Canadian-based rap battle league King Of The Dot left the scene reeling on Saturday (July 22) when they held a surprise battle in the middle of their “Massacre 3” event.
The Worcester, Massachusetts crowd went nuts when they learned they’d be witnessing a one-round promo battle between Hollow Da Don and Dizaster, two MCs who could both stake a strong claim for GOAT status in the modern era of battle rap.
League owner and KOTD host Organik described the one-rounder as a teaser for a full-length battle that would eventually go down on the league, and the short battle served as a trailer for everything that is good, great, engaging and controversial about battle rap.
Hollow Da Don set it off with relentless energy, and the crowd rocked with pretty much everything the Queens MC had to say about his opponent — losing it when Hollow went in on Dizaster for battling so much in KOTD that he’d even battled the host (back in the GrindTime days).
It was the kind of performance that battle fans have come to expect from Hollow, who’s responsible for some of the most-viewed and best-loved battles in the culture.
The same is true for Dizaster, though his record is tarnished with more controversies — he infamously punched Math Hoffa on the West Coast, earning himself a year’s suspension from KOTD. His round against Hollow showcased exactly why he’s such a divisive figure in the culture — beginning with manic energy, aggression and no shortage of bars, but ending in a messy freestyle that saw vast swathes of the crowd turn against him.
Toward the end of Diz’s round, Hollow began to talk to the crowd and try to leave the stage, arguing that Dizaster had gone over the five-minute time limit. This prompted Diz to start freestyling, remarking that Hollow was sitting down off-stage because “he’s never been a stand-up nigga.”
Dizaster, who is of Lebanese descent, immediately followed it up by saying, “Oh I can’t say that word, right?” before dropping some more bars and alleging that Hollow and his crew are “the type to say Black Lives Matter after killing some black guys,” at which point many in the crowd and social media began collectively SMH-ing.
Detroit MC Marv Won, who was co-hosting the live pay-per-view stream, had no time for the lyric, immediately describing Diz’s actions as “corny” to the fans watching at home.
The two spoke in a tense conversation after the battle as well.
Battle rap veterans on Twitter, including Drect and Sara Kana, put forward similar criticisms of Diz.
Competitor league URL also sent out an interestingly timed “#StayWoke” message, the meaning of which wasn’t hard to decipher.
Anyone who wants to check out the footage can buy the PPV at KOTDTV.com.
Maybe I’m too old school, but this new age battle rapping with written rhymes is kind of lame. A battle on stage is a freestyle battle. This is reciting 90% written rhymes.
Its entertainment. Off the top battles were ok, but damn, only a few battlers had gold nuggets with about 90% filler material, the rest were wack. A few like Supernat were and are monster when it comes to freestyling, but not many can stand up next to them, let alone battle them so what you end up with is a battle with mostly filler.
Freestyling is over-rated. that stuff might have impressed people back in the day but it wont work anymore. Hip Hop battling evolved to something more similar to MMA where emcees have to come with everything including freestyles, writtens, rebuttals, personals, wordplay, bars, gimmicks, shit is almost like wrestling now tbh. You know how in the 80s and 90s a moonsault would have been impressive but now it’s like Meh. Same with freestyling, it was impressive back in the day spitting a bunch of half ass rhymes out your ass on the fly and there’s still some such as Charron who are incredible at it but that shit isn’t going to last, you need Theatrics, gimmicks, penmanship, storylines, and thought provoking shit to make it successful because only a handful of rappers can really freestyle for a hour strong. Supernat and Juice but that about it
you’re white