The Return of Scott-Free
Liam Graham
This coming Saturday there will be a cold front of battlers
advancing upon The Port bar in Barrie, Ontario.
20 plus battlers will be in the building and among them, Scott-Free: a
former KOTD veteran finally making his return to the ring after a four-year
retirement gap to battle Duff.
“Scott-free, Bell-city, BCB, Workshop Regime… That’s
me baby.”
Born and raised in Brantford, Ontario, Scot Flinders made
his emergence into the rap battle scene around six years ago, during the
younger state of KOTD. Originally slated
to battle Dexta Dunx, the battle didn’t go through due to Dex having troubles
with the law. Having no one to battle,
Scott was able improvise a battle with a local M.C. Zilla and get the win he
came out for. Since that day, Scott went
on to forge a warpath through some of KOTD’s toughest competitors, establishing
his alias as a force to be reckoned with until he took a break after his last
battle with Mac at the Bell City Battle League.
“It’s been four years, my last battle was on my 25th
birthday.”
When asked how he
heard about 5ivefold and how he got the battle, he said, “It was Tipsy, he was
trying to get me a battle out in Barrie.”
Tipsy, or Tipsy Russell, runs Bell City Battles in Brantford and is a
long time friend of Scott. Recently,
Tipsy as well as other passionate MC’s such as Malakai Williams and Flintlock
decided to network. Seeing as each of
them have experienced hands in organizing battle events, they decided to get
together under one roof and lo and behold, the Cold Front event was
birthed. Tipsy got a battle and,
understandably, started talking to Scott about driving there. Agreeing, Scot eventually heard that another
battler (Duff) had been talking smack, and the old shooter decided he would
dust his guns off for some practice and bring them along for the ride.
“I heard through the 5ivefold grapevine that this guy
said he could body me.”
After we talked about how he got involved with 5ivefold Scott
proceeded to tell me a bit about his philosophy on battle rap, and his goals
for his Hip-Hop Career in 2015.
“ I want to teach these kids how to play ball,” he
said. “You need a way out? KOTD isn’t
fuckin with you? Then earn your stripes
out here.” Scotty had this to say and
more about the ever growing and expanding world of Battle Rap. He then went on to stress to me how too many
battlers are trying to jump to the big leagues right away without even building
up an original style or getting practice in at smaller leagues, something he
thinks is vital to individual success and the success of the smaller leagues so
they can grow too. He also greatly
stressed the importance of being original.
“Don’t think you need antics cuz Daylyt is getting
famous from it, don’t copy other styles, create your own.”
Aside from his upcoming battle this Saturday, Scott’s group
WORKSHOP REGIME will be performing a live set at the event as well as hitting
Brantford on the 29th in January and Feb 16th in
Brampton. His goal is to hit thirty
shows in forty days on a tour, as well as touring around different apartment
projects to play basketball with the youth come spring. The latter of the two goals was inspired by
ODB’s Grammy cameo speech line, “Puffy good but Wu Tang for the children.” Puffy good but WORKSHOP for the children is
the name of Scott’s inspired movement, which will be hitting the streets this
spring provided all goes well.
“I predict my name will pop up in a few new mouths…”
This Saturday (January Tenth) the cold front comes to
Barrie.
Thirty Battlers.
Fifteen battles.
Two live performances.
One crazy #COLDFRONT
Shout out to Malakai, Tipsy, Flintlock, Scott, Hynesyte and
the rest of the 5ivefold staff for making this a reality and helping hype it up
to what it is now as well as a shout out to CaseClosed holding it down out west
for our #ALBErTADIVISION.
And Shout out to all the loyal fans of all the hard working
battlers that will be tearing each other apart for your enjoyment!
#REPTHE705IVE
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