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The event which was thrown by King of the Dot, Canada's premier battle league, was not only the the first ever pay-per-view rap battle event, it also featured one of the biggest chokes in history by none other than hip-hop legend Canibus.
A live stream of the Vendetta event, held at The Exchange in Los Angeles, was made available on Ustream for $30. Punters were able to watch battles by some of battle rap’s elite contenders including Britain’s own Cruger and Eurgh, (co-founders of leading UK battle league Don’t Flop) who faced legendary veteran The Saurus and the young but fierce DNA respectively.
The main event, however, was Dizaster Vs Canibus. For those who don’t know, Dizaster is considered one of, if not THE best freestyler in the game, and his terrifyingly aggressive delivery has made him almost unbeatable in recent times. Canibus is a successful recording artist who rose to fame in the late 90’s.
Canibus is no stranger to conflict. He famously had a musical spat with LL Cool J during the recording of the track ‘4,3,2,1’ off of LL’s album Phenomenon, on which Canibus guested (along with Redman, Method Man and DMX). On the track Canibus made reference to a tattoo of a microphone on LL’s arm: “Meth where the Gods at? / Reggie where the squad at?/ LL is that a mic on your arm, let me borrow that!”
For some reason LL Cool J took offense to this line and proceeded to write a verse which was aimed at Canibus, which included the lyric“Watch your mouth don’t ever step out of line”.
This then prompted Canibus AKA Rip The Jacker to pen the track 'Second Round KO' a diss track which was aimed squarely at LL Cool J, and a guest appearance from no less than Mike Tyson.
Over a decade later and Canibus agreed to put his gloves back on (so to speak) and step into the ring with Dizaster. The hype over this battle had been building over the past 3 months or so, with Dizaster and Canibus calling each other out in video blogs on YouTube. It was billed as one of the biggest battles of all time: A hip-hop legend versus one of the best battlers on the current scene.
Nobody could have predicted how the battle was going to pan out, and now the battle is set to become legendary, however, some say this is for all the wrong reasons. Rather than being the classic it was supposed to be, Canibus Vs Dizaster will go down in history for having one of the most awkward chokes of all time. If you thought the scene in 8 mile where Eminem stands silent on stage for a minute was cringeworthy, then viewer discretion is advised.
Canibus opens the first round well, spitting some funny lines such as "those look like Tom Cruise’s mom’s shoes" and getting the crowd behind him by dropping some bars from 'Second Round KO'. Then, a few minutes into the first round, he starts to slip. He begins taking increasingly large pauses to think between rounds. The silence becomes unbearable and you just want Organik (KOTD’s main organiser) to call “time!”
Eventually, after Canibus stumbles through the rest of his first verse with barely any punches landing, Dizaster strikes. He spits a fast and furious 1st round, lyrically intelligent and technically complex, full of clever wordplay and multi-syllable rhymes, and cutting personal disses.
Canibus is left visibly shaken by the onslaught and the 2nd round plays out more awkwardly than the first. More stretched out pauses, awkward silences and punchlines that fail to connect. Again, Dizaster responds by bringing the fury.
The 3rd round, however, is the one that will go down in history forever. After choking so badly, Canibus does the unthinkable and hands the win to Dizaster, but then proceeds to pull out an A3 notepad and read the lines which he’s forgotten after stating he is not being a good freestyler. Things get even more awkward as he starts berating the audibly disappointed crowd. It’s unbelievable how many cardinal sins of battle rap Canibus commits in such a short space of time! I mean, who even carries an A3 notepad around with them. With all his supposed cash-monies, you’d have thought he could have written his lines on his iPhone!
What should have been a way of re-igniting Canibus’ career, ended up in actual career suicide. Within hours a bootleg video of the choke was circulating the social networks, with twitter and hip-hop forums aghast as they watched one of their heroes crumble before them.
As uncomfortable as it is to watch, there is that heart-warming feel good moment at the end where Diz addresses the crowd, standing up for Bis.
Organik tweeted not long after the battle that, “controversy is good”.
Vendetta on the whole was a success, even if the main event wasn’t. This moment will go down in history and will only get Dizaster, King of the Dot and battle rap as a whole more recognition. Plus, on the bright side, whenever any battler chokes, they can re-assure themselves knowing that no choke will ever be as bad as Rip The Jacker’s!
WATCH // Vendetta - June 9th | Canibus vs Dizaster Trailer
A live stream of the Vendetta event, held at The Exchange in Los Angeles, was made available on Ustream for $30. Punters were able to watch battles by some of battle rap’s elite contenders including Britain’s own Cruger and Eurgh, (co-founders of leading UK battle league Don’t Flop) who faced legendary veteran The Saurus and the young but fierce DNA respectively.
The main event, however, was Dizaster Vs Canibus. For those who don’t know, Dizaster is considered one of, if not THE best freestyler in the game, and his terrifyingly aggressive delivery has made him almost unbeatable in recent times. Canibus is a successful recording artist who rose to fame in the late 90’s.
Canibus is no stranger to conflict. He famously had a musical spat with LL Cool J during the recording of the track ‘4,3,2,1’ off of LL’s album Phenomenon, on which Canibus guested (along with Redman, Method Man and DMX). On the track Canibus made reference to a tattoo of a microphone on LL’s arm: “Meth where the Gods at? / Reggie where the squad at?/ LL is that a mic on your arm, let me borrow that!”
For some reason LL Cool J took offense to this line and proceeded to write a verse which was aimed at Canibus, which included the lyric“Watch your mouth don’t ever step out of line”.
This then prompted Canibus AKA Rip The Jacker to pen the track 'Second Round KO' a diss track which was aimed squarely at LL Cool J, and a guest appearance from no less than Mike Tyson.
WATCH // 'Second Round KO'
Over a decade later and Canibus agreed to put his gloves back on (so to speak) and step into the ring with Dizaster. The hype over this battle had been building over the past 3 months or so, with Dizaster and Canibus calling each other out in video blogs on YouTube. It was billed as one of the biggest battles of all time: A hip-hop legend versus one of the best battlers on the current scene.
WATCH // The full official battle in HD
Nobody could have predicted how the battle was going to pan out, and now the battle is set to become legendary, however, some say this is for all the wrong reasons. Rather than being the classic it was supposed to be, Canibus Vs Dizaster will go down in history for having one of the most awkward chokes of all time. If you thought the scene in 8 mile where Eminem stands silent on stage for a minute was cringeworthy, then viewer discretion is advised.
Canibus opens the first round well, spitting some funny lines such as "those look like Tom Cruise’s mom’s shoes" and getting the crowd behind him by dropping some bars from 'Second Round KO'. Then, a few minutes into the first round, he starts to slip. He begins taking increasingly large pauses to think between rounds. The silence becomes unbearable and you just want Organik (KOTD’s main organiser) to call “time!”
...he then proceeds to pull out an A3 notepad and read the lines which he’s forgotten. He also openly admits to forgetting all his lines and not being a good freestyler
Canibus is left visibly shaken by the onslaught and the 2nd round plays out more awkwardly than the first. More stretched out pauses, awkward silences and punchlines that fail to connect. Again, Dizaster responds by bringing the fury.
The 3rd round, however, is the one that will go down in history forever. After choking so badly, Canibus does the unthinkable and hands the win to Dizaster, but then proceeds to pull out an A3 notepad and read the lines which he’s forgotten after stating he is not being a good freestyler. Things get even more awkward as he starts berating the audibly disappointed crowd. It’s unbelievable how many cardinal sins of battle rap Canibus commits in such a short space of time! I mean, who even carries an A3 notepad around with them. With all his supposed cash-monies, you’d have thought he could have written his lines on his iPhone!
What should have been a way of re-igniting Canibus’ career, ended up in actual career suicide. Within hours a bootleg video of the choke was circulating the social networks, with twitter and hip-hop forums aghast as they watched one of their heroes crumble before them.
As uncomfortable as it is to watch, there is that heart-warming feel good moment at the end where Diz addresses the crowd, standing up for Bis.
“Ever since I was a fucking young mother fucker when I first heard Canibus, I knew that this motherfucker was the best rapper in the world at the time. So at the end of the day you ain't really hip-hop if there wasn’t a point in your life where you heard this mother fucker and you were like damn… I need to write like this!” he continues “Time moves on bro, we all move on and you gotta pass the torch to somebody. I ain’t gonna be her for ever either and the same shit’s gonna happen to me.”
Vendetta on the whole was a success, even if the main event wasn’t. This moment will go down in history and will only get Dizaster, King of the Dot and battle rap as a whole more recognition. Plus, on the bright side, whenever any battler chokes, they can re-assure themselves knowing that no choke will ever be as bad as Rip The Jacker’s!
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