Exclusive: Dizaster details life as a battle rapper on King of the Dot and now SMACK/URL with fans like Q-Tip, Wyclef, Crooked I and Eminem.

“It was like a movie,” Dizaster excitedly says of his battle against Canibus. Last year, Dizaster faced off against Can-I-Bus himself, whom many deemed a lyrical monster. Canibus had battled LL Cool J and survived to become one of the most revered lyricists of the late ‘90s. Though time had passed and his light had somewhat faded, Canibus was still a major draw in the battle culture, a world that was gaining momentum. The moment was Canibus’ to capture. Instead, he fell apart. 

Pardon that. He fell to pieces, and along with him, many of his fans’ dreams were shattered. Canibus entered the venue with an injured arm, a sling and a dazed smile. He trudged through a muddy first round in the battle before doing the unthinkable. He took out his notebook, saying he was going to read his rounds from it. As mentioned, he fell to shreds. And it all happened in front of Dizaster.

It was at this time that some asked, “Who is Dizaster?” But others, those in tune with the Battle Rap culture, knew exactly who Canibus lost to that night. 

Dizaster is one of the most celebrated professional battlers from Los Angeles, California. He started out battling on local streets, eventually hitting up battle tournaments, freestyling and attacking opponents throughout the county. His rise on http://grindtimenow.net/

HipHopDX: A lot of the conversation leading up to your latest battle was about Drake’s involvement. This is the second battle of yours that he’s attended. How would you describe your relationship with Drake? 

Dizaster: Drake is really supportive of what we do. He’s very in tune with real lyricism, on the contrary to what is projected and what people may think of him as a mainstream dude. He really has his roots stuck to that, and he really cares about where lyrics come from. I’d say me and him are super close friends. He’s a good dude...There’s definitely a mutual respect level between us.

DX: What did he say about the outcome of the battle? 

Dizaster: We didn’t talk about the outcome. We actually showed up together. He came and swooped me up from my spot. We hit the venue together, and then a lot of shit happened at the venue. So we went separate ways, and I didn’t get to talk to him. But I’m pretty sure he didn’t care much about the outcome. It didn’t really faze him. He knew what I was going to do. On the way there, I showed him and his boys all the Facebook messages and the PayPal statements. Everyone was super excited. It was supposed to go a certain way, and it went the complete opposite. It’s pretty shocking for everybody. I’m pretty sure he was uncomfortable during the battle, which sucks. 

DX: Can you describe your thought process from when you entered the battle venue until the battle began? What were you thinking, and how did that all play out?

Dizaster: I was really comfortable, getting ready to kill it. I noticed people were disrespectful, so I was little worried. But even when people are usually disrespectful, they always shut up during my battles so I didn’t even worry about it, really. I was comfortable, getting ready to just kill this guy and end his career forever. 

DX: So the battle takes place. What are you thinking during the battle? 

Dizaster: That’s the key question to ask. That’s the key explanation to why my performance wasn’t as good as it was supposed to be. It’s because I was shocked. I was confused. I was startled. I never get thrown off. I can hang with any crowd in the world. Everybody knows. It doesn’t matter if someone boos me. So to get thrown off that hard...I was thinking in two different places. I wasn’t there rapping anymore. I was rapping just so I didn’t choke. I continued rapping, but my brain was somewhere else. I was asking myself questions like, “How is this happening? What did he do? Why is this going down?” I didn’t get it. It was really confusing. 

DX: People have seen you respond well to booing in the past. For example, in your battle with Swave Sevah. What in particular made this one so different? 

Dizaster: I couldn’t really think while I was rapping. They took me out of the game completely. I couldn’t think while I was rapping. It was the weirdest thing ever. Trust me. Even if a crowd boos, I can think over them. But when you’re confused and thinking this shit in your head, there’s no way. My delivery was off. Everything was fucked up. It affects every part of your performance. It sucks that it had to happen. But now I’m ready for anything. It’s a learning experience, if anything. I’ve now seen it all. I’ve now had people booing me before I even started rapping. I never even thought that was possible.

DX: Especially in Toronto, right? 

Dizaster: Yeah, where it’s like my second home. That’s the thing. If they booed me like that in New York, I would have been ready for it. Even though, in New York, they wouldn’t even do that. They’re real ass motherfuckers in New York. They give people a chance to rap. But even if they do it in New York, I’m going to New York and I’m ready to have people talk shit to me. That’s what the general consensus is, that I’m not welcome but it’s really the opposite. But let’s say that was the case—that I wasn’t welcome—I would be ready for it. It’s not like coming to something where you’re welcome. It’s like walking into a trap, bro. I thought this was a trap. I didn’t know what to think. I started thinking people were setting me up. I started thinking too much shit, bro. 

DX: What do you say to Arcane once the cameras shut off? 

