Hey Guys. Its your boy Che Kreao here back with a bit of a different article. Recently I got a chance to have an in depth interview with Don’t Flop Training Day’s new host Danny Jaq. With Dont Flop being the UK’s premier rap battle league, Training Days is becoming the gateway for up and coming emcees to showcase their talent. With DF’s Summer based event Sunburn 3 taking place this weekend, we discussed everything from battling, music and aspirations for the new league:
So when did you start watching battle rap and who ultimately influenced you to try your hand at it?
I started watching battle rap in early 2012, to my memory. First battle I ever watched was Lunar C vs DPF although I had seen the Mark Grist vs Blizzard match go viral before I watched the Lunar battle, I just didn’t know it was on Don’t Flop. When I was first introduced to battle rap and DF in particular, I thought it was just a viral phase that wouldn’t last longer than a week. I had no idea there was an actual legitimate business behind this, and more importantly, I had no idea that was it an actual art-form. I watched a few Lunar C battles before discovering Unanymous, which is when I realised that these guys are actually incredibly talented.
I followed Unanymous’s battles for the most part of that year and by 2013, I was a full on follower of the league and multiple battlers. I can’t remember who exactly it was that put me onto battle rap, but I do remember it was someone that tagged me in the Lunar C battle on Facebook. I think it was one of my University friends as I knew a few UK Hip Hop fanatics there who were proper into it. Shout out whoever it was though, you the real MVP.
How did you first get on to Don’t Flop and what approach did you initially have to get your first battle?
I got onto Don’t Flop the good old classic way, by applying through the website and waiting to never hear back from them, but to my surprise I did get a reply. Which was terrifying. I knew how to rap, I had rapped for about 2 years prior to applying but battle rap was still a foreign concept to me, I was always trying to make people laugh, usually at the expense of one of my friends or all of them so I enjoyed that side of battle rap. I just had to somehow merge the two aspects together and kind of just took a stab in the dark. Not entirely sure I had a solid approach going into it besides wanting to make people laugh.
A lot of people would say that you have a very unique style when it comes to battling. Aside from using punches and schemes, you tend to have a very humorous and self-deprecating side to your battling persona. Can you tell me how this character was conceived and your thoughts around it?
I wouldn’t say it’s a character as opposed to it just being who I am. What you see on camera, is what you get when they’re off. I consider myself quite a humorous person to be around and I have always been self-deprecating. Obviously, I exaggerate certain parts of my personality for the sake of performance, like when I speak about my opponent’s girlfriends coming to me and being the super nice guy that every guy hates. But that’s all for the sake of performance, I’m not actually out here being every man’s girlfriend’s creepy best friend.
Not EVERY man’s anyway.
I also see that you’ve got a music based resume and release(d) EP’s and Mixtapes. What to you is the biggest difference in preparing music to preparing for a rap battle?
Literally everything is different when preparing music to when you’re preparing for a battle. The biggest difference being that with music, you can have as many takes as you want until you get it right, whereas with battling, you spend a month preparing and then only have ONE chance to get it out right, and not only that, you have one chance to get it out in front of a live crowd in a venue.
Performing music to a crowd is easy as you’ve had time to record it perfectly, then listened to it yourself and memorized it – you just go out there and repeat the same lines over and over again. With battling, you can rap it to your friends or in your room while rehearsing at the end of the day, it all depends on the day, which is why I will never be able to step in that ring without a tense stomach and nerves, but that’s natural for near enough everyone.
Unless you’re Tony D, I don’t know how he does it. He isn’t human. He’s just non-aging, emotionless rapping machine.
So congratulations on becoming the new host for DF’s Training Day’s league. It seems like a great opportunity to be in. Can you tell me what this signifies for you and what is your current aspirations for the league?
Thank you. It’s a great move from Don’t Flop.
The split in the league and the addition of the new Training Days team means the original Don’t Flop team can solely focus on putting the mega-events that we all love and we can take the responsibility on developing the newcomers/less experienced battlers in the smaller events, that we still all love. It also means Quality Control for the main channel, which will drive more traffic to the channel as people will only see the big names on there now, which casual fans want to see. The hardcore fans of Don’t Flop who follow the inside outs of the league now have somewhere to watch the up & comers and tryouts with Training Days. Everyone wins.
My aspirations for the league is to create a new exciting and in some ways, less formal branch of Don’t Flop. Where we can take risks that Don’t Flop might not be able to take, bring back some real competition too. Some battlers reach the proverbial “top spot” and lose the need to compete and have a string of promo battles. On Training Days, we want the guys in the ring to WANT to win and WANT to progress. Hence why we brought back the Top 8 tournament and putting on tryouts on the same card as one of the biggest UK vs UK battles ever in Tony vs Shox the Rebel.
What is your relationship like with Eurgh and Cruger (DF Owners) and how much creative input and freedom have they given you into running Training Days?
On both a professional and personal level, my relationship with the owners of Don’t Flop is very good. Before they brought me onto the team, I considered them good friends of mine and still do – it’s really cool to work with them on a creative level as well now. It’s still a little bit weird for me sometimes, as I knew of them and was fans of them before we met and now I’m in meetings with them, let alone on nights out. It’s pretty cool.
