In 2014 Total Slaughter show brought live rap battles to a new level but sank too fast to reveal its full potential. The only thing organisers Murda Mook and Loaded Lux don’t feel bitter about is Eminem’s involvement.
Murda Mook and Loaded Lux wanted their new battle rap show to look sleek and professional, focus on battles, lyricism and skills, so they teamed up with Eminem and Dr. Dre, getting their support and Shady Records resources.
The idea was for Total Slaughter to provide the biggest stage ever in rap battle history, giving a platform to elevate battling to a new level in popular sports. In April 2014 Paul Rosenberg, President of Shady Records and Shady Films released a statement saying:
“Total Slaughter gives Shady Films, along with Slaughterhouse and WatchLOUD, the platform to elevate battle rap. We are very passionate and excited about battling and we see it as a sport that deserves the same level of organization and respect as any other competitive league.”
The first episode was filmed by the Shady Films crew that provided a crane-mounted camera, professional engineers, sound crews, and light operators. Shade45’s Sway Calloway hosted the show, and DJ Kay Slay served as a referee. Joe Budden risked his reputation as an accomplished artist to step into the ring to battle Hollow Da Don, while his Slaughterhouse crewmates, Crooked I and Joell Ortiz cheered from outside the stage.
Dre and Eminem recorded promo videos to draw more attention to the event. And still, the community was not happy. Murda Mook, talked to Adam22 of No Jumper about these events:
Em is so attuned to and respectful. The Total Slaughter thing that we did in 2014, it was lit. We got a show, Dr. Dre, Eminem… We was out of here. Here’s where battle rappers fucked the game up.
You know, when you’re just too proud that you just cut off every opportunity, not even knowing what you’re doing? That’s the pattern I’m trying to get to be going out of existence, out of the culture of battle rap, which is being so insulated that you die from being overheated. All we do is cut off every outlet, any bridge. We cut it off for maybe fear of being infiltrated. So we don’t let nothing in, we don’t reach out. No olive branches.
Like, this platform is not battle rap oriented, right, so we go do something. All of the people that watch, all the millions of people watch you now and tap into battle rap. They’ll say, “We don’t want it. We don’t fuck with that. They wasn’t rocking with us before. We don’t want that”. They feel like everything is to steal battle rap. So they make other battle rappers not want to become successful.
They fucked us over. Eminem and Dr. Dre was fully invested in doing it. We had a television show on Fuse, they was invested in the battle rap culture. They were like, “Yo, this shit gotta go to the next level”. Eminem and Dr. Dre. em and Dr. fucking Dre! The culture goes in, “Yo, what they doing? They’re coming in, they’re trying to make this into a spectacle!”
That’s exactly what they were going to do, and they did not see why it was so bad. Adam compared their idea to the UFC, the organisation that made a spectacle out of martial arts. That was the intention, agrees Murda Mook, but the idea has never taken off:
I blame the battle rappers. Then the leagues that banned against it. And then fans for being gullible enough. ‘Cause they were fucking with it, initially. The way they set it up for us, that shit was amazing! We were off to the races! With the look, the lead-up, everything! And Eminem and Dr. Dre were involved. They scared them away. What Em does, he doesn’t say “Fuck them”. This is the kind of person Eminem is. He says, “Oh shit, my fault y’all. I don’t wanna smoke. I’m sorry. I’m coming to your show, I don’t want to disrespect nothing. My fault. Now I’mma fall back”. He felt bad, like he was fucking up some shit. So he just backed up. Like, “Damn, I don’t want to intervene”.
What a show it could have been, years before Wild n’Out. And with Dre and Eminem backing up the culture and helping talented battle rappers get more visibility and success.
Watch Shady record’s promo for Total Slaughter:
