Battles of the month: April
What with our Vendetta 2 coverage/trip to LA/busy lives in general, we never got around to doing our monthly installment of the five battles to watch from April. Here’s a quick version, for posterity’s sake.
Pat Stay to step down as KOTD champion?
In a recent interview with Body Count Radio, Charron dropped a bombshell when asked if he was going to battle Pat Stay:
“That’s what everyone wants including the staff. The staff definitely wants to set up me versus Pat Stay and I think it should happen for the Canadian scene and all the work I’ve put in for it. But the thing about Pat Stay is that when he got the title - it’s no secret that he said he wants to choose his opponents strategically - so that’s why he picked Dizaster. And at this point there’s really no one else in line for the title …
The staff knows it has to happen, Pat Stay knows it has to happen, but battling someone like me for him is lose/lose. Pat Stay is a smart dude and he knows that. His whole persona is based on his image of being a tough guy, and if he beats me it’s just like ‘It’s Charron, of course you punked him’ but if he loses it tarnishes his tough guy image …
Honestly, the title match isn’t going to go to anyone else so I predict that he’s going to relinquish the chain and I’ll probably have to battle Clips for the title or something.”
That’s one hell of a prediction.
Let’s unpack a couple of the claims Charron makes.
Podcast Ep. 4: Total Slaughter & Vendetta 2 reactions
In our latest podcast, we talk about the announcement of Eminem’s Total Slaughter battle league (in a much different tone than our satirical piece on it) and give our thoughts on the battles from KOTD’s recent Vendetta 2 event.
Scroll down for TOBB’s interviews from V2R.
DON DEMEMORIES: Three years of battling for Mos Prob
Last month marked (out) the three-year anniversary of my foray into the battle rap medium. My debut was against one sharply dressed English teacher named Mark Grist back in April 2011. I did it as a platform from which to interview Eurgh for my English Language university dissertation on battle rap (available here in its full glory) and to find out more about a culture by which I was utterly fascinated. Part of me wanted to prove myself as well – I’d only really presented myself/been seen as a joke in the Brighton hip-hop scene up to that point, and I suppose I just wanted to see if I actually was one, on my own terms. I ended up learning way more than I expected.
Here are my ten clearest memories, in no particular order:
Everything you missed at KOTD’s Vendetta 2
King of the Dot’s Vendetta 2 Redemption card mostly lived up to its name in Los Angeles last night. The event was to make up for Blackout 4′s six unexpected cancellations but of the three rescheduled battles, only Bender vs Big T went down. Ill Will backed out against Real Deal, citing contractual obligations to BET, and Shotty Horroh was replaced by Caustic as Aye Verb’s opponent with two weeks’ notice.
Despite those early setbacks, it was a great event with lots of impressive performances from some of the best battle MCs in the world, cheered on by a generous and well-behaved crowd. The venue was much smaller than the massive rooms we’ve seen in Toronto recently, holding around 500 people comfortably. The stage was only a couple of feet high and the battlers were surrounded by people which should result in footage similar to that of Battle of the Bay 6 — which is a good thing.
To a certain extent, this was the URL vs KOTD card that fans have been demanding for years. That no one really noticed shows how much overlap there now is between the leagues and their rosters.
Overall, the tone of the battles gave clear indication that a combination of complex wordplay, rapid-fire punches and dense lyricism is the dominant style in battling today. Our only request for the next card is that we get a bit more comedy to break up the encyclopedia’s worth of bars we’re getting shouted at us in a night.
**You can watch all these battles on PPV now, at KOTD.TV**
Bigg K: Back for another classic
Bigg K used to be one of the top up-and-coming MCs in the scene. After his 2013 clash with Illmaculate, which many called battle of the year, he exchanged “up-and-coming” for “established.”
The Norfolk, Virginia MC first caught people’s attention in URL’s Proving Grounds, then solidified his name on the main stage against Rosenberg Raw. Since then, he’s squared off against Real Deal and Shotgun Suge in upstart leagues. In the ring, he cuts an imposing figure and attacks his opponents with an onslaught of street slang and heavy haymakers.
This weekend in Los Angeles, KOTD hopes to catch lightning in a bottle again by matching Bigg K up with Illmac’s former WRC partner, The Saurus.