#ThatOneTime Percee P Battled Lord Finesse in The BRONX , A Classic MC Battle, every Hip-Hop Head n

“The medium is the message.” When it comes to rap as a post-modern art, the medium is everything; lack of traditional rock/R&B instrumentation and financial constrictions fashioned a culture or second-hand re-interpretation, with the MC or DJ as the frontman and the turntable as the whole band itself. Necessity is the mother of invention, and each leap in technology from MPCs to synths to VHS – not only bolstered hip-hop's potency, but its reach and influence.

So it's not hard to see the milestone in Lord Finesse and Percee P's infamous 1989 battle. Taking place in the BX, the birthplace of the culture, the four-round battle represented several key moments in the evolution of battle rap. First off, the hip-hop bonafides are off the charts, with Lord Finesse taking the battle with Percee after the latter battled his fellow Diggin' in the Crates Crew member AG. Second, the battle itself is a showcase for the then-new, post-Rakim/Big Daddy Kane rap styles that would define the latter half of rap's “Golden Era”. Percee P rocked a fluid, flow-heavy rhyme style, continuously riding the beat with ease, while Lord Finesse sported a more measured, punchline-heavy approach. Most importantly, it was one of the first filmed rap battles, taking full advantage of the then relatively affordable home recording technology of the time. When Finesse went to the Patterson Projects looking for P after hearing he couldn't find Finesse and used a kid from his block as a surrogate punching bag, residents copped a camera quickfast and history was made. In that sense, the battle clearly prestaged the mixtape DVD-era of most street battles on record before and since. Rather than just take word of mouth as gospel or miss part of the sensory experience and little visual details that sound-only documentation omits, you could feel like you were there, and catch all the intricacies and nuances that paint the big picture of the moment. Case and point, the battle was a 4-round match with occasional adlibs from Percee's associates, which was acceptable at the time. But when Percee stumbled in the 3rd and a crew member tried to help, Finesse deaded it as an unfair advantage. In fact, both rappers claimed to have game plans going into the battle, that went straight out the window once the ghettoblaster went on and it was time to rhyme. P's stumble aside, the match is regarded as a close classic, often viewed as either a tie or highly debatable. The quality of the match was so strong that the two did a second battle in 2003, this time staged for the film “SBX”. Showing no signs of rust and ending with a handshake and hug emblematic of two dudes who love their craft and respect each other's skill. When asked about a third go, the friends and collaborators have joked that they'd do it when they turn 50. Hip-hop could only be so lucky.

Words From : gregrieke20

LORD FINESSE VS. PERCEE P. 1989

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