King of the Dot

King Of The Dot Entertainment

Industry	Battle rap
Founded	August 8, 2008
Founders	Organik, Avi Rex, RyanPVP
Headquarters	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people	Organik, Avi Rex, Gully TK, Bishop Brigante, King Fly, J-Pro, Kyle Gray (a.k.a. Avocado), Sketch Menace, La Sparka, Willie B, Alwayz Wynn
Brands	KOTD, GZ Battles, PY Battles
Divisions	Toronto, Vancouver, California, Arizona, East Coast USA
Website	KOTDTV.com

King of the Dot Entertainment, also known as KOTD, is a rap battle league founded in Toronto, Canada in 2008. The company's HQ is based in Toronto, Ontario, from which it gets its name. Successful music artists such as 360, and Madchild have battled in King of the Dot.

About

King of the Dot is hosted by its founder, Organik. Past co-hosts have included various hip hop artists, including Drake, Method Man, Raekwon, The Alchemist, MC Hammer, Too $hort, E-40, DJ Skee, Sticky Fingaz, Spider Loc, Reef the Lost Cauze, Slaine, Sabac Red, Sid Wilson, Jus Allah, and more. The league began in August 2008 in an alleyway near Toronto Eaton Centre,^[1] and now features over 150 emcees, battling in Toronto, California, Calgary, Arizona, Massachusetts and Vancouver.^[2]

Primarily featuring Canadians and Americans, emcees from countries such as England, Scotland, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Philippines, and South Africa have all battled in King of the Dot’s annual World Domination event. The influence of King of the Dot has spread globally, inspiring the creation of other battles leagues such as Flip Top in the Philippines.^[1]

King of the Dot has three leagues — PY Battles (Try-Outs); GZ Battles (North American stand alone smaller league); and KOTD (worldwide big league).^[3]

King of the Dot events feature all elements of hip hop culture, including a cappella emcee battles, freestyle battles over instrumentals, live performances by hip hop artists, beatboxing, graffiti exhibits, DJing, and breaking.^[4]

Origins

Travis Fleetwood, a.k.a. Organik, built a reputation as one of Canada's elite battle emcees, winning title after title, including 4 wins at the well known Toronto-based freestyle competition Proud 2B Eh Battle MC,^[5][6] where he met a local producer/DJ by the name of RyanPVP. The two teamed up with the help of promotion guru Avi Rex to put together the first event which was initially intended to be a flash mob style event at Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto. However, the police presence and private security at the location forced the event to move down the road to an alley beside radio station Flow 93.5.^[7][8] After a few events at that location, they were unable to accommodate the growing crowds, so Organik opted to re-locate to Alexandra Park for the wide open space and gritty location. The crisp visuals and production value, as well as local celebrity guest judges contributed to King of the Dot's rise.^[9]

Format

The King Of The Dot battle is usually a set of three rounds. There are varying round times, between 60 seconds and 3 minutes. The rules are not overall that strict and rappers are frequently allowed to stretch beyond the time limits, as was showcased in Dizaster's battle with DNA (co-hosted by Drake).^[10]

Magazine

KOTD magazine is available to be read online on the official King of the Dot Entertainment website. There is also an option to order the magazine in hard copy. There have been six issues released to date. The magazine has articles discussing past events, interviews with various rappers and much more.^[11]

Past events

In 2010, King of the Dot hosted its first Grand Prix.^[12] Kid Twist was the first King of the Dot champion.^[1]

Several major battles events have been hosted by King of the Dot, including World Domination II in August 2011.^[13] American rapper Illmaculate defeated Bender during this event,^[14] which was featured in Forbes.^[13]

On November 5, 2011, King of the Dot hosted Flatline (2011), which featured a battle between rappers Dizaster and DNA. This promo event was co-hosted by Canadian hip hop artist Drake, who put up $20 of his own money and a hit from the bong for both rappers .^[10][15]

On July 9, 2012, King Of The Dot hosted Vendetta, which was headlined by the mainstream rapper Canibus battling Dizaster. The battle spurred minor controversy in the Hip-Hop community, when Canibus appeared to forget his lines and pulled out a notepad to read his lyrics from.

