Organik, founder, owner and host of King of the Dot, has addressed several rappers who could not appear at the company’s Blackout 4 event, which took place January 24-25.
Method Man, scheduled to be an event co-host, did not attend because he instead appeared at Beats Music’s Los Angeles launch party Grammy weekend. Three battle rappers meant to participate in the event, JC, Big T and Aye Verb, did not attend the event due to complications with crossing the border to Canada. Another battler, Ill Will, had problems with traveling due to legal issues. Remy D was involved in a car accident that left him with injuries that prevented his travel and Rich Dolarz left Canada when he received word that a friend of his died.
In his statement, Organik expressed disappointment with travel complications and cancellations in general, while acknowledging that he hopes to reschedule many of these battles in the future.
To see a wrap-up of Blackout 4’s title match between Pat Stay and Dizaster, and to view Dizaster’s statement announcing his retirement from Battle Rap, click here.
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Organik’s statement can be found below, as posted on RMBVA.
whats up guys, Just wanna touch base and kinda give a little bit of a indepth look at what kinda caused so many battles to be cancelled last minute. You guys are our fans and have supported us and put is in this position so I think its super important for us to inform our fans with the truth and let them know that we all did everything we could to get everyone here for their battle.
This was set to be the biggest event we had ever thrown, it had the biggest budget (almost double our biggest budget prior) the biggest names, and we were definitely more prepared going into this event then ever before.. unfortunately.. less then 24 hours before the first event .. our worst nightmares started to become true. Now im not making this lookin for sympathy as this is the risk we take as a battle promortion company but just keep in mind we went above and beyond to try and make this the most exciting event to ever happen.
First cancellation was Wednesday afternoon… that was Method Man.. he was supposed to be the special co-host but got booked last minute for Dr Dre’s party where his management booked him and redman.. all is love he made a blog for us and always shows nothng but love so mad respect for him for even reaching out and trying to come out.. woulda been amazing to have him there saturday night.
now, this is when the problems began
since the battles were set up, that day, i sent every battler a border exemption letter drawn up by our lawyer which exempts any artist performing from getting stopped at the border. There were only 4 artists that hadnt gotten passports yet and that was Yung Ill, Rum Nitty, Big T & AyeVerb.. from the second the contracts were signed and the deposits sent (half their payment) they were told they needed to get their Passports ASAP!. Now, as a promoter, I always look over where artists are on ensuring they get their shit to make it.. but its also their responsibility to actually do it since i cant do it for them. Big T & Ayeverb’s battles were set up on December 3rd, and December 11th. Big T applied and got his passport expedited on Dec 30th.. should have only taken 3-12 days. Verb did his on Jan 3’rd, same deal. (much later then we would have liked)
Big T had called me on the wednesday to say that he hadnt gotten his passport yet which was weird cause him Yung Ill & Verb all applied in the same week and Yung Ill had gotten his. This is when i started really scrambling, i knew that he was gonna miss the press conference but i was just focused on getting them here. So i called the border and did everything i could i spent a great portion of thursday night looking for alternative ways to get them into Canada. I was told they were able to apply for Enhanced ID’s which will allow them to travel over the border on land and water but not on air… at that point they had already missed their flights but i was willing to bus them from Chicago or STL to Toronto that minute… we tried to make that happen but enhanced ID’s arnt available in the state of Illinois or Missouri until 2015.. they are only available to those who are residents of a border state such as Michigan & New York for ex. Verb had even gone again on the thursday to apply for a second expidited to hopefully be there saturday morning.
We did everything we could, we got a tracking # on verb’s and it was arriving saturday during the day so we looked into a 5pm flight that landed in Toronto for 9pm. We had arranged drivers to pick him up and bring him directly to the venue. Unfortunately it wasnt verb’s passport in the mail and it was a letter telling him he was ineligible for a passport. Big T’s is arriving this week and was told it was put on hold due to a back up in passports and the post office being delayed due to the midwest storm. I want to just point out that Verb & Big T both put forth a really good effort to try and fix the problems. They were both really concerned with not making it and REALLY wanted to be there. They kept in great communication and we really did have faith that the passports would come since Ill got his in the same time period.
