S. Samuel
Hot 97's 'Best New Hip Hop Artist In New York' champ B. Martin took a minute to speak with SOHH about his recent victory at SXSW in addition to his inspiration and plans for the future.
Martin said that he is no battle rapper by trade, but the rewards that come with outshining nearly 2,000 other rap hopefuls has made his growing rap career that much better.
“I just won Best New Hip Hop artist in New York from Hot 97 … I just battled some kid …. some man … onstage and I feel like I did my thing. It was a good f*ckin’ crowd. Being in Texas feels amazing. Being here feels like a dream. Opening for Cole, who’s the hottest artist out right now is a good look. Everything feels right right now.(SOHH)
Martin added that a phone call prior to the big battle boosted his confidence and respect for a certain Queens MC.
“It feels surreal. Everything been happening so fast as far as the competition, I performed at SOB’s opening up for Mobb Deep, so then I go on vacation in the f*ckin’ Dominican Republic and peform out there. On my layover to SXSW I get a f*ckin’ call from Prodigy, and he’s tellin’ me, ‘Yo I’m feeling your style.’ So to have that, just gave me that extra level of confidence and another level of appreciation for the Mobb and everything. The way I look at my career now is one step at a time. You gotta accomplish one goal at a time and that’s what I did in Texas and from here I move on, going to the next thing.”(SOHH)
The road to Austin’s increasingly popular SXSW festival was no easy task, as the Albany, New York spitter held his one from his home state, to out of town and back again.
Thousands competed for the chance to be in the first ever Battle for the Best at SXSW. Two had the chance. One will fly home to NY with the title. That’s right, NY won that Battle of the Best against L.A. yesterday. Won may actually be an understatement. Battle rap is all about wrapping “oh sh*t” punch lines into a bigger story. Albany MC B. Martin put these into good practice to shut down LA’s MC Imprint. He even held his lead in the final round, when contestants were permitted to perform an already produced record. But don’t just take my word for it, check out the battle below on Who’s Next TV. And make sure to show B. Martin some love. Reppin the whole Tristate aint easy.(Hot 97)
This is hardly Martin’s first brush with victoryhe also won a music contest in which he was afforded a chance to work with T-Pain
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An Albany hip-hop musician has won a song-writing contest and earned a place on upcoming recordings by the Grammy-winning rapper T-Pain. Brendan Martin, known as B-Martin, a December graduate of the University at Albany, won the contest after writing a verse and recording a video at the behest of T-Pain, who announced the contest in a YouTube video. T-Pain’s challenge was to write the second verse of his song “Motivation,” a recording of which he included in the video. “You show me how hot you can make the song,” T-Pain said on the video. “Show me what you can do with a song with T-Pain. If you got the hottest verse, I’ll put you on my mixtape, and then, I’ll even give you a verse on my album.”(Times Union)
Check out some music by B. Martin below:
