The art of talking tough

It’s easy to put someone down, especially behind that person’s back. But it takes a lot of talent or, as they say in the hip-hop world, skills to put a person down to his face -- and do it in front of an audience.

Such is the nature of battle rap, a lyrical fight between two MCs that requires a cool head, a quick wit, an ear for rhyme and nerves of steel, all of which are amply displayed in “The Battle for L.A.,” the first in a DVD series documenting this living urban art form.

Watching a battle rap can make you mad. It can make you laugh. But most of all it makes you thankful you’re not on stage, listening to an opponent slash your character to shreds and leave it on the floor. And that’s precisely the appeal.

“People are getting right into each other’s face with the intent not to fight but to see how far they can push somebody,” said director Darren Doane, 31. “To me, there was something very Greek about that -- people coming together and debating.”

Artistic rivalry has a long history, dating at least that far back. From Aristotle to Galileo to Shakespeare to Mozart, it has pushed and inspired artists to outdo their competitors. But with hip-hop, creative rivalry is more than mere inspiration, it’s the backbone.

To listen through rap’s history is to hear a logbook of conflict and competition expressed with rhyme, through music. Battle rapping is merely its live form.

What makes a good battle rap? According to IN-Q, one of the rappers featured in “The Battle for L.A.,” it’s an MC who is not only witty but also lyrically and rhythmically interesting, one who can deliver a good punch line and spontaneously incorporate elements from his surroundings, responding to whatever insults have been lobbed his way.

The goal: To get your opponent so riled up that he or she wants to throw the first punch. Rarely, however, does a battle come to blows.

And that’s the entire point -- to release negative feelings through words, not violence.

“It can be really infuriating. If you let the other person get you out of your zone, you’ve lost because you need to be able to think clear, and a lot of times you can’t think clear when you’re angry. You have to be focused,” conceded IN-Q, who delivers one of the strongest raps on the DVD.

The 25-year-old Koreatown MC, who’s been rapping since he was 13, regularly battles at the Da’ Poetry Lounge, one of a handful of Los Angeles clubs featured in “The Battle for L.A.” An excellent primer on the local scene, “Battle” is not a comprehensive history of battle form. Nor is it meant to be.

Doane, a director who’s shot videos for popular rock bands like Blink 182 and the Deftones, was just “trying to make things that I can’t buy.” He had tried to find a video about battle rap online, but after spending a day hunting around without success, he decided to make one of his own.

Doane said he’d been thinking about battle rapping because he had seen “8 Mile,” the 2002 film starring Eminem that, in addition to serving as a sort of Battle Rap 101 for the general public, also inspired various television shows and films on the subject.

Last fall, Showtime debuted “The Next Episode,” a traveling “American Idol”-type program that had MCs in various cities squaring off on the mike. Around the same time, director Peter Spire released “Beef,” an excellent and comprehensive documentary chronicling big-name hip-hop rivalries, from Busy Bee and Kool Moe Dee to Tupac and Biggie to today’s most notorious foes, rapper 50 Cent and Ja Rule.

“It would be great to put those guys in the ring with a microphone and say, ‘Just go at it.’ To me, that’s more exciting [than battling on their records],” said Doane. “It’s a really intense thing to stand before somebody unprepared and go off your head.”

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Battle rapping

What: “The Battle for L.A.:

Footsoldiers, Vol. 1”

Cost: $9.99

Info: www.thebattleforla.com

Also of interest: On DVD: “Beef”(2003). On TV: Showtime’s “The Next Episode.”

Live

Where: Da’ Poetry Lounge, 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles. Tuesday nights. www.dapoetrylounge.com