Hey, have you heard of Battle App? It’s a battle rap app where users get to compete one-on-one with wit and rhyme, earning votes and followers for their performances in short video clips accompanied by famous hip-hop beats.
One local—self-described rapper and comedic artist Will Walker—has made quite a splash on Battle App, climbing the app’s leaderboard with the number of votes he’s accrued. (Full disclosure: Walker is a friend of the authors’.)
Battle App began earlier this year, Walker explained, and he saw it as way to share comedic, improvised rap verses with a wide audience. At first, the number of users was pretty sparse, he said, but a few celebrities like comedian Simon Rex, actor David Arquette, and the app’s founder and rapper, Berner, helped raise the number of users and interest in the app.
“When I started I was trying to really rap seriously, and I quickly realized that if I do that, I was going to run out of ammunition or start repeating myself,” Walker said. “So eventually I took a different approach to it and started doing a joke-telling thing, where it’s like, ‘You look like a rhinoceros,’ and then I go off of that.
“That seemed be a good formula,” he added. “That started to work from there.”
Walker has rapped since he was 12 and remembers going to battle rap sessions in Santa Maria called “battle grounds.” He would also battle at house parties, he said.
“I realized that Battle App is the accumulation of every terrible house party rapper in one place,” he said. “That’s where I was like, this is perfect for me because it gives me a wide audience.”
Battle App works like this, Walker explained: Users post “open battles,” a 30-second clip usually accompanied by a famous rap beat. Other users can respond, but they have to use the same beat from the initial post. Followers of either user can then view the battle and vote on who they think won.
Walker does both—he posts open battles and replies to other users’ open battles. He also tries to post a lot, and in response to some of the app’s top users, in order to accrue lots of votes.
He has climbed the leaderboard of the app, getting to ninth place one day in March, by posting regularly and trying to spit funny and creative verse.
“The first day that I started Battle App, I was looking at the leaderboard and the accumulative votes, and I ended up being No. 34,” he said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, what the hell, how did this happen?’ As soon as that happened, I knew this was for me.”
A full warning is necessary for anyone thinking of checking out Battle App or Walker’s profile, wwwhiphop. There is seriously explicit content on the app, including profanity, hardcore sexual language, and racially charged material.
Walker doesn’t promote racism or homophobia with his raps, he said, but they’re still explicit. Mostly, he’s just trying to get laughs and votes.
“I’ve always loved attention, and so immediately, it was just something I could be myself on, and if people found it funny they would flock to me and if not then they wouldn’t care,” he said. “I’ve been battling people for years and years and just thought this was perfect, a very good way to get a broad audience looking at me, whether it’s for standup comedy, which I’m trying to do on the side, or rap, which I’m also trying to do on the side.”
Managing Editor Joe Payne is ready to make an entrance, so back on up. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 6-13, 2017.