Dizaster: I didn’t say anything to him. Organik had to force me to shake his hand. He asked me about seven or eight times to shake his hand. I’m normally the nicest dude when it comes to sportsmanship. I love everybody. At a battle, I love everybody. I will shake their hand and hug them after a battle. I don’t give a fuck because it’s all love. It’s all sport. It’s just that, in this case and scenario, I just had zero respect for the guy. And there’s nothing he could ever do to make me respect him. Even if he wins a million battles and sells more records than Eminem, I’ll still think he’s a faggot. There’s nothing he could do. That’s basically what it was. I shook his hand at the end because they made it uncomfortable. They started to make a scene of out it. It started looking as if I was salty about me not winning. I didn’t give a fuck. I already knew that was going to happen. It’s not like I wasn’t ready for it. 

To be honest with you, I didn’t know because I thought I was going to completely murder him. But I knew in the back of my head that I was going to lose that chain, because I’m not from Canada. It was just set up for me to end up losing it. Winning it is like a curse because it’s a guaranteed loss one day. That’s why certain people don’t want to take the chain. If you’re American and you take the chain, it means a guaranteed loss one day. It doesn’t matter. 

DX: You didn’t get to exchange words after the cameras shut off? 

Dizaster: He kept on trying to talk to me. He would say, “I’ll give you a rematch.” His friend was like, “I swear Caustic didn’t help him write this one!” I didn’t know what they were trying to say. I didn’t give a fuck. I wasn’t sitting there ready to bitch about it. I was cool, bro. It wasn’t a big deal to me at that point. I was like, “Alright, he won. Cool.” But I knew at the end of the day that he took the chain and was depressed as fuck. That’s why I didn’t give a fuck. 

I was happy when the battle finished. I went out and partied after that. I didn’t give a fuck. I knew he was depressed as hell. I got my job done. My job was to expose him more than winning. If I won and didn’t expose him, I would have been a sad person. The whole battle would not have meant shit to me. The only reason I was excited about this battle was because I could tear someone down like that; that’s a disgrace to what we do, the art we do. I felt like I was doing the universe a job, like I was doing everybody a good deed by doing this battle. My job was done. I fucking lost, but I took him with me. I’ve been hearing from fans and comments that, “Dizaster may have lost the battle but he won the war.”

DX: What did you think about the judges’ decision? What did you say to them that day?

Dizaster: I didn’t give a fuck about the judges. People think that I got robbed. People even think that the judges’ decision was wrong. But at the end of the day, I don’t blame the judges for any decision they made. The whole battle was influenced by the crowd and Arcane’s fraudulent facade. It was tainted. The battle was tainted from the beginning. They weren’t going to be able to make a correct decision. Arcane ended his verse last. It was fresh in their heads. He ended with some corny shit. He just delivered it and everyone reacted to it.  

DX: How does Organik feel about the situation? What has he told you? 

Dizaster: I know he’s upset, but I really don’t know what type of moves they’re gonna make. So I can’t speak on it. But I know he’s not happy about it. 

DX: What is he more mad about, the battle or the exposing? 

Dizaster: I don’t think he cares so much about the battle. I think he cares more that fraudulent shit has been brought the table.

DX: You’re making the transition now into the URL. What do you feel is the biggest difference between the URL and KOTD? 

Dizaster: Different people, man…different cultures, different type of upbringing, different types of interests in life, different types of hobbies, different types of everything. It’s just different. We all do the same thing. At the end of the day, everybody’s a battle rapper, but it’s a completely different element. It’s like one of them are aquatic mammals, and the other are mammals on land. It’s not the same. A movie reference you can make to a Canadian crowd or a King of the Dot crowd, you can be making a reference to a movie that no one in URL has ever watched because it’s a different demographic. [It could be a] stupid movie that no one would watch, maybe. That movie will get you a great reaction in front of people for making a reference to it. But if you say it in front of a crowd that doesn’t know, there you go, you’re left with nothing. It is what it is. It’s the same vice versa. You can mention something in front of a URL crowd, but a bunch of cats from GrindTime or King of the Dot may not get that shit, so you just have to know the best of both worlds. You gotta know how both worlds operate. That comes from growing up around both worlds, not just trying to transition and go into both worlds. 

This is me transitioning to SMACK, but this ain’t my transition into street battling. This ain’t my transition around an urbanized culture or a culture that’s just strictly Hip Hop. But at the end of the day, I’m diverse as fuck. I fit everywhere in the planet, so I don’t feel I have a place where I don’t fit. URL, to me, is going to be another part of me that I’m exercising. I can’t wait. It’s one of my favorite styles. It’s a completely different approach and I prefer to do that most of the time, to be honest with you. So I’m gonna be comfortable as fuck. It’s not like I’m going to change. I’m just going to have to do what I usually do. You know what I mean? It’s gonna be fuckin’ fun as fuck.

DX: Do you feel like you were in that pocket when you battled Swave Sevah and DNA, who are both from New York, or is this going to be a new Diz? 

Dizaster: It’s probably going to be a completely new Diz. But yeah, it’s kind of like the Swave Sevah shit. And if you go back, people can find my battles from back in the day in Santa Monica, when we were doing street battles in Culver City [California]. That syle is just metaphors and raw shit. It’s just everything, man. It’s the full package, man. It’s the complete me. Whatever you see on URL is going to be the complete version of me. Everything that makes me, I will do it on the stage. I’m not gonna hold back.

source: hiphopdx.com