Hollow Da Don vs. Murda Mook is a rap battle that needs to happen to settle a debate.
THE debate, really.
The two battle rap legends are in the conversation for the greatest of all time, though they’ve taken very different routes to get there. Harlem’s Murda Mook was arguably the first top battle rapper, emerging from the SMACK DVD era of the early-to-mid 2000s with historic battles against Jae Millz, Serius Jones and Loaded Lux. His return in 2012 against Iron Solomon at URL’s “Summer Madness 2” was a fiasco that saw him win the battle in front of a very volatile crowd, causing many fans to count him out at Eminem’s “Total Slaughter” event where the consensus was that he took a clear in-the-building win in a rematch with Lux. Since then he’s raised his profile through album releases, film appearances and a regular stream of interviews — as well as with talk of a battle with Drake — but this July will mark two years since he last stepped into the battle rap arena.
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Queens rapper Hollow Da Don has always been more active than Mook, with 26 on-camera battles (not counting his run on 106 and Park’s “Freestyle Friday”) compared to Mook’s 11. Hollow built his reputation across a variety of platforms and eras, through Jumpoff’s freestyle 2-on-2s, to Fight Klub, to Grindtime, to URL, to facing Joe Budden at “Total Slaughter.” This Sunday (May 15) he’s making his King Of The Dot debut against former league champion Pat Stay, seen by most as the top battler to come out of Canada.
Huge battles like Hollow Da Don vs. Murda Mook aren’t easy to set up. Both expect big paydays for the match-up, and the league and/or investor that backs it needs to make sure they recoup the costs. But in recent months, both emcees have again started talking about the possibility of the match-up.
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Mook said in a recent interview that he’s open to the battle, explaining that “a lot of mothafuckers feel like [Hollow’s] the best nigga so I have no choice but to do that.”
In a conversation with BattleRap.com, Hollow jokingly dismissed Mook’s interest in the battle as just more bluster from a rapper who talks about battling far more than he actually battles.
“Ain’t Murda Mook battling Drake? That’s what he said, right? Drake’s down to do it,” Hollow said, tongue firmly in cheek. “I’ve seen multiple interviews of him saying Drake said he’s down and that they’re talking with it. I wouldn’t want to disturb that, he has such big moves going on … Are we just gonna forget that? Do dudes just get to make up stuff and say they’re battling people and you forget a year later?”
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Continuing, Hollow asks, “Who are you actually battling? Or are you just talking about battling? At this point I think Mook is just talking about battling … He went from Drake for six months to a year, then it went to [Tsu] Surf, another six months. Now it’s me. I’m just calling his repeated behavior. Who are you battling Mook? Figure it out … You’ve got more interviews than battles. You’re a nut.”
But the first order of business for Hollow right now is his battle with Pat Stay in Boston on May 15.
Watch the trailer for that battle here.
The event, which also features Iron Solomon vs. B Magic, Bigg K vs. Head I.C.E, Math Hoffa vs. The Saurus (and much more), will be live-streamed on Sunday, May 15. Order the pay-per-view here.
