Appearing for an interview on AngryFans Radio, battle rapper John John Da Don addressed constant claims from fans and critics that he continues to steal other rapper’s bars. Claiming that fans hold him to a different standard than other battlers, John John divulged why he thinks he’s so persecuted in the industry.
“Ya’ll gotta admit this,” he said. “All I need ya’ll to admit that I get ridiculed for shit that every other battle rapper do but they get away with it.
“Ya’ll got it to the point where I watch battles right, I’m watching battles and now I’m listening to every other battle rapper,” he continued. “I’m listening close on what they say to see what they flip or take. Just because ya’ll give it to me. When I watch it, I notice it in every fucking battle. I be wanting to say, ‘Damn, but ya’ll let him get away with this,’ but I don’t wanna be lookin’ like a hater because I fuck with a lot of niggas and that fuck niggas’ brands up.”
With the conversation remaining heated throughout much of the interview, Angryfans asked if John John was accusing them of the same thing.
“Ya’ll are,” he said. “Ya’ll don’t understand the impact ya’ll have. Angryfan, you convinced—I’m looking at my mentions—you convinced some people that...I basically just reuse bars all day.
“I said words that somebody said before,” John John added before admitting to a specific instance of a stolen bar. “I said words. Ya’ll taking words and making it seem like I took a whole scheme or bar. None of the schemes or bars was nothing like ya’ll never heard before. Name one. Besides that,” he said about a Popeye’s-referencing lyric. “I’ll give ya’ll that. The opening shit.”
John John continued that the criticism aimed his way is “automatic.”
“I could sit there and expose a lot of fucking battle rappers,” he said. “A lot. But I’m not going to do that...I went at it with the niggas with the biggest fan bases when I first came in. I battled Hitman. Hollow. Surf. Big T at the time. Verb. I’m at it with all these niggas. So once niggas started saying, ‘Oh, you ain’t beat Hitman. You just flipped all his shit. You took his shit.’ What that created was a whole ‘Fuck John John’ shit to some of their loyal fans. Some of their fans at the time could not fuck with me.
“They’re reaching,” he went on. “It’s a reach. It’s automatic. ‘Oh, John John’s a thief.’ So you’ll watch my battle, you’re automatically looking for that. So now somebody done put it out there, they feel like I took this and that. Now when you watch it, you’re automatically gonna compare it just because somebody said that. That’s the whole wave of it. Niggas is saying it in battles just to get a reaction out of it. No battle rapper feel like I steal anything. None of ’em.”
Speaking more generally about his own perception that he has a poor reputation in Battle Rap, John John said “it’s personal.”
“Niggas don’t like me and they watch my battles trying to figure out a way to say I lost," he said. "Now that they got some stealing shit to run with...Whatever the case. Some niggas feel like I talk too much shit. Some niggas feel like I’m overrated, overhype—somebody told me that. So it’s like they wanna find reasons to sit there and say I lost everything. So now this stealing shit, they gon’ run with it. For you to get on a blog and sit there, if you feel like, cool. I’m not saying that what I’m saying ain’t similar to what’s been said before.”
Addressing his upcoming battle against veteran Philadelphia rapper Reed Dollaz, John John explained feeling like Reed may be out of his element in the new Battle Rap setting.
“We’re gonna be on a stage with a mic on us,” he said. “He’s in front of people. It’s not like we in a circle. Niggas can’t really grab his shirt and all that...If he does that and gets that loud, it’s gon’ be bad for him. The people in there ain’t gon’ know what he saying. It might be good for him depending on the type of material he got. But all I know is I really hope he do got that shit. Everything is for him. Nothing’s been said before to him. Anything he has to say to me has been said a million times. It gets said every battle.”
Near the end of the interview, John John also alluded to his retiring after the battle. Asked about his motivation to walk away from the industry, John John said “‘cause this is gonna keep happening. It’s gonna keep happening.”
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