Meet the Man Behind Drake's Favorite Battle Rap League, King of the Dot

King of the Dot, now one of the world’s most well-known battle rap leagues, started in 2008 on a patch of asphalt around Yonge and Shuter in the heart of downtown Toronto, after an attempt to organize at Yonge-Dundas Square resulted in a quick ejection from site security. From there it was held in Alexandra Park, then back to downtown, until the crowds kept getting bigger and bigger, and it just wasn’t possible to host the battle outside. “I remember we did an event, I think it was Vol. 4, and it was outside,” KOTD’s founder, Organik a.k.a. Travis Fleetwood, tells Noisey in the dimly lit basement of a downtown Toronto hotel. “It was so cold we’d keep our cars running during battles and when the battle was over we’d run into the car and warm up, and then you’d come back out and your feet would be freezing.”

The first KOTD event featured six battlers and an audience of about 30. The move into their first venue happened simply because Organik and his crew had a friend who owned a venue. They had barely any money, much less the $2000 Organik says it would’ve cost them to put a deposit on a place. Despite a little help from their friend, there was still a high risk in putting together an event that had no guarantee of paying off. But the venue, which held 220 people, was sold out half an hour before the doors opened. From there they moved on to the Blue Moon, then to Club XS, which has a capacity of 2000 people. “I was debating whether battle rap was big enough for that venue,” Organik says. “And the next event we had there was packed. We knew then it was going to get bigger.” He expects the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, where Blackout 5 is poised to take place this weekend, to see at least 2400 people through its doors. It will feature 36 battlers.

Organik speaks exactly how one might expect from someone who’s been battling for over a decade. His words are sharp and annunciated, and come quick, focused and furious, the product of fast thinking and a honed ability to avoid tripping over his own tongue. Paradoxically, he couldn’t seem more relaxed, with his tall and lanky frame clad in a baggy red hoodie, a couple gold chains, and a black, low-slung Blue Jays hat. Around the age of 13, Organik started freestyling by recording the last ten seconds of songs from Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers and rapping over it. Eventually he started battling with his friends and over the internet. Once he realized he wanted to compete on a bigger stage, the then 17-year-old harangued a fake I.D. and entered a competition at the Tequila Lounge, now the Annex Rec Room, across from historic Honest Ed’s in Toronto. Since then, he’s won Toronto’s Proud2BEhBattleMC event and ChangePromotion’s Battle King Events each three times, as well as numerous others. About a year ago he quit his job as a steel worker, which he worked as for eight years. KOTD will celebrate its seventh anniversary this August.

Blackout 5, taking place on February 6 and 7, has announced their two marquee matches for each night: Shotty Horroh vs. Hitman Holla on Saturday night, and Pat Stay vs. Charron, Sunday’s title match. For the sake of mystery and hype, all the other matches are under wraps until the moment they happen. Organik won’t give away any of the matches, but he goes on with wide-eyed enthusiasm about all the battlers on the bill, old favorites and newcomers alike. There’s Madchild, who hasn’t battled since he was 30 days clean, coming off a drug addiction. Now, three years later, he’s studied the tape, got himself together physically and mentally, and is ready to bury his competition, Organik says: “He’s the kinda guy who’s like, 'I’m ready to kill someone, man, let’s go.' He’s not doing this for money or notoriety. He’s doing this to prove he can do it to himself.” There’s the return of Bishop Brigante, who hasn’t battled in 12 years. There’s the returns of Kid Twist, 24/7, Dumbfoundead. “We’re really bringing back the people that built this whole culture, the faces that really made this all possible,” Organik says. “Blackout 5 is more than an event; it’s a celebration of the scene that we created.”

