During an exclusive interview with BattleRap.com ahead of his Oct. 26 "Murda She Wrote" event, QOTR's CEO Debo explained why the female battle league eventually surpassed and become more successful than its male counterpart, King Of The Ring.
“Queen Of The Ring did better than King Of The Ring because the females were more ambitious,” explains Debo. “They wanted it more, they were more hungry. No disrespect to the guys but the guys were pretty much doing what they got told … [With] the females, it just had a different type of feel to it, it had a different aspect. It’s something so new [and] when you get something so new, people just jump on it and they just like what it is. With that said, I think females are always more driven to prove that they’re better than their counterparts and stuff ... I can say it in different versions [or] different ways but plain and simple they just wanted to win and that’s why they outlasted the guys.”
While addressing the frequent debate of whether or not battle rap is becoming oversaturated, Debo says it doesn’t bother him either way since QOTR is in its own lane.
“There’s always saturation but it depends on the person that’s looking at it as saturation,” he says. “If you’re a fan of battle rap, it’s really not saturation to you if you’re looking at a particular league that you’re only looking for. If you’re a person that just wants to watch URL battles, it’s not really saturation; you’re just watching URL battles. [Same goes for] King Of The Dot [and] Queen Of The Ring. I would say saturation is a good and bad thing. With saturation that means that battle is popping, it’s cracking, it’s just dope. Everybody wants to battle rap now. I’m hearing a lot of people don’t wanna be artists no more, they wanna be battle rappers. Saturation? I really don’t care. To be honest with you, I’m in a lane by myself so there’s no saturation for me [laughs], I don’t get saturation. I’m good!”
Later in the conversation, Debo weighs in on Queen Of The Ring’s hierarchy within battle rap saying the league has “gotta be in the top five.”
Queen Of The Ring’s official YouTube account has amassed more than 23 million views since joining the site in June 2011. Today QOTR has more than 127,000 subscribers. In comparison, North America's leading league, the URL, has more than 155 million views with 368,000 subscribers (as of the time of publishing).
“Queen Of The Ring is the #1 female battle league, obviously, but we in the trenches and we gotta be [in] the Top 5 battle leagues in the game, and that says a lot,” Debo explains. “Me and my team, (Vague and Babs Bunny) we work hard, obviously, but it’s the audience that’s putting us up there, it’s the fans that’s putting us up there. [They’re] letting the other leagues know, ‘Yo look, we love this league, this league is dope. These girls is fire, they got bars. Listen to them, too.’ I’m glad that E Hart, QB [Black Diamond], Phara Funeral, O’fficial, 40 B.A.R.R.S. can be with their male counterparts and get respect because they respect these girls now. In the beginning they were like, ‘Get out of here. What y’all doing?’ They said we were ruining battle rap bringing these girls here, for real. But this brand grew so big to the point where you can’t do nothing but respect it.”
QOTR's "Murder She Wrote" event goes down on Sunday, Oct. 26 in New York. Watch the video below for more info:
Do you agree with Debo’s statements? Is Queen Of The Ring one fo the Top 5 battle leagues in the culture? Let us know in the comments section.
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