MC Battle
Reverse: Warrior Bars With A Poet Heart
Ahead of the Red Bull Batalla World Final in Bogotá, the two-time USA champ muses on Florida's flourishing freestyle scene and his passion for introspective storytelling.
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Florida freestyle is on fire. For the past three years, the Red Bull Batalla USA championship trophy has found a thrilling, thriving home in the sunshine state, notably on the groundbreaking winning streaks of rappers Oner and Reverse, as well as formidable peers such as Eckonn and Nico B. Add to this fertile creative ecosystem the influx of artists, celebrities, and tourists around cultural happenings like Art Basel, the Miami Grand Prix, III Points, and Ultra Music Festival, and you'll notice the industry buzz has become practically thunderous.
“The Florida scene is different now,” reflects Reverse, the newly crowned Red Bull Batalla USA double champion – an honor previously only held by Puerto Rican MC, Yartzi. “Freestyle used to mostly happen in Miami, but now there are scenes in Orlando, Tampa, Sarasota, and Fort Myers; product of the Red Bull circuit and the attention we've gotten in recent years. Florida is my home and I'm so proud of the community we've built here.”
There's no doubt Reverse helped forge this golden age of Florida freestyle, competing at Red Bull Batalla for the first time in 2020 and remaining a national fixture ever since. But the 21-year old's rise to juggernaut status has been long and arduous, climbing from rural scarcity in his native Cuba to the top of major freestyle podiums across the United States. He was born Marcos Daniel Acosta in the province of Villa Clara, where his natural talents manifested early on. “My father was a musician so he tried teaching me to play guitar, but I liked banging on things,” he says with a chuckle, “so I switched to percussion and learned the drums, bongos, and tumbadora.”
Reverse highlights happy memories attending church-organized music workshops and playing soccer after school, but the winds of emigration had already started blowing. His family headed to Hialeah, Florida when he was 12 years old, and the adaptation process proved extremely challenging since he wasn't enrolled into a school with an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) program, which stunted his social skills and in-class comprehension. Four months later they moved to West Palm Beach, where Reverse still resides today, steadily finding his footing, his friends, and his raps.
Oner and Reverse—2 Florida-based MC's—battle it out at the 2022 qualifier.
© Ian Witlen / Red Bull Content Pool
“I started writing songs back in Hialeah to vent about the loneliness I was feeling,” he remembers. “Rapping came as an extension of that, and around 2016 I was already spitting in the school cafeteria. I became obsessed with improvisation at 17 after discovering Argentina's FMS league and since I was getting pretty good, my friends encouraged me to compete. Everything changed after that.”
The burgeoning wordsmith was inspired by a new wave of introspective stateside rappers that included XXXTentacion, Kodak Black, and JuiceWRLD. He was also drawn to the politically-charged raps of Cuban duo Los Aldeanos, as well as incisive Spanish titan Kase.O, co-founder of seminal rap group Violadores del Verso. However, Reverse cultivated his own distinct point of view loaded with sharp wit, impressionistic metaphors, and a facility for making noise that has never required a mic.
“When I started rapping in Miami people didn't really like me,” he says. “I'm confident, very honest, and not shy about speaking my mind, so people mistook that as arrogance. I'd only been rapping for 9 months when I made it to my first Red Bull [Batalla World Final] in 2020, but that tournament cemented me as a professional freestyler in the eyes of the community. Even though I was eliminated in the first round, I had a battle with Yartzi where a lot of people thought I won. That's normal, but it generated a small controversy on Twitter and I started being acknowledged by other rappers I admired. After that, people started calling me Reverse everywhere.”
Reverse is ready to release new original music.
© Daniel Zuliani / Red Bull Content Pool copy
Cuban-born, Florida-raised, Reverse pours his experiences into his music.
© Daniel Zuliani / Red Bull Content Pool
Reverse kept his foot on the gas and toured the freestyle circuit with strong showings at Sangre Inca in 2020 and Cruce de Campeones in 2021, winning both and heading into the next edition of Red Bull Batalla USA with major audience support. He won his first national championship after defeating Mc Betho in the riveting final match, but controversy struck again the following year while defending his title when he was shockingly knocked out by Venezuelan newcomer, Oner. Again fans and peers voiced their dissent online, which the young MC believes helped him clinch the 2023 win.
“When people feel you were cheated they support hard,” he says, reflecting on his second Red Bull Batalla USA victory. “I bet in 2024 they'll root for Cuban, who this year performed great but lost against me. Ihave mixed emotions about winning again this year. [After losing to Oner] I felt frustrated and didn't want to compete again. It got me thinking about how much I enjoy writing songs and producing, instead of climbing on stage and insulting other people. I'm a professional so I competed, but I rapped to win, not for the art. I'm glad I won, I just wish I'd done it differently.”
Taking every new lesson in stride, Reverse teases his performance at the upcoming Red Bull Batalla World Final in Bogotá, Colombia will showcase the artistic range of his bars, and he has every intention of making it onto the podium. In tandem, he's been releasing music steadily for the past two years, with tracks like “NEUMÄTICOS” and “Si muero a los 27” gaining traction online as he weaves rap, rock, and reggaeton into the introspective storytelling that attracted him to music in the first place.
“I have a full project planned to drop in 2024 and I'm collaborating with producers who've worked on Eladio Carrión and Travis Scott records,” he shares. “My vision is to create songs that are catchy and commercial but still personal. I want my shows to be an audiovisual extravaganza with solid concepts and high production value. I look up to Travis [Scott], Kanye [West], and A$AP [Rocky] for presenting consistently amazing concepts. The word we keep throwing around is ‘innovation,’ so I'm excited to show everyone what we've been cooking.”
Keep up with Reverse
The Red Bull Batalla World Final takes place in Bogota, Columbia on Saturday, December 2, 2023 at 3:30 pm ET. Find more info HERE!
Instagram @reverse_tcr
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