Leading up to his battle against Ill Will at the NOME 4 event next month, rapper DNA spoke with VladTV about his thoughts on the match-up and why he thinks Ill Will gets too much credit on the scene.
When asked about his perception of being pegged as an underdog against Will, DNA disagreed with the assessment.
“In actuality, I’m not the underdog,” he said. “He is. But they want him to win. They’re like, ‘Oh DNA’s been here. DNA’s been killing niggas. Now it’s his turn to shine.’ A lot of people just want to side with that. Plus, it’s hard to keep people intrigued a lot when they’ve seen you many times. Out of the top tier battle rappers I have probably the most battles...After them seeing me so many times, it’s like, ‘What else can he do?’ So then it becomes, ‘Oh well he’s the same,’ or ‘He’s predictable,’ or ‘We know what he’s gonna do.’ When you watch everybody, everybody’s predictable once you catch on to their style. That’s their style, so you know what they’re gonna do. Everybody becomes predictable. When you haven’t seen somebody like that, it’s still new, which is the case of Ill Will. It’s motivation, definitely.”
Breaking down his view of his opponent’s battle history, DNA went on to share feeling like Ill Will choked in his Summer Madness 3 appearance.
“He’s a good opponent but to me—this is just me personally, it’s tough to say,” DNA said. “On Summer Madness 3, I don’t count that. It wasn’t Summer Madness madness. Summer Madness 1 and 2 had about 2,000 in there. Summer Madness 3 had about 800. That’s still good for him to perform in front of that crowd but he choked in front of 800. Countless times, stumbling, looking sloppy. So when people go, ‘He’s a formidable opponent.’ At the same time they tell me I can’t play with them, I hope they understand he can’t come battling DNA stumbling and choking. It’s not gonna work. I may stumble twice in my round. I’ve never choked in a battle.”
Addressing the approach that Ill Will has taken in many of his battles up to this point, DNA seemed to hint that Will uses his freestyle ability as a crutch.
“I try to tell people: Ill Will is a dude that can freestyle,” DNA said. “But he freestyles ‘cause he has to. I freestyle because I want to. That’s the big difference. I just say if we gon’ be fair be fair. I feel like I can’t play with Ill Will and at the same I don’t think Ill Will can play with me. His B-Magic performance was good but it was sloppy. His shit is not put together the right way. I’ve done this. I’ve been on every NOME except for 2. I’ve been on three NOMEs. I’ma be on three out of four Summer Madness [events]. This is another day in the office to me. This crowd is gonna be the craziest he’s ever been in front of. I just think neither one of us can play...It goes both ways.”
Speaking on his own history as a battler as well as his recent decision to face-off against relative newcomer Prez Mafia, DNA said he made the choice as a recommitment to battle.
“That’s why I took the battle with Prez Mafia three weeks before NOME,” he said. “To let people know, I’m back on it. I’m hungry. I’m ready to kill. A lot of people counted me out in that battle. A lot of people said, ‘How could DNA take two battles in three weeks’ time?’ If they really do the history they know. I could take five battles in five days. This is what I do. I just did it for me to become motivated again.”
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