In a recent interview with BattleRap.com, Dirtbag Dan spoke about industry artists entering and participating in battles with seasoned battle rappers, the Total Slaughter reality television series, as well as discussing King of the Dot’s Fresh Coast division possibly becoming its own separate entity.
Talking about industry artists facing off against battle rappers, Dirtbag Dan says he believes Canibus’ incident against Dizaster—where the former pulled out a notepad to read his rhymes—“scared” industry artists from getting in the ring. He later says that there will likely be more industry emcees battling after Joe Budden’s match-up with Hollow Da Don at Total Slaughter on July 12 in New York.
“Dizaster battled Canibus and I don’t think anybody wanted to touch it for like two years after that,” Dirtbag Dan explains. “I think this shit would have happened a lot sooner had the notebook and all that shit not happened. I think Canibus scared away industry rappers for like two or three years. And then they finally stepped back into it. Ab-Soul is the man. That battle is great, he has great bars in it, and I think it’s clear when the battle rapper comes in who the battle rapper is. He’s louder [and] the bars are more present. And that’s why I think anybody who thinks Joe Budden is gonna walk in there and be able to just go with the best in what we do? [No], not gonna happen. Joe Budden is gonna start strong and by the time the battle is over, everybody’s gonna know who the battle rapper is. But I think as long as he doesn’t pull a full-blown Canibus, we’ll probably see more of these guys coming in. Why not? We’re a huge market of hip hop so if you’ve got an album coming out—Slaughterhouse—it’s a great way to promote it, you know what I mean?”
Addressing the “Road To Total Slaughter” reality television series, Dirtbag Dan admitted there were parts he loved and parts he thought could be strengthened next time around, including the judging process where he questioned the validity behind Slaughterhouse being judges.
“I think the Total Slaughter reality show—I love parts about it, other parts I’m not super stoked on,” he says. “I love that they’re shining a light on battle rap as a whole. I like that it’s very focused on battles. I don’t think they give enough information about the tournament… On the same token, we’re barely getting glimpses at these characters… We haven’t really figured out how crazy Daylyt is, or how crazy Dizaster is, or how much Dizaster and Math [Hoffa] don’t like each other. That kind of shit I feel they probably could have spent a lot more time on.”
“I feel the biggest, glaring issue with the whole thing is, where does Slaughterhouse get off judging the best battle rappers in the world on battles?” He continues: “And then they come in and their first round of judging is just the worst shit in the world. ‘9-9. 10-10,’ even though Math screwed up, Joe Budden, ‘I think I heard that verse before,’ no you fuckin’ didn’t. And then Crooked I is like, ’10-9, done.’ And then even the whole shit with the Arsonal shit, even though Arsonal did use that verse before, the one he used in the Daylyt battle was exactly what he did against Swave Sevah but nobody heard that shit before, right? Nobody calls that out. And then it comes down to Joe Budden who has a beef with Arsonal and they have diss tracks against each other and it’s like, ‘Come on, man.’ You guys should have found a better way to judge this [instead] of you guys sitting there like, ‘Okay, let me tell you best battle rappers in the world what a good battle is.’ ‘Cause it’s not like they’re trying to judge them on how to write records and shit. But, with that being said, I’m fuckin’ complaining about something I’m super stoked on. I’m glad it’s out in the world. And hopefully they’ll do more seasons of it and they develop it more to where everybody knows the tournament format and everybody knows a little bit more about the players involved along the way.”
Finally Dirtbag Dan spoke on King of the Dot’s Fresh Coast division, saying he believes it’s its “own thing” and can still perform well without its association with KOTD.
“I think the Fresh Coast is its own thing and I think Organik knows that,” he says. “We came into King of the Dot as a group and it’s not like any of us wear jerseys or have fuckin’ contracts with each other and shit, we just all been working with each other since way before Grind Time [Now]. I’ve known Lush [One] since the late ‘90s, doing shows and shit as young kids. Where the homies go I go, you know what I mean? I don’t know if at some point there will be a split but I know the Fresh Coast is its own thing. We can throw our own events and not have any other King of the Dot people involved and still do numbers… I’m happy to be with King of the Dot but I don’t know if it’s going to be forever Fresh Coast King of the Dot.”
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