Let’s start with the obvious: 2014 was a monumental year for the growth of battle rap. After years of cold-shouldering from the mainstream, the culture finally got the big break it had been working towards.
One name tied to battle rap’s new-found popularity is Los Angeles emcee Daylyt. From casual conversations to serious debates, it’s almost impossible to discuss battle rap without the Watts native's name popping up.
So it felt necessary to document in one spot all of Daylyt's adventures in 2014. Here's our comprehensive review which features all of his battles and, of course, all of the controversy.
The Battles
Photo by Chris Mitchell for BattleRap.com.
Skimming through Daylyt’s 2014 profile shows that he's participated in a seemingly impossible number of battles over the last 12 months. He put on a good few classics, got a KOTD title shot, half-assed some battles, caught flak for recycling bars and still managed to make bad battles watchable. He once told BattleRap.com: "I have bad battles, but I have the best bad battles." No matter your stance on him, you can’t knock his hustle of being able to manage and execute such a hectic and demanding schedule.
Here’s a definitive list of Day’s 2014 battles, organized by the date they happened:
- Jan. 10 – Daylyt vs. Scheme
- Jan. 18 – Daylyt vs. M. Ciddy
- Jan. 26 – Daylyt vs. B Magic
- Late Jan. - Daylyt vs. Arsonal (Total Slaughter)
- Late Jan. - Daylyt vs. Dizaster (Total Slaughter)
- March 8 – Daylyt vs. 40 B.A.R.R.S.
- March 15 – Daylyt vs. O’fficial
- April 19 – Daylyt vs. Chilla Jones
- April 20 – Daylyt vs. Billie Dutches
- June 1 – Daylyt vs. Zo Green vs. Pep
- June 28 – Daylyt vs. Charlie Clips
- July 12 – Daylyt vs. T-Rex
- July 27 – Daylyt vs. Arsonal
- Sept. 20 – Daylyt vs. Aye Verb
- Oct. 4 – Daylyt vs. Real Deal
- Nov. 1 – Daylyt vs. AB Hogish
- Nov. 2 – Daylyt vs. Cali Smoov
- Nov. 8 – Daylyt vs. Quest MCODY
- Nov. 15 – Daylyt vs. Moses West
- Nov. 16 – Daylyt vs. Progrest
- Nov. 22 – Daylyt vs. Pat Stay
- Dec. 6 – Daylyt vs. Serius Jones
- Undated – Daylyt vs. Ab-Soul
- Undated – Daylyt vs. Tsu Surf
Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments section.
The Controversy
Daylyt at "Duel In The Desert."
The only thing more frequent than a Daylyt battle in 2014 was a controversial Daylyt headline. Over the past 12 months, Day has weaved through the spectrum of absurdity, flirting with the ridiculous and the downright unimaginable.
In August, during a conversation with VladTV, Daylyt folded the Internet when he declared his desire to "fuck the shit out of P. Diddy." Though the sparkle in his eye and risible tone would indicate Grade-A trolling, Daylyt’s comments quickly became the center of attention in battle rap and beyond, with media outlets including The BoomBox, Power 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club,” and MTV all covering his remarks. Read more on that interview, which has now attracted more than 200,000 views on YouTube since going live, here.
Two months passed before Daylyt’s next viral hit. At the start of October, during his battle against Real Deal at BBE’s "Duel In The Desert," Daylyt attempted to defecate on stage after continuous heckling from the Phoenix crowd. He was subsequently pulled off stage and thrown out of the venue by security. Day’s theatrics were later coined “SquatterGate” by BattleRap.com, and were soon covered by a multitude of publications including XXL, VIBE, Complex and outlets in Sweden and Ghana.
In the days that followed, Daylyt addressed the whole fiasco, explaining:
“I don’t regret it, your boy all over the Internet," Daylyt said at the time. "They got me on every fuckin’ magazine [and] website: The Source, Vibe, XXL … I don’t regret it not one bit ‘cause at the end of the day I don’t give a flying fuck about the Celebrity Theatre. I don’t give a flying fuck about battle rap in general, my ultimate goal is exposure and I get what I ask for which is exposure. I’m getting exposure outside of battle rap and that’s what I need.”
