Poison Pen Discusses Battle Rap’s Authenticity

After the inception of the so-called “mega-event” in 2014, including “Total Slaughter” and “Ether,” the authenticity of battle rap has been called into question numerous times from the culture’s core fans and spectators. Despite the huge hype and colossal promises, the quality of the mega-event hasn’t, for the most part, lived up to its price tag.

BattleRap.com caught up with esteemed battle rap ambassador Poison Pen in early January to get his take on authenticity in today’s battle rap culture.

“Maybe lackluster is a harsh word but if you look at URL, for the most part, their battles are pretty consistent as to what’s been going on the past few years,” Poison Pen says of URL’s 2014. “As far as the sheer number of events they’ve had a lot less events going on … Before they were [doing] like five or six major events in a year, at least for URL. It’s January [now] and their last event was ‘Summer Madness 4.’ I heard they’re expanding. I think they’re gonna go over the U.K. [and] get some emcees out there so it should be dope for them. They’re probably just restructuring right now.

“Even King Of The Dot have scaled their number of events down as well,” Poison Pen adds. “There haven’t been as many events. Those are usually the two platforms along with Don’t Flop that are providing the most quality content.”

Later in the conversation, Pen touches on the influx of smaller leagues and the impact of the continuing rise of bi-weekly events and battles.

“Those events are adding to battle rap as far as keeping the emcees fed,” Poisen Pen says of smaller leagues. “I’d be a fool to tell someone to not get paid, not to get their check, not to eat, not to feed their family. It’s something that needs to be done. A lot of these guys don’t have any other source of income on a consistent basis so go get your money, you know what I mean? So that’s a good thing as far as just keeping the talent fed. But, a lot of the times the battles aren’t presented in fashion that makes people gravitate towards them anyway. There’s a formula that’s been tested time and time again and a lot of times people come in and try and reinvent the wheel and the execution isn’t always there. A lot of times the execution just falls flat.”

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below.