WEEK SIX MAG: WHOAAAA WE’RE HALFWAY THERE

[Adverse]

[B]

INTRODUCTION:
What’s up guys? Hope everyone is doing well this week, last week was sort of botched. Two battles ended as ties, Universe dropped out of competition (after a great showing) and various other things. But this is by far the best any league I’ve ran looked going into mid season, the writers are showing, they’re engaged, having fun. We’ve got some great writers signed in and an awesome audience, so things are definitely still super positive. I’m enjoying running this league, enjoying competing and still having a blast writing these magazines for everyone. So sit back, grab a Elon Muska Cola and let’s dig into Week 6 which is home of our first (three way) championship match of the season!



RULE CHANGE:
EFFECTIVE THIS WEEK we whittled down the max line limit from 60 to 40 in regular season bouts, though we’ve kept 60 for the limit in Contender/Champion matches. This rule change was voted on and was tallied pretty close with the motion to lower the line limit squeezing by. I believe this will help voting.

REVIEWS:
Had some awesome verses this week, as you know the topics are song titles from my favorite band, The Wonder Years and it was cool to see where the creativity took the writers.

CONTENDER MATCH: DOMINATE VS EVICTION
“THE DEVIL IN MY BLOODSTREAM”

This was an awesome battle and truly a clash of styles, while Eviction tells more of a poetically laced story that’s more heavy on emotions and imagery than it is on plot, Dominate usually tells a more coherent storyline that has humor and dope wordsmithing mixed in. Honestly this was the weakest iteration of Dominate I've seen this season, though maybe he has just set the bar at a completely higher plain and was just not up to par this week, the topic was a little difficult albeit. The result of this battle was inconclusive, prompting a rematch this upcoming week for the title (and I somehow fumbled my way into contending as well)
RESULT: TIE

OBJECTIVE VS BROKENHAL0
“THE OCEAN GREW HANDS TO HOLD ME”

This one was better than I had originally expected it to be. Both of these writers had been on a skid before this match and I guess I had chalked this one up to be more of the same. Both had some beautiful instances of imagery, Hal0 is known as a super detail oriented guy but it was nice to see Objective describing the oceanic life around his character too. Hal0 was more story centric while Objective was more about fleshing out seascapes and what not. All in all this battle ended as a draw as nobody was able to pick between one of the other.
RESULT: DRAW

CANDY VS FRANK
“A RAINDANCE IN TRAFFIC”

Frank really showed some top notch potential here, the repetition and poetic language in his verse fit perfectly. He showed why he has been an AOWL champion in past seasons, keeping the same rhyme scheme for a majority of the piece really helped the flow as well, the whole thing was really methodical and didn’t seem like he even broke a sweat while conjuring it. Candy wrote a more complicated tale that was admittedly hard to follow for me, I still feel like there’s something I’m not catching on to with candy’s verses. No matter Frank won this one pretty handily.
RESULT: FRANK WINS 5-1

TIMELESS VS NYCSPITZ
“WOKE UP OLDER”

This was actually a very good battle and one of the ones that lived up to the hype. Just now thinking about the irony of having a dude named timeless on a topic like this lol. Both had different approaches, Timeless’s verse was more of a character study of the world’s oldest and most dysfunctional family (father time, Mother Earth etc) and NYC told a stand-alone tale that was pretty on the head, but he told it in such a charismatic way that blended wit, comedy and substance. Hate that Timeless signed out, his record isn’t great but he’s been dope all season. NYC was much more entertaining if a read this week.
RESULT: NYC WINS 4-0



NO SHOW SHINE
Shout out to Master Rock for showing up and competing week after week, he’s been an asset to the league. Blue no showed him this week so here is his verse in the spotlight. Round of applause for this dude.

