We couldn’t make it to Los Angeles for BOLA5 this weekend, but we did an interview with KOTD’s Aspect One for BattleRap.com to get his thoughts on the best performances from the night as well as to find out exactly what is going on with Carter Deems.
If you haven’t already, check out the rest of our BOLA 5 coverage.
Here are some photos from the event courtesy of Chris Wynn.
BOLA5 is less than a week away and the Day 1 GZ card has a lot of new faces debuting in the league. Here’s a quick preview so you’ll know what to expect from the battles.
Another busy month, another late edition of Battles to Watch. For the record, this is actually the second month in a row where the best battle features Daylyt in a ski mask. Poke around the site once you’re done here to check out what else we’ve been working on.
[UPDATE - July 15] We’ve done recaps for all the episodes now. Check our first impressions below, and Ep. 2, Ep. 3 and Ep. 4 on BattleRap.com.
__
Tonight was the debut of “The Road to Total Slaughter” reality show on Fuse TV, which probably features at least one of your favourite battle rappers. The show stars Aye Verb, Big T, Dizaster, Marv Won, Daylyt, Arsonal, Cortez, T-Rex and Math Hoffa, who live together in a house for a week as they compete in a tournament against each other. Between battles, they’re “mentored” by Loaded Lux and Murda Mook.
The first episode didn’t spend much time introducing the characters to the broader audience, instead taking more of a fly-on-the-wall approach and letting the battlers reveal their personalities as they bantered and argued about YouTube views and win-loss records. For the most part it had a casual reality TV feel to it, cutting head-on monologues with unrehearsed group conversations.
Chris and Matt from T.O. Battle Blog discuss Pat Stay’s hiatus as KOTD champion, possible #1 contenders, NOME 4, B Magic, DNA, Total Slaughter, and then (eventually) give their predictions for Battle of Los Angeles 5.
The newly rebranded GZ Battles launched yesterday, with an event that felt like something from the early days of KOTD. The battles were short, in a pit with the crowd surrounding the battlers, and mostly judged. Most importantly, the battlers were hungry and kept the crowd entertained throughout. Not every battle was great, but they all had great moments.
It was the first event in Gully’s hometown of Mississauga and still drew around 250 people (including Gully’s dad) despite being a streetcar, a subway, and two buses away from downtown Toronto. The venue was a club located in a strip mall, divided into a bar with tables and food on one side and a dancefloor that served as the ring on the other.
The new venue, new crowd and some bigger names on the card made for a welcome return of small-scale KOTD events to the city (or at least its suburbs).
**The PPV for this event is now available for $10 on KOTD’s website.**