"It's monumental," said CTF Records CEO Gus Cruz. "As an upcoming label that does not have many people backing us up because we're unknown, this is good for the artists making a name for themselves ... We're excited."
Level of crowd noise decided which competitors advanced.
"Whenever I wrote a bar, I was always saying, 'How would the crowd respond to this?'" said Urbina. "Would this be good enough?"
When cheers were too close for emcee JGivens to name a winner, judges Swoope and Eshon Burgundy broke the tie. They also critiqued performances before the crowd cheered. Urbina defeated MC Goya and Dru Bex in the final round, the crowd agreeing with both judges who picked him.
"I'm not looking for the punchlines. They find me," said Burgundy of Urbina's final verse.
Urbina studied rap battles and last year's 16 Bar Challenge prior to the event. What he learned made his focus on punchlines intentional.
"I knew it was a capella, so all the spotlight is on the lyrics," he said. "Rapping fast or doing some crazy flow wouldn't really work. For scenarios like this, punchlines and wordplay always does good for the crowd."
In victory, Urbina is defending his home turf being Legacy Conference is held at Moody Bible Institute and Urbina is a Moody grad.
2014 will prove to be an eventful year for him. He released his debut mixtape in January and plans to release another in November.
