By Kevin Ortiz | @KyKernel

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It was a packed house Thursday night, as UK’s bravest emcees stood toe to toe in an all-out freestyle battle at the Cats Den.

Each matchup saw emcees pitted against each other in 60-second intervals for three rounds until a winner was crowned.

The rules were simple: anything goes as long as all contestants’ material was original. Each rap battle’s winner was determined by three judges, among them special guest Indianapolis rapper Karté, who also performed after the battles concluded.

The night saw three contestants face off in front of a full house in a round-robin-style tournament. Rapper Cantrell walked away as the event’s top spitter, earning him a Cats Den T-shirt, a $25 gift card to Wildcat Wearhouse and the chance to open for fellow rapper Karté.

“I think it was a great experience,” said Siobhain Tinney, a judge and an integrated strategic communication senior. “I felt like our team did so well, I feel like we definitely picked the best talent of the night.”

The rap battle was the final Cats Den event of the semester, and easily one of the more successful ones, political science junior Andrew Jones said.

“This semester we really tried to focus our events more on being student-oriented, so we tried to create events students can not only enjoy, but also participate in,” Jones said. “Not only did we have a huge crowd but you could tell they were really enjoying themselves and getting into the event.”

There was no shortage of energy as the crowd fed off of every line each emcee had to say.

“It was a good way to show that there is more than just country on campus, this showed that the campus has more diversity than it initially shows,” said psychology freshman Deandre Michaels.

Jones expressed his satisfaction with the event.

“I just love that whenever we open up the Cats Den to students it brings it back to its main mission as to why it’s here, giving a platform for students to perform their work.” he said.