Impact and criticism
FlipTop initially gained criticism for its use of strong language, mockery and bullying, prompting the city government of Makati to ban rap battles in the area. [8] As time passed, the events gained acceptance with the help of official FlipTop YouTube channel [9] gaining more than one million subscribers for which they received the Golden Play Button Award, and over two million likes on its Facebook fanpage. [10] [11] Some emcees in the league recently are more focused on line delivery, hyping the audience in the battle, and gimmicks rather than dissing to attack the opponent; emcees also improved their penmanship. [12] After it gained success and reputation via social media, [13] many amateur and other rap battles arose such as Sunugan, Word War, Bolero Rap Battles, Bahay Katay, Flipshop, Flipcap etc. Due to its freestyle and rhymed content, some academics consider it as modern-day "balagtasan" although some rap artists discourage the idea. Some educators consider FlipTop as 21st century Philippine literature. [14] [15] [16] [17] Some emcees involved in FlipTop have gained commercial success like Abra, [18] Dello, Loonie, Smugglaz, Shehyee, and others, which caught media attention. Some lines spoken by the emcees in battles became popular phrases used in the Philippines. [1] [19]
Controversies
Sinio vs. Shehyee aftermath
Due to the nature of the league and its mechanics, bashing or shaming emcees' relatives is inevitable during the battle. However, in an undercard match between Sinio and Shehyee during the Ahon 7 event on December 16, 2016, Shehyee threw disrespectful lines against Sinio's wife, Bie Sarmiento, during the battle. This led to Sinio aggressively rebutting Shehyee by dissing the latter's girlfriend, internet sensation Ann Mateo. Their match was uploaded on FlipTop's YouTube channel on February 2, 2017, and went viral with over five million views within four days. Sinio's harsh words about Ann Mateo received mixed reactions, and became a hot topic on social media. Controversy arose when Ann Mateo's mother saw the video and threatened Sinio with a lawsuit. Because of the situation, many netizens bashed Shehyee for being unprofessional for his failure to explain to his girlfriend's mother the mechanics of the league. Sinio felt that Shehyee was not to blame and that he understood Ann Mateo's mother's point-of-view. Shehyee tried to help Sinio in addressing the issue with Ann Mateo's mother. Ann Mateo did not share her reaction about the topic. [20] [21] [22]
Reading lyrics during the battle
When the battle between Pistolero vs Luxuria was uploaded to FlipTop Youtube Channel, viewers noticed Luxuria reading her written lyrics on her smartphone in the middle of the battle instead of memorizing it, raising concerns of unfairness and cheating.
Besides Luxuria, there have been other instances of rappers reading their lyrics. Dopee and his partner Snob was caught in their DosPorDos battle reading their lyrics on a piece of paper for a few seconds. In another instance, rapper LilWeng pulled out an earphone to listen to his verses. Recently, Cripli covered the camcorder lens and read his lines during his battle against Batang Rebelde and managed to get the victory.
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