Now, Remy D sent me a message on thursday and said he got in a car accident (pictures are on QP’s wall) he got a concussion and ruptured his ear drum meaning he was un able to get on a plane due to the elevation and him having sensitivity to light and sound. Now this is extremely frustrating for me, i had already bought his flights and hotels aswell as Osa’s.. but its one of those situations where you cant do anything and just hope he is okay. I was super concerned with breakin the news to Osa as byt the time i found out he was already in Toronto and this is now the second battle that got cancelled on him in a row. Super unfortunate but i wish the best for Remy and hope he has a speedy recovery.
Ill Will’s manager and me were in contact all week since he was informed he had a warrant. The secretary of state had informed him that with proof he was working he would be able to cross but MAY have troubles and might get detained when he re-enters america… his lawyer had advised him on friday morning not to do it and he took his lawyers advice…again, super frustrating as it was last minute and i actually found out by checking RMBVA and seeing the thread about his IG post… i had to contact his management so find the truth if he was coming or not. Ill Will seems like a great guy and we hope to make this battle happen very soon.
Rich Dolarz, literally landed, walked outside and showed my driver that he had bought another ticket cause his homie died… this was the second last cancellation.. i tried to get him to stay for an addition 4 hours to see if his flight could be pushed and him do the battle and go home but he wasnt having any of it.. I know this sounds bad on my behalf but at this point i was desperate.. the event we had all worked so hard on was falling apart by the minute. Rich even left his manger stranded in Toronto knowing nobody and having nowhere to stay so we had to put him up.. then on Saturday rich called and said he was getting on a 6PM flight landed at 8PM… i informed pesci to prepare only for him to not get on any flight and the battle not happeing… Rich is a good dude, Again, super unfortunate for everyone involved.
JC… this one is frustrating.. JC was supposed to be there friday at 6pm as all rappers were… I had texted him and asked him if he could battle friday night.. he was concerned he wouldnt make it there in time to battle.. but then got back and said he should be there before midnight.. unfortunately he didnt show up…I spent a better half of fridays event in the basement stressing out trying to get a hold of him to find out hats going on but didnt hear back from him all night which was super tough cause i didnt know what to tell Rone.. day 1 passed where they were scheduled to battle… at 8am on saturday JC finally responds saying that his driver was detained at the border and he was stranded… we tried to help organize a bus, a amtrak train from 4pm to get ion Toronto at 10 enough time for him to perform.. he told me he didnt have any money to take a cab since his wallet was in the car that was detained…. i looked looked and looked and finally found someone who was in that area that would pick him up ad drive him here (3 hour drive from Detroit to Toronto).. after i finally found someone who 100bulletz actually found (shouts to him for helping).. JC stopped responding for a bit and basically sent a text to me around 8PM (when day 2 was starting) saying its too much of a hassle and hell send back his deposit… now again.. super tough cause Rone was in toronto and this was now the 6th cancellation….
keep in mind, 5 of the 6 battles that were cancelled were scheduled to take place on the friday… this left us scrambling friday during the day to try and move battles from saturday to friday and hope the battles from friday come thru on saturday.. unfortunately this was not easy and we had to go as far as bargaining with some to get them to move over to friday and save the event.
Now, even with all the cancellations, i do view the event as a complete success as the 12 battles that did take place over exceeded any expectations we had for them. We set up such a big card that even without those battles it will still be viewed as one of the best KOTD events to date.
Now, it comes time for us to move forward. We are working hard to figure out how to get all those battles done asap for the fans. We promised and now we need to deliver.
I wanna thank everyone who supported us. We will continue to do our best to fulfill your expectations. Super unfortnate we were not able to make the biggest event in battle rap history happen but shit happens and its back to the drawing board.
SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL THE KOTD STAFF…
Imma hard person to put up with when i get going and i honestly appreciate everyone for keeping me in such good spirits and keeping my head on my shoulders. There were definitely some periods where i was stressing beyond belief but when your working with your friends they always you find ways to make to the best out of everything. Very grateful.
You all KILLED IT!.. everyone plays such a crucial role and with one person missing the team gets crippled… our team is almost 30 deep when all said and done and all of them are nothing short of the best. Thank you all !
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