Shortly after a video of Alki David and Lush One fighting at the FilmOn offices was shared online, the battle rap community quickly jumped on it as a fake and lambasted Lush for pulling a stunt with a businessman he had recently alluded to as a "culture vulture" after battlers at "Ether" weren't paid their promised fees.
Taking to Twitter and speaking with Angryfans Radio to clear the air, Lush admitted that the fight was meant as a joke and explained that he's trying to rebuild a bridge with Alki David for future business.
"I appreciate the fans having so much vested interest in it, and caring that much, and being passionate about the culture," Lush said of the strong reaction to the fight. "It's the same way I am. I have a different perspective on things and a different way that I look at things because not only have I been around for a lot longer than most of the fans, not all the fans obviously, my whole scope of where I view battle rap and where it's going is a lot different."
Addressing the response to the short clip in which Alki chokes him and then fakes a series of punches offscreen, Lush compared the stunt to previous spoof battles he's helped coordinate.
"Honestly, I expected the video to be taken for what it was: a joke," he said. "Obviously it was stupid. Obviously it was goofy. I wasn't trying to fucking pass it off as a real fight. For those that haven't been paying attention, I've been involved in things like this for a long time. Jokes. Not every single battle has to be hella serious. We have 'Battle of the Bay 7' next week. That's all serious battles. That's all hip hop at its finest. That's representing KOTD. When I had Frank Stacks and L Money battle Andy Milonakis and Dirt Nasty, that was a joke. It turned into a viral video and got a million views, but it was a joke not to be taken seriously. I think that one of the reasons why people were offended by this in particular, like, why am I fucking with a guy that shitted on me? That ripped me off? That fronted on battle rap culture? That's what made everybody so upset, right?"
Detailing the reason for his agreeing to the fake fight, Lush admitted to trying to repair a relationship with the "Ether" funder.
"What I'm trying to do and what I'm doing by chopping it up with Alki is making the wrongs right," he said. "Unless you know somebody that's gonna shoot me a hundred racks to pay for all these battlers and take care of the situation I won't even fuck with Alki."
Earlier in the interview, Lush responded to claims that he's taking advantage of battle rap for his own personal gain.
"I'm fucking 33," he said. "My passion and love for this is damn-near unrivaled. This is my job. This is what I do. This is everything to me. So when people talk about, 'battle rap culture, this or that.' Homie, there's nobody or nothing more battle rap than me. I'm a martyr for this shit. I've dedicated everything to this shit."
Watch the clip here, listen to the whole interview below on BattleRap.com here, and read on to see some of Lush's tweets from right after the footage dropped.
“@bles_king: @LushOne you ain't fooling no one with that bs ” wtf bro it's totally real
— TAHNI (@LushOne) January 17, 2015
Don't be mad that I beat a billionaire's ass and fukt his bitch and you didn't
— GTX Uno (@LushOne) January 17, 2015
I love how offended humorless marks are by this.. Read between the lines please
— GTX Uno (@LushOne) January 17, 2015
Great interview on ANGRY FAN RADIO discussing yesterday's retarded ass video and more http://t.co/52JAr8owHv
— GTX Uno (@LushOne) January 18, 2015
“@conorcooke17: Waiting for @LushOne to be offered that celeb boxing match” only problems the promoter would try to get Alki to pay for it
— TAHNI (@LushOne) January 18, 2015
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