This is what rap battles looked like when the world was a safer place to live in: A crowd of onlookers gathered around two people facing off against each other. The duo took turns in spitting rhymes that are essentially meant to take the other person down, like a bowling ball toppling a pin over. No subject was off limits, not even cuss words. And the audience reactions were based on how brutally each rapper dissed the other.

All that is a thing of the past for the time being, with the pandemic having closed the doors of physical venues. That's why Battle Bars Bombay, or B3B, one of the country's premier such events, is being held online this year. It earlier took place in spots like The Habitat in Khar or the Cuckoo Club in Bandra. But the digital medium throws the very concept of a rap battle out of the window. Yet, Vineet Nair aka Poetk Justis, one of the organisers, tells us that they have rearranged the format to ensure that the entire essence isn't completely lost.