[King Ra.]

AOWL Week 3 Magazine: The Championship Preview Edition.

Welcome to the 3rd edition of the AOWL magazine. This is the Championship Preview Edition. We are one week away from the title being put in rotation, so we will be taking a peak at the conferences, records, rankings preview & a possible championship/contenders match up scenarios. The league continues to grow & despite the amount of no shows last week, we are still 12 matches strong. Got those lovely No Show Love pieces that you probably missed out on. We recap week 2, got this weeks predictions & as always special guests who sit to have a word with the King. Let's not forget our Open Mic features. There is some very, very big additions that will be in effect this season that we will also reveal in this magazine. If you thought this league was starting to slip, you thought wrong. Now kick back & dive into this weeks AOWL magazine featuring The Game's "Sunday Service/Jesus Piece" selections. Holler.







OPEN MIC FEATURE #1


'Hip Hop Hero' written by SiK


Hellish demons with selfish reasons released to lurk the streets
In search of rap relics unspoken unless worded over a perfect beat
The earths in danger as a perfect stranger arrives cloaked in black
Armed with nothing more than a mic and what’s left of a broken bat
Alleyways provide cover his pride smothers any thought of weakness
Secretly trained by the Gods so he’s ready to shadow box with demons
The Hero reveals himself no shielded stealth n everything to fight for
He likes war, blood stains remain from past enemies on his mic chord
The son of death approaches, with unaffected focus he squares his feet
On sacred ground, were challengers of the past have fallen, buried deep
He draws a blade with paws of rage always noticed for his heroic actions
Throwin slashes with a sword heated and formed by the throat of dragons
Plugged into his mic jack he fights back, words alone can destroy the demons
He deploys his freedom of speech and defeats em with the voice of reason


what the readers are saying....


Sharp Nine- "Liked the heavily imagery-driven approach you took, really brought out some nice moments. That, paired with some nicely rhymed/flowing parts created a really nice drop.

Zenland- "I really dug the inner rhymes you had laid in throughout to keep the flow going."

Figurative- "The wording here was great, very clear and concise, perfect for a storyline. All in all, i enjoy the piece."




WEEK 2 RECAP

Rawn MacDon sneaks by c.d.m., 6-4.- What was at first thought to be an almost certain KO for Rawn, turned into a slugfest, as voters started to swing towards Veritas near the end but not enough to take the win. It seemed as if the early voters were not impressed with V's piece at all but the late voters thought otherwise. As said by Aesthetic in reference to voting for c.d.m., "He had a deeper storyline that was straight and on point. It also seems like he put a lot more thought into it, which usually means there is a lot more meaning behind the eyes." Rawn put together a solid piece, but it seems as if readers are still waiting for that gem. He enters next week with his first victory (1-1) while c.d.m. falls to 0-2.

Mike Wrecka earns first win over Camp bell, 6-1.- Wrecka added 1 to the win column, as he cruised to an easy 6-1 victory over Camp last week. A great storyline & solid character progression was enough to get the voters approval as Camp bell seemed to struggle with his piece. "yea man, i was struggling with it cuz i couldnt get a feel for the pic.... mike you bodied this shit tho fam, good shit!!" was his response after the first vote dropped. He did receive a vote however but that wasn't enough.

dead man adds another KO, knocking off Nigma, 6-0.- One of the rising talents in the AOWL, Nigma, battled against the heavily favored dead man, losing 6-0 last week in what was one of the highly anticipated battles. Don't let the 0 votes fool you. Many were impressed with Nigma's showing & his verse could've beaten many of the other verses in week 2. However his opponent was overwhelming, putting together a very creative conceptual piece that wow'd the voters greatly. Said c.d.m. in his vote, "Deadman was just on another level.... I am learning you, I see what you do, the abstract imagery metaphor. I have seen many fail at this and yet you succeed. I love the message you convey.... Epic." Dead man has beaten his first two opponents by a count of 15 votes to nothing. Nigma looks to bounce back this week.

zygote stuns Zenland 28 mins in, 6-1.- Maybe it was the fact Zy did not like the picture he was given. Maybe it was just his creative approach to the image. Maybe it was just because.... zygote is THAT good. It showed last week as he shocked The Zenmaster, 6-1, posting a verse 28 mins after the match was set up. It's nothing new, as zygote has always been known to put together a topical the same day the time to the deadline kicks off. His approach to the picture this week was noted heavily by the voters, one even stating that zy was possibly strategic in somewhat challenging his opponent to come up with something more clever. Zen dropped a solid piece but it wasn't enough to get a victory. He faces another tough challenge this coming week.

Coup shuts out Malachi for his first W, 9-0.- The young Malachi didn't do enough to challenge his opponent, as once again, he falls by a knockout, 9-0, this time to Coup. Voters didn't like the very weird ending that the Prophet came up with, which seemed to be the Achilles heel to his loss. Voters stated that he has great potential & he still needs some more time to continue fine tuning his skills. The Coupe dropped a nice piece which had some mixed reviews, but nonetheless was enough to get the W. Malachi falls to (0-2) & has signed out for the time being, while Coup looks to build on momentum and earn his second straight victory.

pohfig wins thriller over Genocide, 5-4.- This battle came down to the very last vote. That's how good this match up was. Pent managed to edge it out 5-4, in what turned out to be one of surprising match ups last week. The votes went back & forth which is very rare to witness. Some were impressed by poh's creative take on the image & his exceptional wording, while others were loving Geno's scheme & entertainment value. This battle could've went either way as both competitors were looking to earn the 2-0 start. The final vote came down to dead man who stated, "i hate to break the tie because it feels too heavy but i gotta throw my vote to POHFIG. simply for producing the more thoughtful piece of writing this week." While Geno looks to recover this coming week, poh faces off against dead man, in a match that would more than likely pit the winner in the first championship match of the season.

