What’s up you fine folks? Time for another Blasphem-E event preview. This next Vancouver event is a great way to see the upcoming new blood, most of which I shouted out previously when I battled HK. Make sure you go check out UrbanRuckusNetwork.com for all battle recaps and future shows.
Thursday, October 2nd, The Cobalt will play host to KOTD Presents: Quest For Fire. Tickets are only $15 presale or $20 at the door, and trust me, this will be well worth that money.
In addition, KOTD Vancouver is proud to announce it is participating in Pound for Pound – a charitable organization that delivers food to Covenant House Vancouver. The first 20 people who bring 2 non-perishable food items to the door will receive a free drink.
This is a great organization and I encourage everyone coming to participate.
But let’s talk about these matchups:
Cody the Catch vs Lexx Luthor: The live crowd is in for a treat with this battle. Cody proved against Lex D at First Defense that he still has the fire to write a seemingly endless supply of side splitting mom jokes, and he always gets a ton of love from the Vancouver crowd. Being the away team is nothing new for Lexx Luthor though: having battled in the past year in Toronto, LA, and South Africa, and I’m sure there’s a few more. Lexx is known for clowning on his opponents and generally being disrespectful (shooting a Windex bottle at Kryple comes to mind). I know it’s cliché to have the headline battle be your pick for battle of the night, but I’m doing it anyways. Come to this battle prepared to laugh.
Stevie P vs Illipsis: New wave vs experience. That’s how you categorize this battle. Stevie has been at this battle shit for years, and between his battles with Wildcard and myself, he seems to have rediscovered the fire inside for battling. He brings a combination of bars, jokes, and angles to the table that make his one of the most well rounded battlers in the Vancouver scene. Illipsis has been on a tear though. Even though his much anticipated match up with Laugh N Stalk was cancelled, he still has a ton of momentum behind him. He focuses on wordplay and utilizing an extensive vocabulary, incorporating nerdy imagery into the aggressive format that is battle rap. I expect him to be hungry in this match up.
Blasphem-E vs Bearodactyl: Years ago, I (Blasphem-E) worked at a golf course for a summer. We had problems with a couple of bears who liked to sneak into our dumpsters or otherwise cause problems with golfers. One day in particular I got fed up and beamed one of those bears in the face with a potato that I threw like a fastball. It was incredible. The potato exploded into a million pieces and the bear ran away as fast as it could. That story is only tangentially related to this battle (Bearodactyl), but I like telling it, and it’s my preview, so deal with it. This is going to be Bearodactyl’s first GZ match up, so I get to act like gatekeeper for once. I’m coming off a great match with HK (and shitting the bed against Apos), so I’m looking to make sure momentum finally gets going in my favor. Bearodactyl is coming off perhaps the least viewed battle of all time which, at last count, had less views than this random family’s Christmas video:
Copasetic vs Nusince: This should prove to be interesting. Copasetic wisely chose the “create a non-battle sideshow” route when he battled Lil G in his debut, meaning we have yet to see what he’ll do when he actually gets at his opponent. Copasetic is also the guy behind Reddit’s battlerap forum r/rapbattles, so shout out to that. Nusince AKA 500 bills is looking to give him a rude awakening with what will likely be a series of Cody the Catch inspired mom jokes.
ShineNine vs Kit Carson: Shine has been working his way up in the local rankings through Smoked Out Battles, appearing on every Smoked Out card to date. Here he’s making his second appearance for KOTD, battling Kit Carson of Kit Carson vs Guck fame. This is only Kit’s third battle, although I would look for him to be extremely composed in this battle. Shine writes some crazy bars, but his performance has been lacking in the last couple of battles, which was most evident when he went up against Andre Anthem. Still, he isn’t to be taken lightly. Kit on the other hand is good at writing cutting character assassination rounds. I expect this to be the most competitive battle of the night.
Leeonidas Adamantium vs ALA: This battle should be super funny. Leeonidas is side splittingly hilarious when he’s on his game. He has come across as unpolished in recent performances, but I have a hunch this is the battle where he has his material down and is ready to give a clean performance. If he can do that, he’ll be a problem. ALA is at his best when he’s just letting himself be funny. His line “I will donkey kong on (your girl’s) Jigglypuffs”, while silly, was a stand out from the last event he battled at.
Willie B Faithful vs D Haze: (this preview edited by Willie B): Willie is going to win this battle. God damn Willie, you’re going to do incredible. If only we could all have the writing prowess that he has, battling would be awesome. Haze is good, and should have some solid bars, but Willie is prepared to put on a show. Plus, Willie is really fun to say.
Rhythm vs Jobes: Rhythm brings his aggressive working man persona back to KOTD after honing it in the last few months. He’s going up against Jobes AKA Young Fanny Pack, who’s making a return to KOTD after being away for a couple of years. It will be interesting to see how Jobes’ writing has evolved after all this time.
Da Truth vs Patch: Patch impressed a lot of people in his battle rap debut against JB Styles. He had a combination of cutting bars, with a powerful presence that a lot of more experienced battlers can’t match. He’s up against Da Truth, who is making his debut. While I’ve never seen Da Truth rap, I’ve heard from some people that know him that we should expect HK Light. If that’s the case, this should be a really dope match with the potential to really kick the night up a notch early.
$ully vs Bizzy Mind: Sully is dope, he’s impressed me in both his previous outings, and so he makes his way over to KOTD to debut against first time battler Bizzy Mind. I have no idea what to expect from Bizzy Mind (professional due diligence at its finest right there) but Sully alone will make this battle worth watching.
In the immortal words of Lush One: and there you have it. Make sure you come out for this event, it will be crazy.
Blasphem E is a Vancouver based Battle rapper, musician, and runs UrbanRuckusNetwork.com follow him on twitter @MCblasphem_e