Jon Rines: Ah! Never thought
about that!
Organik: The days they’d have the
Grand Prix’s are the most exciting
things. So when the pay-per-view
was at night in Japan, I’d be up
til morning over here watching
Gomi fight or something like
that. Because the fighting twice in
a night stuff is interesting. I feel
like the way mixed martial arts is
set-up is so similar like, battles set
up months in advance, fights are
set up months in advance, you
can’t do multiples in one night ,
you don’t battle multiples in one
night so yeah, the Grand Prix was
a heavy influence on the way I set
things up.
Jon Rines: In the UFC you can’t
throw kicks to a downed figher,
but you can in Pride. What are
your thoughts on battle rappers
that switch up their style to
perform at a different event. Let’s
say a rapper on URL comes to
King of the Dot, but he raps
different to try to suit the KOTD
fans?
Organik: I think you gotta appeal
to the crowd you’re performing
for, but people are there to see
YOU. If that’s what’s selling for
you then keep it. I feel like a lot
of people come here and thinkg
King of the Dot is a joke league
and something like that and
they’ll come here and try to be a
comedian and shit, not realizing
people come here to see YOU
not you being someone else! I
personally like to see people
do their same style because we
booked you from your style.
77
Jon Rines: You guys are getting
mad praise on these trailers and
production too. Who’s behind
the production for your videos?
Organik: Bro that’s Avocado! I
don’t even know how to thank
him enough. That guy changed
the face of battle rap. Back in the
day, Avocado brought how to film
new age battles with cranes and
motion graphics and interesting
intros cause this is what he does
for a living. He innovated and
made every other league step their
filming up and it promoted us
and made his brand look good.
We also work with Mouse Media,
Nico’s really great, the Hip Hop
Vancouver guys. Our whole
roster is great and Avocado is the
godfather of filming!
Jon Rines: I got a generic
question I use to help readers
overcome obstacles. What was
King of the Dot’s LOWEST
point?
Organik:Definitely the Canibus
battle. We went through a lot
of tough times branching our
product in America, having an
event that cost up to $80,000
completely flop on the revenue
side of things, coming back
after that and having World
Domination 3 not go as planned
and revenue being really low
there. We hit a really low point
financially, structurally and
mentally. We kind of all lost hope
there. I mean it even shows when
you watch King of the Dot 2012
era, you watch the beginning of
Blackout 2 and incredible event.
Vendetta on film was an incredible
event, but after that it was pretty
much a sinking ship but people
wrote us off until our spike again
with Blackout 3. And a lot of that
was thanks to Drake too! Ya know,
tweeting the event and bringing
out a lot of people by announcing
he was gonna be at the event. It
really helped us get the motivation
back and brought people. It gets
discouraging at times , to work so
hard for something go out and see
people just bootlegging and not
paying for it, you’re not making
no money, you owing people back
after the event because you didn’t
make enough. You ask yourself
, “what am I doing this for?” ya
know. The staff ain’t having fun.
It’s more of a hassle when I could
be putting in a trade and having a
mortgage. I mean, you’re following
your DREAM! That’s a tough
thing to do. This isn’t something
I grew up saying I would do.
I worked at a steel mill man. I
started King of the Dot cause
I got fucked over at a bunch of
competitions and I wanted to have
a place where rappers wouldn’t
get fucked over. So yeah, lowest
point was definitely the lowest
point. I mean even after Blackout
3, Vengeance was a failure so
it’s all about your last event and
you’re playing a gambling game.
We just got back on our feet by
persevering and working hard
and fighting through it. We won’t
give up. A lot of people will fall
back and won’t hold events but we
won’t. We will stay busy. You gotta
fight through the tough times to
win and that’s what we did and we
are back on our feet ready to play
ball.