Casper Tha Deadly Ghost gives us his meanest mug before shooting the GKTV interview in his home office
Over the past few years the art of rap battling has gained popularity among underground and mainstream rap fans. Since the dawn of local battle rap leagues such as Toronto’s KingOfTheDot or BeastMode, the art has gained popularity through its focus on lyrical importance and delivery.
Battlers choose to rap with or without a background beat and the battles usually consist of three rounds. The time limits can be infinite or set, but they usually range between 90 seconds and four minutes. Battle rap’s roots can be found in mainstream emcees such as Eminem, Immortal Technique and Lil Wayne, but the culture is truly found in underground artists from the local scenes.
Everyday individuals come together at different venues thanks to the aforementioned local leagues and others like them. The events provide a way for underground artists to promote their music and gain respect through lyrically outperforming their opponent.
Toronto battle rap emcee Casper Tha Deadly Ghost believes that the focus on powerful lyrical punches/schemes has helped revitalize rap culture.
“Everybody wants to battle now,” says Casper. “With battling you have to punch and have more structure… I used to make good music by riding the beat just to sound good, but after I started battling I realized you need more substance to really wow people. Battling made me better with music”
Mohawk college radio student Christian Smith operates an online battle rap/sports news website that caters to a wide variety of growing fans. Since he started covering the two genres nine months ago he has quickly gained 500 total likes and approximately 50,000 total views. His momentum testifies to the growing audience to the art.
“If you look at the direction rap has gone lately with it being more about the beats than the lyrics, that is the complete opposite of battle rap,” says Smith. “It has kept lyrics alive… I can only think of a couple artists in the mainstream industry who can rap with the lyrical capability that battlers display now.”
Perhaps over the next few years the art will progress even further into mainstream integration and take the place of regular rap programming in the same way UFC took the spotlight from the WWE. Until then, you can enjoy rap battles online on their respective league’s YouTube Pages. Be sure to check out the full video interview with Casper attached below and remember to like, share and subscribe for more great content.
BeastMode
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd8FFS4Lw-_cGiYf2bEDdbQ
KingOfTheDot
https://www.youtube.com/user/KingOfTheDot
WhatTheHYPECANADA | Liam Graham
