UDUBB Network: High Stakes 2 Live Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Kidd Dibiase
- Start date
How was the Pat Stay/DNA battle?
Apparently the turnout was kinda bad for the event. Hitman not selling tickets
Venue looked about 70% full
Pretty sure tickets were still available morning of the event and at the door
And bare in mind they couldn't sell out a night club in elizabeth, nj let alone a place like irving plaza or grammercy
RapGrid stream seemed to pull in decent numbers however it was a complete disaster and I'm 90% sure they will be issuing free vouchers or partial refunds to make up for how horrible the stream was. I saw literally at least 50 people asking for refunds on IG and twitter
If hitman really got $30k, I don't see how UDubb or RapGrid will make that back. Whoever funded high stakes is probably seeing a five figure loss when it's all said and done
Yet another example of a battle rapper grossly inflating their worth, the fans getting fukked and a league losing tons of money for trying to do the right thing. The Lux disease
Head ice vs tech 9 which turned out to be hot garbage.. but I'll always love tech 9 for holding down the legacy of Spittage every battle
ReasonableMatic
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To be fair, UDUBB picked a horrible day for the event.
It might've been cheaper to book, but it ain't rocketscience why.
Any decent event manager woulda told em to book another date
so they wouldn't have to compete with the Falcons vs Packers, it don't make sense.
The promo was horrible too besides the Hitman vs Suge FaceOff.
C'mon my nikka, the turnout definitely ain't on any battler overestimating his worth.
It's about UDUBB not taking advantage of traffic Hitman brings.
That's like when URL doesn't drop any trailers and nikkas start complaining.
One thing that URL has over all the leagues is its promo.
Rookies vs vets for example had immaculate promo if you look at it from a marketing perspective.
They had the FaceOffs, battlers were actually there.
Snack was there. nikkas could buy their Rookie sweater or their Vets sweater.
It was very well done.
Imagine URL getting this battle, it woulda been a while nother type off anticipation cause of the hype they're able to create.
UDUBB clearly dropped the ball
I have no idea if UDUBB made their money back with Hitman v Suge. But how can we hang this on Lux when the reason why he made so much off of High Stakes 1 is because he had a piece of the PPV? Clearly the PPV for High Stakes 1 made a nice chunk of change.
Arsonal has always maintained that the league profited off of Lux/Hollow. If you want to point fingers, you have to make it make sense.
And what does Lux have to do with Crapgrid's shytty stream? C'mon man.... no one is asking for refunds because they didn't like Hitman's performance.
I do agree that UDubb dropped the ball with event planning and promo. You're not wrong.
That said, they are selling us a product and ultimately the product is only as good as the battle rappers perform. Did Hitman put on a $30k performance last night? It was a decent battle but no. Not even close. He's overestimating his worth. A spade is a spade.
Battle rap is entertainment and last night O Solo was far more entertaining than Hitman. He made maybe $2k and Hitman made $30k. These big payouts are a joke.
ReasonableMatic
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I totally agree with Hitman's performance not being worth 30K.
He tried to go left and it fell flat.
His performance vs O Red >>> Suge
Ardamus
Unpopular Opinions About Battle Rap
Word. I enjoy Tech barking on nikkas and saying random fly ass bars. Its a mix of ridiculous comedic shyt and street shyt.
Ars is a fukking clown for saying the league profited off Lux/ Hollow. It took them a year to upload the god damn footage to youtube. They changed their name from UW to Udubb (probably declared bankruptcy and had to for legal reasons). Hollow even said they owed him $1,000 from his purse after the event and he never got it. Profited off High Stakes 1 my ass. Thats clearly a bunch of BS.
Problem is Lux and Mook set the precedent for these big payouts by a) making these marquee battles more about monetary negotiations than entertaining the fans and b) telling everybody what they got paid. So the Hitman Holla's of the world use it as a negotiating chip. "If Lux got 60, I'm at least worth 30"
If Hitman was paid lets say $20k, instead of $30k, that surplus $10k could have been invested in Rapgrid's infrastructure for a MUCH higher quality stream. It's obvious they cut corners - gee, I wonder why.
With a better quality stream, fans would be much happier, and much more eager to buy future live PPVs. And the payouts would get bigger over time. That's how businesses grow.
