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New Cypher Champ Johnny Lee with Queen Bobbi. Thank you SMS Audio and Queen for the giveaways!
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Johnny Lee gets personal with the crowd
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K DOGG spittin the real
There is no denying that the Cypher segment of KICKBACKSUNDAYS is always a crowd favorite. Clever punchlines including insults and jabs, mixed with emotions, a large crowd and lets not forget the clicks of homies, and what you have is a survival of the fittest mentality of anything goes, nothing is off limits.
From week #1 and 2, K DOGG had won in the final cypher so he would be the one that someone would have to face in week#3. This someone would be Johhny Lee. I was especially pleased to see Johnny Lee return to KICKBACK SUNDAYS not only for the skill level that he displayed in week#2, which Doughbeezy and I had a conversation about as we both watched him from the side of the stage, but because I felt that a few things went wrong in week#2. We usually give the artist a time limit on the mic, either a “16″, a minute, whatever the case is, we inform them of their allowed time on the mic. When Johnny Lee went up against Kab Tha Don, it was no doubt a great battle in which both guys killed it, but Kab exceeded the time limit and was allowed to do so, because I failed to grab the mic from DJ Auditory when I should have. Johnny Lee then asked for 30 seconds more on the mic to salvage things, but it was too late, Kab had control of the crowd. I mean, what is the point of having rules if we do not enforce them right? So, for 2 weeks, I hoped Johnny Lee would return because I felt that I didn’t put my foot down and restore order, if thats even possible in a cypher!
So, with that bit of history, here we are week#3 and the play by play.
This weeks cypher was hosted by SMS Audio and Queen Bobbi, who we are very grateful they provided wonderful giveaways for folks in the crowd and for the winner of the final cypher, a pair of some dope headphones!! The winner of Cypher #1 was “A1″, Cypher #2 was John Dough and the winner of Cypher #3 was Johnny Lee. These 3 artists would face the returning champ, K DOGG, in the final round. Queen Bobbi made it clear that she wanted “no struggle bars” so you really had to be on top of your game. Before the cypher started, the 3 challengers were spread out on different corners of the stage with their game face on. Johnny Lee was in the far right corner with the stone face, A1 was leaning against a wall staring with no blinks, somewhere into the distance, K DOGG was chillin on the stage and John Dough was pumped up as well. A few members of the Headwreckas were shouting from the crowd, urging K DOGG to do his thing, random comments from all parts of the crowd because it was the final cypher!
K DOGG was first up, which is usually not how things go, since he was the reigning champ but he grabbed the mic, and set the bar high. All of the artists displayed some quality bars, but in the final round it became a showdown between K DOGG and Johnny Lee. Since it was such an issue of who goes first, Suzie did a coin toss and K DOGG was the artist who would go first! This would be a great battle of skills! Once again, we always go off the noise of the crowd, and a lot of people felt that Johnny Lee was the winner before we did a final showdown But I suppose deep down inside, we never want the battle to end! I personally couldn’t call it and it became a back and forth opinion swap, and Johnny Lee stepped forward and said he had no problem going again. I couldn’t believe it was another week#2 situation all over again. And speaking on the week#2 situation, it was obvious that there were some unresolved emotions on both sides between Kab and Johnny Lee, from the comments I was hearing from the crowd, so with that being said…we would have to settle things with a final round.
So now the stage is set. It would be K DOGG vs. Johnny Lee in a final round. Both artists did very well, but in the end, Johnny Lee would take the cypher as the new champion. Being that the crowd decides at KICKBACK SUNDAYS, this has always been an argument as unfair (usually brought to my attention by who loses or people who claim to roll “1 deep”). We tell people to bring people ALL the time, it is after all a FREE event! Also, you can’t be mad at an artist who have teams, like VERSE Records or the Headwreckas. Those teams are built like all teams, friendships, relationships of individuals who take pride in what they represent. For me, hope was restored last night because it is rough for someone new like Johnny Lee to step into an environment like KICKBACK SUNDAYS, and face a 3 season KICKBACK SUNDAYS veteran, who everyone knows and loves, but lets face it, K DOGG is so good. In fact the two guys were talking at the end of the show and we got a quick snapshot of them in their “I KILLED IT AT KICKBACK SUNDAYS” shirts.
NOW, for the clincher. Throughout the night during the final cypher, Kab Tha Don had made comments. Words like “rematch” were tossed around the room, and Johnny Lee, who was still on stage after winning his prizes, grabbed the mic and thanked everyone for staying to support all the artists, but added his own final comment that he would be back next week to challenge Kab Tha Don because he felt he was robbed in week#2! I couldn’t believe it, the smile I had on my face turned to, oh damn, “sh#t just got real”. The entire KICKBACK SUNDAYS erupted!!!! There was no controlling the emotions in the room!! Queen Bobbi looked at me and said, did I cause this! I assured her, that these were carried over emotions from Week#2!! People were demanding a rematch IMMEDIATELY at that moment! The Headwreckas were outside on the patio having discussions, ET from VERSE Records was going nuts! The crowd was more intense about it than K DOGG and Johnny Lee who were inside taking pictures. All I can say is, This sunday will be SOMETHING. I have learned my lesson… today, I will be purchasing my own wireless mic for this Sunday.
Follow these people on twitter! Johnny Lee: @noaveragemc, K DOGG: @KDOGG_BNFA, @QueenBobbi, @KICKBACKSUNDAYS and of course @ILOVESF2.