Drake has been a long time fan of KOTD and co-hosted their Flatline event in 2011, featuring a battle between Dizaster and DNA. The range of his involvement with Blackout 5 has been speculated since the branding for the event, featuring the signature OVO owl, was dropped in late 2014. Rumors have swirled, even to the extent of some wondering if he might battle Murda Mook, who told MTV News that Drake challenged him last September. Organik explains that Drake was very heavily involved in setting up the matches for the event, which took them a couple months of back and forth on the phone to organize. This year is already slated to be a huge year for Drizzy, who will drop the heavily anticipated Views From The 6 sometime in the next 11 months, and OVO’s penchant for keeping things hush-hush means that it’s not a stretch to say almost anything could happen at an event they’re involved with. Organik’s guarantee, though, is that the 6 God will be there, “100 percent.”

Everyone involved in King of the Dot, Organik says, is not the type to look for handouts. They’ve never received grants or outside funding for these events. From the beginning, they’ve always relied on themselves and the scene, ever since those first battles in Toronto's parks. But sometimes you need a push or an assist to hit that next level. “It’s always great when someone gives you that lay-up, so you can get that slam dunk and really start your career off,” Organik says. “And that’s what Drake’s doing for us, helping us to strive and be what we can be.”

What do you think the allure of battle rap is?
Organik: I think it’s just the competitive nature. It’s natural for humans to watch things with conflict. I mean, you watch the news, and they’re not reporting on happy things, they’re reporting on conflict. Battle rap is just about putting two people up there who want to try to best each other. It’s about besting the other person. The whole aura of that competitive nature makes it appealing for people who aren’t even hip-hop fans. That’s when I realized that battle rap was marketable. We’d be battling on the street in Ottawa, and there would be people walking their kids, stopping and watching. Like 45-year-old guys stopping and being like, “man, how do you do that? You guys are amazing.” So it clicked in: This appeals to people who aren’t even hip-hop. The music itself appeals to such a broader fan base because of the competitive nature of seeing two people try to beat one another.

So like boxing or wrestling, which are huge tickets, you saw this as something you could market league-wise?
It never really started out to be like this. It started out as a hobby. I was working in a steel mill 12 hours a day, and I had won so many competitions, but I never felt like I got what I deserved out of them. Promoters were so janky back in the day. You’d win a $1,000 prize and the promoter would be like, “hey I only made $500 at the door, here’s $400.” And it was like, “whoa. This sucks.” It was the sense of going to battle competitions and them never being what you worked yourself up for all week. You’d be so excited to go jump in this competition on Friday and then get there and it’s this small room with a promoter who has no idea what he’s doing. And I’m like, “I got my hopes up all week for this?” I’m still gonna do it, and win it, but at the same time your mind expects from it. You expect this big grand stage and for people to pay attention, and you’d go and there’d be 30 people in the room and that was pretty much it. KOTD was never supposed to be this big. It started as just a hobby in a park to keep our small-knit community growing, and it just kept growing bigger and bigger and bigger. I mean, I never even thought we’d be in a venue all day. Look at us now.

You started from nothing, financially.
Yeah, there was a point in time when rappers used to have to pay ten dollars, and that was just to pay the cameraman. I had to pay the cameraman. Rappers paid ten bucks to sign up, and they got their footage shot and edited. And back then YouTube was brand new, so it was a big thing to have yourself on video. If you had a music video, you’d made it. So it was easy to be like, “okay, let’s get this as a contribution on everyone’s behalf, and get this started.” And once we started getting into the venues and ticket sales [went up], you know, now we’re at the point where it’s PPV, etc. Battlers aren’t free anymore, and they’re not paying to battle, but you know.

So how much does an average event bring in?
It really depends what event. The magnitude, the size, how much money you’re spending on it, what names you’re bringing in, what city. I mean, it varies. It’s really up and down depending where you’re gonna do it. Toronto obviously gets more people out than Vancouver because we’re getting huge events out here. In Toronto it’s easier to facilitate that. In Vancouver it’s hard to do a really big event because they’re not bringing in 800 people per venue. We’re Toronto. We can. It’s a bigger city. It’s easier to promote.

