In an interview with BattleRap.com, Bishop Brigante discussed exclusive contracts with battlers, loyalty in the industry and whether or not there are too many leagues currently operating in Battle Rap.
Speaking generally about exclusive contracts the King Of The Dot co-host affirmed that Battle Rap companies don’t “own” rappers but suggests a loyalty approach to certain leagues is the best way for emcees to get “long-term” money rather than jumping between companies.
“I spend a lot of time explaining to battlers that if eventually you wanna [do] Floyd Mayweather money, you gotta do Floyd Mayweather work, inside and outside that ring,” explains Bishop Brigante. “You wouldn’t believe how much time I spend chasing people for blogs, chasing people to tweet, chasing people to update their status. Listen, at the end of the day, all these Battle Rap companies, all of us, we’re marketing companies, really. We’re marketing and promotion companies. We don’t own battlers, we don’t have contracts with them [where] they are locked-in and they can only battle with us. There is a loyalty sense with certain battlers that we’ve harvested from the ground up but as far as owning people, we don’t own them. So, with that being said, if you want to go somewhere else to get that check and receive a lesser valued push than what these majors are offering you, that’s fine, I’m cool with that. But when it doesn’t work out for you in that sense and you try to come back home, be prepared to be added to a queue. Because there’s people that are on the come up that live and die for King Of The Dot. There’s people on the come up that live and die for SMACK/URL, that eat, sleep and breath their league and are loyal to it and don’t just stray out based on money.
“Whatever, do your thing, but we got a movement we’re pushing here,” Bishop Brigante continues. “We work for the battlers. So it’s like, if you wanna go get that quick money, cool, but that long-term money that we have over here, you gon’ tamper with it and if you wanna tamper with it, that’s cool. I like hard workers, man. I like battle rappers that stay on them blogs, that stay on Twitter, that keep pushing it because I’ll give you Mayweather money if you give me Mayweather promotion. I’ll give you that. But if you don’t give me that and you wanna dance around with every league, that’s fine. Cool. But it’s only gonna hurt yourself because at the end of the day we’re a major company that’s pushing your brand. So if we’re pushing your brand and you wanna go dabble yourself in a company that’s not gonna push your brand and they’re just trying to break bread to make themselves a little bit of money, cool, go ahead.”
Later on in the interview, Bishop Brigante spoke on loyalty in Battle Rap.
“Keep some loyalty, man and you’ll see the fruits of your labor on a long-term basis,” Bishop Brigante says. “I like to have a sort of grassroots feeling as far as the way the battlers are gonna get setup. I don’t wanna have something that’s locked-in — I mean maybe we are moving in that direction soon, it’s not something that’s been brought to the table but if SMACK’s doing that, that’s pretty cool. Get your money, do your thing, lock-in whoever you want. I think people are already locked-in a loyalty contract with us. It’s just loyalty because we’re so cool, man. We make sure everybody is taken care of in all aspects of the company. Cameramen. Drivers. ‘Pick them up from the airport, take them home,’ whatever aspect it is of Battle Rap, we take care of our people so there is a certain loyalty that people have and that’s cool. We’re cool with that.”
Finally talking about whether or not there are too many leagues in Battle Rap, Bishop Brigante admits he finds it difficult to knock anyone’s hustle but states some of the lesser-known companies are popping up a little too much.
“Is there too many leagues? I think some of the lesser-known names are popping up a little bit too much,” says Bishop Brigante. “I can’t knock anybody’s hustle. If you wanna create something, that’s cool. I mean, still pay your homage to the guys that worked really hard but I don’t mind. I like talent. I think with URL, King Of The Dot, FlipTop — FlipTop is dope because it’s its own entity. It’s its own entity in the Philippines. It’s pretty dope and I like how such a community has taken the time to actually put that work in and really get their stuff out to the fans.”
{{ comment.author.name }}
{{ reply.author.name }}