“This guy, his name was Ed Stark, I remember this one,” Bauman laughed. “He was just talking about guns and he wasn’t good at rapping at all, so I made him billboards and put my verses in them and read my verses to him because I didn’t think he was worth my time. He was terrible. I’m not going to fight these people and give them good shit and then it won’t do anything for me. That’s stupid.”
A few years after Bauman became known for his rhymes and stage antics, a fight rapper from Watts rose to worldwide fame in the fight rap community for almost the same shtick.
Daylyt rose to prominence as one of the greatest “can’t miss” rappers in the history of fight rap. As adept as he is lyrically, there’s an even greater appeal to his onstage antics.
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From pouring water on opponents’ sneakers, getting full face tattoos years before it was common for rappers, and showing up in headless suits, among other things, you never knew what you would talk about when the battles were over.
In many ways Bauman is the Daylyt of MMA and he also feels like the Daylyt of fight rap.
“I had a few battles where I was just doing antics and people were pissed off, like, ‘this guy is really, really talented, this guy is really, really the s***,'” Bauman said. “I was Daylyt before Daylyt. In Minnesota, that’s how people knew me.
The flame of fight rap has faded for Bauman and he has turned his attention to many other ventures, but the itch is starting to return.
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The dream of being big enough to pay the fight rappers out of pocket and host the event itself is upon us. It’s only a matter of time before Bauman has the means and the platform to inspire the community’s A-list to come and make history.
“I’m going to create my own s*** where I can actually fight the people I want, give the performance I want and that’s important, and that’s where Fight For You comes in, that’s where that my NFT comes into play,” Bauman said. “Now we can give these performances to these fight rappers.”