After weeks of hints from Lush One, a new press release has emerged, outlining the true scale of the collaborative project involving the Fresh Coast Media Group with FilmOn and its billionaire owner Alki David (pictured above in a tongue-in-cheek commercial for the company).
In a venture that intends to “do for battle rap what the UFC did for MMA,” the partnership will see its first pay-per-view event hit the network’s Ether TV channel at the beginning of December. Alki David, the financial backer, has been hugely vocal in his support of the battle scene.
"There's nothing grittier or more real than battle rapping--it's how all of hip hop began on the streets,” he begins, before taking a swipe at Eminem's Total Slaughter league. In the press release he says his battles will be: “No holds barred. No weak tea watered down by a 90-year-old Chairman of the Board with a catheter, holding Eminem's hand and deciding what gets said or not."
His promises to maintain battling's rawness are a reassurance to those who feared battle rap’s ascension into the mainstream would involve blunting its edges.
The press release also references several high-profile battle emcees--including Dizaster, Daylyt, Conceited, Hollow Da Don, Murda Mook, Illmaculate, 360, Dumbfoundead and Shotty Horroh--although it's unclear exactly how they'll figure in the partnership.
BattleRap.com reached out to Lush, who told us the names are people "who battled on the Fresh Coast and MIGHT be making an appearance soon."
The release also says that "NBA stars and other celebrities will make guest appearances on Battle Rap."
With Joe Budden having recently reopened the gateway between industry rap and battle rap, the support of Alki David and the potential introduction of the scene to FilmOn’s 40 million monthly users present a world of opportunities for the medium.
David is one of the heirs to the Leventis family fortune, and had an estimated net worth of around $2.5 billion in 2013. He's the majority shareholder of the second-largest Coca-Cola bottling operation in the world, which serves 585 million people in 28 countries. David has invested in ventures including the aforementioned FilmOn, and, more relevant to battling and its demographic, BattleCam--an online peer-to-peer and streaming community revolving around MMA, boxing, comedy and gaming.
David has also put resources into fighting mainstream TV broadcasters. He was sued in 2010 by four major networks to prevent unlicensed streaming of their content, and in 2013 David responded with countersuits to defend his freedom to broadcast. The saga is ongoing, with FilmOn being hit with a a $90,000 fine at the end of July for refusing to cease broadcasting U.S. network TV channels.
Check out David in action in this commercial for FilmOn:
What do you think? Can battle rap enter the mainstream while hanging on to what makes it great? Let us know in the comments below.
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