With the hype machine for King Of The Dot’s “World Domination 5” now chugging into action, it will soon be time for Canadian champ Pat Stay to defend his title for the fourth time. This go around, it’s against Illmaculate, an American name that universally commands respect from seasoned fans.

If Pat's most recent defense, against Charron, was David vs. Goliath, this is more like Tyrion Lannister vs. The Mountain. Either way, both emcees here are too creative to only dwell on their obvious physical differences.

Before this match-up was officially announced, many astute fans already had it pegged simply because it made so much sense. Among active followers of the scene, the candidates seemed pretty clearly to be Rone, Caustic, Bigg K, and Illmaculate, which was easy to narrow down since Caustic and K are unable to cross the border into Toronto and Rone recently faced Pat in a compliments battle.

Illmac at "Ether." Photo by Valerie Sakmary for BattleRap.com.

But don't mistake Illmac as a “default” choice. Remember who we’re talking about: a full-package battler who has been active for almost a decade and remains on a renewed killing spree that started a couple years back.

Although he’s known for his intricate and illustrative writing, Illmac always could and still can do it all. If you’re looking for recent examples, check his Aye Verb battle for brutal character deconstruction, his DNA battle for face-melting rebuttals and a vicious mean streak, his Carter Deems battle for jokes, and his Bigg K battle for a classic slugfest. All these facets make him a potentially lethal opponent for Pat.

There’s a strong case to be made for Illmac being the best “angle” rapper Pat has ever faced, and he can definitely be more direct and funnier than the previous challengers (Charron, Daylyt, and Dizaster). Even though he will inevitably find a way to son his opponent, Pat will have to do more than just be himself here (a tactic that has definitely helped him get this far).

What do you say to Illmac? He’s calm and confident (unlike Charron), he always shows up (unlike Daylyt), and his material is always polished (unlike Dizaster). Pat is no slouch with angles either, and it’s safe to assume he’ll unearth something heavy from Illmac's past, but whether it will be enough remains to be seen. Illmac is notorious for pummeling half-assed versions of URL’s top tier by now, but Pat could easily construe that as an embarrassing fault if he comes correct. A lot of this battle will depend on the precision of Pat’s approach, as Illmac seems to be pretty unshakeable (when sober, at least).

Pat Stay vs. Calicoe. Photo by Clayton Dahm for BattleRap.com.

Pat, on the other hand, represents a wealth of trash-talking material at this point. The way he brought about Charron’s controversial censorship and his past disrespect to timid opponents compared to the recent inclination to "keep it rap" against Calicoe represent only a few topics that will likely lead to haymakers. Although “you didn’t hit Cal” doesn’t seem like a particularly crippling line of attack, Illmac is the sort capable of making it ether. In reality, both will have to be sharp in all categories: Pat might have the edge humor-wise and Illmac “bar”-wise, but everything else looks real, real close.

With Pat having defended the title so many times, many fans found themselves asking, “Who’s left?” Now, many of those same fans believe that if anyone can take Pat’s chain in Canada, it’s Illmac. Pat may be reaching the point where, no matter what he does, viewers are interested in seeing a change, but that’s far from guaranteed. It would be a very big change, however, with the chain once again residing stateside as it has at times in the past. It also raises the interesting question of how Pat, a battle rap giant even by today’s standards, will occupy himself should he be freed from his title-defense shackles.

I've got Illmac taking it 2-1. Tell me what you think in the comments below.

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