“I DON’T LIKE WHO I WAS THEN”

Originally Posted by Master Rock

Distantly gone are the days to where I once lamented upon the pain
where I placed my worth on others to sustain
the beatings of confusion strolling down memory lane
while I'm scooping up the discovery of concepts that I couldn't fully explain
or maintain
the art of conversation, yet it struck me as quite the intriguing game
while jealously poked out its head and envy bled through each moment and I couldn't perceive the stain
I saw the joy of others and sledgehammered their frame
stomped on butterflies because the responsibility had to die
reflected in a puddle and a monster stared me dead in the eye
yesterday didn't know how friends should play
destruction and mischief burned it down, dumb played... with fire
unaware of its effects towards the home, the trailblazed and set
I can't justify my stance but childhood trauma is a like a slave trapped in a cage
while being forced to dance with the devil disheveled while depraved
I hate how I was conditioned,
the flashes are back to the past where it was never commissioned
so I had to pull myself out of my own hell to understand my automated decisions
on my path to growing up, I looked down at my faults lines through self-mastery and murdered the habits
addicted to self control the lack of discipline I had it
I'm not who I once was before
but I still hear the demons and angels clashing their weapons at war
it all began when I noticed my actions and I question what for?
on top of that I was left scratching my head asking who am I?
reflecting on why the pain will not subside
so I pry open my skull to analyze my engine contrived
illuminated by the conclusion on how I arrived

AND NOW FOR AN INTERVIEW, WITH THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS “LARS”

This week I’ve got a true manpoem legend giving us his perspective on all things AOWL Season 10 and beyond. I got Dank aka BOOM aka Diablo aka Lars with us here in the flesh. Welcome, king!

Thank you, man. I appreciate you reaching out to me for the interview and I’m always happy to give something back to somewhere thats given me so much. The topical side of the site had really been neglected for some time, prior to this, with the battle leagues / tourneys and whatnot taking precedent. It’s understandable given the medium we’re all in, but it seemed for a short while that there simply wasn’t enough interest among the community to hold an on-going topical league so for me it’s great to see some of Netcees’ writers back and active again - and you made it happen, so you deserve the kudos for this. The mod job is always underestimated and more often than not it’s a thankless task to take on, so you deserve your flowers too.

Thanks for saying so man, I really appreciate it. This is honestly the reason I do it, it might make my plate a little fuller each week but for me, seeing names like Frank and NYC come back, and giving these guys a platform to perform on is worth it every time.

First question is a simple one but will probably be one of my most important, I’m sure that taking a step from your craft and what not has probably been rough, but my question is if life outside of the site is treating you well? Are you happy?

Yeah, absolutely haha! I’m a very positive person outside of here and if you’ve ever viewed a video mag or something I’ve done here you’ll know how enthusiastic I am all the time. I’ve a lot of energy. In terms of me not having the time right now to compete here week-in, week-out, I mean… it’s slightly frustrating to someone like me, for sure. This is something I’ve actively taken part in for the best part of twenty years (if not more) and that love of writing never leaves you as a person. I guess it just goes on to manifest itself in other aspects of your life, I personally write articles on ethnographic documentaries and research associated ‘lost media’ on Super 8 and 16mm film, for example. I get paid handsomely for my work in that area, so it combines two of my hobbies rather nicely, but sometimes it can feel more like a job as I’m paid for my professional input rather than just writing whatever I may feel like doing at that particular time. It’s rewarding, in its own sense, but not in the same direct way in terms of creativity and having an outlet for originality, if that makes sense? There’s a definite crossover between the two things - yet they’re very different types of writing at the same time.

2. Obviously you trended in the league this week because of Universe’s challenge, where he took the first few bars you wrote for our battle (before having to bow out gracefully) and basically continued the story in his own words. How successful do you think he was in doing so?

I haven’t read it as of writing this, and that’s no shade on Uni for stepping up on short notice either I just genuinely haven’t found the time to read through it. In fact, I am going to read it and then come back to this question for you, both of you, because it’s the least I can do in the circumstances. EDIT: Well, I see he won by shut-out so in terms of success that’s irrefutable. I’ve seen him say he regularly writes 200+ lines and has to edit that down, which I can believe. I liked that he stayed somewhat true to my initial quatrain but also changed it up a little to fit his narrative slightly better, adjusting the sex of the character to a female. It works. I loved his call back to “probably why she didn’t question her name being Chinese in origin,” LOL that was a sneak diss in there for me especially no doubt. I’m not too familiar with the likes of The Truman Show or Shutter Island in truth so a lot of it may be lost on me in terms of what it referenced but I enjoyed the general idea of this being some sort of Japanese fetishist thing somewhat, again that may be how some people perceived the Lars persona perhaps but the fact I didn’t even realise Xi was a Chinese name and not Japanese probably tells you I’m not that familiar with their culture at all, really. I pay it little to no mind, personally. I’m more familiar with European filmography. I certainly wouldn’t have taken that approach, and congratulations to him on the win. I hope he finds the will to sign in and wish him well if he does so. The flow toward the final third was super smooth.

