The Fight with Words:

My husband is a huge Battle Rap fan. He decided he wanted us to attend a URL (Ultimate Rap League) event on Saturday, August 1, 2015. If you aren’t familiar with Battle Rap, it doesn’t involve music, like rap music, but it is more like spoken word. You have two people, like in a boxing ring, battling it out speaking passionately as each round proceeds and it intensifies as the round reaches a climax. Each, often, have about 3 minutes to speak with prewritten material they’ve worked on for about a month, often less time, and they have a total of 3 rounds.

I have never been to a concert of any type, ever. Well, I shouldn’t say ever because I have been to school concerts, but that is about it. Honestly, I wasn’t too thrilled and very apprehensive in attending as I wasn’t sure what to expect and I do not like going anywhere without my kids. I like going to events that include my kids, but I have not had “date night” for about 5 years. I do like watching “battle rap” with my husband at home, but I was nervous about attending an event that included the “East Side” vs “West Side” as the theme. I was surprised to find out that everyone was respectful to each other, competitors were civil with each other (outside of the battling arena) and I admired how everyone is extremely receptive to each round and each word spoken on stage. People cheered both sides, even though they had their favorites and were respectful of each opponent. There aren’t any official judges, but the crowd decides upon who wins with their cheers and positive affirmations of happiness with such terminology such as “that’s fire”, “that’s hard”, etc. Finally, much like boxing matches, you have a card displaying the opponents. Certainly, since I don’t smoke, I wasn’t thrilled with the awful smell of the smoking taking place around me and although smoking wasn’t allowed indoors, it was still done. It seemed like security didn’t care by the end of the night and I still have an awful headache this morning. Aside from that, it is difficult to not love the thrill of the battle and dialogue, although some things I found difficult to swallow as they say horrid things regarding each other’s children, but other battle rappers actually seem to include politics, education and world topics. I found myself being drawn to those battles the most.

This post was meant to be an outfit of the day post, not a lesson and experience session within the battle rap world, but, of course, I went off topic. I will say, however, that I would not and I mean DO NOT wear heels to events of any sort that you aren’t sure you will be sitting. I wore heels knowing I would be sitting down. Even so, I felt my feet go numb at times as I did stand to watch some of the battles. Others that didn’t have access to seating wore tennis shoes. With that said, I present my outfit of the day. I went for a casual outfit. I did paint my nails red, but went for a nude lip.

White Strapless Bodysuit: 2B Bebe before they closed the website for $8.

Ripped Jeans: Abercrombie and purchased them at a yard sale, yes, brand new for $6.

Shoes: Christmas Gift from my mom, but she purchased them at Bakers $15.

Necklace: H&M for $5

Clutch: H&M for $10

Belt: Part of a bundle pack by Betsy Johnson purchased at Marshalls for $5.99.

If you plan on going to an event like this URL event or a KOTD event I have some advice.

1) Do not wear heels unless you will be sitting down. Most people wore J’s. My husband wanted us to wear matching J’s (Jordan’s) as I have a massive collection–yes I went through a phase where I would collect Retros–but I could not resist wearing heels.

2) Do not show up at the exact time the ticket states as “doors open”–ours stated noon and we got there at 2:00 p.m.–because you will spend about 4+ hours just standing or sitting. Yes there is music and drinks, but pretty much, most people, were standing waiting for the event to begin.

3) Prepare to pay $12 per drink for alcoholic drinks, I heard people around me complaining, and $5 for water bottles.

4) Take your own water bottle, if possible. We did and I’m glad we did because I was not going to spend $5 for each water bottle.

5) Make sandwiches if you don’t want to spend money. We made two sandwiches for each and also took fruit. We ate it right before we went in, but left at 8:00 p.m.–from the event–feeling so hungry! If we ever go again, I would take food in and eat in there. Security didn’t seem to mind as I saw others take food in.

6) It gets hot, so go prepared. That means apply primer and if you need to take a water spritzer to refresh your face, you may want to or a tiny battery operated fan. In regards to clothes, it gets hot and you may feel really stuffy if you wear long sleeves. I was supposed to wear black high waisted leggings and a white long sleeve crop top, but it is Summer and I knew I’d be dying. If you go and it isn’t, you may want to consider a jacket or sweater for your journey home.

7) There seems to be a lot of smoking and I’m not talking about cigarettes.

8) You will get searched, men get patted down and women get their purses checked, so you may not want to carry anything unlawful or embarrassing. I’m sure pepper spray is allowed as many women carry for protection.

I will update this as I think of new things.