Charron Believes BET Doesn’t Honor White Canadian Non-Traditional Battle Rappers

Toronto-based battle rapper Corey Charron has a point. After winning this year's Freestyle Friday competition held on BET's 106 & Park this March, he was promised a slot at the BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher, which were filmed last month but will debut during the Award show tonight on BET. After more than six months of waiting, that didn't happen. "The last time I heard from them was two weeks ago," Charron explained in a telephone call with XXL. "I got a call from the guy that was ducking all my emails, saying, 'Sorry, we already pre-filmed the Cypher, there is nothing we can do. You can’t be on this year.' His reason was that they changed the format of the Cypher and they only allow artists with bigger buzzes on this year."

Annoyed but undeterred, Charron hit back in the only attention-grabbing way he could think of—he dropped his own three-minute verse, attacking everyone from Gucci Mane and Lil Twist to Rick Ross and Kendrick Lamar. Charron spoke to XXL about his exclusion from the Cyphers, why he attacked who he attacked, and why he thinks that BET just refuses to recognize White, Canadian, non-traditional battle rappers. He's not the first they've ignored, he says, but he wants to be the last. —Interview by Emmanuel C.M. (@ECM_LP)

Give us the background behind the BET Cypher incident.
From the beginning I was a huge fan of BET, especially the 106 & Park freestyle portion of that [Freestyle Fridays]. I auditioned online via an application for a few years and wasn’t accepted. I already have an international fan base from battle [rapping], and [BET] just didn’t have any Canadian rappers. I kind of forced their hand this year by starting a Twitter campaign, getting all my fans to tweet at 106 & Park and say, "Just give Charron a chance and let’s see what happens." They took the bait. We got in contact with them and they told me, "We've never really had anyone come out this far, we don’t provide hotel or travel accommodations." I told them that’s fine, because the prize of the BET Cypher, the exposure of that alone is definitely worth the investment.

So I went down and auditioned. Jin was actually there at the audition; he predicted I was going to win the whole thing. I ended up winning the whole thing, eight weeks in total. Beat every American rapper that I faced. Won in March and won $5,000 as well, which I did receive. For the BET Cypher, they told me last time I was there that [they would] be in contact, and [I would] be on the Cypher this year. I waited a few months until June, didn’t get any word. I messaged them, still nothing, kept messaging them. The last time I heard from them was two weeks ago. I got a call from the guy that was ducking all my emails, saying, “Sorry, we already pre-filmed the Cypher, there is nothing we can do. You can’t be on this year.” His reason was that they changed the format of the Cypher and they only allow artists with bigger buzzes on this year.

But they contradicted themselves, and I called them out, because they have another contest from Sprite—the 16 bars contest—and all you have to do is upload 16 bars from YouTube. The winner who gets the most votes on the site gets on the Cypher. Some guy won, and I checked out his YouTube account—he averages 200, 400 [views], nothing even over 1,000, whereas in the past three months I've [had] videos with a million, 1.5 million views in the Philippines, and just had a video come out with 150K a week before. And they didn’t really have an answer for that. And yeah, at the end of the day I would have gotten a lot of promotion for being a Canadian on the BET Cypher. Instead of trying to do a lawsuit, I just thought [I'd] fight back and try to get some exposure. So I made this YouTube verse.

Let’s talk about the video you just put out.
Originally, it was only a 16 bar verse. My plan [for the Cypher] was to actually spit a verse, emulate a Slaughterhouse verse. They just spit punch lines, add in maybe a few celebrities but not too much shock volume. Just kind of how Crooked I, Royce, Joe Budden, all those guys [do it]. They’re my favorite on the Cypher. They are geniuses at what they do. So I just wanted to put out a great rap verse.

For this [YouTube] one, I was just upset. There was a lot of anger in me; whether or not people are a fan of me, or whatnot, I still earned my spot to be there. I don’t know too many people who bus over 200 hours, quit their job and invest $3,000 to pursue something and get denied from it and not say anything. If you’re not going to at least fight for what you deserve, you don’t have the attitude to achieve success in any industry.

Why name so many rappers?
It was kind of a statement. The only rapper in there [that] I dissed that I actually do like is Kendrick Lamar. Just as Eminem said before, “Sometimes your name rhymes with things.” Kendrick Lamar, Hendrix guitar. Everyone else that I diss, I’m just not a fan of their music. Hip-hop these days is kind of getting a little bit friendly, where everyone is trying to collaborate with everyone.  If I don’t like an artist, I let them know.

Why do you honestly think they didn’t invite you?
Pretty much every Canadian news outlet has covered the story, from newspapers locally to the one that circulates all across Canada, to radio stations, news stations. At this point I can only speculate. A lot of them are trying to get a good story out of it and try to ask me if I thought it was a race-based thing. I never try to play the race card. They have Yelawolf, they had Iggy Azalea, Eminem, Mac Miller, so it was never that. I just think it was, I’m a white Canadian battle rapper who doesn’t fit the mold for a typical rapper. BET has had a track record of not honoring the prizes to white, Canadian, non-traditional-looking battle rappers. A rapper named Organik, who is a huge name in the Canadian scene, won a tournament called Spring Bling and the main prize was just a spot to battle on 106 & Park. He won in 2007, [they] didn’t let him on. They threw it again in 2008, he won, and when he won again, they even said to the crowd, “We’re sorry, we screwed him out of a spot last year. He’s going to be on this year.” They never responded to him again. As soon as [my] situation happened and they didn’t honor my prize, he posted his contract.

We had one other white Canadian battle rapper, Bishop Brigante. He’s a big name. He battled Jin on BET. He’s was an affiliate with Drake. He won Week One and then Week Two they disqualified him for swearing. Lil Wayne was the judge, and Lil Wayne stood up and said, "This guy didn’t swear." They dealt with three white battle rappers who don’t have the traditional look. We won prizes and it wasn’t honored. I don’t think it's fair.

Not even an apology when they called me. It would have been nice.  I just felt a little disrespected. I don’t want any money, I don’t want to take this to court, I don’t plan on doing that. I don’t even want a spot on the Cypher next year, 'cause I feel that would be a sympathy vote. Just for what happened to myself and Organik—they’re doing a Husbands of Hollywood Cypher, I don’t think that’s hip-hop, no disrespect to Kevin Hart and them—I want a Canadian slot, just how has Slaughterhouse has their four members. I want four, five Canadian artists on there so I can get my country some shine.