3. Assuming we went into the playoffs with our current roster and you were unable to participate, who do you think would win it all? Any dark horses amongst us?

I think Eviction taking votes off Dominate was a shock to some; he’s showing up and definitely putting a lot of effort in right now so he must surely be a dark horse contender as a lot will overlook him given some names involved at this point. Dom himself had been very strong earlier on in the season, it does get harder as the weeks roll by though as we all know, and only time will tell if he can keep pushing through. I hope he does, he’s been a breath of fresh air to read each week this season. You’ve got some obvious names like Frank and NYC signed in who are always capable of making a run for champion, yourself obviously, Uni if he sticks around now he’s writing again… or wants to, line limits permitting. You basically end up with a case of who wants it most on the day once you reach that echelon, everyone is capable of beating everyone on the day once you hit a certain level of competition. The topics can play a part, depending on who’s style they favour more etc, but that’s for you to adapt to and show versatility as a writer to step it up when the chips don’t fall your way. For me it really becomes about hunger and experience at that point. Hunger in terms of who has the determination to win it all, who shows they want it more, that does something Frank for me is still a little rusty from what I saw last week, it will be fun to see him progress over the next couple weeks to see where his real ceiling is now. It’s a similar deal with NYC for me, the creativity is still there, the storytelling is still there, he’s as fast-paced and action packed as ever so for me if you threw Frank and him together right now I would see NYC getting the better of him. Uni and yourself just went at it last week and I see Uni came out on top, so he would be a heavy favourite with him also writing so much week in and week out, if he’s motivated to make a run he’s an obvious contender. Dominate is very capable and perhaps still overlooked somewhat, he’s had a few closer battles recently and maybe that will fire him up to go harder in the coming weeks. Eviction will be buoyed by the positive feedback he’s received and that makes him dangerous. If, for example, we threw Uni, NYC, Frank and Dominate into the mix for the final four right now… I feel Frank may not fair as well as the other three. Dominate is in somewhat uncharted waters so far as a champ match for the topical title goes, both Uni and NYC will pose major challenges for sure if he hopes to become season champ. It will be difficult to crack it at his first attempt. Uni and NYC have both been there and done it before. I think, currently, Uni perhaps has more determination to succeed but it would be an NYC/Universe finale for all the chips.

4. Let’s take a look back over the years, I’m sure you’ve been part of many leagues/tourneys. Which has been your favorite/most enjoyable experience? And how does this season of the AOWL stack up against some of the most legendary leagues of years past?

This one is actually more difficult to answer than you may first think; there are a few variable factors that play a part in my answer so you can take what I respond with a pinch of salt if you wish but my favourite will always be my time spent in the RSTL at RapMusic.com. I was a young kid, it was a huge site, and basically everyone who was anyone ever came through RM at some point. The league at that time would have 100+ sign-ins every week which is pretty unimaginable now, but that’s the reality of it. It’s incomparable to anything before or since, the numbers were just crazy. I was very young, maybe even pre-teenage years, when I started there so maybe nostalgia also plays a part in my answer, but things were different then too. There were no “seasons” with playoffs and whatnot in sight, it was literally run over 52 weeks of the year and every single week you got a battle and moved up or down the ranks until you signed out or no showed or whatever and didn’t sign back in. It was a different beast. 64 lines a week, every week, and people with stupidly crazy records. I remember going something like 32-2 and making my first contendership match vs ThaTalent (Certain). I was still a child, lost horribly, went and took some time away after that defeat to try and tighten up my schemes and flow before I came back stronger than before for another crack at the title. It’s difficult comparing the two leagues, for me, because they were very different in terms of how they were run, the topics were presented as a mix between quotes, picture topics, and maybe idioms or phrases, and you could either pick one of them yourself at random or combine a few of them however you wanted and write. There was a huge roster of people involved, in triple digits every week, and climbing to the top meant weeks upon weeks of grinding. I don’t mean that as any slight toward the AOWL right now, the league has some talent to the roster and I hope it grows from strength to strength, there’s literally nowhere else I’m aware of that does a weekly topical league right now. This is it. The single most competitive topical league these is. If you’re not involved, get involved. Win something.

5. Watching this league from the outside looking in, and seeing some legendary names like NYC and Frank sign in (and participate at that) was probably pretty shocking. Who else has to sign up before it gets really interesting?

