KOTD kicked off its Blackout 4 weekend with a press conference on Thursday night. The World Domination 4 press conference in August was impressively professional and had some great moments with Arcane, Pat Stay, Dizaster and Arsonal clowning each other and jockeying for microphone time.

This time, with the Blackout concept, it was obviously harder to set up face-offs, so instead the battlers took to the podium one at a time answering audience questions. Bishop Brigante hosted and KOTD interviewer Zo Duro handled microphone duty, asking questions and finding audience members with something to say. The tone of the press conference veered all over the place from informative, to confrontational, to completely absurd.

Rone was the definite standout in the audience question segment. He went on an epic rant that included the line, “My opponent doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air I fart,” and got the biggest crowd reaction of the night by rebutting Zo, who’d been asking “deep” questions all night. When he was at the podium bragging, she started with: “Sometimes arrogance is a coverup for low confidence.” He immediately cut her off with: “If you psychoanalyze everyone, how are you gonna have spice in your interviews?” It’s hard to really convey how funny this was, so make sure you watch the footage when it drops. Rone also told the story about his emergency circumcision as a baby. That was probably the weirdest part of the night. Somehow it all worked though and had the crowd rolling.

We were expecting fireworks from the Pat Stay/Dizaster face-off but both guys were calm, casual and good-natured with each other. Neither was overly cocky or argumentative like you would expect in this kind of context. They spoke about the significance of the matchup and what it means to represent KOTD as the champ until Diz was sent onto a tangent about his recent dust-up with Eurgh.

Someone in the audience asked them to imitate each other. Diz declined, but Pat’s impersonation of Diz was so on point he must’ve been drawing from his actual content for the battle.

Here are the top quotes from the press conference. A lot of them are ridiculous and make more sense in context, so we’d suggest you watch the footage for a better understanding.

“I think it’s my biggest challenge yet … It’s the most pressure I’ve been under before a battle.” – Dizaster

“I feel like I was always looked at as the champ, I just wasn’t yet.” – Pat Stay, talking about how he was perceived before winning the title

“I’m an open book. I’ll battle naked. Fuck ‘pause.’ ” – Pat Stay, on not being worried about personal angles from Diz

“Sure, if I win, I’ll battle Charron … I mean, we’ve already slept together…” – Pat Stay

“There’s so much homo shit.” – Audience member, quietly to his girlfriend

“I’ve been asked to do a bikini battle before.” – Bonnie Godiva

“I’m not looking at myself as the only female on this card.” – Bonnie Godiva

“The hype has been so big [for Blackout 4] I almost forgot Hollow vs Lux is happening.” – Charron

“I don’t write battle bars. I write eulogies.” – Charron

“There isn’t really a #1 contender match this weekend.” – Charron

“You funny. But don’t get funny.” Bishop Brigante to Zo, who was trying to interrupt him

“I get recognized almost everywhere I go.” – Arsonal

“How many tits have you signed?” – audience member to Arsonal

“Shoutout to Lady Arsonal.” – Arsonal’s response

“I’m gonna strangle Organik if I don’t make my flight back for UW on Sunday.” – Arsonal

“I can’t say who I’m battling, but he’s here and he can hear me … I’m killing you!” – Swave Sevah

“I’m trying to not use ['Sike - I lied nigga'] anymore. Other people are using it now. It went platinum.” – Charlie Clips

“When I battled Hollohan … yeah … R.I.P.” – Charlie Clips

“You’re cool” – audience member to Rone

“You’re not wrong, friend-o.” – Rone’s response

“Fuck T.O. Battle Blog.” – Shotty Horroh

“How does it feel that you lost to Sketch Menace but you’re always above him on the card?” – Uno Lavoz to Bender

ALSO OF NOTE

- Charron said he’s not going to do the Don’t Flop international title match Eurgh offered him.

- Charron is working with Crooked I on a track.

- Both Swave and Charron predicted a Dizaster victory. Bender was cagey about picking a winner.

- Bender’s still working on his solo album, but it and a new Flight Distance album are coming.

- Two battles went down at the press conference for Queenzflip’s Quiet Room league. They were recorded in a separate room and broadcast live to the crowd.

-Realiztic vs Merrick City was a one-rounder with solid performances from both. There was no audio in the room for the first minute of Real’s round so it’s hard to call a winner.

- Lotta Zay vs Yung Casper was the second battle, with their third rounds taking place in front of the live crowd. It was decent, with both rappers hitting all their marks and spitting aggressively. Lotta Zay’s structure and performance were polished but Casper had the line of the battle with: “You’ll be leaking before you drop like the Blackout 4 card.”

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