A Word With The King, Session I: Nigma Discussion.



King Keith: First off as always, introduce yourself to our readers.

Nigma: Greetings mortals, I go by Nigma, on Netcees I was Nigma the Nephalem, and before then have simply been known as Enigma. Mr E, the jack of all trades and man of many names, pleasure to make your acquaintance.

King Keith: Word. By the way, happy birthday man. You turned 24 today. How does it feel & what have you been up to/or still plan on doing?

Nigma: Appreciate it! Been a quiet morning so far, went out to lunch, and have some dinner plans soon, fam is cookin up some of my favorite food and I'm pretty excited to muck tbh.. Since its a midweek birthday I'll probably just get drunk at the house with family and friends but this weekend is going to be a wild one for sure

King Keith: Ain't nothing like spending time with the good, ol' family, indeed. Don't go out and do anything you would regret off the liquor though. So let's dive into the AOWL. What do you think of the league so far & what are your expectations this season?

Nigma: I'd like to think that my wild days are behind me, but all mayhem is fair game once the whiskey hits my lips! I'm honestly extremely impressed with the caliber of talent across the board in this league. It encourages everyone to constantly bring their A-Game and makes for some terrific reads each week. As far as expectations for this season, I feel we already have an extremely solid foundation to work off of and I expect things only to go up from here. As far as personal expectations, I am just looking to have some of these writers to grow more accustomed to my writing style, what I'm capable of, and what to expect from me on a weekly basis. People have recently stated I've been improving, and although that may be, I feel it's more-so that these individuals are beginning to get to know me as a writer. I'm confident in my writing abilities and during the course of this season I expect the general public to understand why.

King Keith: You are definitely one of the risers in this league. Last week you faced off against dead man, whom we all know as Black himself, and you lost, 9-0. What did you think of dead man's piece & how did you feel about your verse compared to his? Could you have wrote more, was the image a challenge?

Nigma: To be honest, I had a hard time finding motivation for that particular image. Aside from being busy for the portion of the week, time I did have to work on it was hindered by writers block. In hindsight, I wish I had taken the time to write a longer verse. Once I got a start on it, I had some momentum and I feel I could have added a lot to make it a longer and more enjoyable read. But, at the same time, I feel the extra effort I coulda-shoulda-woulda put into would have been in vein when taking Blacks verse into consideration. He came up with the concept I wish I had thought of and did a fucking amazing job with it. I have absolutely no problem taking that loss against him, however I look forward to a potential rematch down the road. He's the type of competition that encourages any opponent to dig deep and put everything into a verse just to make the battle close. Nothing but respect for him.

King Keith: Well said. This coming week you're up against me (how ironic), are you prepared & how do you feel about our topic? Also, what matches are you looking forward to & who are some of your winners this week?

Nigma: I'm excited to work on this weeks battle. I'll be keeping the quote in mind this evening and see what I can get brainstormed tonight, then I'll be dedicating tomorrow afternoon to getting it written. Quotes as opposed to images seem to offer less limitations so hopefully we'll be seeing some creative verses this week.

Without a doubt the battle I look forward to most this week is deadman and pohfig. If both show up and write at the level we expect them to I can see that battle being one of the best this league has to offer. I would rank them 1 and 2 from what I've read so far, and the aftermath of this clash will dictate which is which. When the dust clears, I wouldn't be surprised to see the winner of this battle going on to be the first champ of the league.

Geno vs Camp Bell should be another entertaining one this week. Although the records are similar, I'd give Geno the definite edge although I wouldn't be surprised if Camp made it a tough decision. Zygote vs CDM, I've got to lean towards Zygote. He's a writer I'm quite familiar with, the two of us having wrote on the same site for quite some time, a lesser known battle site that has since died. I know CDM is better then hes shown so far and I'm excited to see him write in a more serious manner, however he's got his hands full this week. Frank and Zenland is another interesting battle, two writers with very different styles. The contrast can either favor one writer or the other, however I feel that this will be one that's going to be a tough call.. If I had to guess, I'd lean towards Frank.

Those are the ones I'm bold enough to call, however there are going to A LOT of close ones this week in my opinion, I just hope everyone shows up!

King Keith: Lot of dope matches, indeed. This could be the first week where every battle goes down, which will make my work for next week's mag, even tougher, haha. We will see what happens. Well birthday boy, this concludes our discussion. Appreciate you taking the time out to talk. Any shout outs or final thoughts you have for our readers?

Nigma: First off, big ups to you Keith. This writers league is heart and soul of the site right now and you are doing a fantastic job keeping it together and moving forward. Dope mags weekly on top of the standard obligations of putting together matches and assigning topics. Aside from all that you take the time for in depth votes on several matches a week, that's some dedication and I for one appreciate it! I believe it's Genocide helping you out so ups to him as well, thanks for everything gentlemen!