Blackout 3 took place on January 26, 2013 and was located at The Guvernment Nightclub in Toronto. Hosted by Organik, Gully T.K., Lush One, Maestro Fresh Wes, Scott Jackson and Drake, KOTD sold out club that night with over 1400 patrons. Dizaster, from Los Angeles, California, was facing Arcane from Hamilton, Ontario, in the title match. This battle was judged by Dax Flow, Yas DCS, Adam Bomb, Knamelis and Shotty Horroh. Sponsors for this event were: Bke Technology, Metro News, Pound for Pound, 682 Records, Guerilla Printing, Marketing Kings, Urbanology Magazine, Think Don’t Shoot, Guvernment Nightclub, and Trevor D Custom Jewellery.^[16]

Blackout 4 took place on January 25 & 26, 2014. It was the first time that the matches other than the main events, were not released to the public.^[17][18] Instead just the names of the battlers involved were released to the public. Each battler had a custom made introduction played on a big screen to bring them to the stage with.^[19] It was at this event that Pat Stay made his first successful title defense against Dizaster to remain KOTD Champion.

World Domination

Event	Main Event	Countries Competed
World Domination - Canada vs. The World (2010)[20]	Pat Stay vs. Hollohan (Day 1) The Saurus vs. Arcane (Day 2)
World Domination 2 - North America vs. The World (2011)[21]	Madchild vs. Dirtbag Dan Kid Twist vs. 360 (Day 2)
World Domination 3 - Global Supremacy (2012)[22]	Pat Stay vs. Head ICE (Day 1) PoRich vs. Dizaster (Day 2)
World Domination 4 - The Olympics of Battle Rap (2013)[23]	Dizaster vs. Arsonal (Day 1) Arcane vs. Pat Stay (Day 2)
World Domination 5 - Global Supremacy (2015)[24]	Shotty Horroh vs. Arsonal (Day 1) Dizaster vs. Dumbfoundead (Day 1) Iron Solomon vs. Daylyt (Day 2) Illmaculate vs. Pat Stay (Day 2)
World Domination 6 (2016)[25]	Arsonal vs. Cortez (Day 1) Iron Solomon vs. Charlie Clips (Day 1) Pat Stay vs. Serius Jones (Day 2) Rone vs. Caustic (Day 2)

Championship history

King of the Dot

Name	Country of Origin	Event Won (Year)	Title Defenses won
Kid Twist[26]	Canada	KOTD Toronto Division, Vol. 5 (2009)	0
Hollohan [27][28]	Canada	KOTD Toronto Division, Vol. 8 (2009)	1 (vs. Jack Shitt)
The Saurus[29]	United States	KOTD Toronto Division, Vol. 14 (2010)	0
Arcane[30]	Canada	World Domination 1 (2010)	0
Bender[31]	Canada	Blackout 1 (2011)	0
Sketch Menace [32]	Canada	Doomsday (2011)	0
poRich [33][34]	Canada	Blackout 2 (2012)	1 (vs. PH)
Dizaster[35]	United States	World Domination 3 (2012)	0
Arcane[36]	Canada	Blackout 3 (2013)	0
Pat Stay [37][38][39][40]	Canada	World Domination 4 (2013)	3 (vs. Dizaster, Daylyt, and Charron )
Illmaculate[41]	United States	World Domination 5 (2015)	0
Rone[42]	United States	Blackout 6ix (2016)	1 (vs. Caustic)

Ground Zero

Name	Country of Origin	Title Defenses
DDSS [43][44]	Canada	2 (vs. poRich, Aftershock)

References

External links

• KOTD website
• KOTD YouTube Channel
• KOTD Twitter Account
• KOTD Facebook Page
• KOTD Official FB Discussion Group
• KOTD Instagram Page
• @KOTDTV on Snapchat