Murda Mook Defeats Iron Solomon in Ultimate Rap League’s Summer Madness 2 Battle Event

The best battlers rappers around returned to the Ultimate Rap League’s Summer Madness at an overflowing Webster Hall in New York City on August 19 to see whose bars reign supreme. The mega event also drew the star-studded likes of Diddy, Busta Rhymes, Lloyd Banks, Q-Tip and more.

URL’s founder Smack White, who earned high opinion for his Smack DVD series, arranged Summer Madness 2: Return of the Legends.

This year’s installment had Smack bring back Loaded Lux and Serius Jones as the legends, who were up against against rising battle rappers like Charlie Clips and others. Meanwhile, the Ruff Ryders’ Murda Mook (pictured) took on Iron Solomon in the finale.

Early on, Solomon kept pace with Mook’s charismatic delivery and persuasive punch lines. But five minutes into the first round of battle and it became evident that Mook was too much for Solomon’s drawn-out analogies and overly-animated flow. Mook, who told <em>XXL</em> right before the show that he feels he is top five dead or alive in battle rap, blasted Iron’s cultural background, questionable battle resume and adrenalized technique, before being cruising to victory.

At one point of the battle, Mook hooded himself and brought out a bag of Skittles, passing himself as the late Trayvon Martin, while making Solomon unintentionally pose as George Zimmerman, Martin’s accused killer. Then, the Harlem native declared August 19 as the day that Iron, who’s Jewish, became a man by stomping the bag of Skittles he laid on the floor and yelling, “Mazel tov!”

A more evenly-matched battle, and quite possibly the only debatable one, was Serius Jones versus Charlie Clips. The two battle rappers seemed to get the best of each other, with the results being a toss-up.

Another highlight on the day, included Diddy announcing that he would judge the T-Rex/Ayeverb battle and award the victor $10,000 in cash. He did just that, proclaiming T-Rex to be the winner.

The show was scheduled to end at 8 P.M., though it dragged out, before eventually ending a few minutes past midnight.

“After Summer Madness 1 was completed, the No. 1 question was, “How he gon’ outdo a card that he put together for Summer Madness 1?”” Smack expressed to <em>XXLMag.com</em>. Came back this summer, topped it. This one is gon’ be hard to beat. Summer Madness 3, I don’t know what imma do, but imma get to work after the night is over and start working on Summer Madness 3.”

Despite not knowing how to top this year’s successful showcase, Smack is certain and has confirmed that there will be a new installment of his acclaimed Smack DVD series, which will be packaged with French Montana’s debut LP <em>Excuse My French</em>.—Christopher Minaya