Ground Zero Battles, which has traditionally been the development league for King of the Dot’s main channel, is rebranding itself with an event in Toronto’s Mississauga suburb today.
The card features a solid mix of newer talent matched up against main stage veterans, and also marks the KOTD debuts of American street rappers Rosenberg Raw and Scripts. The battle between Megadef and poRICH will also decide who gets the next title shot against GZ champion DDSS.
In an exclusive interview with BattleRap.com, GZ organizer Gully TK spoke about the new approach to the league.
“I don’t want it to be looked at as the farm league of King of the Dot anymore. I don’t want people to feel like they’re being demoted if they’re battling in GZ. So my goal with this event was to separate it … We’re not going to do the stage for GZ; I want them all to be ring battles. I want that old gritty-type feel like when it started. Everybody just cramped together in a ring.”
Gully explained that all the battles would be judged and that the rebrand was an opportunity to bring back some of the battlers who weren’t interested in performing in front of massive live audiences.
“Everything’s the same nowadays. Everybody’s on stage rapping and there’s a lot of battlers who don’t like that. I’ve spoken to Tricky P about it, Skelly, none of these guys like battling on a stage. They’d rather that old ring vibe. Even Pat Stay was saying he doesn’t like the stage and that he’d rather be in the ring. I feel like this is a way to get certain names to get back into battling.”
This also marks the first time KOTD has done an event in Gully’s hometown of Mississauga, a booming suburb about 20 minutes outside of Toronto.
“It’s where I’m from. I have a big pull out here and I know a lot of people. In all the intros of battles I’m always yelling out ‘Sauga City’ so the buzz just grew like that. There’s a huge demand here. I always get people asking me so I figured now’s the time to do it.”
The event is going down Sunday, May 25. If you can’t make it, there will be a $10 pay-per-view available the next day at KOTDTV.com.
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