THISTHATWERK

Battle Rap League Owner Series – ARP (Co owner of Rare Breed Entertainment)

Battlebox: What inspired you to create RBE and when did you get started?

ARP: it started in 2012 and 2013. At the time I was working with another company within battle rap. I was interested in booking battles that I wanted to see as a fan of the culture but I wasn’t in the position to. So I ran the idea by my brother and partner Shotta and we decided to do our own thing. In 2014 we had our first event New Year Order. It had a crazy line up Swave sevah vs rosenburg raw ,Aye verb vs Ah di boom. oops vs blu ray was the very first battle on our stage.

Battlebox: Was it hard to get Battle Rappers on your league at first?

ARP: No it wasn’t. I had various relationships with battlers by going to events frequently. I also gained a name and people knowing me thru my blogs I was doing. I put a lot of time in networking and becoming cool with artists such as goods, aye verb, which was good cause word of mouth spread about us really doing our thing.

Battlebox: Who are some of your favorite battlers ? who are some that you like working with?

ARP: Its easy to spend money and get big names for your battles but at RBE we pride ourselves in getting match ups that make sense and that the fans want to see. The fans really determine who we go after. Of course we have some of our main hitters but we also look for the best possible battles. I would love to work with some of the legends like disaster, Hollow and T Rex. We are in the process of doing that now. I want to look back at our catalog and just be proud of our accomplishments.

Battlebox: What are some of the challenges you see as a battle league owner?

ARP: In any business that’s competitive your going to find yourself having challenges but you must push forward and know how to get thru them. I think the politics and people competing for positions make things hard sometime. Scheduling conflicts are also roadblocks but like I said you have stay vigilant and you’ll get thru it.Once you make a imprint , your going to clash with competitors. Battle rap been around for a while but its still a small community. Everybody is trying to be the top league from the bigger leagues to the smaller ones.

Battlebox: Why is there such a divide when it comes to battle leagues? Why don’t yall collab more?

ARP: I always was open to doing co events. I approached a couple of different leagues about doing events but it just didn’t materialize for whatever reason yet. I think a lot of leagues are too possessive over artists. Especially if they invested a lot of time and money into the talent. That causes different leagues to clash cause the artists themselves ventured and league hop. I think too that not communicating is the root of the problem.

Battlebox: I see you have a lot of Jersey Battlers on your league. Who put you on to this area?

ARP: It has nothing to do with region. Its all about finding the best talent and if you rock with us. We have booked battlers all over. From New Orleans, Philly,Detroit, wherever. Only place we haven’t yet is overseas. Wish we can bring Shotti Horrah out of retirement loll but yea we got love for jersey tho. Its been a wave of talent down there.

Battlebox: I see you got the 1sk battles goin on, Is that a new platform?

ARP: It’s all under the same umbrella. It’s just a new style system and a way to introduce new talent. We want to develop and bring expansion to what we are already doing.

Battlebox: So whats your plate moving forward? What new events you got coming up?

ARP: We have Validation 4 on Oct. 8 . We also have a big event in November. The annoucement is coming soon so be on the lookout for that. Some real big names will be on this card so i'm defiently excited about it.

Check out these Battles from RBE and Blogs from ARP

https://youtu.be/3Eadgp8tC-4

https://youtu.be/BpnES0jD-Os

https://youtu.be/hnXp2QoLvac

https://youtu.be/ZEB9_n7TImw

https://youtu.be/obyLVGmvHww

https://youtu.be/GLfucPB4-r0

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