Kid Twist - Official Battle Blog

Kid Twist & PORICH vs Organik & Knamelis

2008-09-26T14:37:00.001-04:00

This battle is what really put me and Rich on track to win the Toronto division. Organik and Knamelis came into the competition as the clear favourites, and I still remember how shocked we were that we had actually beat them. Rich phoned his brother afterwards to tell him what happened, and he kept knocking on wood after saying that we won. We both became very superstitious for the rest of the day. Rich was fighting a massive rum headache as well, which made the victory that much more surprising.

I agree with Organik’s comment in the interview that it could’ve been called for their team after the first overtime. His “Hi mom/pylon” punch and the follow-up were killer. I don’t feel too bad about it though, since it was far from the worst decision of the day. But if the judges had given them the win, I think it would’ve taken away all our momentum and changed the outcome of the whole WRC. Bishop and Stretch Diesel probably would’ve finished first in the division, and murdered Illmac and Thesaurus in two rounds en route to winning the championship.

The funniest part of this battle by far is Scott Boogie’s spiel right before the fourth round: “Round 2, Round 3 … I’m looking at this, it means we’re going to overtime.” The reason this is so hilarious is that the card was blank. The judges would just tell him the decision verbally, so they could use the same card in every shot. And to think that he’s Canada’s next Prime Minister.

My other favourite part is Knamelis’ face in the interview when Organik quotes my sunscreen line. He just gives this slow nod, like he’s thoughtfully analyzing the concept of using cum cream to block Ultraviolet rays. Even he says he didn’t do as well in the WRC as he could have, but I thought his whole personality was untouchable all day.

Stay tuned, more WRC blogs on the way soon …

Kid Twist vs PORICH

2008-09-10T14:05:00.004-04:00

This battle was a loooong time coming. Me and Rich actually battled before I faced Prolific for the first time, as a practice bout for the upcoming competition. We’ve talked about doing a serious rematch ever since. There have been several times that we were planning to get together and film it, and it didn’t work out for whatever reason. Then we were supposed to face each other at the last Proud to Be Eh Battle Emcee, but Rich got severely jerked against Chuck Ice. So when Organik asked us to do this with only a week’s notice, we said yes very quickly.

In my honest opinion, this is one of the closest battles that has happened in a long time. I can’t remember any other match-up where both competitors were so consistent since Thesaurus vs Justice. Some people think that Rich should’ve won because he came with a steadier flow and more aggression. Some people think I should’ve won because I was funnier and paused more to let my lines sink in. To me, that’s what a battle SHOULD come down to – who’s style was stronger, not who used more “multis” (worst word ever) in a row.

Lines that might need an explanation: there was a random inebriated bum who interrupted the previous battle between Tricky and HFK, shouting out rhymes about world peace and how we should all just get along (seriously). Which is where my crackhead reference came from. And if you didn’t get the Craig G line, watch this. I’m not going to break down all the personals because it would take 25 years, so let me just say that if something sounded like it was true, it almost certainly was.

Also, Rich and I were both planning to go first if we won the coin toss, which is why I called him a “fucker” when he said he would start. And during our final round, there were literally 6 cops standing on either side of the cameraman. They were not only nice enough to let us keep filming, they actually laughed and reacted to what we were saying.

This was a great day for Canadian hip-hop. Classic battles (go watch Tricky vs HFK if you haven’t yet), huge crowd, and all organized in a week. Big thanks and respect to Organik and the whole King of the Dot team for throwing this. T-dot beyotch.

Kid Twist & PORICH vs Jack Shitt & Speakeasy

2008-09-04T09:52:00.004-04:00

This is the reason that I’m famous to weird people on the Internet: JumpOff’s World Rap Championships. Before I get into the first battle, let me give you some background on how I got involved with the WRC, since originally I didn’t even enter.

My second battle with Prolific happened in late December of 2006. After that, due to school and other things in my personal life, I decided I was pretty much done with battling. I knew PORICH through his producer – Adu Bamboo (makes incredibly sick beats, check his page out) – and we had recorded a few songs together. When JumpOff announced that they were holding qualifiers in Toronto, Rich asked me to partner with him right away; I told him I was officially retired.

So the TO qualifiers arrive. Rich’s partner flakes out on him, and Adu ends up having to step in literally last minute as a replacement. I was out of the battle scene loop at this point, so I didn’t see the qualifying videos until two weeks before the main competition was going to happen. I watched Rich single-handedly murder everyone (including Aspire and Prolific) and suddenly got the itch to get back in the ring. So I hit him up and asked if the spot was still open. My name was on JumpOff’s site the next day.

