King of the Dot kicked off their Battle of Los Angeles 5 weekend last night with a GZ Battles event at Chuco's Justice Center in Inglewood.
BattleRap.com spoke exclusively with KOTD staff member and host Aspect One to get his perspective on the best battles from the event. He was particularly impressed by the clash between Fresh Coast veteran Fredo and St. Louis up-and-comer Ooops.
“Ooops vs. Fredo was really, really dope. I was pleasantly surprised that Ooops brought that many angles. I watched a few of his battles beforehand just to get a feel for what he does. He has a unique way of delivering his bars and angles. His voice doesn’t dominate the room, but he has this smooth voice and you can tell that he’s serious as fuck. As far as his angles, that’s what made him stand out. He has star potential. He can definitely be a star because he had the room shut down more than enough times. Cats like Daylyt and all the Krack City dudes like Danny Myers were losing their shit off of some of the shit he was saying.”
Ooops at BOLA5 Day 1
Aspect also spoke about the battle between Joe Cutter and Carter Deems, two of the most distinctive people in the battle scene. Pictures of Carter were all over Twitter and Instagram, first of his “I Luv Cats” shirts and then of him bare-chested with the same phrase penned on him in marker.
Joe Cutter (pictured on the left) listens to Carter Deems rap
“Joe Cutter vs. Carter Deems was a fucking weird-fest. Carter Deems kissed [British battle rapper Shuffle T] in the battle and at that point I had to walk out of the room. I couldn’t deal with it. I almost had to faint ... Them kissing each other did something in the universe to all straight men. It was like some kind of Morse code to tell them that he hated them. It was so weird man. I felt like Carter Deems hated me after he kissed homeboy … The shit was crazy.”
Carter Deems rides Shuffle T to his battle
“Joe Cutter always does his thing. The shock value level was really high. He was trying to cook and really embarrass Carter. And then Carter Deems came with his approach that is hilarious. He’s a jokester. He’s really weird but I would say it’s a battle that a lot of people were entertained by although they were tripping out that kisses and piggy back rides were happening.”
The final battle of the night, between San Jose veteran Ayem and Atlanta’s Automatic Ray, had people on Twitter calling it the best of the event. Aspect said:
“I’m glad that I booked that battle. I felt there was gonna be some heat. I think both these guys really have main stage potential. Ayem is really slept on in the West Coast and a lot of fools don’t wanna battle him because he doesn’t have a huge name and he can’t battle any newcomers because his name is bigger than that so he’s in a weird stage in his career. And Automatic Ray is definitely a cat who wanted to support KOTD and be a part of what we’re doing for a minute. To keep it honest with you, he definitely came out here and spit some dope shit.
Ayem (right) poses with Madasa Mata
I think that one is going to be historic and the PPV is gonna show how that shit really went down. I was really happy. I can’t wait to watch it. I’m really anticipating the staff from Canada watching it too. It’s a match that can get both these battlers a lot more looks in terms of future battles.”
The night also saw some controversy, with a few of the battlers voicing their discontent with being put on the GZ Battles card rather than the main channel event. In his third round against T2Good, Young B the Future called out Aspect and Lush One for not giving him better opponents. Again, we got Aspect’s reaction to it.
“I love Young B. That’s the little homie. I felt like he was a little out of bounds with that shit. To keep it a buck, after the whole battle we were talking about his situation. I guess he felt slighted that he’s not able to get bigger names. He battled Rum Nitty and now Rum Nitty’s battling O-Red and Young B is battling T2Good. But these guys all have a chance to say no. You don’t have to say yes to battles that I’m asking you to take. If I’m asking you to take a battle, then I think the other guy is dope too … I got Young B a battle at Battle of the Bay 6, and another one against Rum Nitty in [Albuquerque league] UBR. Now he’s going in on me and Lush because he’s not on the same stage as Rum Nitty, but really he hasn’t been as effective as Rum.
After the battle, Young B asked me to put him against one of these West Coast guys so I called up The Saurus and asked him if he wanted to battle him. He was like ‘Yo who the fuck is Young B?’
For him to come out with a bunch of crazy ass bars about feeling slighted, I was like: ‘No doubt. If that’s how you gotta get down for shock value to get people paying attention.’ It’s all love. It’s battle rap. I’m not gonna trip.”
Event photos by Chris Wynn. Ayem photo via Madasa Mata.
The BOLA5 pay-per-view for Day 1 and 2 will be available Sunday, June 29. Go to KOTDTV.com for more information.
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