Maintain a diss-tance

This is what rap battles looked like when the world was a safer place to live in: A crowd of onlookers gathered around two people facing off against each other. The duo took turns in spitting rhymes that are essentially meant to take the other person down, like a bowling ball toppling a pin over. No subject was off limits, not even cuss words. And the audience reactions were based on how brutally each rapper dissed the other.

All that is a thing of the past for the time being, with the pandemic having closed the doors of physical venues. That's why Battle Bars Bombay, or B3B, one of the country's premier such events, is being held online this year. It earlier took place in spots like The Habitat in Khar or the Cuckoo Club in Bandra. But the digital medium throws the very concept of a rap battle out of the window. Yet, Vineet Nair aka Poetk Justis, one of the organisers, tells us that they have rearranged the format to ensure that the entire essence isn't completely lost.

The top 20 participants of Khazana last year. Such prize distribution ceremonies will have to wait indefinitely

Nair says that the competition is being divided into three stages. Phase one involves people from across the country sending in their best bars. Phase two will see the top 40 contestants submitting videos, which will be played on split screens to give the impression of two people engaged in direct musical combat. And the final part will have the judges announcing the winners.

That's how the event will pan out, since even though the lockdown has tied people's hands, it hasn't sealed their mouths. There are pros and cons to this format. One clear advantage, Nair says, is that while rap battles were usually held only in the metros earlier, the online medium opens up the competition to people from across India. He says, "We have got entries from every nook and corner, such as the hinterland of Odisha. The number of female MCs who have shown interest is also surprising; we haven't seen as many women participating offline."

Nayaab Udhas

The main disadvantage, though, is that this year's edition will lack the sort of raw energy that's only possible at an actual venue. It's the reason why Nair says that going forward, they will split the event into two parts, where phase one will still have people sending in digital entries, while the next phase will witness on-ground battles culminating in an awards ceremony. This is a model that isn't going to be restricted only to rap music, though. Nayaab Udhas, vocalist Pankaj Udhas's daughter, plays a hand in hosting Khazana, an annual ghazal event that's preceded by a talent hunt. The top 20 participants would be invited to Mumbai for a final round, before two winners got a chance to perform with established names at the Khazana concert. The whole thing's been shifted online this year, of course. And Nayaab, too, tells us that the number of entries that were submitted was not just unprecedented, but emanated from unlikely places such as Jabalpur and Bokaro.

She adds, though, that if the situation permits it, she will return to the offline competition for the top 20 talents next year. This is because they can then get valuable guidance from legends like Talat Aziz and Rekha Bharadwaj, who are part of the judging panel. "Also, we get a really good audience [at Khazana] and any artiste, big or small, would want a stage like that. Otherwise, they might think, 'What's the big deal here?'" Nayaab tells us.

Neil Banks

So, the part-online-part-offline format seems likely to become a norm going ahead, though there are some events that are going to retain the digital-only ethos of the lockdown. Neil Banks of events firm Gigatainment hosted the debut edition of the Mumbai Guitar Day competition during the lockdown in April. He says that pandemic or not, the contest will remain in the online sphere in the future. "It makes a lot of sense as an organiser since otherwise we would need sponsors for a show and a venue to host it in, which incurs a cost. Also, if there's an on-ground competition in, say, Mumbai, then it's only in Mumbai [which shuts the window of opportunity for others]," Banks says, indicating how some of the adjustments being made during this time in human history will persist even after the world becomes relatively safer once more.

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