As I am sitting here this chilly winter’s evening, poised to write about the experience that I had a few nights ago while in the east end of Toronto with some friends, I am finding it surprisingly difficult to put the whole evening into words. Anyone who knows me knows that I like a wide variety of different musical genres. All types, sounds and sorts of music have a pretty equal chance of being enjoyed in my world. There are only two real exceptions to that rule: rap and hip-hop. And so, I went into that night’s experience fully aware of what I was heading to – an actual rap battle, run by my friend John’s old classmates. John had told me that he was absolutely certain that this experience would change the way that I viewed this genre of music. I remember shrugging and saying something along the lines of, “sure, why not? How bad can it be?” (I may have needed a tiny bit more convincing than that, but in the end I had agreed to go and at least check it out).
“Checking it out” doesn’t quite describe what ended up happening there! I chatted it up with the audience and even a handful of the people that were involved in the battle itself. I squeezed my way up to the very front row at one point so that I could feel the power coming out of these rappers as they spit their rhymes. I even had the fortune of being personally introduced to the guy who organizes and MC’s the whole event. The event as a whole is part of the “King Of The Dot” rap and hip-hop movement (http://www.kingofthedot.com/). King Of The Dot (KOTD) is Canada’s premier hip-hop battling league, which emerged onto the streets of Toronto back in August 2008. At that point, they had only a small following and big dreams. Three years later, KOTD has gone from a couple of park side battles (held just off of Yonge Street in an abandoned park) to being one of the most impressive and respected rap battling forces worldwide. Today, KOTD has become so much more than just a local battling league. They have divisions all across Canada, which gives entrants the opportunity to prove their skill in places such as Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and (of course) Toronto. Their events feature all elements of hip-hop culture; everything from beat boxing, to DJing, to graffiti, to break dancing. There is talk of a reality show that profiles the business aspects of the organization, dubbed “KOTD Marketing Kings”. Two Grand Prix tournaments have been held with a whopping $10,000 in total prize money and the most respected championship titles in battle are awarded to the victors. What I thought was one of the coolest features of the night though, was that the entire evening (from 7pm until 2am!) was televised live on their YouTube channel. They had four camera guys, one girl with a still shot camera and one person holding up a huge lighting fixture. The event as a whole was extremely well-organized and those in charge seemed more than able to handle the massive crowd that had assembled in the bar.
The evening itself was held at the Blue Moon Pub, near the corner of Queen Street and Broadview. This venue has a small section towards the back that can be separated be a heavy hanging curtain, which minimized the outside noises and the chatter at the bar. Even though there weren’t nearly enough bartenders to keep up with the crowd and the huge demand that we were all presenting on our simultaneous quests for beer, they remained very friendly and served us our food super quick (and the food was, no lie, amazing! I totally recommend the spinach jalapeno poppers – especially with a side order of sweet potato fries!). They were scheduled to get things going at shortly after 7:00pm, but things didn’t really get rolling until closer to 9:00. In the end, what we got was totally worth the wait.
The night was basically a series of battles, one on one, between two contestants. From the very first battle, I knew that this was something worth paying attention to and potentially writing about. One of the contestants would begin. They were given sixty seconds to spit out a few paragraphs of rhymes, putting down the other person that they were competing against (including such memorable lines such as, “you still be comin’, before you know it I’ll be gone. Now think about that while I’m sleepin’ with your mom”… can’t seem to unstick that one from my poor mind!). Then when their time was up, the second contestant would have their shot at getting their point across. They would go back and forth, three times each, and after a brief pause to tally up the judges’ votes, the winner would be announced. I was honestly shocked by the prizes that are given away at events such as this, I think that $500 was the smallest amount that was won! This evening was apparently tiny compared to the size of the ones that these guys usually run – they say that at those, the crowds can get as large as 10,000 people! There were only maybe three hundred or so there at the Blue Moon, but from the noise that they were making you would swear that there was maybe triple that amount!
And so, the battles raged on. Round after round, brilliantly crafted and put-together lyrics were pounded out, without even a steady beat to help them keep time. Hearing rap is one thing; hearing it with no other noise in the background is something else entirely. They must have easily handed out $5000 in prize money. There were people there who were too drunk to stand by the end of the night. Everyone I talked to had a fantastic time. But I learned something through it all.
I have gone through the entire past twenty-seven years of my life thinking that I couldn’t stand rap. I typically dislike the clothing that is usually associated with it, I don’t really get why every other word is frequently a swear word, and I quite honestly think that many of the lyrics (that seem to be chosen solely based on the fact that they sound the same and it has nothing to do with their meaning) are vulgar and meaningless. But I was proven totally wrong through this experience! Yes, a few of the people that got up to compete seemed to just be using words because they sounded the same. They could be easily labeled as the stereotypes that they represent. But there was a lot of thought that was put into the words that many of the other contestants were using. I was speaking with one who told me that he spent the past three months putting his rhymes together for that night, rearranging and tweaking the words to get them just right before his match. In the end though, it was totally worth it for him. He had taken a GO bus out to Toronto all the way from London, but was going home $500 richer after a weekend-long party in one of the most fun cities in southern Ontario. When I asked him what made him decide to start rapping more or less professionally, he told me that it was just because he felt that he has a message and the world needs to hear it. My only question that I am left with now is how come more musicians can’t seem to think that way? So much of today’s music is shallow and lacking in substance. Maybe something like a Global Rap Revolution wouldn’t be such a bad idea…
King Of The Dot began as a grassroots movement, in the most literal sense. It was built on the backs of the league organizers, the emcees and all the fans who continuously offer their support. These days, it has become an international battling community, and the growth still carries on.
Written By: Veronika W.
Edited By: The Miz
