Following up on what he told BattleRap.com at the end of 2014 about the future of the Proving Ground format for URL, Norbes spoke with HipHopIsReal recently and offered up his plans for the coming year. During the interview, Norbes also responded to questions about complaints that PG rappers Showoff, Prez Mafia, and Xcel made about him during their departure from the league.
In December, the URL rep told us that he was raising the bar for PG rappers.
“If you’ve noticed, I haven’t dropped no new PGs and I’m only taking two guys from the last event, period,” he said. “From now on, to be on URL it’s gonna be way tougher. A lot of these guys weren’t good enough anyway. I don’t really care to be honest.”
Speaking with HipHopIsReal, Norbes reiterated that URL will take a harder line in grooming new talent.
"First and foremost, when you get to the PGs, it's your job to impress me," he said. "So not everybody gets offered anything. So a lot of people that say, 'Yeah, I had a PG,' basically had a try-out. A lot of people misconstrue that and say, 'Yeah, I'm a PG rapper.' No, not everybody gets offered a contract. I only offered two contracts over the last six months. We're looking for a special type of individual. We're looking for the next Lux, the next Mook, the next Verb. I'm willing to give multiple PGs to certain people just to build them out, see how good they come. My opinion is, when you get to that stage, show out. Be original."
Addressing the public fallout over the departure of a string of PG rappers late last year, Norbes explained his side of the contract debacle.
"When you sign something, you gotta read what you're signing, for one," he said. "It's not like these guys didn't negotiate their situations. So, they're just not agreeing to what they agreed to. It is what it is. Whatever reason, whatever financial issues they have or personal problems, that doesn't involve me."
Responding to a question about complaints made by rappers themselves about his own handling of the PG platform, Norbes mostly shrugged off the claims.
"That's kind of crazy," he said. "Dealing with me? I don't even deal with these niggas to be honest with you. But, God bless them. I wish them the best of luck and I hope they make a lot of money and continue to be successful battle rappers. In terms of Ah Di Boom, that's my man for real. So I understood why he was hurting. We actually spoke and he expressed why he was upset. I was like, 'I understand where you coming from with that.' Prez, I don't really have a relationship with Prez. He's cool I guess. I haven't really spoke to Prez in a long time, if that's how he feels he's entitled to his opinion. If he needs that therapy to talk to Angry Fan about me that's absolutely fine. Xcel, I never had no issue with Xcel."
Norbes also confirmed that he often scraps the release of battles he doesn't think are good enough before announcing that he'll begin releasing them more frequently on YouTube.
"I'm actually gonna start releasing some of those battles on The War Report so you guys can see it," he said. "Like I said, I'm not perfect, you might agree, you might not."
Late in the interview, Norbes also spoke more generally about moving away from his current role in the business and focusing more time and energy collaborating with league owners in Canada and in the U.K.
"I've retired," he said, apparently joking, before adding, "This is actually serious, I'm leaving battle rap. I'm just gonna focus as an owner. I don't care about the PGs no more. I'm not doing it no more. I don't wanna deal with a bunch of people wanting to beat me up. I'm good man. If I see someone who's phenomenal, I'ma do it. That's why the next PGs — actually I'm going to London for the PGs over there, I created that. There's a PG before NOME and there's a PG in the West Coast. So I'm not throwing as many PGs. It's too much stress. I'm fucking with the Canadians. The Canadians and the United Kingdom."
Watch the whole interview below:
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