A bit of history: Part 1 How do battles kind of work?: Part 2

Hey. You. Yes, you. Wanna see something funny?

This is the level of notoriety we’re dealing with here. I mean, look at that. He was the very first King of the Dot champion. This is what being the first champion of a rap battle league gets you. A half-assed Wikipedia article about your hair, the fact that some people know you, and the one hobby outside of battle rap you talked about in a rap battle. Now I’m not accusing Twist of anything… but… it looks like he himself wrote this…

So why am I showing you this? Well, I thought it was funny, but, I also wanted to illustrate a point. Battle rap is not a universal thing you can IMDb or wikipedia. There are no really good sources out there for information on the subject, or much publicity for people to find. With so much crap circumventing the internet, you have to consciously be looking for rap battles to find them. It’s up to us who do know about the culture to expand its fan base.

One more thing before I walk further into this blogging business. A lot of you have addressed the fact that I’ve missed a lot of other facets of the battle rap scene, to which I say 1. Thank you for reading, and 2. Thank you for commenting. I will try to improve the amount of information coming out of these. People say I’ve missed things like the old Smack DVDs, Fight Klub, Elements League, iBattle Worldwide, AHAT, Fliptop, Got Beef, No Coast, O-Zone, all the MTV things, etc, etc… And yes, to a certain extent, I “missed” those. It’s hard to keep track of all the tiny leagues. Also, I was only using WRC and Scribble Jam as examples leading into the current day and age of battling.

I’m not gonna lie, I’m quite biased towards King of the Dot and Don’t Flop. Those are just the styles of battles and entertainment I personally prefer. I felt that in my first few blogs that focusing on what I did was a good introduction to ease new viewers into battling. I feel like more bar-heavy battles like those of the Ultimate Rap League would be something I would touch base on later, as I will in this blog. I will primarily focus on KOTD, DF, and URL as the examples for rap battling for the new people of this realm of the internet. I do highly encourage that you all look up the rest of the battle leagues as well, though.

Anyway, let’s get down to business…

Today’s lesson is all about the events, the set ups, the execution, and the ramifications of taking the scene to where it’s gone. The people that determine this have to be well-minded business-oriented people. Like I am discovering with this blog, there has to be an even-handedness that hosts who run leagues must keep in mind when putting on battles for audiences. Everyone has their favorite rappers, as well as their least favorite rappers, but everyone’s tastes are different. There are so many directions a host could go with their league based on the audience they are trying to rope in, so when it comes down to picking the next step, you can really see not just what’s popular with the kids on YouTube, but also what the league really likes. It’s in this that we can see what people like Smack, Organik, Eurgh, and the rest have up their sleeves.

Based off of pure speculation and no research at all, I believe that most North American leagues are huge wrestling fans. I personally don’t watch the sport, but for those of you that do, you can see similarities in the promotion and execution between the two. The ads on TV or YouTube building up suspense, keeping track of wins and losses, a title, tournaments, and pay-per-views. I have assumed that Organik especially digs these sorts of things, and uses these to promote rappers who don’t already have a huge following. Canadian emcee Arcane gained fame from (spoiler alert) winning both Grand Prix’s and going on to snag the chain, utilizing this set-up to its full potential.

Lately, however, KOTD is moving away from judged matches to determine a winner on the spot and closer to the non-judged “promo” matches that URL demonstrates. Battle rappers and fans alike have become rather upset over a group of five random rappers picking a winner that maybe the majority of fans felt lost the match. By making all the battles promo, fans can go online and argue over who won on forums and chatrooms, and after a while the internet accumulates a consensus of who people believe won. It’s a wonderful system because there is no right or wrong answer outlined for the viewers, but at the same time people like to see it be decided as so. If Organik does decide to move away from judged matches all together, it would be nice to still see the chain in play, as it is called “KING of the Dot”. Otherwise, we might end up with 15,000 unchallenged emcees thinking that they’re the best because no one told them that they lost several matches.

So promo has its ups and downs, but it comes down to mostly how much is at stake and how badly people care. URL has kept this system in play and done just fine with it, having the largest viewing fan base after Fliptop. By the way, the hot-headed battlers of URL claiming they’re some of the top-viewed people in the world may or may not have a point. Take Arsonal “Da Rebel”, for example. He has claimed to be the most viewed in the world several times (with currently 22 million views and counting), but is only ranked at ninth on the list of most viewed battlers in the world. How’s that? Well the top 8 are all from Fliptop, the highest viewed being Loonie, with 66 million and counting.

