Mistah F.A.B. & Charlie Clips Make It Personal In This Incredible Rap Battle (Video)

Mistah F.A.B. has become one of the best examples of a battle rapper transitioning into a full-on discography. Additionally, Charlie Clips has taken his gifts as one of the premiere MCs in Battle Rap to television through BET Hip-Hop Awards looks as well as appearances on Wild N’ Out. On October 30, the onetime Mac Dre protege and the Harlem, New York lyricist went head-to-head in Oakland, California. At F.A.B.’s No Mask event, the high-profile artists battled. Today, Rap Grid uploaded the video of the must-watch main event.

Battling the event promoter, Charlie Chips does not tuck or cower his words. Instead, one of the elite MCs of the battle circuit continuously calls his opponent by his given name, Stanley. He begins by mocking an “industry” MC for reverting back to battling (also mentioning Joe Budden, who made a similar play some years back). He also plays on F.A.B. living in the shadow of another Fab’ as in “Fabolous.” That early poke even gets a laugh out of the former Atlantic Records artist (as well as a strong crowd reaction). Clips professes “Fuck Fab!” multiple times, in describing physically bodying his opponent. At 4:00, Charlie starts making it even more personal. After mentioning Fabby’s brother, he starts dissing the MC’s sister. “Fuck you and your siblings / I’m here to kill you and your ‘Four Brothers’ like Victor Sweet / You soft, the reason your mother lost boys is ’cause of Mr. Cheeks / Ask about me!

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Moments later, Charlie moves into Fabby’s spouse. “I ain’t fuckin’ up, I’m waitin’ for your boo to call me, I’ma probably hit / Aw you lookin’ mad, Fab. What’s up. I’m not the one you want a problem with / Since I’m in Oakland, I’ll raid a nigga’s crib, let that revolver spit / If your family home, they can all get in a box, on some ‘Barbie’ shit.” The crowd chatters at that, perhaps hinting that Charlie dug in too deep. However, he won’t relent. By 7:00, he is back to bringing F.A.B.’s daughter into his verses. “You gonna need the water, ’cause the world’s scary / Run in ya’ crib, you gonna bear witness to me killin’ your cubs, like it’s the world series.” The crowd reacts strongly. Charlie even takes his personal style, and ties it in—rapping that it is what he does. Next, he spits bars about F.A.B.’s beef with DJ Mustard, surrounding the sound of the city. F.A.B. compliments his opponent—which Charlie draws further attention to.

At 10:00 though, it is Mistah F.A.B.’s turn. The world will never know what the Son Of A Pimp MC had planned for his opponent. Clearly a full-on freestyle, Fabby opens with the reaction, “What you gonna say ’bout me, Clips? / ‘You know, in that last battle, you got disrespected, Fab?’ / How you let [him] come to your city and disrespect you bad / That nigga talked about your family and your daughter with his disrespectful ass / You see, I’m gonna tell you the same thing I told Arsonal’s dirty, disrespectful ass / ‘Nigga, I ain’t think it was disrespect, how is it disrespect when you ask?’ /Nigga called my phone like, ‘Yo big bro, Fab / Got a white boy that wants to battle pretty bad / Got about 50 in a bag / I figure we can split that in half’ / I said, ‘Nah, I’ll take 30, you 20. You go and spit that gas’ / I said ‘cool’ / He said ‘What I gotta do?’ / I said ‘just agree,’ he said ‘bet’ / He said, ‘But you gotta let me use some disrespect / Like, if I say somethin’ about your moms, your daughter, your dad / You gon’ get mad?’ / I said, ‘Fuck naw, nigga. We gon’ get that back?’” The bars reveal that since he took it there, F.A.B. can too.

In the moments that follow, Fab’ rallies the crowd by making fun of Clips’ New York background. He continues to excite the crowd, who clearly knows the vernacular. By 13 minutes, Fab’ shows that he’ll play by Charlie’s rules. In describing a police interrogation room, the MC unpacks rumors that his opponent’s father is a police informant. He refuses to let up—and uses first names right back at Charlie. More than that, the Bay Area giant uses cadence and tone to suddenly turn into a coach or drill sergeant, literally talking down to his opponent. Then, he moves into the more traditional battle approaches of capping on Charlie Clips’ clothes, style biting, and lack of heart. In the last act of Fab’s fiery rebuttal, he rips into Charlie’s alleged gang affiliations. Unafraid, F.A.B. laughs at how guys like Charlie imitate a culture that they did not start—while the Bay is above it. At 20 minutes, Fabby ends as he started—with a conversational style.

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Elsewhere Fab’ drops lines that tie into Big L (some very sharp ones at that at 14:45), 3 X Krazy, and Max B, just as Clips had his with L.B. Fam, Young M.A., and Fabolous. This is one of 2016’s best battles of a high profile.

#BonusBeat: The 2015 Mistah F.A.B. vs. Arsonal KOTD Battle that Fabby mentions: