During BattleRap.com’s interview with URL’s Eric Beasley from January, the businessman behind North America’s leading league spoke on the controversial topic of exclusivity contracts.
Over the past 12 months, exclusivity contracts have become more common in battle rap, with a string of the culture’s top emcees penning on the dotted line to limit their appearances. However, on the other end of the scale, some up-and-coming rappers have experienced problems with such contracts, notably Xcel and Prez Mafia.
During this conversation with BattleRap.com in New York City, Beasley started off by explaining his reasoning behind implementing exclusivity contracts to SMACK/URL.
“There’s a reason why we do contracts. We actually got this idea from the fans,” Beasley revealed. “I can’t take credit for it but what happened is — there will be a lot of guys that are out here battling in various different leagues, smaller leagues and they’re looking to take that next jump, right? So we’ll go out and find these guys, or we’ll get them on a tryout or recommendation. We’ll bring them in, blow them up, market them [and] put them out there on our platform where you’re gonna get the most subscribers in battle rap because we have the most subscribers and we get the most views. [We get] the most notoriety, the most street respect, [the most] online visibility [and] everything you could possibly want, we have it.”
“I can’t sign a record deal on Def Jam [Recordings], drop a single and say, ‘You know what? I think I wanna go to Atlantic Records next week.’ And then you’re in Wichita, Kansas and you lose to Backpack Billy or Cornerstore Simon or something and then you come back and now you’re on my main event but you just got your boots smoked out of town, it kind of diminishes the value of the battle. We were trying to avoid that,” he added.
Speaking on URL’s presence in battle rap, Beasley says that the New York-based league has helped develop the majority of the culture’s top talent.
“If you look at the majority of the urban emcees, the talent and the guys that are getting the most views, either they started with URL or they came to URL for a few battles, they got their weight up and we marketed them and pushed them and put them in a position to where they are viewed as the top guys.”
Beasley Speaks On Relationship With Xcel & Prez Mafia
Later in the conversation, Beasley spoke more generally about the formulation of exclusivity contracts before offering an update on URL’s relationship with Xcel and Prez Mafia, following a public parting last year.
“When these guys come in, they know what they’re getting into,” Beasley says. “I usually pay them double to what they’re getting paid prior to being a part of what we’re doing. Then, other opportunities come and all of a sudden it’s, ‘Ah, I think I wanna do this [or] I wanna do that.’ Then you let them go [and] then they get mad at you for letting them go. So it’s like a no win situation.
“I’m not angry with anyone,” Beasley continues. “I actually spoke with Xcel. I spoke to Prez Mafia yesterday [and] I still released his battle. [I] didn’t do any funny shit. His battle did great. It’s probably gonna be the highest ranked battle that he’s ever gotten. The battle did over 60,000 views in one night.”
Thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below.
{{ comment.author.name }}
{{ reply.author.name }}