How is KOTD different from other leagues?
Diversity. We strive to innovate and do differently than other people. We’re not trying to follow a pattern, we’re trying to create the blueprint for the battle scene. We deal with stuff with honesty and integrity, we’re not out here to take advantage of anyone, we’re not doing anything but trying to create a scene and create a movement. Of course, money is a goal, but it’s not the main goal. The main goal is pushing this to different outlets and mediums and exposing it so the rappers and the fans and everyone can benefit from it. It’s a community effort, and that’s pretty much what KOTD is. It’s not just a rap battle event, it’s a networking place. You go there and everyone in the crowd is a rapper, producer, T-shirt printer, CD duplicator, engineer, journalist, etc. Everyone’s contribution really helps.

Where do you think KOTD and battle rap is headed in general?
Great places (laughs). It’s growing. It’s hard to say. If you’d have asked me this six years ago I would’ve never imagined we’d even still be doing it. I thought realistically, me being a battler myself, I thought it was a fad that people were gonna go through. But the competitive nature has kept people into this, so who knows, one day maybe HBO PPVs, who knows.

What do you think of leagues like Eminem’s Total Slaughter?
I wouldn’t consider it a league. I’d consider it a one-off. It’s cool what they’re doing, but they’re jumping in on something that people have worked on for a long time. These outside entities are all trying to cash in on something that they see as maybe lucrative or a way to promote their endeavours and everything… I thought it was pretty innovative having the rappers all in a house and everything. I think that the final event they did was executed poorly, just in the sense that they didn’t try to involve the battle scene, and just involved the battle rappers, not the scene itself.

What kind of qualities do you think make the best battlers?
It’s hard to say. These days, it’s not just about your rapping skill, and I know that sounds so bad to say, but it’s about being an entertainer and a public figure. When you look at boxing and wrestling and stuff like that, the thing that attracts people is entertainment. You could be an amazing rapper, but if you’re not amazing outside of that rapping, fans aren’t really gonna follow your social media or anything, they’re just gonna watch your battles. So you really wanna take advantage and be entertaining and understand all the aspects of battle rapping, from vocal projection to selling yourself as a character. And that means, even in your battle, playing downtime when your opponent is rapping, being creative, unique, knowing what’s played out, what’s not. Being original.

You have to be a whole presence rather than just one aspect.
Yeah, these days you can’t come in here as a one-edged sword. You need to be double-edged. You need to be well versed. If you wanna succeed, because there are so many people trying to jump in the scene these days, you really have to stand out. You have to be what people expect of you. Especially when you start getting hype, and your name starts getting thrown around, you gotta meet expectations for how your fans are speaking about you. It’s important to pay attention and study all aspects of being a battle rapper, and really study the game. It’s no different than boxing. You really have to watch the tapes and study your opponent and figure out how you’re gonna counter it. You’re up there in front of 1,200 people trying to prove you’re better than the person across from you.

Who’s your all-time favorite battler?
I’d have to say Pat Stay. It’d be heard to say anyone other than him right now. He’s so well-versed; he’s not just one style. He’s the champ right now, and he’s always in these battles with long rounds, and I feel like a lot of battlers when they get into long rounds, they don’t really change their style up enough in that three minutes where, by the end of the round, it’s almost redundant. You know, they have a formulaic style of rhyming; they use their set-ups and everything. But Pat Stay can be diverse, he can be aggressive, he can be funny, he can be a smooth rapper, he can be very intricate. And he knows how to play his downtime better than anyone else. When you rap against Pat Stay, you feel like everything you say is just missing. And that’s what he’s the best at: making you feel like your opponent is dough, and by the end of that first round, you’ve lost confidence in yourself. And he’s up there dancing around and having the time of his life, and that’s just what he does best.

