Metaphorical Siccness and the golden age of Internet battle rap super crews

Metaphorical Siccness was the second most active hip-hop / battle rap / poetry community online during the early 2000's. Only RapMusic.com was more active and had more members during the peak of Metaphorical Siccness's run.

Metaphorical Siccness was started by the battle rap crew "SiccMadePosse" in the late 1990's as the ezboard community SiccMadeRhymes. Eventually, "SMP" joined forces with the "P.O.E.T.S." (Prophets Of Everlasting Triumphant Spirits) crew which ran the Metaphorical Breakdown ezboard, and Metaphorical Siccness was born.

Metaphorical Siccness quickly made a name for itself by hosting weekly battles, both text and audio, with monthly prizes such as a Best Buy gift card or a new microphone. They also held weekly interviews with board members, which later was expanded to include interviews of up-and-coming rappers like Tonedeff and Pack FM who were making a name for themselves on the underground scene. When Metaphorical Siccness and Freestyle Universe were the two most active battle rap communities (aside from RapMusic), MS challenged FU to a board battle, which was won by MS.

Made up of people from the United States, Canada, England and Australia (as well as other countries), SiccMadePosse was once one of the most successful battle rap crews online. The founding five members met each other online around 1998 or 1999, sharing an interest in West Coast rap (Brotha Lynch Hung and others) which brought them together on various forums such as TheSource.com's old message boards. Several more people joined the crew in the early 2000's (reaching upwards of 20 members at one point), with multiple solo and collaborative songs and albums being released along the way. Some members of SMP specialized in audio cyphers and battles, while others took part mainly in text battles and text/poetry cyphers (where one person wrote a few lines and the next person continued).

Many people got their start perfecting their art, poetry, rhymes and flow on Metaphorical Siccness, as well as other ezboard communities like Freestyle Universe and Universal Emcees. MS provided an online creative arts launching pad which quickly took a leading role among hip-hop forums, bringing together a community of thousands of people across the world.

Sadly, it appears none of the millions of posts from the ezboard days of Metaphorical Siccness are still archived online. However, the Metaphorical Siccness archives on IllicitRap and TheSirkle are still partially online. Metaphorical Siccness has also been discussed online over the years, including on RapMusic.com and other forums where people have chimed in to share their thoughts. There is even a Facebook page which has seen several people comment about their memories, 15-20 years later.

Do you remember Metaphorical Siccness, "netceeing/textceeing" or the "golden age" of Internet battle rap super crews? Let us know in the comments!