HipHopDX’s editor-in-chief Justin Hunte was a special guest on The War Report’s VIP Room last Sunday (Feb. 15). While in conversation with host Sara Kana, Hunte gave his thoughts on several aspects of battle rap including the commercialization of the culture. He also weighed in on the topical debate regarding the quality of battle rap as the space continues to attract increasing amounts of attention from the mainstream.
“There’s a story on BattleRap.com and it’s the ‘Best Dressed At Blackout 5 List’ and [Laura] Tarsi did it,” Hunte says. “All the comments from there are just hating on that story. Chris [Mitchell, BattleRap.com’s editor-in-chief] jumped in there and raised a point like, ‘Yo, but people rap about the clothes all the time.’ But the people who were complaining about it in the comments section are looking at this as the commercialization of battle rap. It’s part of the conversation with all these industry cats jumping in [and] all these billionaires from nowhere throwing money at all kinds of people [who] are seemingly buying up space in battle rap. At the same time, the people like Sara Kana, [Poison] Pen, Smack [White], Beasley and Organik and everybody who has been pushing this culture for so long, they’re in a space where they want the recognition but they’re also competing with all these new entities.
“I don’t really think battle rap should be thinking about how to get more mainstream directly — I think that’s going to be a change of conversation anyway — but they didn’t even show the hip hop winners at The Grammys. But, then they had all these rappers performing the whole night so even the mainstream is kind of distancing itself from hip hop,” Hunte adds. “To fight that wave by doing anything other than being yourself is just a waste of time. Battle rap is doing nothing but growing already. Every year there’s more people who are more interested in battle rap … The audience has been proven. I don’t think battle rap really needs any advice [laughs]. I feel like battle rap, for it to be the grimiest, the most authentic, the most genuine piece of hip hop there is right now, for it to have Drake hosting some shit? The biggest rapper on the planet? I don’t really know what kind of advice battle rap really needs. I think battle rap needs to keep being critical and that’s never been a problem in battle rap.”
Later on in the conversation, Hunte weighed in on the frequent debate about whether or not battle rappers can successfully transition to make quality music. As a respected commentator of hip hop for many years, Hunte revealed that he doesn’t buy into the stereotype that they’re unable to make the switch viably.
“[HipHopDX] drops different tracks from [battle rappers] when we like them, just like everybody else. We’re open to it, but we’re open to everybody. We don’t have room in our schedule for everybody. There’s that stigma that a lot of battle rappers can’t make good songs and that just doesn’t make any sense. I don’t subscribe to that at all. People are like, ‘Oh man, you can battle but can you make a song? Or can you make an album?’ Almost nobody can make a really great album [laughs]. Just because a label puts it out doesn’t mean it’s good. It’s not like just because you battle rap you can’t. People who don’t battle rap can’t. Because [HipHopDX] covers battle rap as often as we do, that’s brought a lot of our staff closer to their music. Sparkle Pratt who runs the music section at DX — she calls all the plays over there — she’s a Big T fan, so every time Big T drops something she puts it up.”
Chino XL Offers His Opinion On Battle Rap
During the later stages of the show, Viper Records lyricist Chino XL jumped in the conversation and offered his take on the contemporary form of battle rap. Despite acknowledging that today’s format is widely different to what he grew up on during the ‘90s, Chino applauded the culture, calling it “mind blowing” and admired that battle rappers are able to get paid for their lyricism.
“My viewpoint on battle rap, as I am a fan of it, is that it is not the same as the era that I come from,” Chino XL says. “It is a complete new sport. It is a new kata. It is a new technique. It has elements of all the great things that we were doing. I watch it in amazement. There’s no music. It’s just the words, the person’s heart, their mind, and just whatever they’re coming up with or have done previously. I think it’s amazing. It’s a new art form. It’s completely different than it was before. It’s mind blowing. It puts lyricism on the forefront. That’s what it is. It’s nothing else other than that. You get the whole thing where they’re doing everyone’s background but that comes from playing the dozens. It’s just amazing and I’m happy to see it because there was a time where everybody was like, ‘Lyrics don’t matter anymore and it’s just about beat and the hooks,’ but here’s a whole industry that people are able to feed their family off of that’s based upon the words that they said. It’s dope, dude. It’s dope.”
Listen to the full interview here:
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