"Lift His Soul" Event Recap With ARP

BattleRap.com speaks exclusively to ARP, the CEO of Rare Breed Entertainment, about Math Hoffa vs. O-Red getting cancelled, developing new talent and how Bigg K vs. Big Kannon went down.

Last night was RBE's "Lift His Soul" event at Club Drom in Manhattan, featuring battles between Bigg K vs. Big Kannon, Syah Boy vs. JC, Shotgun Suge vs. Rosenberg Raw and more. Math Hoffa was supposed to battle O-Red in the headliner, but after his dustup with Dizaster at last week's King of the Dot event, the battle was cancelled.

BattleRap.com spoke exclusively to Rare Breed CEO, who goes by the name ARP, about how things went down.

Lift-His-Soul-610x405

 

“We weren’t able to do Math Hoffa vs O-Red. That was the main event on the card. There’s a high percentage chance that you’re going to see both of them on the very next card, whether you see them against each other or against different people. We were dealing with Math before we were dealing with Red and we wanted to have Math for his return battle. That was the big idea: Math Hoffa's return.

O-Red came in because we needed somebody who we thought was a top tier, one of the best guys out there doing it, who could stand in front of Math and give us a potential classic. I have a lot of respect for Math Hoffa and a lot of respect for O-Red and their abilities. Now that we don’t have the return battle and after the incident in LA, that idea doesn’t have the same impact. We still want to work with both guys but it might be a different idea we put together."

Math Hoffa recently posted a photo of his clash with Dizaster on Instagram and hashtagged it "#Lastbattle" setting off speculation that he might be retiring. ARP spoke to Math at the event last night but hadn't heard anything about Hoffa hanging up his mic.

http://instagram.com/p/qFfUPah-fc/

“This is my first time hearing that. I spoke to Math last night at the event. He came out real late to hang out for a quick second. I spoke to him last night and prior to that we spoke Thursday about where everything stood and the domino effect of the previous weekend’s incidents. But the whole thing about a rumor of him retiring, that’s my first time hearing that. But if you’re asking me as a fan, I don’t believe that. I think time heals these types of situations."

ARP was hesitant to highlight any specific battles or performances from last night out of respect to everyone on the card, but we did get him to talk about the Bigg K versus Big Kannon main event.

"It was epic. It was a great battle. It deserved to be the main event of the card and it came off like that. I mean everybody knows that Big Kannon is on a tear right now. He’s coming off of a lot of good battles. He’s always had those punchlines and that crazy delivery. His performance is up there with the top tiers. And then you got Bigg K on the other hand. He’s coming off the battle of the year of 2013 versus Illmac in a lot of people’s eyes. Then he’s coming off of an almost classic showing versus The Saurus and last week -- a lot of people haven’t seen it yet unless you were either there or ordered the pay-per-view -- he had a crazy battle that I thought he took 2-1 over Danny Myers.

These two guys were just destined to put on a classic. A lot of people were calling it a classic before they even spit a single bar. That’s one of the reasons why I believed in that battle and I think it came to reality last night. I can’t wait for y’all to see this footage. It was amazing."


ARP also touched on RBE's goal to develop new talent by giving less-familiar names a spot on the card or matching them up against opponents with bigger fanbases.

"We had Ah Di Boom on the last card. I was impressed with his battle versus Dose and I was impressed with his battle in the Quiet Room versus Merrick City. That’s when I reached out to him and we ended up getting him Aye Verb. I’ve seen some of [the new talent] battle before and some of them I haven’t, but we definitely put on with the up-and-coming talent.

Here are some pictures posted on Twitter and Instagram from the event:

JC vs. Syahboy

http://instagram.com/p/qHJwQEjDwS/

Shotgun Suge and Rosenberg Raw after their battle

http://instagram.com/p/qFqd7cgRFv/

Bigg K before the event

http://instagram.com/p/qFHHwVJmQr/

Subscribe to RBE on YouTube to catch the footage when it drops.

YouTube channel That Shit is Hot Sun also dropped their interviews from the event. Check them out below.

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