The Elements League (TEL) was an underground rap battle league that formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in the summer of 2007. Filmed, pre-written rap battles, posted to Youtube and shared to the Atlantic Canadian hip hop focused message board Halifamous.com, became an instant hit. Aspiring battlers used the message board to call out competitors and organize future events, eventually leading to iZrEAL Media Arts overseeing the production of what became a weekly event. Sometimes held in the Pit, a recessed parking lot at Morris and Lower Water in Halifax that served, for many years, as the city’s lone permission wall for graffiti writers, but mostly held after hours in a boxing gym provided by boxer Tyson Cave, the Elements League was raw, uncut battling—unsanctioned, underground, self-contained and frequently intoxicated.

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As the battles grew in popularity and the live events were drawing as many as a few hundred spectators to each event, the videos posted to Youtube started to spread out from the region and soon other battle leagues formed, following TEL’s pre-written formula, including Grind Time, King of the Dot, and Don’t Flop. Within a few years written battling was a global phenomenon, and battlers around the world were squaring off with rehearsed bars for online audiences. It even led to a movie, Bodied (2017) that featured beloved TEL champion Pat Stay in a cameo role.

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Of course, rap battling has a long history that significantly predates the rise of the Elements League in Halifax back in 2007, but the modern hip hop practice of filming pre-written battles, leveraging social media for views, and ranking battlers in a (loosely, in the case of TEL) organized league is an idea that can trace at least some of its roots to those wild Friday nights in a Nova Scotia boxing gym when TEL host iZrEAL would quiet the crowd and say, “Alright, it’s on you, fam.”

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The Elements League is an important part of Atlantic Canadian hip hop history and more work needs to be done to tell the story. For now, East of East has copies of all but two of the battles from the original Elements League, and all of the battles at the reunion events held in 2015 and 2018. Below you can find battle statistics, although the exact dates of most original TEL battles are unknown at this time.

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The Elements League Rules

No catching feelings

Three two minute rounds with a 30 second grace period for a total time of 2:30. The clock will run full time.

No beats, no mics, it's a street battle

No extra points for freestyling, it is a written battle

No touching your opponent or interrupting 

No fighting

No crew interference (and only 5 crew members in your corner)

The judges have final say

Absolutely no ties

No speaking for the dead

No racist shit (introduced after TEL 21)

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Audience Rules

No stealing

No Fighting

Do not enter the ring

No talking or causing interruptions

Turn off cell phones

No touching battlers

Respect the premises

No video cameras

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