As far as this battle goes, I was happy just to get up there and start rapping. We got to the venue at 11 in the morning, and the competition didn’t start until about 3 pm. The rest of the time was taken up filming pre-battle interviews, ciphers, and a whole series of epic walking montage footage. None of which was ever used.

I remember Knamelis telling me that he talked to Harry after this battle was over. Harry said that my Sparta line was the best one yet, and Knamelis agreed it was definitely the punch of the day so far. Harry said, “No, I mean the best line out of any division we’ve filmed.” Of course, they hadn’t done LA or Detroit yet. But it was still cool.

Kid Twist vs Prolific (Part Two)

2008-08-29T14:49:00.007-04:00

For some reason, sequels are just never as good as the original.

Let me say that there was a lot of tension between Prolific and I at this event. After the first battle blew up on YouTube, I think we both felt like we had a lot to prove. And based on that previous bout as well as his other verses that night, I really was not expecting him to come at me like he did. His whole first round, I was thinking, “Fuck. I should’ve prepared more.”

Out of the footage I have online, I would say this is my worst performance by far. I was really trying to focus on my delivery, so I would actually have a little bit of, you know, stage presence – it kind of worked against Mumbles, but not so much here. I just sound like I have a terrible sinus infection.

Best part of this video: Organik’s reactions to our lines. Watch the far right of the screen and you’ll see him once in a while, jumping around like a spider monkey (WRC joke).

Worst part of this video: the chick standing RIGHT BESIDE the camera who refuses to stop her drunken screaming. She didn’t even come with Prolific, she was the girlfriend of one of the other rappers who performed that night. I love her reaction when I tell her to shut the fuck up: “That’s dirty.”

Also, the punchline that Prolific could’ve sworn was going to be “facial skin” was actually, “This dude’s falling off faster than the roof on Olympic Stadium.” Check the link and you’ll understand the reference. For some reason no one got it, despite the fact that it was minor news 9 years ago.

So yeah, a deserved loss in my opinion. But the real loss is that Prolific cut his hair after this, and I never got to compare him to Garth from Wayne’s World.

Kid Twist vs Mr. Mumbles

2008-08-28T15:32:00.002-04:00

This took place at the next installment of Proud to Be Eh Battle Emcee (where I faced Prolific for the first time). It’s actually the semi-finals. In the first round, I went up against a kid named Spit Circuit – he choked pretty badly, and my performance wasn’t great, so I never uploaded the video. I don’t think I even have it anymore. The only I good thing I said was, “You would finish dead last battling a special ed class.” So there you go.

There’s a few lines here that might be funnier with an explanation, especially if you’re not from Toronto. 416 is the area code for the city; 905 is the burbs. Mumbles is a proud suburbanite, so he named his record label 905th Brigade, which is what it said on his T-shirt. That’s where those area code lines came from.

He had done a set that night as well, which is why I said I wanted my money back. Also, before the battle happened, I was standing on stage waiting for about 15 minutes while he had a cigarette outside. Thus the smoke break reference.

My favourite part of the battle is when he says he’s going to steal my girl. She was standing right beside the camera, so when he did that line, he was literally inches away from her. Most awkward battle moment ever.

I kept the T-shirt, by the way. It was in my closet for a bit. Then I donated it to Goodwill.

Cameo appearance: Future WRC partners Organik and Knamelis, as judges.

Kid Twist vs Escroll (The lost battle)

2008-08-27T16:22:00.005-04:00

Alright, I wasn’t originally planning on doing this. But I’ve realized that if I’m really going to go over my battling history, I need to mention this one. Let me start off by saying that as far as I know, there’s no video of this battle anywhere, and I’m just fine with that.

The event took place a few weeks after my very first battle where I faced Dominance and Prolific. It was all the way in Ottawa, but on paper it looked incredibly legit: a $1000 prize, and hosted by the one and only Juice (yes, that Juice). After driving to our nation’s great capital and getting harassed by twenty-five homeless guys in my first two minutes of being there (seriously, if anyone’s from the city, please tell me what the hell that’s about) I made it to the venue.

There were two major things wrong with this battle: 1) There was no crowd. 2) There were no rappers. After having my first opponent no-show, I ended up facing Ottawa battle champ Escroll in the second round. I said some good stuff, but unfortunately the beat was way too high and the mics were shit, so the few people that were there didn’t catch a thing. I’ve never heard a room be so silent.

For the record, I compared Escroll to Steve-O from Jackass and said that he looked like he fell down a twelve-step program. I also made a rhyme off his shirt’s logo, which was “Triple Threat” – something like, “Licking balls, getting stuffed, and taking dick to the neck, yeah he’s a Triple Threat.” He said that I wore women’s jeans and joined the swimming team. But admittedly, he completely destroyed me on stage presence alone, so much respect to him.

