D04: BATTLE RAP OLYMPICS/WRESTLEMANIA EXPERIENCE.
Draft: Smack v. KOTD Rap Battle Event
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Talks around our creative space about a potential Smack v. KOTD experience always reignites our love for battle rap and wrestling nostalgia from the 90's and early 2000's. In the year 2020, jumpstarting a potentital Wrestlemania of battle rap, could reignite the sport and community of battle rap to new heights.
When I think of battle rap, I get the image of Jae Millz being woken up out of his sleep by Diddy to battle Sire Castro. I picture Jae Millz being summoned by Diddy, like the Green Ranger would summon his Dragonzoid out of the ocean.
Millz, like everyone else in the game at this time, was more than ready. The best analogy I can use for what Jae Millz and others are capable of in the sport of battle rap is being a Hardcore title belt champion ready to defend the belt 24/7.
In this era, there was an unwritten rule. When you woke up, you wrote 8-12 bars in your head. I'm talking new lines, not anything recycled from the day before. This would be your start off bars if you had to freestyle or battle rap anyone on that particular day. The trick was to store rhyming multi-syllable words to use as end rhymes. An easy four bar set up would be created in the process. The next trick was to pull up the next four bar end rhymes in your head, by the time you were rapping the fourth bar of your current scheme.
The parallels of rap in general and Hip-Hop run deep in the history of our culture. Embracing these parallels could make the culture of battle rap stronger. I will keep D04 brief, but the experience would include a one year run off with potential to run again after a hiatus period (similar to the olympics). Ex., maybe the experience happens every two or four years.
Obviously this is just a proposal (doodle), providing more structure for a vision which should essentially be given to the higher ups, stripped down to what makes more sense for the audience. It is brief but it should be stripped down to its finest parts.
The first part of the experience would be for SMACK and KOTD to draw a line in the sand and select a roster for the current or succeeding year, similar to the Raw and Smackdown brand. Smack could essentially brand their clothing, graphic design, etc.. around the Smack White or Grey/Charcoal brand, similar to Raw being the "Red" brand. KOTD could go with the Black brand, to coincide with their BlackOut series.
Like the WWE Draft/Recap is sponsored by Xinfinity, both brands can find a sponsor that will contribute to the experience throughout the year.
The roster could include anywhere from 5-10 battle rappers, 12 being the most and the kind of loyalty or iconic moments certain battle rappers have shared with a specific brand would add towards the decision making process. In WWE fashion, it would be cool to see Smack, Beasley, or Lush One, Organik, or Gully shake things up with their picks - selecting a heel or a wild card of the community (maybe even a selection of main stream artists).
The roster could include male, female, tag team, on beat, etc... kind of categories.
The event would be streamed, or televised in some way. There could be certain battles during the year that count towards the point goal system for which brand is crowned the winner, given home field advantage etc... Certain matches, which are judged and not exhibition style, can add towards the grand point system.
The second part of the experience would be merch. Possibly Smack and KOTD having a designated color for their clothing gear for fans. The merch would be a mix between Basketball, Soccer, Olympics type fusion with hoodies, soccer/basketball jersey, and The Hundreds type of streetwear.
KOTD or SMACK could embrace a crest hoodie, jersey, long sleeve, etc..., the state or nationality they want to rep (you know some rapper will have a expressway they used to trap through as their crescent lol). The kind of personalized merch would represent a certain artist and bring some individuality to the merch.
Ex. Dizaster (Oversized "BLACKOUT" Hoodie, KOTD crest, California state crest/patch, Crack City Logo, etc...). Tay Roc ("GREY" Basketball or Soccer Jersey, URL crest, New York state crest/patch, Gun patch to represent "Gun Titles" or a Cave for Cave Gang.
This kind of streetwear run for the sport of battle rap, that promotes the battle rap brand, as well as specific players, can be niche enough...much like The Generation X or NWO branding outside the WWE or WCW. Bringing outside fans into the sport.
SMACK: Streets, Music, Arts, Culture, Knowledge
The third part of the experience would be providing details on the actual event. After building hype with the core fans through the draft and merch, there would be a press release to give the public general knowledge of the events. I can picture the event having only 5 or so main events.
The Experience: It would be cool to see SMACK and KOTD come together for this kind of like Streets, Music, Arts, Culture, and Knowledge kind of experience. Obviously we are talking partnership and potential need of sponsors, etc... It would be cool to see a festival like experience. On a smaller level, even if it has a Massacre 3 kind of vibe with an experience outside of just the battles. To make it engaging you could also have certain battles going on around the same time, like a festival style and point system is still given to audience or placed on a score board in some fashion.
Time: There should also be a designated time between each match. Way too many times I have seen fans of battle rap say they will no longer return to an event because of the wait time in between battles. There would be more structure in this area of the event, as well as designated judges.
Judged Matches: I think what needs to be done to further the culture in the next decade to come is judged matches. Maybe not throughout the whole year, but maybe a few times throughout the year for an event like this. The judges would obviously be objective, and would be able to clearly determine who won each round. The battles could go for three rounds, and each rapper would be told ahead of time to have an overtime round prepared.
Entertainment: The entertainment aspect could include battle rappers having an entrance. Kind of like a wrestler or like in boxing being accompanied by other rappers, athletes, etc.. Again, this might be annoying if done throughout the whole year but maybe at least for the big event.
KOTD: King of the Dot "Put Yo Money Where Yo Mouth Is"
The fourth part is having fun. I could ramble on about this subject, but I promised to keep it brief. The most important part is having fun. If these two can't come to an agreement, maybe it would take two other leagues to try it out first. Maybe Rare breed vs. Bullpen? Or iBattle vs. No Coast?
What might work best as a warm up, is having one league divide their brand similar to WCW/NWO or Raw v. Smackdown for the event. Like Town Bizness vs. (______). Not necessarily a team Gully vs. team Organik, but a kind of NWO vs. Generation X brand rivalry where its not necessarily a Cave Gang v. Dot Mob kind of thing, it's more like two soccer teams under the brand, battling for the world cup.
Looking forward to some crazy streetwear from battle rap just drawing the line in the sand, and letting fans join the heel or the heroine. I could picture brands like Chalkline Inc, or TheHundreds as a visual aid to pushing the merch culture forward for an event of this stature.
Closing Pitch I know there is a huge difference between being a fan and running a business. And these are real people with real lives to live. If it could be a competitive, yet a safe space to bring the entertainment level of battle rap to the next level, I think fans are all for it.
I am in no way saying this would be easy or this could have been done years ago and people are lazy. What I am saying is there is potential for battle rap to surmount itself in the legacy of Hip-Hop through a kind of underground, streetwear, mainstream renaissance. Red Bull has single handedly preserved a lot of the world's street culture from skating, DJ and live stage performance battles deemed as "Sound Clash", breakdancing, freestyle soccer battles, battle rap, and even more niche dance cultures like Krumping.
On Jan. 18th, J.I.D. will battle Denzel Curry and it should be dope. Maybe it would take a RedBull entity to kind of build a foundation for where we can take it later.
With talks of skateboarding and breakdancing getting to an olympic stage (which I would say is from the work of obviously the breakdancing community but also a bit of Red Bull), why not cement the culture of battle rap from the inside before an idea like this spills over into the mainstream?
D04: (DOODLE/IDEA 04)
- MCMXX