Did Aye Verb & Street Status conspire to keep the truth about Verb's loss to Freestyle Friday Champ Big Will from ever seeing the light of day?

[www.stlhiphop.com]

It is a very sad day in St. Louis, while the talk should be about New Year's resolutions and how our scene can improve over the course of the next year, the conversation instead is a very serious allegation against Street Status TV, that they sold the footage of the Midwest Massacre battle between Big Will and Aye Verb to Aye Verb. I have no idea of whether this is a publicity stunt gone bad or if Owe did actually sell the footage to Verb, hence throwing away the respect and credibility Street Status built over the years...

 

What I'm about to write is what I personally witnessed as far as everything goes. stlhiphop supported this event, we promoted it, we blasted it and we planned on featuring footage from the battle. This allegation not only questions the integrity of Street Status and Aye Verb, it also questions the integrity of any footage, should any be released AND will also have major ramifications in a scene that is already dealing with issues of trust.

 

My phone and email have been blowing up since Aye Verb made a statement on Mr Marcus' Facebook page claiming he'd buy the footage and make that nite go away. Mr Marcus got at me on my personal Facebook about Verb and Will were going at it on his page, below is a snapshot of their back and forth:

 

I txt'd Owe to ask him about Verb buying the footage. Below is a series of txts between Owe and myself on Christmas Day:

 

Me: I'm hearing rumors that Verb is paying you off to keep the footage from coming out. Any truth to that? 4:48 PM
Street Status: Wow!!! Things travel fast!!! 4:59 PM
Me: yea or nay? 5:03 PM
Me: Need an official statement, are you releasing the footage? 5:04 PM
Street Status: Listen I haven't heard anything from will or verb! I'm going about my normal rituals!!! 5:05 PM
Me: Thanks. 5:06 PM
Me: After Verb's threat ppl are concerned about the integrity of the footage, may be edited in Verb's favor. Will their words be unedited from start to finish? 5:56 PM
Me: Can you believe all this? 5:57 PM
Street Status: Lmao!!! Is this an stLhiphop.com interview? 6:00 PM
Me: after reading some of verb's statements people are hitting us us with their concerns, i ain't one to speculate so i get it straight from the horse's mouth. wow. 6:04 PM
Me: i'm interviewing big will, if you wanna go on the record, holla. 6:05 PM
Street Status: nahh lmao! 6:09 PM
Me: Happy Holidays! 7:48 AM

At this time I gave Owe and Street Status the benefit of the doubt and didn't think anymore of it until I received txts from someone who was working behind the scenes to "mediate the BiG WiLL & Da Union / Aye VERB & Klosed Sirkle situation behind closed doors" and went on to say "despite their displays of public stupidy - would u PLEASE remove their posts from any sites & and not offer any type of personal perspectives about it? "

 

At which point I became seriously concerned about a cover up. Even still, I fell back, electing to wait for confirmation from Owe one way or another.

 

A few days later I checked the stlhiphop hashtag on Twitter and stumbled upon a tweet from Aye Verb addressed to stlhiphop to which I responded. Below is the back and forth between Verb and myself (read from the bottom to the top):

 

Needless to say Verb never called.

 

A few more days went by... bringing us to yesterday... take a look at Owe's Facebook page where he talks about Street Status battles he's workin on, note no mention of Big Will vs Aye Verb... and check what Owe says when Big Will asks about it...

 

I immediately txt'd Owe to ask if this was true, below are our txts...

Me: Aye Verb bought the footage? 5:56 PM
Me: i hope this is a crazy rumor, i hope they neva battle again, this ish giving me a heart attack 6:01 PM
Street Status: Moooooo hahahaha! 6:06 PM
Street Status: Lmao 6:06 PM

I didn't know how to take his reply, so I posted the following

 

Owe didn't respond to that, although he and quite a few others responded to this post...

 

That brings us to where we are...  I don't know if the footage will ever come out and I'm not going to play this little game with Owe or Aye Verb, nor will I be intimidated by anyone suggesting I'm slandering them. They hung themselves with their own words. Why should I coddle Owe or Aye Verb to ensure the footage comes out... and even if it does, how can anyone trust the integrity of the footage? Verb said himself, he plays for the camera... he also said he'd buy the footage. Owe stated he did. How am I to trust any footage Street Status releases after this or any of their footage period? How do I not question their winners in the past? How am I not to think Verb may have paid someone for some shiesty camera work whenever I watch one of his past battles?

 

This is way bigger than Aye Verb and Street Status. This puts to question the integrity of our scene. Trust has been broken so many times in this city... by promoters who do shows claiming somebody will get signed, djs who play favorites, payola at the radio station, so called indie hip hop "media" willing to sell out to the highest bidder... this is no different, actually is it, its much worse. Never has anyone displayed such a "I don't give a fuck how this impacts my city" attitude or been as public and as "Fuck St. Louis" as these two... talk about nerve...they publicly said what they were going to do....this isn't speculation, Verb wrote he'd buy the footage and Owe wrote he did, then had the nerve to get indignant about it when asked about it. Are we supposed to believe this is some build up to the release of the video? If so, its the worse case of pr ----> ever. Certain things you don't joke about and accepting a bribe is one of them.

 

Regardless if Owe ever releases the video, this incident will go down as another black mark against our city, another example of betrayal, of St. Louis doin it to itself and of St. Louis again being St. Louis' own worst enemy.  

 

Let this be a lesson to those who with zero experience in publicity and pr...go with a pro.

 

FOLLOW UP...

As of this posting footage from other battles that night have been posted, but not the footage of Aye Verb vs Big Will and Street Status is already promoting its Valentines Day Massacre.

 

Big Will addressed this on Twitter and Facebook responding to Potzee's inquiry about the battle,

I WISH I WAS JOKING. WHEN NIGGAS GET BODIED HOW HE GOT BODIED they dont want niggas to see it LOL?@Potzee: @bigwillstl wut!? Wow wuts that bout? U jus talkn shit rite? Since wen niggas start blocking footage?

As for Verb, guess he chose to be dirty.