Following up their 2008 King Of The Dot match-up with a rematch this past Saturday (March 21), HFK and Tricky P faced off at GZ Battles' "March Mayhem."
Speaking with BattleRap.com after the event, Organik and HFK recapped the latest battle and reflected on some of the changes the culture as a whole has undergone over the years.
"We were much better, both of us," HFK said of the updated battle. "More polished, better jokes, better material, better bars ... We were so unpolished before. We were two guys fucking shivering in the park and a crackhead interrupting us. We came back, we were professionals, you could tell. Everyone was having a good time."
After ragging on HFK during the interview, Organik offered his take on the event and the rematch in particular.
"It was actually probably the most fun I've ever had at a Ground Zero event as far as every battle, the atmosphere," he said. Of HFK's performance, he added, "It was actually a really close battle. All jokes aside, HFK, I can fuck with him because I've known HFK for so long and I've battled him so I've already said the worst things I could say to him."
After complimenting the atmosphere of the event, which was small room and generally upbeat, Organik detailed a recent shift from humor to "bars" in the culture more generally.
"Battle rap is really weird," he said. "Everything's in rotation. When battle rap first started out people were laughing at jokes and then all of a sudden it turned into this, 'Bars! You gotta spell out your punchlines and relate your gun to my kitchen sink.' Now it's going back to where people are actually able to enjoy battle rap for just what it is: dissing the other opponent and having fun with it."
As for the resurgence of small room events which "March Mayhem" counted itself a part of, Organik pinned the often-criticized overgrowth of battle rap events to money.
"As battle rappers wanna start making more money we need to facilitate the revenue streams to be able to pay them," he said. "On the events where you have people who do this for fun and do this for the right reasons we're able to make it the way we want to."
Check out HFK and Tricky P's original battle below and look out for the footage from their recent rematch.
Read BattleRap.com's full recap of the Toronto GZ event here.
Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.
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