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I've seen a few people already recap SM2, but I had said I would do one myself since before the event. So even though there was a long-ass thread of updates (many of which came from Twitter accounts of people who were there such as myself), I'm going to do my best to give a recap of the event. I would have done it if I didn't get home so damn late on Sunday night. Alright...here goes...
As I got to the venue, I could see from down the block that the line looked crazy long. I had no idea how long it was until I walked right up to it though- it had gone down East 11th, turned the corner, down 3rd Ave, turned another corner and went part of the way down E 13th street. HOLY SHIT. I didn't see any separate line, so just went walking til I found the back of this one. Once I got there though, I was talking to people on the line about the event and whatnot, and the subject of tickets for it came up. I was like "after seeing this line, I'm glad I already got mine- least I know I'm getting in". One of the dudes I was talking to looked at me kinda weird, and went "you have a ticket? What are you doing back here on line? All these people don't have tickets". Surprised as hell, I thanked the guy and tried to make my way back to near the door to find where people who'd already bought tickets could go in. Turns out, there wasn't a separate line when you got up close, but the security guy just told me to hop in line there- which was FINE with me, I'd just avoided probably an hour+ of waiting on line lol.
So I get in the venue, see Verb & Hitman right away. Holla vaguely remembered me, having talked to him a little bit at his battle with Arsonal a while back, but I said "good luck" to him, then chopped it up with Verb for a brief minute- told him I was pumped to see him live for the first time and that it "has to go better than last year, right?", to which he laughed and said he was gonna put on a show. I went into the main part of the venue after that, and there was already a ton of people in there. I couldn't even believe how many people were still outside though, considering how packed it already was. It was probably about an hour or so of waiting around until it happened, but they eventually started to get shit organized and have the battlers come to the stage to get mic'ed up. Everyone around me seemed like they were pretty amped for all the battles that day, general consensus being Lux's return & Mook/Iron being most anticipated.
Beasley on stage intro'ing the event
The ring card girls were actually pretty slammin (well, 2 out of the 3 I remember)
First battle up was Hitman vs John John da Don. I'm sure a lot of you have seen pictures from the event, but they used a jumbotron monitor type of set up at the back of the stage, which was pretty tight. Smack had a timer that counted down 60 seconds before every battle, letting you know when it was about to go down.
Hitman was 1st, and came out really strong. He had the crowd with him the whole time, and delivered one of his better rounds overall. John John came back with a strong first round of his own though, and IMO this was the round that determines who you think won the battle. The second round, Hitman had a scheme in the beginning of it talking about if JJDD was better than his past opponents. It backfired pretty badly though, as he said "is he better than Aye Verb?", and the crowd went "yeaaaahh!". They also booed Hitman this round, but as you'll see this would come to be far from uncommon. John John came back with a strong 2nd- and I think he took that round for sure. I think it was in his 2nd, but John John remixed the "JR Smith" line and killed that shit. In the third, JJDD actually caught some boos of his own, and Hitman brought it in his verse. Not sure if HH was booed at all in his 3rd verse, but I had him edging that round. So like I said earlier, it came down to who won the 1st to you. I thought John John just edged it. Real good battle though, and they were both clean as hell with the way they got their bars off- no stumbles, and the crowd booing only stopped the battle for a minimal amount of time.
Outcome: JJDD 2-1(but REAL close, almost to the point I'd just say "toss-up")
As I got to the venue, I could see from down the block that the line looked crazy long. I had no idea how long it was until I walked right up to it though- it had gone down East 11th, turned the corner, down 3rd Ave, turned another corner and went part of the way down E 13th street. HOLY SHIT. I didn't see any separate line, so just went walking til I found the back of this one. Once I got there though, I was talking to people on the line about the event and whatnot, and the subject of tickets for it came up. I was like "after seeing this line, I'm glad I already got mine- least I know I'm getting in". One of the dudes I was talking to looked at me kinda weird, and went "you have a ticket? What are you doing back here on line? All these people don't have tickets". Surprised as hell, I thanked the guy and tried to make my way back to near the door to find where people who'd already bought tickets could go in. Turns out, there wasn't a separate line when you got up close, but the security guy just told me to hop in line there- which was FINE with me, I'd just avoided probably an hour+ of waiting on line lol.
So I get in the venue, see Verb & Hitman right away. Holla vaguely remembered me, having talked to him a little bit at his battle with Arsonal a while back, but I said "good luck" to him, then chopped it up with Verb for a brief minute- told him I was pumped to see him live for the first time and that it "has to go better than last year, right?", to which he laughed and said he was gonna put on a show. I went into the main part of the venue after that, and there was already a ton of people in there. I couldn't even believe how many people were still outside though, considering how packed it already was. It was probably about an hour or so of waiting around until it happened, but they eventually started to get shit organized and have the battlers come to the stage to get mic'ed up. Everyone around me seemed like they were pretty amped for all the battles that day, general consensus being Lux's return & Mook/Iron being most anticipated.
Beasley on stage intro'ing the event
The ring card girls were actually pretty slammin (well, 2 out of the 3 I remember)
First battle up was Hitman vs John John da Don. I'm sure a lot of you have seen pictures from the event, but they used a jumbotron monitor type of set up at the back of the stage, which was pretty tight. Smack had a timer that counted down 60 seconds before every battle, letting you know when it was about to go down.
Hitman was 1st, and came out really strong. He had the crowd with him the whole time, and delivered one of his better rounds overall. John John came back with a strong first round of his own though, and IMO this was the round that determines who you think won the battle. The second round, Hitman had a scheme in the beginning of it talking about if JJDD was better than his past opponents. It backfired pretty badly though, as he said "is he better than Aye Verb?", and the crowd went "yeaaaahh!". They also booed Hitman this round, but as you'll see this would come to be far from uncommon. John John came back with a strong 2nd- and I think he took that round for sure. I think it was in his 2nd, but John John remixed the "JR Smith" line and killed that shit. In the third, JJDD actually caught some boos of his own, and Hitman brought it in his verse. Not sure if HH was booed at all in his 3rd verse, but I had him edging that round. So like I said earlier, it came down to who won the 1st to you. I thought John John just edged it. Real good battle though, and they were both clean as hell with the way they got their bars off- no stumbles, and the crowd booing only stopped the battle for a minimal amount of time.
Outcome: JJDD 2-1(but REAL close, almost to the point I'd just say "toss-up")
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