy delivering it has a reputation as the scariest man in the room, and the guy taking it has known him for 20 years.

Viva La Stool

@VivaLaStool

O-Red came ready with a bag full of compliments for his battle vs Shotgun Suge. @NewAmsterdam

O-Red didn't just stand there and take the love, either. A compliment battle still needs bars, and his round shows the show's real trick: you can be nice and still make a crowd lose it. A compliment from a battle rapper usually comes with a little edge to it, and that is half the fun.

The episode is up now on RoneDotCom. The Nicest has already had a compliment battle on pace to be the biggest video in RoneDotCom's short history. Putting 2 Jersey legends with this much shared history on the card is the kind of booking that could top it. If battle rap fans really do show up like Rone says they will, this won't be the last time a bully gets booked to be sweet.