There are some people I would definitely like to see involved, Pent uP, Sacrifice, Three-Planes Aligned, Deadman, CopyPat, Vulgar, Solstice, PancakeBrah, Dullboy, Darth Yoda, Certain if he’s around, Eng would be a good addition. I don’t know how many of them even write anymore in truth. It would be good to see them all in the mix. Witty too if he even writes any more. The more the merrier. Let’s see it.

6. This will be my final question so that I don’t take up too much of your time. Universe keeps calling your writing “matured” and I’m just wondering if you believe this is true? How much has your style and technique changed over the years? Walk us through your evolution

If I’m honest, I don’t feel that my ‘writing’ has matured so much as maybe you’re just seeing the sensible version of me rather than the caricatured ‘Lars’ persona that always carried this trolling image around. There’s no one new here left to troll, everyone who’s been here a long enough time is familiar with the Lars account and knows what it’s up to, but I wasn’t always like that and I don’t feel like that defines me either. I was a writer before Lars was thought up into existence and maybe people forget that because of the shenanigans associated with it, which I’ve slowly tried to step away from and switch my focus towards just writing again and being an active participant. I’m not here to troll and bullshit around, I want to get back to focusing on writing again and I think that’s what Uni was maybe alluding to there because it’s not that I fundamentally changed anything I do writing wise other than my focus shifting more so into wanting to show how good I can be when I put my mind to it. Truth be told I wasn’t that great against Master Rock, I wasn’t happy with that verse beyond the idea of writing from the flys perspective and I agreed with a lot of what Blue Bayou said, but that second week vs Objective I felt like I had something to prove and I wanted to put a marker down to show people what a motivated me could do. It wasn’t my best, I was probably a couple of weeks away from being back fine tuned, but I definitely tried harder in that one than I have for some time. I wanted to remind people that I can actually write well without the circus of stupidity surrounding me, I wanted to get away from that whole thing entirely and just get back to the writing. Showing up, and showing out. This wasn’t and should never have been about childish antics spilling over from the Discussion forum or whatever, I think I lost some semblance of that over time and I maybe wasn’t as focused on the task at hand as I should have been through petty one-upmanship and whatnot, it took me a short while to get back to what mattered to me most initially and that’s writing at the highest ceiling I could possibly within the confines of the leagues limitations. I really had to get back into that mentality and put everything else to one side, I’m glad people saw the significance behind the shift because it was definitely more of a conscious decision to adjust my focus onto my sheer writing ability above and beyond everything else. Bars over bullshit.


Thanks for answering my questions man, I realize how important you are to the league so I wanted to find a way to incorporate you even if you are sidelined for the time being.



NEXT WEEK: I DIVE INTO THE MIND OF CANDY AKA CEREAL_KILLA TO GET SOME PERSPECTIVE ON HIS CHANGE OF WRITING STYLES AND HIS ORIGINS. STAY TUNED.

PREVIEWS:
This week’s battlers were given 10 letter “keywords” as topics and are forced to design a verse around their respective word. Hopefully this experiment turns out good, I think my Wonder Years theme last week went surprisingly well and I’m trying to incorporate more variety to the topics than a simple “here’s a picture, now write.”

CHAMP MATCH: DOMINATE (5-0) vs EVICTION (4-0) vs ADVERSE (2-1)
KEYWORD: PROVINCIAL (provided by NYCSPITZ)

Well obviously I have no business being in this battle, I pretty much kerfuffled (is that even a word?) my way here, Universe paved the way for me by signing out after beating me last week. In reality I don’t really have any aspirations of champing my own league, feel like that would definitely by an asterisk on my accomplishments, I’ll still give this my best shot though.

The real focus should be on Eviction and Dominate though, after battling to a draw this last week, I’m sure these two are hungry to show the league who the better emcee is. The run both of these guys are on is remarkable, and though only one of them can win I’m sure this isn’t the last time this season we’ll see these two clash over the belt.