In the late stages of 2014, Daylyt started mentioning the World Wide Antics league (WWA), his own antics-based league that originally seemed like just more trolling. It turned out he was serious. Daylyt announced he would be facing off against autistic rapper/viral YouTube sensation 50 Tyson for the league’s inaugural event. It was later revealed that WWA’s first event was scheduled to be a family affair. The card includes: Daylyt’s son (Sunlyt) vs. Dizaster, Lady P. (Daylyt’s mom) vs. 40 B.A.R.R.S and Nutso (Daylyt’s brother) vs. Melly (Daylyt’s Loaded Lux impersonator). That event goes down on Jan. 10 in Los Angeles. Stay tuned for more updates.
Of course there was a bunch of other monumental trolling in 2014 too. In April, during a video blog posted to his YouTube account, Daylyt announced his plans to retire from battle rap then weeks later put in a jaw-dropping performance against Chilla Jones at KOTD’s “Vendetta 2: Redemption” event — a match-up that's widely considered a contender for top battle of 2014.
Then at the end of October, Daylyt again took to his YouTube account to troll the battle rap world. In his blog, he announced his intentions to pull out of the title match against KOTD Champion Pat Stay at “Flatline 3” if Arcane’s battle with Cortez went ahead. Day cited Arcane's history of allegedly buying bars as his primary reason but ... did that battle go ahead? Yes. Did Daylyt back out? No. He did dress up like a slave though.
The Music
Along with all the battles, the controversies and his near-constant stream of tweets, Day also released some of the more interesting music to come out of the scene.
Here are some highlights from 2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHkZ3qmM_Uk
The Numbers
After all of the anecdotal evidence above, let’s take a look at some concrete stats. Here’s a timeline of interest illustrating the amount of Google searches for Daylyt from January 2010 to January 2015:
As we can see, 2014 was unquestionably Daylyt’s biggest and most significant year. Here it is up close:
Let's break the graph down a little. The spike in interest that started in June was due to the release of one round of his battle with Ab-Soul, a cut that can be heard on the TDE rapper’s most recent release These Days…. He also battled Charlie Clips at "Battle Of L.A." around that time and was involved in the Dizaster/Math Hoffa fiasco from the same event.
The graph’s peak comes just a day after the Eminem-backed "Total Slaughter" on July 12 where Day had a meltdown on the stage, stripping down to his underwear and pretending to eat his own "shit" during his battle with T-Rex.
The short spike in the middle of August was from Daylyt’s infamous comments about Puff Daddy and the subsequent wave of media coverage.
The graph’s second biggest spike came a day after BBE’s “Duel In The Desert” on Oct. 4 where Daylyt got thrown out of the event following his widely documented defecation attempts.
Wrapping up, the spike towards the end of the graph came around the time of last month’s “Ether” event where Daylyt battled Serius Jones on a card that elsewhere saw Dizaster battle mainstream artist Cassidy.
2015: What’s Next?
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Daylyt in 2014, it’s that there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for that extra click, that extra view or that extra headline on WorldStar. Like him or loathe him, Daylyt’s here to stay and his name will keep growing. He's carved out a niche that gets people talking and that keeps leagues’ balance sheets ticking over nicely. For this reason, he’ll continue to get booked and we’ll continue to see him on our YouTube screens for the foreseeable future.
Will he get his own reality TV show? Will he battle Kendrick Lamar? Will he finally actually go to the bathroom on stage? After 2014, none of these questions sound particularly far-fetched.
The burning question though remains: “What will he do next?”
Be sure to stay tuned to BattleRap.com for full coverage of Daylyt in 2015.
What do you make of Daylyt’s 2014? Let us know in the comments section below.
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