Eminem’s Total Slaughter event continues to get people talking. The July 12 card will see Slaughterhouse rapper Joe Budden taking on veteran New York freestyler Hollow Da Don, as well as a rematch of the classic street battle between Murda Mook and Loaded Lux. There will also be two more matches announced the week of the event, between some of the battlers who will be featured on the “Road to Total Slaughter” reality show that starts airing in June.
Here’s a rundown of what a few of the scene’s top battlers have said about the event this week:
Portland-based MC Illmaculate shared his thoughts in an interview with VladTV, saying an event like this was inevitable.
“I think you can only ignore the future for so long. Battle rap has established itself and has the numbers to really prove itself as being a viable market, and a conglomerate like Shady coming in and just its involvement in general is a testament to that. I think ultimately it could be a real dope look for battle rap in general, as far as putting it in the faces of people who aren’t necessarily part of this subculture or niche culture.”
Illmaculate also spoke about Joe Budden’s chances against someone as seasoned in the ring as Hollow Da Don.
“It’s crazy to just go from not battling to battling arguably the best in the game right now. He’s got his work cut out for him because this shit’s a whole different animal. It’s not memorizing a rap, stepping in the ring and spitting it with conviction … There’s a lot more pressure and a lot more to this when performing in an actual battle at a top level than people think. So it’s going to be interesting because we’ve seen the Canibus battle and we’ve seen other cats come in thinking it’s gonna be easy and then having a rude awakening.”
Los Angeles battler Daylyt, who appears on “Road to Total Slaughter” and who is rumored to be battling on the card, was more dismissive of the event.
“This show has nothing to do with me,” he said on Battle Rap Arena this week. “This show is completely to promote Joe Budden. This show was completely designed to promote Slaughterhouse artists. I’m just gonna be the nigga who stands out more than anybody on the card.”
He also gave some insight into what we might expect from the future of the league.
“They are creating stars and they’re creating stars for a specific reason and that specific reason is that once they create the ultimate star, he’s going to battle the ultimate MC.”
Daylyt didn’t provide any other details on who “the ultimate MC” might be, but the interview has already set off speculation that a battler could potentially face off against Eminem somewhere down the road.
Bay-area veteran MC The Saurus also commented on Total Slaughter’s rematch between Murda Mook and Loaded Lux in a recent interview on Battle Rap Arena.
“It’s gonna be close. And their first battle was close as fuck. People still argue that battle for days. It should be the best Mook we’ve ever seen because he knows what he has to do that if he wants to win. But I feel like Lux is gonna approach it that exact same way. I would probably favor Lux’s best over Mook’s best but I don’t expect that to be a body either way.”
Photo credit: @Lemme_kno
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