In an exclusive interview with Battle Rap, King of the Dot founder Organik offered up some opinions on the consistent growth of the industry at large, SMACK’s BET partnership for the Ultimate Freestyle Fridays series and the perception of interleague competition.
Addressing the recent spike in new Battle Rap leagues, Organik explained feeling like many of the upstarts fail to develop their own talent and credibility properly.
“[It’s] not that there’s too many leagues, just too many leagues fighting for the same pot,” he said. “I don’t think it benefits these bigger name battlers to go battle on these leagues that only have 600 subscribers on their Youtube channel. That’s why these leagues are paying these rappers that because your name is bringing that league exposure, not the league bringing that name exposure.
“That’s why I think a lot of the rappers think they’re worth that much,” he added. “To the smaller leagues you are because you’re giving them something. But I feel like the small leagues should just do it the same everyone else did. You build up in your local area, you find your own talent, you build them up to be reputable. You build the credibility. You just don’t try to book a bunch of people and pay for the credibility. That’s what’s happening in this stuff, a lot of leagues are coming in and they’re just trying to throw money around to get that credibility. That credibility should come from showing that you care about Battle Rap the same way we did when no one looked at it, when no one cared for it. We were out trying to push it and show people, ‘Yo, this is interesting. Check this out...We have a way to get your name out a little further.’ These leagues ain’t really trying to do that, they’re just trying to find who’s hot and put them on in their spot and say, ‘Hey, I got these two guys to battle.’ That don’t take much to do. It just takes money. Something to do is finding the talent, going out and putting in the legwork, doing the hard work, doing the real hustling you know, being out on the street promoting, and trying to find the next rapper...Finding a way for it to work with everyone.”
Organik Speaks On BET’s Ultimate Freestyle Friday & Smack White
“I fuck with SMACK, man,” Organik said. “To say you don’t would be naive just because I grew up watching it. That’s not something I’m just gonna be like, ‘Oh, whatever.’ That inspired me. It’s all love. I look at Battle Rap. It’s almost like race cars. You have Formula 1, Nascar and Indy. Battle Rap you have different genres. Us and SMACK, we’re not trying to butt heads and go after the same goal. We kind of both have a different little market that we’re trying to go after and I think we’re pretty confident that we don’t step on each other’s toes. We try to help each other out. It’s not a competitive thing. I don’t think it would benefit us in any way, shape, or form if URL fell off because then the battlers that they have, that they’re building up to be high caliber, wouldn’t be so high caliber when they come over to us. It’s a cycle, we work together.”
Speaking directly on Smack White’s participation within the development of UFF, Organik described seeing progression from the first season to the currently airing version.
“I think Smack’s doing what he has to do,” Organik said. “Let’s be honest, the big events, a lot of liability falls on those. Being the promoter and being the person who holds that liability, I think for anyone, people coming to your event, they ain’t respecting you. You got people fighting, people paying to get into your event [and] they’re leaving not happy. Staff arguing. I’m not just speaking on just SMACK. I’m speaking on leagues in general. I see it all the time. He’s taking a smart alley-way right now. BET is a huge fanbase. Who doesn’t want to be on BET when you’re a rapper? It’s providing a light at the end of the tunnel, again, for all these up-and-coming rappers and battlers. It’s getting into the more corporate side of it, but he’s doing what he has to do. He has his hands in on the creative control of the content and stuff which is super important. That’s why I don’t think these big television companies coming in and doing this. iIf you ain’t gonna be working with one of the leagues, you’re not gonna survive. You guys are gonna make mistakes we made three years ago on trying to do something, not knowing how the atmosphere has to be, or how the vibe of the battle has to go. There’s so [many] little things. Battle Rap is a very touchy thing, everybody knows that. The wrong atmosphere can kill everything, make it unwatchable, no replay value. That’s very important. I watch UFF Season 2, leaps and bounds ahead of Season 1 as far as the production, the atmosphere. You even see the lighting. It makes a big difference. BET was smart. Rather than try to outsource Smack they worked with him.”
Organik Speaks On Interleague Competition
“That’s the thing man, it’s the fans that make it seem like us leagues are all competitive,” Organik said of the perception that many Battle Rap leagues are at odds with one another. “Us leagues are all understanding, we’re all going through the bullshit. I look at other league owners and I’m like, ‘Yo, you’re someone who understands what I do.’ The battlers don’t. Not many people do. It’s like a respect there. I know this stuff isn’t as lucrative as it can be. We’re still trying to find the avenues for revenue streams. Everyone’s just breaking even to make these events happen. To try to make this scene thrive. There’s no need to compete. I don’t think that’s gonna really benefit anybody. Everybody’s kind of got their position where they are. As long as people just don’t start acting shady and doing stuff in weird ways, then I think everyone should be good.”
Additional Reporting by Justin Hunte
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