Austin’s got a hip hop scene, and it’s got a whole bunch of people who love hip hop. Those two groups don’t overlap as neatly as you might think, however—rappers in Austin, even the bigger names like League Of Extraordinary G’z or Riders Against The Storm, have long struggled to attract the sort of fanbase the city’s country, roots-rock, and indie bands have the luxury of taking for granted.

Since February of 2010, however, the Texas Battle League has worked to bring the Austin hip hop community to a wider audience. With regular showcases at venues like Scoot Inn and Fuze, the Battle League—where rappers trade insults in a freestyle format, with an a capella twist for Texas—attracts audiences who may not even be aware that there is a local hip hop scene. The rapper Japanese Jesus, co-owner of the Texas Battle League, sat down with CultureMap to explain why that is, what battle rap has in common with slam poetry and what Kanye playing ACL means for the rest of the Austin hip hop community.

CultureMap: Where do you see the distinction between the battle scene and rest of the hip hop scene?

Japanese Jesus: In Austin? Well, shit—people come to battles! [Laughs] I think the battle scene has more actual fans. There are a lot of people who want to rap, but the battle scene has actual fans. The hip hop scene is nothing but other rappers. I know some of the dopest people in town. The League of Extraordinary G’z are super-dope. There are the isolated few that actually have fans. A good portion of the MCs in Austin kill it, but it’s too bad that it’s just rappers at those shows. Nobody’s waving their hands in the air like they don’t care. They’re too busy mean-mugging and wishing it was them on stage, thinking about how much better they would have done it. That’s where I see the distinction.

CM: A lot of people in Austin love hip hop, but they’re not aware of the hip hop scene here.

JJ: There’s a lot of reasons for that: bad promotion, oversaturation, bad booking. They don’t want to book anybody on a weekend. As much as I want to see MC Squared or whoever, I gotta work in the morning. I’m not gonna be out there on a Tuesday. On the weekends, they want dubstep or top 40. If you’re not a dubstep DJ, you’re not getting booked on Saturday at any legitimate venue. Nobody here supports it as far as radio goes, or even as far as our DJs go. They play very little of the Austin scene. That’s why I started the battle league. It’s for the MCs, by the MCs. I think we’ve done a good job of getting exposure where it wouldn’t be otherwise.

CM: Why do you use the a capella format?

JJ: We’ve taken the freestyle to the beat as far as it could go. We’ve been doing that shit for [twenty-five] years. New Music Seminar back in ’87, Roxanne Shanté and Busy Bee, that’s how they were doing it back then. It’s two decades later—it’s time to evolve it. I think the a capella actually gives a heightened sense of the lyrics, and it gives you more sense of expression. It gives you more freedom to create your own rhythm, as opposed to letting the beat dictate how you have to flow. It allows the creativity to come out, for sure.

CM: Do people struggle?

JJ: Oh, yeah. I know some people who are very bad at it! [Laughs] Most people are very bad at it, I would say. But they don’t tend to battle that long. Because you have nothing to fall back on. I think it’s a more accurate representation of an MC’s true skill level.

CM: A capella battle rap doesn’t seem a million miles away from a poetry slam, except that it’s all freestyle. Do you draw from that crowd?

JJ: It’s very similar to the poetry slam. The poetry slam is the more positive side, while the battle MC is the more negative side. I feel like some battlers would endear themselves to the poetry slam scene. A guy like Michael White—you’ve never seen anything like that before. It really depends on the artist, I think.

CM: I first learned about Texas Battle League at SXSW. Do you plan to be back there next year?

JJ: We just confirmed our South By showcase this year. They already invited us. We haven’t got the location yet, but the fact that they invited us so early lets us know they’ve got something big in store for us. And in return, I’m putting my hand on my heart and promising the biggest event in Texas battle history for SXSW.

CM: There’s so much music happening at South By every year, but seeing a battle is different. You don’t get to do that every day.

JJ: I think placing us when they do, on a Friday—people have had a little bit of their fill of music. By Friday, they want something different. And South By likes us because we can draw crowds early in the day. We don’t need a midnight showcase. We got lucky not having to go against Yelawolf and J. Cole, or Jay-Z and Kanye. We got a good slot last year. Hopefully the stars will align the same this year. The fact that they told me that you had to have a badge to get in at a certain point – I never expected that.

CM: When Kanye plays ACL, is that good for the local scene, or does it not matter?

JJ: It depends. Dubb Sicks, the other owner of Texas Battle League, opened up for Big Boi at an ACL afterparty. They had 800 people there. That’s more than you’ll find at seven local hip hop shows. [Laughs] But I don’t think it has any sort of carry-over effect. Just because they see Kanye at ACL doesn’t mean they’re going to be jumping out to see Public Offenders at Flamingo Cantina.