WRC 2008 Press Release

So Perpetuum just hit me with this link, announcing info on the World Rap Championships 2008 Pre Season info. Check it out:

As you can see from the new look site, we're in a transitional phase into more of a commercial hip hop media brand - rap battles are great to watch but they are too niche! So expect to see more fashion, dance, music and eye candy content.

We are working on putting together the 2008 season. It costs a lot of money to produce the format so we are looking at cheaper ways to pull it off. If it does happen this year it will be from Sep-Dec and will be less than 8 divisions. Here are some of the ideas on the table:

==DIVISIONS==

1)do qualifiers in 12 cities and then have the public vote for which 4 cities will actually be in the competition.

2)There most certainly will NOT be an Australian Division.

==PRIZE==

1)a one album deal with the winning team with a major label

2)MySpace promo

==JUDGING==

1)instead of judges, have the fans vote by either online polls or SMS text messages.


==COSTS===

1)Make all battles pay per view in the 1st week for $1 per battle. Then free to watch after a week.

2)SMS Voting to vote on the winners of the battle. this would replace judges.


So thats where we are right now, lets get some feedback

Early feedback from myself? This seems kind of ass. They had the big deal with the tapes being stolen at the end of last year's comp, so I can understand the need to cut corners, but this just doesn't feel right. LESS divisions, with the fans voting instead of judges, PLUS you have to pay-per-view when the battles first come out? Do they truly think niggas will be trying to adhere to all of that? And what happens if (when) someone pays that $1 to watch, records the shit and torrents it? They end up losing MORE money.

Just seems like something people should be getting away from - making the fans pay for the misdeeds of others. To recoup last year's huge loss, Perp thinks a great idea would have been to put WRC2007 out on DVD. That would've been an ill package, if done right.

I'm not too sure what kind of major label deal they will be able to work on, but that's a nice incentive... one can only hope that it's a definite player in the game, and that whomever wins is a true artist and not just one of the many battle rappers who couldn't write a hot song if their life depended on it.

This is early word, though - we'll see how things change/stay the same. Your thoughts?

Perp's Opinion:

This. Is. Wack. As. Fuck. I'm sorry, but straight up, G-Unit's most recent album went plastic. What the fuck is a major label deal these days? Which label? What terms? What about niggas who don't have a commercial sound and are quite happy just doin' what they do? And what about cats like Kid Twist, who has said, "I am one of those guys who's just much better at battling than at making music, and I know it. So I'll hold Canada down on the battling end of things and let other people handle the music side"? What's in it for him to get a major label deal? Maybe 50K was a bit too much last year. I can understand that. But why not have a smaller prize? Scribble Jam posted a 10K prize in 05 and in subsequent years, went with smaller prize amounts. You'd end up seeing a lot of subpar Smack type rappers trying to get involved...not to mention the fact that it's a team battle. Who do you give the deal to? Them as a team? Two deals individually? Or, God forbid...the best of the two? If that's the case, you'll see a lot of niggas throwin' they own teammates under the bus just for that chance to shine.

Here's my take on the divisions. We were promised 16 divisions this year. Incredibly lofty, I'd imagine, but not implausible. But I can understand if, considering the 150K hit to the wallet they took last year, they wouldn't want to expand that far just yet. So my opinion would be to do a bit of a tour across the US, UK, Canada and Australia with an open invite to any teams that want to compete. Record all the battles and allow the fans to vote as they did last year. Take the best 12 from each region and tell them if they want to battle, they'll pay for they own ticket to a central location. 6 teams battle one day, 6 on another day and the best 6 on the final day. I'd say take the two best teams from each region and have the playoffs from that. As far as Australia is concerned, I'm conflicted. It's a helluva lot of money to fly niggas halfway across the world and I understand that. But to be honest, two of the best teams came from the Melbourne division (Prime and Purpose, as well as division winners Anecdote and 360). This one is a tough call. I'd really like to see both of those teams at it again, as well as some of the other MCs who battled, as they showed a lot of promise.

When it comes to judging, in no way do I think that the viewers are capable enough to judge a battle. However, having said that, there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding the Toronto division, wherein it was revealed that one of the judges was a close friend of Bishop Brigante who, along with his partner, secured a second place win under rather dubious circumstances. To a lesser extent, there was controversy surrounding the LA division toward the end, when one of the judges had to leave and was replaced by a member of the Customer Service crew, closely affiliated with several MCs in the battle. And finally, the huge controversy surrounding round 3 of the UK vs. NY battle of the finals. So to say the judges are the best candidates for reviewing a battle would be a fallacious statement as well. My opinion, as implausible as it may be, would be to have judges at the main battle and if there is any contention in the results, an online poll could determine the footage to be reviewed again.

As Khal said earlier, they could have made the 06 season a box-set DVD as there was a lot of footage we didn't get (cyphers, exclusive interviews, post-battle shit, etc.). 07 was a bit dicey, considering the stolen footage scandal that occurred, but I, for one, would love to have all 8 divisions in high quality on DVD. There are/were plenty of ways for Jumpoff to recoup losses, and they've sat on them. So I can understand niggas beef with a pay-per-view shit. Me personally, I don't mind paying a dollar per battle to have it first. But I'm just that kind of a battle nerd. Jumpoff done gave us two seasons for free, so I don't mind givin' 'em a little kick-back. But if the competition is ass, the MCs are subpar and there's no real interest in the prize, there's absolutely no point. Jumpoff gonna have to convince me this shit is worth at least the 60 bucks for all the battles.

I'm not real convinced yet that this is the best course of action for Jumpoff. But I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed that they pull through and give us another season of dope battles.