Top Moments From KOTD's "Quarantine 2"

During a weekend that included "Rookies vs. Vets" and Don’t Flop’s first ever card in Philadelphia among several other events, King Of The Dot’s Calgary division held arguably its biggest card ever, "Quarantine 2." The event was a showcase for some of Western Canada’s best talent and also showed some of Alberta’s best up-and-comers with the first round of the GZ Grand Prix matches. There were some breakout performances, some minor mishaps, and one battle that may very well be the best battle to ever happen in Western Canada.

Battles of the Night

Big Kannon vs. Chedda Cheese

This style clash in no way disappointed. Though the crowd had dispersed a bit by the past-midnight start time, hometown hero Chedda Cheese faced battle rap vet (but KOTD debutant) Big Kannon. Both opponents have a history together posting on battle forum RapMusic.com, which clearly helped create a clash that was competitive, funny, and incredibly comfortable. Kannon took shots at Chedda’s nerdiness and the battle showcased two dudes really trying to get at one another’s styles and resonate with the crowd.

J-Pro vs. Ape Yola

Before the battle J-Pro mentioned to me that he expected Ape to take an angle about his punchline-heavy style, summing it up with the concise quote: “The thing is … I don’t give a fuck.” And he clearly didn’t, as the Fresh Coast battler/KOTD staff member brought punchline after punchline, winning over the crowd from the very beginning with “I hear you’re a leader/liter in the hood. Grape Soda.” Ape Yola brought some dope writing to the table, structuring his material well with some really funny shots at J-Pro’s dental work and some attacks of Pro’s writing. Really fun battle.

Soul vs. Pigsty

This battle was incredible. I could write another entire article breaking down each round, the angles, the writing, but I'd rather people just watch the battle to see for themselves. For those who have criticized Pigsty previously for his performance, here he was confident and comfortable in a way I’ve never seen him before. Both battlers clearly had a lot of respect for one another’s pen game and this is one of those battles where each angle — even the ones at low-hanging-fruit levels (e.g. Native jokes, eye jokes, and Scottish jokes) — were executed perfectly without ever feeling stale or corny. Great battle and worth the price of admission alone.

Performances of the night

Soul & Pigsty

See above for why. Both battlers were easily the two best performers of the night, and even after watching once on PPV, I can’t decide on a winner.

Top Moments

Redemption for New'l

Some people reading this article might remember New’l as the guy Caustic tore apart in the 2012 KOTD Grand Prix. Well, Saturday’s New’l was a different beast. He was aggressive, clever, and in no way looked out of place against the far more experienced Quest. The crowd rocked with him, and almost everyone was hailing the performance as the shock of the event.

Quest Mcody’s third round

Despite New’l’s performance, his battle with Quest will be debated based on the strength of Quest’s third round. For those unaware, Quest is a community leader in Detroit and is one of the most stand-up guys in battle rap, growing up with little and trying desperately to put all he can into the neighborhood and city he grew up in. In his third round he dissects a lot of the gangster image in Canadian battle rap, its authenticity, and in New’l criticizes the foundation for most if not all of his battling. It’s personal, intelligent, and just a great piece of writing and performance.

Sun Tzu giving a rap clinic to Ill Nye

Ill Nye may have had more punchlines than Sun Tzu. He may have had more multis. He may have done well. But Ill Nye lost. Clearly. Sun Tzu showcased how rap battling can still be about how well you rap. His cadence was incredible and, in the building, he completely defused Ill Nye to the point where I had a hard time paying attention to his rounds. This may be closer on camera, but it was a man against a boy in the building.

Smooth Sailing

With so many battlers coming to the event from outside of Canada, the worry for Q2 was always whether people would actually make it. Luckily there were little to no border issues (though a certain film editor had a scare), and all the battles went down. The event ended just before 1:00 a.m. and started only about 30 minutes past its scheduled start time, which may be a new record for battle rap.

Ground Zero Grand Prix

I was fortunate enough to judge the GZGP battles and here’s how I saw them. Spoiler alert, obviously.

Philip Solo vs. Edwords

Going into this battle, I had both these guys as even. Solo has been killing it in GZ lately and Edwords is a veteran who has lost shine due to some notable chokes. I expected this to be a great battle if not for the chokes. Edwords ran away with it, at least in the building. He was aggressive; his material was funny; he did a good job at taking shots at Solo, even if some of the angles were a bit easy. He even had a great freestyled shot at Solo’s shirt in the middle of his first. Solo showed up lethargic, reading his bars between rounds, and didn’t make the battle very competitive. All seven judges gave it to Edwords.

Rezza Reckt vs. Dirty Harry

Harry has been on the cusp of exiting GZ for a while now, having faced almost everyone in Alberta and B.C. in GZ in the past few years. What he’s lacked is a break-out performance. After the first round it looked like this was going to be his opportunity. Unfortunately, after a huge crowd reaction to a bar early in the second round, he choked and didn’t get out the rest of his material. Rezza’s second and third were all right, but for the third Harry performed his second round and didn’t end up with a third round. This made judgment pretty easy and all but one judge gave it to Rezza Reckt.

Overall thoughts

For an event that flew under the radar, it was fun, ran smoothly and had some really good battles. The only chokes were from Dirty Harry and Knamelis, and there were absolutely no slack performances on the card. In a time where battlers are regularly criticized for effort and commitment, it was refreshing to see each battler tailor material for the crowd, their opponent, and not slack on their performance.

All images are from Mike Wells Photo for KOTD. See the whole set here.

There's a pay-per-view of this event available for $15.

Here's the trailer:

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below