Nyckz
That’s That

A bit over a month ago, a 48 second video titled “E-N-J V.S. NIKS” that was over a year old appeared on YouTube. The first few seconds of the clip show two rappers squaring off for what appears to be a typical rap battle, not unlike those that take place on street corners every day. As the clip begins, you see one of the contenders, named Nyckz, getting up in his opponent ENJ’s face and spitting some crazy, cocky rhymes.
He suddenly halts, stopping the lyrical venom for a moment to pose a question to his challenger: “Oh, you mad ’cause I’m stylin’ on you?” The room erupts into laughter, a few seconds roll by, and the opponent suddenly hauls off and hits Nyckz in the face. Needless to say, the battle ends, people scatter, the cameraman forgets he is filming, and the video ends.
The short clip was taken from a longer segment that appears on Volume 2 of street DVD Real Talk: Controversy Sells. Although a longer version eventually surfaced, it still fails to answer the lingering questions you’re left with after watching the battle turned one-sided brawl: What happened after the camera went off? Why was the punch thrown? And who won the battle? xxlmag.com recently linked up with Nyckz to get his side of the story and find out what it’s like to wake up one day to Internet infamy.

So where you from and who you reppin'?
I'm from Hempstead Long Island, 516. Get It Popping Entertainment.

How'd you end up on that Real Talk DVD?
Well we were doing public access [TV] for Long Island and we were doing battles for that. So that battle where he hit me and ran, it stopped after that because it escalated too far. But then like a year later, it leaked out and somebody started putting it out there, and now that's how all of this happened.

Would you consider yourself a battle rapper?
I just consider myself the truth.

The word is the other guy swung on you because you kept reaching for something in your waist…
That's not the case, man. He swung on me because he was mad because he was getting it. He was mad ’cause I was putting him on blast.

So you felt like you were winning the battle when the fight popped off?
Oh yeah, I knew I was winning when I seen him getting emotional. You know in any sport when you see that they can't take it, that's when you start going in on them. You know what I mean? Dump on they head.

The “stylin’ on you” line, was that off the head?
Yeah, that whole battle. I do this off the head. This is what I do, I was trying to show everybody, I don't write on a battle, I come in with nothing rehearsed, I just come and do what I do. I feed off the vibes of whatever is going on in the situation.

Right because it seemed like everybody cracked up when you said that...
I had more stuff that I wanted to say but being that I seen that I was getting the best of him, it felt right for that moment so I was like, “Oh you mad ’cause I'm styling on you.” It felt right because that's what he was mad about. If you really watch it you'll see that he was trying to distract me, he was trying to swing his hand, he tried to point at my mouth because I was getting dry. So everything he was throwing at me, I was just throwing it back at him.

So after he swung on you everybody scattered and it's hard to tell what happened…
After that it got a little ugly. Everybody was kinda hittin’ the d-e-c-k, getting low getting sleeping bags, you know? He stepped on a lot of people. He stepped on bitches and shit and stomped them out. This one bitch had trample marks all over her. It was real ugly. A lot of people got stepped on trying to get through this one little door because everybody's trying to get away from me—even the camera people. That's why it looks like I fell back, but the cameras actually went down and pulled back from me. As soon as he hit me everybody was trying to get away from me. He hit me and like before his hit actually landed he was turning the other way running.

So dude also said that he saw you after the incident at Club Speed and stuck you up?
Oh come on, man. I left and had all my stuff. I had all my jewelry. He's running around putting fantasies out there to make himself look good. Sex, lies and videotapes, you know how that go. He's trying to eat off me because he knows that once the truth leak out there's nothing he can do no more. It's gonna be pretty much over for you. You lied about winning the battle; you lied and said you stood there. Once you lie one time you're basically a liar. He's a thug on DVD. You don't see me on nothing saying anything about anything.
I'm going to court for all this shit, for what everybody think I had or whatever. So I'm not really trying to say too much. I don't wanna go to jail because that's how it be. Gangsters move in silence, point blank. To me, I'm that dude and he's just that other guy. They tried to make me look wrong, and it's not looking right on them now.

So you're going to court over all this? Did you get arrested that same day?
Nah, it was like four months later. I think somebody who was there [at the battle] told on me. You know how dude [ENJ] was saying, “Oh, he didn't have the cal on him, he had the nine.”

Yeah, that was what he said when he was interviewed on rrisdead.blogspot.com in January. So what did you get charged with?
They're trying to charge me with weapons possession in the third degree. I can't really speak on it, because I'm still going to court to this day for that.

Did you speak to the kid on the phone and tell him you wanted to let it go?
Yeah, check this out. He called my phone. How does he have my number? He called me the next day trying to say he don't want no problems and he wants to come back and rap again because where it jumped off at, that's my block. So he's trying to cop a plea with me so he can get back on the TV show. So what I told him, and I said it sleazy, “Yeah you can come back, come on back.” But then I think the girl that told him to come, told him, “Yo, don't come back, they're waiting for you” or something like that.
I'm trying to find out how he got my numbers. He's snitching. How you gonna tell them, “He didn't have a cal, he had a nine.” That's telling. I didn't want to incriminate myself, so I told him, “It's whatever. It's nothing.” I don't want anybody to think I have a problem with you because if you have a problem with someone and everyone knows that, then [if] something happens to him then they're coming to me. So I was thinking like a G, like, “It ain't nothing dog. I'll see you when I see you. If you think you can come back and rap come on back.” He ain't come back.

So is that beef resolved now or what?
I don't really know what it is right now. I'm just trying to show them that I can really make good music. I want to use this to show them that I got heat for real, not like most of these battle rap dudes. They don't really got nothing. They're just battle rappers and that's all they got. I was just using that to get myself in the door so you can hear what I got to say.

Usually a punch in the face would have a negative impact on a rapper's career, but it's seems to have had the opposite affect for you.
Yeah, I didn't even expect it to get this big. I just thought it was something local in the hood and now it's like worldwide.

So do you have any upcoming projects you want to tell us about?
Yeah I'm trying to put this mixtape out Still Stylin' On 'Em Volume 1. I got my own engineers and producers, everything and it's all original tracks and all heat. I wanna show them that I can do this. I wanna be one of the first New York dudes to get distribution and show them that we got a movement. I wanna be known worldwide and this is my ticket right here.
You know 50 rode on everybody beats so everybody's trying to run behind that lane. I figure I'm gonna do it a little different. I'm riding on all original tracks that I got my mans kicking out and I'm turn these niggas into Kanye West. I'm gonna turn them into the future, and I'm gonna have this movement behind me. Nobody in New York really got a hard movement like I feel I'm about to bring. This is L.I. We're an untouched area. We don't really have anybody big from L.I. and we the most slept on market in New York. We're like the most forgotten, like the lost borough and this is where it goes down at.

You got a joint called “Stylin' On 'Em.” You name check XXL on it…
Yeah, I said, “I pictured being in F.E.D.S. magazine before I pictured XXL.” ’Cause the way I run around these streets man, like, I'm really in the streets. People know me in the hood, like I would've probably still been famous from the hood, but this shit just made it ridiculous. If I can have the whole world saying, “You mad ’cause I’m stylin’ on you,” imagine what else I could have them saying, you smell me?

Listen to Nyckz new joint "Stylin' On You" below.