With a public offer to battle from Loaded Lux in January, battle rapper Murda Mook recently sat down with ForbezDVD to talk about his history in the industry and his thoughts on its current movement.
Early in the interview, Mook admits to feeling like he remains undefeated despite a host of controversial battles under his belt. “I had classic great battles with great competition,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of heavy, heavyweight matches. The most controversial one I get is with [Loaded Lux]. I get the most, ‘He beat me,’ I see people say that a lot.”
Earlier this year, Lux challenged Mook to a battle on Twitter and Mook seemed to accept the offer.
During his interview with ForbezDVD, Mook breaks down his early entry into the Battle Rap circuit using his famous match against Jae Millz more than 10 years ago as a reference point. “That was the first time time I was born on the cameras, man,” he says. “Nobody [knew me], that’s why when people ask me who won that battle, I always say, ‘I won that battle because I wasn’t nobody before.’ I wasn’t nobody, but once that battle dropped, everybody knew me.”
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Explaining how the battle came about, Mook referenced a time in the industry he considers to represent a focus on lyricism itself. “It started off competitive, that Harlem shit,” he said of the particular battle with Millz. Referencing his opponent’s then-current track record, Mook said Jae Millz’s popularity is what motivated him to challenge the artist now signed to YMCMB. “That’s the reason I wanted to battle him,” Murda Mook said. ”Millz was putting niggas on they ass. I always felt I was nicer. Back when battle rapping was who was a nicer rapper. Now, battle rapping is not who’s a nicer rapper.”
When asked if he was referring to the recent surge in performance antics, Mook confirmed. “Yeah, that’s what it’s become.”
Continuing his description of his battle against Millz, Mook detailed the makings of the match. “I started just going everywhere,” he said. “Any camera that I could find that was on, I’m saying, ‘Yo I want to battle him.’ They had little DVDs out—this was before the Smack—they just had little DVDs in the hood…We put a bet up, it was $5,000…once that happened, we set the date—I didn’t know shit about Smack or none of that—and I came over there and it was just mad motherfuckers. I’m just looking like, ‘Damn, what the fuck did I get myself into?’ There was mad niggas there. He was up there. He was cocky, like, ‘Yo, hurry up man, I got somewhere to go.’
“I see cameras in your face,” Murda Mook continues. “I don’t know what’s what. I just started doing what I know how to do. Just rap. Even when I watch that battle, obviously I’ve grown, but certain other shit I could’ve delivered better, like when I see it, if I knew what I knew now type shit, it would have been a whole different [situation.]”
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Murda Mook’s 2003 battle against Jae Millz is available below.
Murda Mook Recalls Battling Party Arty
In a separate part of the interview, Mook also addresses his match-up against now deceased emcee Party Arty. “People say he won too,” Mook said before addressing their age differences. “I was about twenty [or] twenty-one and he was like thirty-something. He was rapping for another type of audience, that’s why that battle was so crazy. I feel like lyrically I beat’em, but he was rougher than me. So, he taught me a little bit about how to maneuver in that environment around just niggas that rap that rough, that’s older than me. For your first time, you a young nigga, you had a lot of fights with younger niggas your age, and then a grown man…and you fought him, and you really held your own against him. That put me in a different space.”