CONTENDERS MATCH: BROKENHAL0 (3-2) VS MASTER ROCK (3-2)
KEYWORD: BRAINSTORM

WEATHER ADVISORY; POTENTIAL BRAINSTORMS

This one has a lot of potential, the topic can be bent many different ways IMO. On both sides of the ball we have super talented writers who have been up and down this season, both suffering both tough losses and great victories. Think their styles resemble one another, at least when it comes to the aspect of being meticulously detailed. Hal0 has brought a smorgasbord of lyricism every week, so the only question is will ROCK bring his own buffet or will he even give himself time fully flesh out a verse? Time will tell, my money is on Hal0 for the time being.
PREDICTION: HAL0 WINS 65/35

MR. J (0-0) vs CANDY (0-5)
KEYWORD: ATMOSPHERE

Was good to see J sign in this week, always enjoy having him in the mix. Candy has been on a woeful run but is writing true to himself so I can’t fault him there, I think in a league setting it’s going to get him beat a lot of the time though because he isn’t catering to his audience, he’s expecting us to peer at his work from a perspective that we don’t have. I think the word atmosphere kind of caters to his style but I’m still leaning towards J here, his verses are just more voter friendly.
PREDICTION: MR. J WINS 80/20

ADONIS (2-2) vs FRANK (1-0)
KEYWORD: DISTORTION

Think this could end up being a cool, trippy battle. Good to have Adonis back from his camping trip, hopefully with fresh legs and mind (especially considering the crazy hours he’s been working) Adonis has written pretty good with only one true L taken on the season but he has his work cut out for him this week going up against many time manpoem champion, Frank who got off to a hot start for Season Ten last week. This one could be closer than I think but I believe Frank has the momentum and he gets this done.
PREDICTION: FRANK WINS 70/30

NYCSPITZ (1-0) vs OBJECTIVE (2-3)
KEYWORD: MEMORANDUM

Well, NYC proved me wrong last week by not only showing up, but by also having one of the better verses of the week. I was impressed. But was actually impressed by Objective in the same vein , writing what could be considered his best verse of the season last week against Hal0 forcing him into a tie. There’s a lot of directions to go with the keyword topic but I feel like NYC has more potential routes than Objective, whom is coming into his own as a writer but may not have a big enough arsenal to defeat
NYC.
PREDICTION: NYC WINS 70/30



OUTRO:
Thanks for reading guys hopefully you found enjoyment in this (I could have been napping but instead I wrote this) peace and love

[Candy]

dope mag dude yeh im up for next week my cuz is looking forward to reading it i think she might read this one to

thanks its pretty cool peace

[NYCSPITZ]

Absolutely fire mag, enjoyed the interview. Made me hyped and I write my first 10 bars

[Eviction]

Cool mag still don’t know how you can call a battle a tie when I’m leading in votes hehe, a great man once said it don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile a win is still a win that is a win in my history books

I should at least be the top of the leaderboard since I’m technically ahead in votes in that battle.

[Master Rock]

Whooo!!! Nice!

[Dominate]

Originally Posted by Eviction

Cool mag still don’t know how you can call a battle a tie when I’m leading in votes hehe, a great man once said it don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile a win is still a win that is a win in my history books

I should at least be the top of the leaderboard since I’m technically ahead in votes in that battle.

Lmao change our records before this guy has a fucking aneurysm. Imagine whining this much about your record in 2022. Every fucking post. My god, shut up. If I lost then I shouldn’t be in the champ match but I already started writing for this topic so fuck you.

Fire mag as always Adverse. Dead @ the Elon Musk meme. Really enjoyed the Lars interview.

[Eviction]

hey I said give me the win but keep you in the match, technically there was a tie-breaking vote.

I'm not whining I'm just highly competitive. :)

[Master Rock]

I agree with Dom...chill homie.

[Adverse]

Originally Posted by Eviction

Cool mag still don’t know how you can call a battle a tie when I’m leading in votes hehe, a great man once said it don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile a win is still a win that is a win in my history books

I should at least be the top of the leaderboard since I’m technically ahead in votes in that battle.

You both conceded to a tie before a tie breaking vote was ever cast TECHNICALLY

So that’s why I did the records the way I did, it was my mistake the battle got left up long enough for a tie break to happen. Win this week and you’ll top the leaderboard either way. Let’s see some bars my friend

[Eviction]

true the tie break vote did come shortly after deciding to tie, so if we waited a bit then I guess I would have won lol, nothing against dom but I didn't want to share my champ match haha, triple threats are a handful anyway.

[Frank]

Dank

[Candy]

stanks

[Candy]

elon musk thang dope xoxo

[Eviction]

that mf is the richest homeless guy.