Canada’s premiere battle rap platform, King Of The Dot Entertainment or simply KOTD, celebrates its 10th birthday this week since its first event on 8/8/2008 in Toronto when it was founded by host Organik and RyanPVP. Developing in a grassroots manner like most other major battle rap platforms, KOTD started out physically in the streets and has developed to now being staged in large venues across Toronto, California, Calgary, Arizona, Vancouver, Michigan and more. Globally second only to the influential and groundbreaking SMACK / URLTV battle rap platform, KOTD has been particularly influential in the continued proliferation of battle rap internationally through its World Domination events as well as recent forays into the UK with Chalked Out. It has attracted the leading battlers from across North America, England, South Africa, The Philippines, Sweden, Norway, Australia and Scotland.
KOTD has hosted major battles with industry superstars Canibus, Madchild, 360, Conceited and Cassidy, is heavily co-signed by Drake and has seen many of the best from America and beyond head north to take on Canada’s best. Stars born out of KOTD include Charron (Wild ‘N’ Out, BET), Pat Stay, Bender (RIP) as well as many more who developed from the WRC / Grind Time era. Co-hosted battles include from the likes of The Alchemist, Drake, DJ Skee, Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man, MC Hammer, Too $hort, E-40, Sticky Fingaz of Onyx, Maestro Fresh Wes. These have helped contribute to KOTD amassing an impressive 1000+ battles with 708k subscribers and 202 million views on YouTube since 17 August 2018, only behind URL with 841k subscribers and 401 million views since 26 Oct 2009 in English.
KOTD has the highest viewed battle in English language, with LA’s Dizaster vs. Russia’s Oxxxymiron already at 11.8 million views – a figure only surpassed by Filipino and Russian language battles. Led by Organik, Gully TK, Bishop Brigante and Avi Rex, KOTD has pushed both battle rap and hip-hop measurably. Here’s hoping to another decade of battle on KOTD – hopefully captured expertly by Avocado.
Stay tuned for our of Top 10 KOTD battles of the first decade coming soon.
