We always knew that Drake wanted to get into battle rap, but for some reason, we assumed he would battle Murda Mook or Hollow Da Don. But with one mega-move, he became the rocketship that URL needed to take them to the next galaxy. According to CNN, the OVO mogul leveraged his relationship with newly launched streaming company Caffeine to create yet another platform for SMACK/URL to distribute their battles.
So what is this deal?
According to Okayplayer, this multi-year deal that Drake has signed with the streaming platform Caffeine founded by Ben Keighran should not come as a surprise. Drake has dabbled in battle rap as a fan, appearing as a guest at the 2015 NOME 5 card, where Wild ‘N Out’s Charlie Clips battled Hollow da Don. A few years later, the Toronto rapper linked up Ninja on another streaming company called Twitch and shifted how many saw gaming. So much… 600,000 views… and actually broke their viewing audience record.
This collab is going to be something special. The Caffeine deal will give you hot battles for free, almost working with the already successful app that not only has battles but mini-docs on their star battlers and interstitials like I’m Just Asking.
URL will have their first event with Drake and Caffeine on February 29th in Atlanta with a card named Genesis. How apropos! This really is the start of a whole new bible in the culture.
