Canibus, a great lyricist without a great marketing strategy |
Recently at a King Of The Dot (KOTD) rap battle league, the
in-house champion ‘Dizaster’ took the challenge of battling one of hip-hop’s
most underrated and begotten son of hip-hop. Canibus.
Canibus is known for his complex rhymes where he brings a
more scientific, abstract and philosophical approach to his music, sometimes
releasing albums that are more conceptual than others.
For example, “C True Hollywood Stories” where he raps from
the point of view of ‘Stan’, the crazed and obsessive Eminem fan who killed
himself along with his pregnant girlfriend by driving off a bridge but in
Canibus version, he survives and joins a hip-hop band.
He is also known for having beef with rappers like Eminem and LL Cool J. With both battles he came off at the bottom end. However, his string of bad luck doesn’t start from there, from bad collaborations to bad producers and being blackballed by the industry, TWICE. Canibus cannot catch a break.
In his most recent rap battle, he was definitely kicked in
the nuts by Dizaster. Sadly he was not only disseminated by the vicarious KOTD
champion but Canibus broke the unspoken rule of hip-hop in a freestyle rap
battle, he brought out his notebook because he forgot his rhymes.
Plus his records were not critically acclaimed and he doesn’t
have big bags of cash like the others. However that doesn’t prove that he doesn’t
have skills, he just wasn’t marketed well.
To be honest, I pity this dude but he seems to get a reverse
effect, people are checking him out even the Eminem dick-ryders (not all of
them) are slowly starting to listen to him more carefully. Well maybe he can
gain a bit of exposure, a bit of luck on his side.
Check out the battle here:
Check out the battle here: