Although Brooklyn, New York lyricist Big Daddy Kane has retired from battle rap, he revealed that he would be willing to take part in a battle against fellow artist Rakim if the price was right. After being asked if he would battle Rakim for half a million dollars, Big Daddy Kane replied, “Sure I would do it.”
He then detailed the time he almost battled Rakim back in 1989 at a Pay-Per-View event. According to Kane, he was recruited to take part in a Pay-Per-View event called Rap Mania by Van Silk. He says that battles between LL Cool J and Kool Moe Dee, The Furious Five and Cold Crush, and others were confirmed for the event.
Big Daddy Kane explained that prior to the event he received a phone call from Van Silk informing him that there were issues with Eric B and Rakim. He then called Eric B to confirm that they were on for the battle. Despite receiving confirmation from Eric B, Kane says the event and his rap battle with Rakim were ultimately canceled.
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“Actually, I was supposed to battle Rakim back in ’89,” Big Daddy Kane said during an interview with Vlad TV. “What happened was there was this Pay-Per-View event called Rap Mania. And they televised it in ’88 and it made a lot of money. They made great numbers. So, the guy Van Silk was financed again to do it the following year. So, that year he chose to do rap battles instead. So, he had Sparky D versus Roxanne Shante confirmed. Furious Five versus Cold Crush. And LL told him that he would be willing to battle Kool Moe Dee if he could confirm the Kane and Rakim battle. To my understanding we were gonna do it. And then Van Silk asked me can I talk to Eric and Ra because he said they were having a problem.
“I talked to Eric, he said it’s going down,” he added. “And then a few days later Van Silk called me back and was like ‘I don’t think it’s Eric. Is it any possibility you could call Rakim?’ And I was like ‘I don’t know dude like that. I don’t have his number and I don’t know dude. You gotta work that out on your own.’ And then they upped the ante. Cause it was like for 50,000 apiece. And then they upped it to like 75. But it never happened…They ended up cancelling the whole thing.”
Big Daddy Kane also spoke on today’s battle rappers during his interview with Vlad TV. He named Goodz Da Animal, Aye Verb, Loaded Lux, and Conceited as his favorite battle rappers before stating that battle rap today is “a lot simpler” than it was during his time.
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He also explained why he believes battle rappers have such a hard time making songs.
“I think that a lot of battle rappers have a difficult time making songs because they don’t know how to do a song format,” he said. “They’re so stuck in that whole battle rap mentality that really all they want to do is just kick rhymes. Bragging about how dope they are, how great an emcee they are, how they’ll crush anybody in a battle. They’re not really good at maybe like having a song about a woman or having a song about love. Having a story about getting involved or having a story about a struggling woman trying to raise a child. They don’t really know how to go in different areas. And then a lot of them don’t really understand format, you know? They’re so focused on the rhyme that they don’t really care about the hook. Some don’t even care about the beat.”
RELATED:Big Daddy Kane Recalls Kool Moe Dee Declining To Battle
