FlipTop Battle League

Battle

In general, the contest consists of three rounds with a time limit for each contender set by the referee. Overtime is applied if the battle is a draw. The first turn is determined by a toss coin. Written or non-written lines are allowed. Both sides can also bring props for the event. Filipino language is the primary medium although other languages or dialects can be used. The winner is determined by the decision of the judges. The criteria for judging are the usage of words, audience impact, delivery, and rapping style.

There are different conferences in FlipTop such as the Filipino Conference, Bisaya Conference, English Conference, and etc.

Concerts and Performances

Aside from battle rap, the league has also had a beatbox battle competition, concerts, and seminars about hip hop culture commonly named as Mindfields.

Format

FlipTop has three different battle formats which sometimes combined with Freestyle:

There are also different variations of rap battle within the FlipTop tournament:

List of Events

* With Dos por Dos matches

** House party celebration. No battle is held.

Cultural impact and criticism

In its early days, 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. As time passed, the events gained acceptance, with the official FlipTop YouTube channel gaining more than one million subscribers which they received Golden Play Button Award, and two million likes on its Facebook fanpage. After it gained success and reputation via social media, many amateur and other rap battles arose such as Sunugan, Word War, Bolero Rap Battles, Versus Verses, Bahay Katay, Flipshop, Flipcap etc. Due to its freestyle and rhymed content, some academics considered it as modern-day "balagtasan" although some rap artists discourage the idea. It caught media attention in that some emcees involved in FlipTop have gained commercial success like Abra, Loonie, Smugglaz, Shehyee, and others.

Lawsuit threats to emcees

Due to the nature of the league and its mechanics, bashing or shaming emcees' relatives is inevitable in the battle. The league has a long history of mocking emcees' relatives during the battle. However during an undercard match between Sinio vs. Shehyee on Ahon 7 that happened on December 16, 2016. Shehyee threw disrepectful lines on Sinio's wife Bie Sarmiento during the battle, which Sinio rebutted hard by dissing the internet sensation Ann Matteo, who is the girlfriend of Shehyee, that lead to Sinio's victory in the match. Their match was uploaded on FlipTop's YouTube channel on February 2, 2017 and went viral with over five million views within four days, and some part of the clip was also uploaded and shared on Facebook. Sinio's harsh words on Ann Mateo in the second and third round of battle sparked mixed reactions and controversy especially when Ann Mateo's mother watched the video, when she threatened Sinio with a legal case. Because of this situation, many netizens bashed Shehyee for being unprofessional in the battle, he was also blamed for not explaining to his girlfriend's mother about the mechanics of league. It became a hot topic on social media. Sinio made a clarification to his fans that Ann Mateo's mother plans to sue a legal case against him and Shehyee was not to blame, and that he understood Ann Matteo's mother's point-of-view. Shehyee also made a clarifications about the allegations, he said that he helped Sinio in addressing the issue with Ann Mateo's mother. Ann Mateo has not yet formally expressed her reaction regarding the match.