Image via Complex Original
Nick Cannon’s Wild 'N Out continues its miraculous second life as season seven premieres June 10 on MTV2. The new episodes promise loads of familiar faces returning and also a host of new ones. Wild 'N Out’s most unforgettable moments often come from its “Wildstyle” segments, open-ended freestyle rap battles where Nick Cannon’s team and his celebrity guest’s team exchange their most savage disses over a beat from the show’s resident maestro, DJ D-Wrek.
In anticipation of the launch of the new season, let’s look back at the 10 best punchlines in Wild 'N Out history. Which ones did you love? Which ones do you hate? Did we miss anything? Get into the comments and box it out.
Kanye vs. the Red Team
Punchline: “Stop frontin’, y’all n***** ain’t ’bout nothin’/I can rip all of y’all in a line with every rhyme/Y’all know Kanye is like the greatest of all time”
Back when they thought pink polos would help the Roc, Kanye guested on Wild 'N Out’s fourth episode. It was a good get for a young show, and they caught Mr. West at the height of his comic abilities. Yeezy’s sophomore album, Late Registration,was about to roll out, and he blessed the audience with a performance of its lead single, “Diamonds From Sierra Leone,” but the real highlight of the episode was the Wildstyle, where ’Ye takes a solid dig from Katt Williams (“What you need to do is try to write a song without a sample.”) and proceeds to dismantle Nick’s entire Red Team. People forget that Kanye dabbled in battle rap back in the day.
Katt Williams vs. Wayne Brady
Punchline: “Hickory dickory dock/Your girl was on my c***/Took her to my house, I turned her out, and now she sells my rocks”
Wayne Brady’s season two Wild 'N Out appearance probably looked awkward on paper—wholesome guy, irreverent sketch show—but those who caught his come-up on Whose Line Is It Anyway? know that Brady’s improv comedy chops are sharp, and he definitely delivered. But this was a tricky time for dude: Whose Line was on its last legs, and his ABC sitcom, The Wayne Brady Show,had long since been canceled. (It would be another three years before he’d land a steady gig, as host of Let’s Make a Deal.) Wayne made the mistake of trying Katt Williams during Wildstyle and caught a whooping that ended in an Andrew Dice Clay-style nursery rhyme that remains one of Wild 'N Out’s most savage disses.
Snoop Dogg vs. Nick Cannon
Punchline: “I was on MTV about a year ago/They said ‘Snoop you wanna do another show?’/I said ‘No. Give it to my nephew Nick Cannon/Cause he can’t even handle it, you understand it?’”
The fourth season premiered in 2007, featuring big Snoop Dogg as Black Team captain. Anyone following the Doggfather’s career has more than likely seen him destroy freestyles off the dome, and Nick finds out in Wildstyle when he said, “I’ll never be scared of a n**** with barrettes,” and Snoop claps back insinuating that Nick only has a show because he passed on it first. All in perfect rhyme!
DeRay Davis vs. Nick Cannon
Punchline: “You know it ain’t funny if you gotta talk about your money”
The episode after Snoop’s featured Ne-Yo as team captain, but more on that later. Season four, episode two’s Wildstyle was hot from start to finish. MADtv alum Taran Killam gets in on Nick early, complimenting his work in the CGI kids movie Monster House, then flipping it to ask, “Why are you a better actor when you’re a cartoon?” Nick snaps about the movie’s nine-figure box office turnout, but DeRay Davis dances in and catches wreck.
Affion Crockett vs. Ne-Yo
Punchline: “Ey yo, Ne-Yo, let me show you how I get down/Stop doing Michael Jackson, leave it to Chris Brown”
Later in the same episode’s Wildstyle, Affion Crockett drops a clever “So Sick” punchline (“I’ll take his girl and he knows this/He’ll be sick of love songs like Ne-Yo is”), and the singer lobs a bewildering flop of a response about Crockett being trash in bed. Without missing a beat, Affion ethers Ne-Yo’s entire career in one line.
Jim Jones vs. Nick Cannon
Punchline: “Fake actors, fake rappers/Fake Jeezy, fake bastards/And plus you lacking swag/Without Nickelodeon you’d be packing bags”
Dipset capo Jim Jones guested on Wild 'N Out the year after his anthem “We Fly High” took him to the upper reaches of the charts. Early in Wildstyle, Nick tries to take him out, essentially calling him a one-hit wonder (“You got a hit single and that’s all in/But after that your career’s gonna be FALLIN’”). Jones grabs the mic and dispenses with Nick and his entire team. (Affion gets busy too: “You from the Dipset, you run with Cam/Why y’all raps be like ‘Blam blam/Ham ham, Cam Cam, damn damn’?”)
Conceited vs. the Platinum Team
Punchline: “Now this what I do, I’m killing ’em in here/This n***** feminine, he’s scared/He’s horrified of vending machines ’cause he heard Eminem is in there”
Lately, Wild 'N Out’s been showing love to hip-hop’s thriving battle rap scene, adding battle circuit warriors Hitman Holla and Conceited to the cast. During Conceited’s Wildstyle appearances, they dramatically drop the beat, and he goes in like a Grind Time main event. The first was one of the sharpest: He runs through Nick’s platinum team in under a minute during the Kevin Hart-hosted fifth-season premiere, saving the best dig for last as he invokes the old Nick/Mariah/Eminem love/hate triangle.
Chico Bean vs. Karlous Miller
Punchline: “You think your daddy is really your pop/But I got some bad news: I’m really your pop/I stroked your mom in the back of the club/And every time I see her she asks for a hug”
Chico Bean and Karlous Miller’s old school rap battles have been a highlight of the show’s more recent Wildstyles. The duo trade bars in ’80s flows and power poses like reunited Cold Crush Brothers. (Never forget what this segment is named after.) The first, in the fifth season’s French Montana episode, is still the best.
James Davis vs. Nelly
Punchline: “When I saw ‘chill’ on your shirt, I thought it was weird/But then I realized it hasn’t been ‘Hot in Herre’ for over 10 years”
The Wildstyle from the second episode of season six features some memorable sparring between Nick and guest Nelly (Nick: “I’ma creep up beside ya, like a spider/And steal all your shit like my name was Flo Rida,” Nelly: “Yo, I was talking to Mariah, she said ‘Nelly, stop’/Instead of ‘Nick Cannon’ she put ‘Nick cannot’”). But what rings out in this episode is comedian James Davis flipping Nelly’s “Chill” T-shirt into a headshot about dude’s floundering hit parade.
Vic Mensa vs. the Platinum Team
Punchline: “By the name of your team, I’d think you had some/Y’all the platinum team, but y’all ain’t platinum.”
Chi-Town Roc Nation rookie Vic Mensa seemed like an unusual guest in season six, as a critically respected but largely underground rapper at the time. But come time for Wildstyle, he beat the Platinum Team so bad that they snatched his mic in under 30 seconds. That last line? Ruthless.