If ever there was a perfectly intractable debate for online media in our fractured, attention economy, Skepta might have landed on it when he challenged the American rap fraternity to a series of match-ups on behalf of the UK. Never mind that the basic premise ensured that anyone who cares would automatically support their home team, the question was just vague enough to ensure that every other podcast host and steamer would be talking past each other anyways, evaluating the issue by their own conflicting metrics. Was this a rap battle or a clash? If it was a battle, are we talking about material along the lines of the corny, beatless American insult comedy circuit or something more akin to last year’s Drake vs. Kendrick beef? If it’s a soundclash, shouldn’t Skepta be challenging Jamaica’s dancehall dons, if he’s looking for international competition? And if it’s not, what’s a grime artist doing challenging rappers in a completely different genre, even given Skepta’s obvious attempts to make inroads in America over the past 10 years?

These unanswered questions ensured every online commentator framed the debate to make their side look good. Charlamagne and crew took the opportunity to treat the question as a joke, disregarding the fact that the only interesting, commercially viable movement in New York this past decade ganked its whole sound from London’s drill scene. Most of the clapback in the UK, meanwhile, came from Skepta’s peers—grime artists with a simmering resentment for their shoddy treatment by Americans for the past 20 years, confident that their rave-honed stage skills would mop the floor with them. As of writing, Giggs made a half decent attempt to reframe the issue by establishing that UK rap and grime were different artforms, only to have his own argument fall apart once he admitted that newer artists like Central Cee had feet in both camps. It all adds up to a conversation where the signal is massively overshadowed by the noise.

All of this chin-wagging would be forgiven if we’d gotten more A-list music out of the uproar. Sadly, there’s little incentive for anyone with momentum to actually release something. So far, the only notable yank to step up and take the bait is Joyner Lucas, a swagless D-lister whose biggest looks were an Eminem feature and being mentioned in the same breath that as rap-for-people-who-don’t-like-rap artists Logic and Hopsin. It’s hard to have a proper battle when the other side sends a guy who’s barely qualified to battle Big Shaq, let alone a legend. That said, even if Skepta easily won both rounds, he’s still rhyming on autopilot, seemingly more interested in impressing curious rap fans than demolishing the competition. Then there’s Big Zuu’s “Bun Em’”, a pastiche of Eminem’s pop singles so tongue-in-cheek that the Detroit legend would lose the battle just by acknowledging it. At that point, to quote a random if astute commenter: the battle was 2-2 with all the goals being own goals.

Thankfully, Novelist came through in the clutch with “Everybody Cares”, handily destroying Lucas (he really does look like a Crypto influencer and sounds like a bad Masta Ace impression) over a beat that flips MF DOOM, Three 6 Mafia and grime in equal amounts. In one track, Nov got to the heart of a point Skepta was trying to make: UK artists can compete on American terms because they’re open about their influences, while America is slow to give credit back, even after an entire era of London-based drill beats (with all respect to Chicago).

That the rest of this music has fallen flat is too bad, because a proper card of US vs UK talent would put Wrestlemania to shame, entertainment wise, particularly if we expand the scope beyond pure battling and clashing. Starting with the underground on the undercard, Skaiwater and Jim Legxacy vs. Mike and Earl Sweatshirt would be deadly and might just prove that the abstract side of rhyming is running things on both sides of the Atlantic. Closer to the mainstream, Pa Salieu vs. a resurgent Young Thug in a battle of the melodies might provoke a sudden outbreak of world peace, given how beautiful the results might sound. Then let’s have Ghostface and E-40 battle D Double E and Flirta D to see who can twist syllables into weirder shapes. Want some aggression, bars and breath control? Call in the legends Busta Rhymes and Wiley for the main event championship bout, with Vybz Kartel as a special guest referee. All I’m saying is, Triple H, if you’re reading this—DM me!

Unfortunately, given this supercard will probably remain a pipe dream, it now falls onto me—a neutral Canadian arbiter, with a DJing career’s worth of mixes blending Brick Squad into Ruff Sqwad—to settle this debate once and for all. First up, American rappers simply do not want that smoke with grime emcees on stage, or on air. End of story. Hip-hop is the most culturally significant form of music to emerge since jazz and its accomplishments are too numerous and self-evident to bother listing here, but decades removed from The Cold Crush vs. The Furious Five, its biggest names have rarely if ever clashed live and at shows. Today’s rap beef, best exemplified by Drake vs. Kendrick, is more akin to an arms race for incriminating information set to a beat, than a musical competition.

Meanwhile, even 20 years removed from grime’s first boom, its emcees are tested and proven on radio and a grime set is a continuous spray of bars with no pauses, bar the occasional reload. America can hide behind punch-ins when it comes to the studio, but there’s nowhere for them to duck-out in a clash. More interesting would be grime’s finest taking on dancehall veterans at a revamped Reggae Sting. I’d hop on a flight to Jamaica for that.

Second, for all of its success, UK rap still has a bit of a Napoleon complex when someone brings up America. Giggs, we love your music, but there was no need to portray grime as UK rap’s weird little cousin or any less hard than rap when you know that’s not the case. More importantly, UK rap should fully puff its chest out considering how many UK artists are hitting their stride in a moment where American rap seems to be struggling, Kendrick Lamar aside. In a decade where half of American rap is focused on Rage’s emo-biting aesthetic with the other dedicated to legends north of 45, UK heavyweights like Dave, Central Cee and Potter Payper are delivering exciting street rap that stays true to hip-hop roots, whether America wants to acknowledge that or not.

Finally, let’s all admit that this debate is a bunch of silliness meant as a summer distraction. Some of you lot are taking this extremely seriously, when the goal should be to shine light on the depth of talent across the UK, rather than get upset over perceived slights by industry figures an ocean away. One of Black music’s greatest strengths on both sides of the Atlantic is how local and community-driven it can be, so stop worrying about “The US” or “The UK” and start looking into the nuances of London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester. The magic happens on individual blocks, not according to lines on world maps.