How has Drake been involved in KOTD?
Drake has been involved for quite some time now. He started off as a fan. He watches it, he pays attention to it, and he reached out sometime in 2011 just to say, you know, “yo, what up, just lettin’ you know I’m kinda watching, it’d be dope to come out to an event.” His boy Hush, Young Tony, is a good friend as well, and he was the first person to reach out and be like, “yo, just wanted to get a hold of you, just wanted to let you know Drake wants to come to an event.” And we brought him out to Dizaster vs. DNA. It was a big secret back then. We didn’t want to announce it or anything because we didn’t know if he was gonna show up, you know? You’re having the biggest artist in the world coming out to this subculture you have in Toronto that started off in a park. It almost seems surreal. But he came through and since then he’s been in contact and a good supporter of it. We had plans to do a big event last year at this time, and he had his tour coming up and we had a lot of stuff on the go as well, so we thought it was better to push it off and wait for a better time. Then come September he flew me and Gully (TK) out to LA to go watch Drake vs. Wayne, the tour, because it was kind of based off battle rap. They literally came up with the concept of that, but Drake told me, “this whole tour’s based off what y’all do, so I want to fly you out so you can experience this.” So he flew me out and treated me like a boss and shit, and we came up with the plan to do something crazy for the city of Toronto, ‘cause they got OVO Fest in the summer, and then KOTD, in January, February has always been when we have our biggest events in the city for this. It was just coming together in a collaborative effort to make something really big happen.

He’s all about putting on for the city, man. Drake, he really cares about the city of Toronto. He’s always looking at ways to improve every little aspect of it, and people don’t really understand just how much of an influence he has, from bringing in like, Jermain Defoe to Toronto and him doing what he’s doing for the [Toronto] Raptors, to OVO Fest to stuff like this. It’s such a big thing to happen for a city. No one else is doing things like that for their city. You don’t see Jay Z in New York trying to help a small subculture scene and help continue growing what he grew up on. Drake is. He’s not coming in here and trying to own something, he’s just a fan of the culture and wants to improve it and give the fans the biggest battle event ever. Without it being tarnished by corporate entities trying to make something off it. So instead of doing it himself he was just like, “yo, let’s do this together, let’s do this properly.” He doesn’t want to dip his hand in the culture and do something that shouldn’t already be there. He likes the way that it’s going, and it was natural, and that was it.

What’s OVO’s involvement in Blackout 5?
Pretty much the same as mine. Drake’s setting up this event, there wasn’t a match that got set up without his input. It was hours of me and him on the phone being like, “yo, who can we get? What about this match-up? I heard these two don’t like each other, let’s go after that one.” It was a long process. I mean, this event, setting up the battles, we were talking about it in September, and the final battle was locked down about November 15, so it was about two months of us on the phone every day conversing about what battles we want to happen and what strategy we want to take as far as the event and everything from the venue to what’s gonna happen at the event, what sort of surprises we’re gonna do and stuff like that. So everyone from OVO has helped us out big time. Everyone from Oliver to Future and everyone have been working with my partner Avi, trying to get everything together and going well.

I’m lucky, man. I’ve got a really good team. KOTD gets put on my shoulders and I’m the face of it and everything, but my team carries the legwork and everything like that.

What’s next for KOTD?
We have so many plans for what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna do another tour again. The tour is basically going across Canada, running a bunch of freestyle battles, put on with a bunch of local kids in these tight formats and get in touch with the local scene out here, and give these kids a light at the end of the tunnel. I know what it’s like to grow up in a small town and not see a window for opportunity, and it’s frustrating. Especially growing up in Canada, there weren’t any windows of opportunity until Drake pretty much broke the code. I used to go battle places, and people would be like, “where are you from?” and I’d say Toronto, and they’d go, “where’s that? Canada? Oh, Canada, y’all got like, penguins and shit.” Now everyone knows where Toronto is. But six years ago it wasn’t like that. All people knew about Toronto was Vince Carter. And that was it. Now it’s like, Rob Ford, Drake, Deadmau5, Bieber, KOTD, there are so many things popping out of this city right now. The Raptors! It’s helping brand our city, majorly.

And you feel a part of that?
Definitely, I definitely feel a part of that. The underground scene played such a big role in that. Especially in Toronto, even battle rap is such a huge culture now. Toronto is one of the main hubs, so you can’t be a battle rapper and not know that one of the biggest leagues in the world, if not the biggest, is centred in Toronto. And one of the goals of these battle rappers is to perform on this stage, in Toronto, to come to this city and showcase their skills.

Matt Williams might enter a rap battle. Follow him on Twitter.