Category: Interviews

Q&A: Pat Stay speaks on the Arcane battle

Ask any fan who the best battle rapper in Canada is and chances are they’ll say Pat Stay. The Nova Scotian heavyweight started battling in Halifax’s Elements League in 2006 and with his King of the Dot appearances has earned the respect of both fans and battlers worldwide. He’s also poised to become the most-viewed Canadian battle rapper on YouTube after his highly anticipated title match against Arcane at World Domination 4.

Pat Stay takes a bite of breakfast at Nena's in Dartmouth.
Pat Stay takes a bite of breakfast at Nena’s in Dartmouth.

T.O. Battle Blog caught up with Pat over breakfast in his hometown of Dartmouth in late June. We talked about why he finally took the title shot, his beef with Marv One, his thoughts on the current state of battle rap and more.

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Everything you missed at GZGP Round 3 (TO/VAN)

With the Ground Zero Grand Prix brackets narrowing headed into the quarter finals, last weekend’s events in Toronto and Vancouver only had one or two tournament battles going down. That meant there was room on the cards for some KOTD main-channel battles and a place to showcase some new talent.

We have the details from Toronto, and Vancouver up-and-comer Pigsty has details from his hometown event.

There was no clear Battle of the Night in Toronto, which just shows how hot the card was. People mostly went with Notez/Wize Guy, N-Pose/Yung Casper and Kinaze/Twizzie. Standout performances came from N-Pose, Notez and Bulle.

If you’re not caught up with the $1500, winner-take-all Ground Zero tournament, check our introductions for Toronto and the West Coast and our recap of the first and second rounds.

***Recaps have spoilers. Be warned. As always, this is our opinion and analysis. Not everyone saw the battles the same way.***

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Everything you missed at KOTD’s Takeover

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The Deadman. Photo from KOTD.

Last Friday in Los Angeles, KOTD put on what was, by all accounts, a solid night. We talked to LA rapper The Deadman about his battle with The Saurus and how things went down at the sold-out event.

TOBB: Tell me first about your battle. How did it actually come about?

That shit’s funny actually. I did a battle last November in AHAT and saw a YouTube comment on the video from The Saurus that gave me a compliment. This was in a smaller league so I was surprised he watched it. I hit him up on Twitter and asked if that was him that commented and he said yeah, and I thought damn that’s crazy that The Saurus is actually a fan of my work because I’m a fan of his. [Note: The Saurus's comment said "Deadman is that dude."]

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Q&A: Notez in the Dirty 30z

Bench

Notez is one of the most divisive figures in battle rap. The Toronto MC’s hood lyrics, in-battle theatrics and raspy patois energize live crowds while often offending online audiences. Take a look through the YouTube comments on any of his battles and you’ll find both derision and praise.

Notez too street for any URL cats -snwoodstock13

Trash!!! Notez fake ass is going to get bodied -EpicFreestyleKing

notez’ bars were so gutter, my speakers got stolen in the middle of his verse. -emceekinaze

First time I’ve heard Notez, hopefully it’ll be the last. -Jeremy Liu

But you can’t argue with his record: 13-2, with no losses since early 2011. True, most of his wins have been over unknowns, but he’s also beat some established up-and-comers like Yung Casper and Tycoon Tax.

We met up with Notez at his Teesdale housing project to get a sense of who he is outside of a rap battle.

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Q&A: 100 Bulletz

100 Bulletz. Photo by Julian Frank/King of the Dot
100 Bulletz. Photo by Julian Frank/King of the Dot.

100 Bulletz is arguably the best battler to come out of King of the Dot’s Ground Zero league. Since debuting on GZ in early 2011, he’s quickly climbed the ranks of the main channel, with matches against veterans like Arcane, Kid Twist and, most recently, Dirtbag Dan. Next weekend, he faces his toughest opponent to date: The Saurus in Don’t Flop. We spoke with Bulletz shortly after the match-up was announced, and he revealed how he approaches battles, whether his URL debut will get released, and which leagues have the best and worst crowds.

How did the battle with The Saurus come together?

We were both at the same Don’t Flop event last October. It was his first time at Don’t Flop. It was my first time. And we both had pretty solid performances. I think this is the link. He had a rough third, and I had a rough third. It’s like, ‘Bring Bulletz back, bring The Saurus back, and we’ll put them against each other and see what they do.’ It’s actually been in talks since back in January. We were maybe going to battle on Eurgh’s birthday event.

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Everything you missed at GZGP Round 2 (TO/WC/CGY/VAN recap)

The Ground Zero Grand Prix is shaping up to be the hottest ticket in North American battle rap. Round 2 has a strong crop of hungry battlers with well-defined personas from all over the stylistic map. The best part though, is that there’s actually something at stake: wins and losses mean something.

If you’re not already familiar with the battlers competing in the $1500, winner-take-all Ground Zero tournament, check out our introductions for Toronto and the West Coast and our recap of the first round.

We were at the Toronto event last night, but we’ve also got recaps from Vancouver, California and Calgary from league presidents La Sparka, Aspect One and Sketch Menace. Scroll down for those, but read Toronto first.

A good recap is going to have some spoilers. Be warned.

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