These battle rap divas don't understand the concept of scaling a business, they'd rather squeeze the leagues for as much bread as they can one time than let it grow organically.
Ardamus
Unpopular Opinions About Battle Rap
See, I knew something was up with them changing the name like they did.
And you're completely right about these high paying precedents. At this point, it seems like battlers get to a point in battle rap and move onto something else that puts them in a higher pay grade. And that might be where the game of battle rap has to be at now. All these sponsors enjoy it but they are not fukking with these numbers like that except for maybe a few that stuck around. Its all about that return for everyone. Battle rappers will sell themselves on their pull and how much they can generate. The league is like ok, we have seen you get busy, and we believe you. They may or may not have ALL of the bread so, they throw down a deposit and look for sponsors to help out. When the event does go as planned, everyone is cool and we hope to expect the same results for another big event. If not, we go back to square with the "battle rappers ask for too much" and "this shyt is dying" conversation. Let's just put a ceiling on the pay grade and be like once you get to a certain status, you have options to move onto a Wild N Out, doing movies, making music on a better platform, or whatever. Its become way too much of a gamble now. Especially when the factors of PPVs being all fukked up, leagues making sure their bread is good, battlers asking for certain amounts once they get to certain level, and so forth.
Don't blame Lux and Mook for demanding large sums of money, blame the leagues. If you're not URL there's no guaranteed return on investment. If Smack won't give Hitman 30k there's no logical reason for Udubb to do it. They're in over their head.
ReasonableMatic
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Naah, nikkas gotta STOP sayin Mook AND Lux are the reason
> MOOK SINGLE-HANDEDLY ruined battlerap by mentioning his paycut at SM2 <
Whatever Lux got AFTER that is the result of Mook, let's not change history here.
Lux got whatever he got after the fact, and unlike Mook he actually deserved what he got.
Mook mentioned his purse first at SM2, not Lux
So solely Mook is to blame for this shyt.
I agree with everything else tho
I get your frustration, but I'm not sure this is where you should drect it. You don't have anything to prove that Hitman Holla's payout forced the league to cut corners. The bottom line is, the leagues have the books, you and I do not. If they don't take the time to evaluate a battler's worth based on the data they have, that's on them. If they don't set up a payment structure where the headliners pay fluctuates somewhat based on the revenue the PPV generates, that's on them. The owners don't want to open the books, because if a PPV does astronomical numbers, they don't want to have to pay the battlers twice. They also don't want to have the give the battlers any ownership of the content.
Lux and Mook are the reason why everyone is doing this battle rap shyt. And they didn't get paid for ANY of those battles on Smack DVD's. That was part of their basis for commanding such large amounts of money, that they put in work to build the infrastructure. If they want more than you think they're worth? Just don't give it to them. Let them sit out.
There is no guarantee that a battler rapper will grow when a battle rap league. Stop acting like they are shareholders, they are TALENT. And as far as we know, they don't earn royalties on work they do for these leagues. The long terms contracts are the only thing that keep them from being disposed of after 1 or 2 shaky performances. That's both a good, and a bad thing.
You're in here dissing Ars, while at the same time caping for his league. I haven't seen one person affiliated with UW come forward and say UW lost money. Hollow wasn't owed money because they didn't HAVE it. It was only a grand. Those dudes were just disorganized. If that battle event put them in a hole based on what the battlers were paid, they literally have ZERO reason to continue trying to run a battle rap league. Especially one with such grand aspirations as UDUBB. If they didn't feel like there was money to be made off of battle rap, UDUBB would just be a small local league with homegrown talent.
Ustream provided a much better quality PPV stream than Rapgrid. But there's two reasons why they wouldn't use them this time around. Reason #1 - Ustream PPV took 50% of the revenue. Not a very good deal at all for someone doing a PPV event, gotta explore other alternatives.
Reason #2 - Ustream discontinued their PPV services later that year, lmao. Now Ustream works with a separate company to facilitate PPV's, called "Cleeng". UDUBB chose to go with Rapgrid. Now Rapgrid doesn't have a reputation for quality PPV at all. So why select them? UDUBB has worked with them before, so maybe they turn a decent profit.