After being asked if battle rap existed during his time as an up-and-coming artist, Grandmaster Caz offered his insight into the evolution of battle rap. He revealed that battle rap did exist, and added that it served as “a test of skill.”
Grandmaster Caz went on to explain that battle rap started out as a gauge to see who the better rapper was, but eventually transformed into a more personal, one-on-one following the battle between Kool Moe Dee and Busy Bee.
“We always battled each other,” Grandmaster Caz said during an interview with Vlad TV. “That was a test of skill…It’s like ‘Can you do it,’ first. Once you see you can do it then ‘Alright, who does it better?’ And that’s where battling starts…Battling became a little more personal, man-against-man, when Kool Moe Dee battled Busy Bee at Harlem World back in the day. That was really the first definitive battle. Directly ‘I’m talking about you. I’m talking about how you lied about such and such. And who you think you are. And such and such. And you ain’t the.’ That’s when that really [happened].”
The Bronx, New York lyricist later spoke on today’s battle rappers. According to Caz, battle rappers today appear to be more focused on insulting one another or boasting.
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“It’s about me being a better emcee than you,” he said. “Not how much I can talk about you, disrespect you, downgrade you. It’s about how lyrical I am. That’s what an emcee battle is supposed to be about. Today, it’s gone like man-on-man. Like ‘Fuck you. I got guns that’ll do this and that.’ Come on, that don’t got nothing to do [with it]. You probably could kill me, but you ain’t a better emcee than I am. You know what I mean? That’s the bottom line. You people bring a lot of things into it that have nothing to do with it.”
Grandmaster Caz’s interview with Vlad TV can be found below.
For additional Kool Moe Dee coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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