"Versus" - this is the most large-scale rap battle inRussia, is a prototype of the American show on the Internet, during which participants take part in the preparation of pre-prepared fragments of texts in the style of rap and hip-hop, being in front of his opponent. In Russia in the social network Vkontakte on the page "Versus Battle" signed more than 1 million 33 thousand people. The same number of subscribers are on the YouTube video channel.
In Russia, rap and hip-hop culture is inferior toscale to the American movement, and domestic performers of this genre have not yet become world-class stars, such as Eminem or Jay-Zee. And yet there are enough fans of the "style of black neighborhoods" in the country - and recently the possibility of conducting a speech duel between rappers allowed to expand the horizons of this direction and involved in the culture of hundreds of thousands of fans.
Stars, taking part in rap battles and performing at a decent level, provide themselves a place on the hip-hop avenue of Russia glory.
In this regard, "Versus" is a kind of platform for splashing emotions with the help of creativity, an opportunity to prove to oneself and the fans of the genre, which is worthy of "read" can not everyone.
A distinctive feature of this channel isthe absence of lexical restrictions in the statements of his opponent within the round: that is, swearing, insults and mate against the opponent in the Versus battle are allowed if they are not immoral or calling for hostility on the basis of nationality. Such "blows below the belt" will not go unnoticed by the judges (most often there are three of them, but maybe five), and the participant with such a meager reserve of the lexicon and inability to use it win in the battle does not shine.
The father of "Versus" is restaurateur AlexanderTimartsev, the irreplaceable leader of each issue on the channel and the main organizer of all meetings. He got his nickname due to the fact that the first battle was organized right at the workplace of Timartsev - in a restaurant.
Subsequently, he and his friends came to mindthe idea of transforming the venture into something more ambitious. And now "Versus" is a full-fledged, mature project that gave birth to such a rap star and hip-hop industry as Noize MC.
Timartsev, not embarrassed, openly says that,that the project does not yet bring millions of dollars, which many people think wrongly - the reason for this, of course, is that this movement is only gaining momentum in Russia, and that the idea should bring its financial benefits, you need to wait more than one year.
The rules of rap without rules are simple: participants in each battle are always two, they know each other beforehand. Each of them, prior to the beginning of a verbal battle, must prepare 3 passages (one in each round) with an appeal to his opponent and read them out. As a rule, the form of treatment is "an insult with taste." The brighter, witty, the more acute the participant's proofreading, the more likely he will be to win.
The victory is awarded on the basis of the decision of the judges,each of which is an expert in his field. But the results, as a rule, become clear to everyone before the end of the battle - the spectators, who directly observe the process together with the restaurateur and the judges, can support or boo the participant.
The most striking battles are gaining millions of views on YouTube, and are most often associated with the following members: Oxxxymiron, Khovansky and Larin.
To expand the borders of the battle and give a chancebeginning rappers to become famous, the organizers created another platform for those whose name is known only in a narrow circle - "Versus: Fresh Blood." At the qualifying stage of the winner in this category determines only the viewer of the channel - which balances the chances of all novice artists, and gives an opportunity to get instant popularity among fans of the genre.
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