It’s a constant theme: most hip hop fans don’t seem to believe that battle rappers can make dope records. It certainly can be tough to fit a large amount of punchlines into a dope record, and it might seem like prominent battle rappers haven’t had a good run of albums recently. But legendary DJ and rap artist Kid Capri disagrees with that sentiment. He chatted with BattleRap.com about his feelings on battle rap artists making enjoyable records, and he’s laying the criticism to rest:
“They say battle rappers can’t make good records but some of the best battle rappers in the world made some of the greatest records: KRS-One, Eminem, LL [Cool J], Meek Mill was a battle rapper,” Kid Capri says according to a story on BattleRap.com. “It just take somebody to say, ‘Yo, do it like this. Rhyme to this beat. Lean on it like that.’ That’s what I wanted to do. I produced the whole album. All the beats is done by the Kid Capri.”
There certainly is a lot of criticism of records coming from battle records, but it’s hard to argue with KRS-ONE, Eminem, and LL Cool J. Those guys definitely had incredible careers, all of which are still going. It will be interesting to see if any current battle rappers can jump out of the battle ring and into the record booth to make a hit album in today’s rap environment.