The only good thing about that night was Juice’s hosting. Organik got completely jerked in the first round against a kid named Ghettosocks (Disclaimer: Ghettosocks makes amazing music, go listen to it. But Organik ate his soul.) There was a great judging panel that included Pumpkinhead, but for some reason all the decisions were based entirely on crowd reaction. After the jerking, Juice said, “That’s alright. The same thing happened to me against Supernatural.”

Someone who was from Toronto took issue with Organik’s loss and exchanged a few words with the judges, which ended up with Pumpkinhead punching him in the face. Juice’s response: “That reminded me of some Southside Chicago shit, except everyone’s still alive.”

Other than that, the battle was pretty much a bust. I did get me vs. Escroll on tape, but since you can’t hear anything, I ended up erasing it. The best part of the whole trip was the steak and eggs I had for breakfast at a random pub the next morning. They were fantastic.

Kid Twist vs Prolific (Part One)

2008-08-26T15:13:00.003-04:00

Here’s the reason that a couple of people knew my name when I entered the WRC. Before this, the only footage I had seen of Prolific was the small clip of his battle with Illmaculate from the Spin the Mic trailer. I thought he was going to be really tall.

I still get a lot of comments on YouTube saying that this battle is great, but in all honesty I feel my performance was really lacking. Horrible voice cracks, awkward stage presence, and rapping that was kind of on beat sometimes. Oh, and the accidental (I swear) biting of Iron’s “Kurt Cobain/burst your brain” scheme. The Spinal Tap, Jesus, and impression lines are the shit though.

After the loss I ended up bouncing, but my friend with the camera stayed and recorded the next rounds, which included Organik beating Prolific en route to winning the event. I’ve always really wanted to see that battle – unfortunately, I’m not in touch with the guy who has it anymore, so I doubt it will ever surface.

I do remember Organik saying that it was almost going to be a three-way final (before a couple more emcees showed up) and he would’ve wanted it to be me, him, and Pro. Imagine if it had happened that way. Insanity.

Also, the crowd at this battle was actually pretty small. So when you hear the big reactions, it’s because literally everyone in the room is going nuts.

Kid Twist vs Dominance

2008-08-25T14:38:00.001-04:00

This is the first stage battle I ever did. It’s one of my favourites to this day, for the simple fact that I walked into this place completely unknown, wearing incredibly tight jeans, and ended up blowing everyone away.

Another thing I like about this clip is that everything I said, I came up with while I was at the venue, and most of it was thought up while Dominance was rapping. As opposed to JumpOff, where you have six months to write a full-length novel for everyone.

People who have only seen this on YouTube might not get why my first line was so funny. Basically, they handed out slips of paper to all the battlers with numbers on them, and I got number 4. But the handwriting was so bad that from the wrong angle it looked like a 1. So I went up first, only to have the promoter tell me “That’s a 4, homey,” which got quite a few laughs. I knew I had to use that or I’d have no crowd support from the start. So I did.

Also, you can’t see in the video, but Dominance’s shirt had a poorly drawn gun on it and said “Decrease the Peace.” Which explains my closer in the first verse.

And for anyone who doesn’t know what DJ Starting From Scratch looks like (he spins on Flow 93.5, so he’s kind of a local celebrity), let me tell you this comparison was DEAD on. Much more on point than me being Pee Wee Herman, despite the fact that line’s been repeated by pretty much everyone else who’s battled me ever. Oh well.

Here we go ...

2008-08-25T11:40:00.002-04:00

Welcome fans, fellow rappers, critics, YouTube watchers, people that I actually know, and random Internet creepers.

You’ve reached the brand new Kid Twist web site. Instead of posting terrible songs I recorded four years ago, I’ve decided to dedicate this site to something that at least a few people actually care about – my battles.

This will be the place to see all of my battle videos in one convenient and awesome-looking location. I’m using the blog format because I’ll also be posting commentary with each clip, to give you guys some inside info: my state of mind before and after the battle, jokes that you had to be there to get, that kind of thing. I always thought it would be interesting for a battler to do something like this, so why not me?

I’ll also be using the blog to help hype up some of the events I’m involved with, like the King Of the Dot battles and the Grind Time Canada vs. USA competition. I’m going to try and post a new video every week day, so keep checking back for more content.

So that’s the deal. Battles will probably be going up in chronological order, unless I decide to switch it up. Just cause I’m a jerk like that.

Peace

KT