Don't hold your breath for Nocando's return to the ring. The 2007 Scribble Jam champion and former battle emcee wrote an op-ed for the Aug. 7 issue of LA Weekly detailing how he became disillusioned with the scene.
In the piece, he describes his ascent through West Coast battling and lays bare how he grew uncomfortable with being unable to reconcile what he was saying with how he really felt.
I’m ashamed of the times when, either to win or because I was exhausted of ideas, I decided I needed to be homophobic, use fat jokes or launch absurd, hypothetical threats about what I might do to someone—or their "bitch."
He writes about watching the people around him turn into caricatures to further their battle careers:
"If I continued, what caricature would I become? Would I need to come up with more obscure anime references? With new ways to fuck somebody’s bitch? How would I run in this nigga’s house? With what kind of burner? Would it happen if said nigga crossed the line? And what, exactly, is that line?"
Nocando also addresses the endless questions from fans about who he's facing next.
Every day someone asks me: “When’s your next battle?” Or “Have you given up battling?”
I usually don’t reply. Or maybe I politely tell them to fuck off. One time a friend, an acclaimed producer, asked me. I said, “I just don’t like it.”
“I remember how you were, and it just doesn’t make sense,” he replied. “Something must have happened.”
Yes, something did happen. Life happened. I’ve had guns pulled out on me on dark, empty streets. I’ve been cheated on. I’ve had friends and family come out of the closet. I’ve been broke. I’ve become sensitive and tenderized like steak.
The point is, going through real-life experiences has taught me not to take words so lightly. I do not want to be offended, nor do I want to offend others for sport. If you were to actually fuck my “bitch,” there would be serious repercussions: in her life, in your life, in my life, my kids’ lives and maybe more.
Since retiring from the battle scene in 2011, Nocando has been active in the Los Angeles music scene, releasing several albums, and co-hosting a weekly podcast examining Hip Hop culture.
Retired battlers Soul Khan, Okwerdz and Dumbfoundead took to Twitter to comment:
@MCNocando loved the buzz aldrin analogy crazy article ya anime lovin fag! Hahaha
— Okwerdz (@okwerdz) August 6, 2014
@atmosphere thanks for reading it.
— ALLxCITYxJIMMY (@MCNocando) August 6, 2014
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