How are rappers from the Philippines more viewed than anyone else? Well, quite simply, rap battling is huge in their country. Almost all of the views they receive are from their nation alone, who are fantastic supporters of the, I guess sport, there. Internationally, however, Arsonal gets his views from a much more universal battle audience. So though the Fliptop cats have gallons of views pouring in on their YouTube channel from their home team, most other battle viewers outside the country don’t peep the battles as much. Why is that? Probably because rap became a thing through the English language, and is demonstrated and viewed in said way more internationally. Not that battles can’t be had in other languages, in fact, quite the opposite, but when battlers need a common language to duel in, English is the go to bridge between people from different corners of the globe.

Shout out to Versetracker for the support and stats, by the way. Another great site you should all check out. They have lists and statistics for everything battle rap, and regularly update followers with virtually every battle that comes out.

Another huge promotional aspect of the culture is what I like to call “URL’s Rent-A-Rapper”, where smaller leagues pay the top cats at URL (who can make it out of the country) a few racks to come to their humble abodes and battle one of their top dudes. It’s a smart strategy to get one’s league on the map, but also keeping in mind that in order to make your league a brand, you really have to put on for your own guys as well. If all your ticket money goes to pulling big names on the card, you’re not expanding enough on your own.

That being said, though, something that this strategy has done is begin to break down the walls of rapper/league association. Rappers all get their start with a league in their region, and make a name for themselves there. They then become a face, if not the face of that league. When other leagues start paying for you to come around their turf often enough, however, you suddenly have a second home, and that starts to give the rapper a more independent look. I predict that a few years down the road from now, there will be a lot more top-tier cats who have more than one home. Some of the URL dudes may also be in the KOTD camp, seeing as how much they have expanded. Even battlers like Uno Lavoz have found warm receptions abroad, as the UK loves inviting him out time and time again. I think at this point Uno has an impressive eight or so Don’t Flop battles under his belt, almost same number he has in KOTD. Anyway, battlers are starting to find more and more money in the business, collecting cash for their name across the globe to promote not only the battle scenes, but their own names.

I’ve probably talked your eyes out by now with all this promotional stuff, so here’s some battles to get you through the day. These are all newer battles, for those of you who are still stuck in 2009:

Danny Myers vs Rum Nitty – As I previously stated, I’m not a giant URL fan. I’ve only ever seen less than ten battles from there. Feel free to reccomend me some, by the way, it’d be nice if someone got me into them. If a battler could get me into URL, though, Danny would be that guy. Everyone loves Rum Nitty for this battle, and it got him a spot in BO4, but I really liked Myer’s performance in this one better, so much that I checked out his other battles. This is being called the runner-up for the battle of the year from KOTD’s BOTB6…

Illmaculate vs Bigg K – … right after this one. Although I’d personally give it to Myers and Nitty’s, this one is such a heavy-hitter that you can’t really say no to the masses. Illmac really comes back from his loss to Arsonal here, and Bigg K redeems himself from his performance against Real Deal earlier in the year. It’s this rally of epic proportions that these dudes remind us of why they’re top tier. They set an example for all battlers who waver at the top to still give it your all.

Real Deal vs B-Magic – You’re lying to yourself if you say B Magic decisively got this. I personally had Real Deal, but I could see how one would think it was close. I’ve had my suspicions about the editor of this video turning down the audience sound during Real Deal’s rounds and up on B-Magic’s, but regardless you can tell that Real Deal went in and was well-recieved by the audience.

Tsu Surf vs Big-T – I had a buddy of mine tell me about Big-T. I looked him up and found this battle to be particularly good. Tsu Surf is already one of the top dogs in URL, but Big-T has really made a name for himself in 2013. He’s got a battle against Bender coming up at BO4 I’m really interested in seeing, too. Also, watch this.

MR Mill$ vs Danny Myers – I’m not gonna lie, I’ve watched this battle like five times this week. I just HAD to put another Danny Myers battle in here. Both of these dudes go in, and I just LOVE the crowd going nuts over the punches. Another battle where the dudes give each other props during the battle. Danny’s a genuine dude in his battles, which only adds to my reasons for liking him.

So, once again I’ve produced something totally speculative and based on no facts at all other than what I see on the internet. Please give me some feedback on what you’d like to see more or less of, as well as any battles you want to recommend to me to post on here or just watch. Also, shout out to Dirtbag Dan and the Dirtbag Dan Show, r/RapBattles reddit page, Versetracker, @RapBattleReview, and everyone else who has shown support for my blog. Please like, share, RT, comment, and do whatever you can to help this grow and I will love you all. Also, after these segments on basic battle stuff I’m hoping to move into a more regular groove talking about all things rap related, so stick around and shout out suggestions for what else you’d like for me to talk about or show. Thank you all so much!

-Midknight