FlipTop Battle League

FlipTop Rap Battle League  (Fliptop for short) is the first and largest running professional rap battle conference in the Philippines founded by Alaric Riam Yuson (known as Anygma) in 2010. The league promotes Pinoy hip hop. FlipTop is heavily influenced by the original rap battle leagues in the West founded in 2008 – Grind Time Now (US), King of the Dot (Canada) and Don't Flop (UK), which inspired the creation of FlipTop and other battle leagues around the world. The league also branched out into several divisions after its success. The league was currently under management of a self-produced events and artist management company, FlipTop Kru Corp which was established also by Yuson.

Battle 
In general, the contest consists of three rounds with a time limit for each contender set by the referee. Sometimes time limits are agreed on by the participants before the battle. For 1 on 1 and 2 on 2, time limits are generally 1 minute to 3 minutes (with 30 second increments) and 5 minutes respectively. Odd number of judges are selected to judge the battle to prevent draws. Early iteration of rules allowed judges to vote for overtime. In early years, majority of judges voted for overtime or if no definite winner emerged from judges' votes.

However recently, the judges are not allowed to vote for overtime, they should pick a winner. The first turn is determined by a coin toss or prearranged agreement between two emcees who will took the first turn before the battle start. Written or non-written lines are allowed. Both sides can also bring props for the event. Filipino language is the primary medium although other languages or dialects can be used. Choking in any rounds increase the chance of losing the battle. The winner is determined by the decision of the judges.

The criteria for judging are the usage of words, content, performance, audience impact, delivery, and rapping style depending on judge's perspective.

There are different conferences in FlipTop such as the Filipino Conference, Bisaya Conference, and English Conference among others.

The league has an annual tournament called "Isabuhay". A series of matches consists of undercard, non-tournament matches and tournament matches running for a year where the finals occurred every month of December. The emcees appearances on the matches depends on their availability.

Format 
FlipTop has three different battle formats which sometimes combined with Freestyle:

Written - This format allows use of written lyrics along with freestyle and is now the standard format used in battles.
Freestyle - At first the most common in all FlipTop tournaments, this format is now rarely done and has generally been replaced by the written format. Lyrics must be thought of during the battle.
Old School - Is essentially the freestyle format but is accompanied with an instrumental, and is commonly used on tryouts. 
There are also different variations of rap battle within the FlipTop tournament:
 Dos por Dos - Tag-team freestyle rap battle. It can be Emcee or Femcee, Freestyle or Written.
 Five on Five - Five-member team freestyle rap battle. It can be Emcee or Femcee, Freestyle or Written.
 Femcee Battle - All-female rap battle. It can be Freestyle or Written.
 Intergender Battle - Male vs. Female battle.
 Royal Rumble - A rap battle consists of more than two emcees randomly attack or bash each other.
 Secret Battle - Same as the other battles but with limited audience. Sometimes it surprisingly appeared in the day of the tournament unannounced.
 Won Minutes - Strictly one-minute per round format.
Promo Battle - A rap battle without any judging occurred. For theatrical performance and entertainment purpose only.

List of events 

^ Video upload was on-hold first due to technical problems

* With Dos por Dos matches

** House party celebration. No battle is held.

Noted battle emcees

Isabuhay Tournament Winners 

*Did not show up and was automatically eliminated.

Dos Por Dos Winners

Guest emcees

Impact and criticism
In its early days, FlipTop initially gained criticism for its use of strong language, mockery and bullying, prompting the city government of Makati to ban rap battles in the area. As time passed, the events gained acceptance with the help of official FlipTop YouTube channel gaining more than one million subscribers which they received Golden Play Button Award, and over two million likes on its Facebook fanpage. Some emcees in the league recently are more focused on line delivery, hyping the audience in the battle, and gimmicks rather than dissing to attack the opponent; also the emcees improved their penmanship. After it gained success and reputation via social media, many amateur and other rap battles arose such as Sunugan, Word War, Bolero Rap Battles, Bahay Katay, Flipshop, Flipcap etc. Due to its freestyle and rhymed content, some academics considered it as modern-day "balagtasan" although some rap artists discourage the idea. Some educators considered FlipTop as 21st century Philippine literature It caught media attention in that some emcees involved in FlipTop have gained commercial success like Abra, Dello, Loonie, Smugglaz, Shehyee, and others. Also some of the lines spoke by the emcees in the battle became popular phrases used in the Philippines.

Controversy

Sinio vs. Shehyee
Due to the nature of the league and its mechanics, bashing or shaming emcees' relatives is inevitable during the battle. However, in an undercard match between Sinio and Shehyee during the Ahon 7 event on December 16, 2016, Shehyee threw disrespectful lines against Sinio's wife, Bie Sarmiento, during the battle that made Sinio rebut hard by dissing the girlfriend of Shehyee, internet sensation Ann Mateo, that lead Sinio to victory. Their match was uploaded on FlipTop's YouTube channel on February 2, 2017 and went viral with over five million views within four days. Some parts of the clip were also uploaded and shared on Facebook. Sinio's harsh words on Ann Mateo received mixed reactions and it became a hot topic in social media. There was controversy when Ann Mateo's mother saw the video and threatened Sinio with a lawsuit. Because of the situation, many netizens bashed Shehyee for being unprofessional, he was also blamed for not explaining to his girlfriend's mother the mechanics of league. Sinio felt that Shehyee was not to blame and that he understood Ann Mateo's mother's point-of-view. Shehyee tried to help Sinio in addressing the issue with Ann Mateo's mother. Ann Mateo did not share her reaction about the topic.

Pistolero vs. Luxuria 
When their battle was uploaded to FlipTop Youtube Channel. The viewers noticed Luxuria caught reading her written lyrics on her smartphone instead of memorizing it in the middle of the battle which raised concerns that their battle was unfair and considered as cheating.

References

External links 

 
FlipTop Battle League on YouTube