Widely discussed as the battle of the night from King Of The Dot’s Gully vs. Ganik 2 event held early last month in Toronto, the full battle between Brooklyn’s Cortez and Kansas City’s A.Ward dropped this week. The battle speaks for itself as to why it was so widely talked up over the last seven weeks and has high replay value. The top-billed main battle of the event certainly lived up to the lofty expectations that drove anticipation for the battle in its lead up, with the result of such a close battle dividing fans as well as Jayblac and Tech 9 in their search for a Champion.
A.Ward has proven he is much more than the typically pigeonholed Christian rapper, having a very impressive past year on the battle circuit capped of this month when A. Ward was announced as the KOTD Breakthrough Battler of 2017. A. Ward recently travelled out to the UK to battle on Chalked Out as well as down to Australia on Real Talk Battles. A.Ward’s energy, bars, delivery and aggression make him a problem for any competitor he faces and his consistency through the three rounds vs. the experienced Cortez means this performance only helps his brand and status as a truly emerging battle emcee jump a level. A.Ward’s affiliation with the other three quality battle emcees of The IV Horsemen (Th3 Saga, Street Hymns and Loso) gives an additional polished feel to the rapidly developing battle emcee.
The ever-consistent veteran that Cortez has shown and proven to be over the years one of the best now finds himself arguably at the peak of his abilities both as a battler and performing artist through years of experience. Cortez well and truly finds himself back on the SMACK/ URL main stage, with his highly anticipated battle vs. O-Red on SMACK Volume 2 now only days away.
Stop the microwave!!