They’ve given me so much freedom and there is no limit on my input for both leagues, they invite me to meetings where Training Days might not even be brought up, they still listen to me and make me feel like one of the team, as opposed to just being the guy they’ve thrown this extra workload at.
It’s no secret that people have their opinions on the staff, especially Eurgh, but I can honestly say I have had very little, if any problems with them. They work ridiculously hard to keep this ship afloat and it’s motivating as hell.
As of late, there has been a new wave of rappers coming in from try-outs, out of nowhere and smaller based leagues such as KOTR, Gift of the Gab and Clash Money. Who are your current favourite new comers and which battlers do you feel have a lot of potential?
I love the new wave of talent in the UK, and there’s more to come that you haven’t seen. Watch this space. My personal favourite newcomers are Bear Solutions, who recently tried out on my birthday for Don’t Flop, as well Lazy Arse Jack who is trying out at the Sunburn 3 Pre Party Training Days event. Rivers, Fuhrer, Yorkz, A have been highlights for me in terms of DF newcomers. Other leagues, my favourites so far are Kinell, Mackenzie and Chuckie P from KOTR – they are killing it over there.
Templar Surfa Kid and Scoop are my favourite newcomers from GOTG and just in general, I cannot wait for them to get on DF as I believe they will make a massive impact. Scoop in particular has the potential to fill a market gap that has always been missing in Don’t Flop. You’ll see. I really enjoying watching new talent coming into the UK battle rap scene, it’s forever growing and each generation always comes quicker than the last.
Recently KOTR owner Micky Worthless did a vlog talking about DF Training Days poaching talent from smaller UK leagues and replicating their aesthetic and vibe. What is your take on this and how would you respond to these comments?
In all due respect, I haven’t watched the vlog itself as I try to avoid that sort of stuff about me online. I like Micky, I have no problem with him or his opinions on how Training Days is run so I haven’t watched it. In regards to offering talent from smaller leagues try-out battles on Don’t Flop – I only think about the battlers, it’s that simple. None of these guys are owned by any league, and it’s that exact mentality that will hold the UK scene back. Look across the pond the American leagues, I do not see any leagues over there complaining about battlers going to other leagues because at the end of the day, their fans will follow them wherever they go.
Not to mention that all I do is offer the opportunity, they are the ones who say yes, sit and prepare for a month and turn up on the day. Saying that, I speak to the promoters of the leagues I find talent at and they’ve always been cool with it. It’s more the fans that gas up this league loyalty silliness.
With Sunburn 3 taking place this weekend, what matchup’s are you currently looking forward to on both Training Days and the Main Event?
Sunburn 3 is going to be great. I’m looking forward to Bear Solutions coming back for his 2nd battle, I really think he’s going to do well in this battle rap stuff. I’m glad he’s going to get the exposure he deserves very soon. Lazy Arse Jack’s tryout too against Orwin, both of those guys are great. LAJ is a great battler so I have all the faith in the world that he will do well, Orwin is a great rapper cosigned by Dank Schrader and Bobby Rex so I trust their judgement. Should be a good one. Heretic vs Dank Schrader will be great as well. I’m looking forward to every battle to be honest, I could write why I want to see them all. It’s going to be a wicked event.
Raptor vs Shuffle T is going to surprise people the same way Unanymous vs Shuffle T did last year, Pedro vs Tali is the best idea Don’t Flop has had all year, it’s always good to see P Solja perform – there’s so much. Get down to the Fiddlers Elbow/Brixton Jamm on 20/21st August!
I see that you’ve also got a battle with Willzy at the event which would probably make for a good clash of styles. How have you prepared for this battle and what do you think of Willzy as an opponent?
This is like the 9th time I’ve battled Willzy. We took the battle on the Don’t Flop: Copywrite Tour which was a lot of fun and a great experience. I think Willzy is great, he has improved so much this year especially. I can’t wait to see him battle someone that isn’t me. As an opponent, he’s a lot of fun to battle and the natural friendly competition between us is always good to work with. Should be a good event to end this long saga on.
So what’s next for yourself. Do you have any future battles coming up or music you’d like to plug?
I’m just going to focus on making Training Days the best it can be, and giving you guys the future of Don’t Flop. In terms of battles for myself, I’m only going to battle when I want to and if the opponent is someone that interests me. I have no interest in trying to progress through the tiers anymore, I have done all I wanted to in this league and incredibly happy with it. Now I’m going to just battle for fun, which is what it should be to be honest. All my hard work is going to put on battles with the guys that actually want to progress and entertain everyone.
Music wise – please follow Southpoint, an independent label from Brighton who I perform/make music with. We are making moves. Other than that, look out for Jaqq & Sykes, with Ill Sykes, and I’m currently working on my first long project so that will be dope. Go follow me on Soundcloud (/dannyjaqq) and twitter @dannyjaqq.
That’s all I got, thanks for the interview, man! Big up Che Kreao and RAF Magazine!
*Sunburn 3 is this weekend 20/21st August at Fiddlers Elbow and Brixton Jamm. Cop your tickets at dontflop.com
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