Bender, who is gearing up for his April 19 battle against Big T at King Of The Dot's "Vendetta 2," recently spoke with HipHopDX about how he prepares for battles.
"For every battle, I'll start brainstorming a month before for some angles and lines," Bender says in an exclusive interview with HipHopDX. "Two weeks in, I'll start forming it into rounds and ideally have the final product ready with a week to memorize."
Bender was set to battle Big T at a previous Battle Rap event, but plans changed due to travel issues with Big T.
Nevertheless, the two will face off in Los Angeles, California April 19 at the "Vendetta 2" event, where Bender says he'll have a few new lines for T.
"I'll probably change a third of my material for T just because some of it feels a bit stale to me now," Bender says. "A lot can change in three months."
Vendetta 2 is the follow-up to KOTD's Vendetta, where Canibus battled Dizaster. At that event, Bender had one of his most acclaimed battles, one against Syd Vicious.
"That battle went a lot better than I thought it would," the Canadian rapper says of his match-up against Syd. "I got off a tour about 10 days before and finished writing pretty last-minute with only a few days to memorize. I think it got good reaction from the fans because that was me going back to the form that took me on my run for the chain. I feel with Arkaic, Illmac[ulate] and Sketch [Menace], I went light, not so much with the writing, but the delivery. I wanted to just beast out on Syd and I think it popped off."
"Vendetta 2" marks Bender's return to Los Angeles, a place he feels is conducive to his writing style.
"I like it," he says of the California city. "They don't react as much, but I'd rather have a crowd listening intently instead of going buck-wild every other line. Battle culture runs really deep in Cali and I've got much respect for the heads that come out."
{{ comment.author.name }}
{{ reply.author.name }}