Evan: So how did you get the
name “Avocado”?
competitions; he was [competing
in] three or four a month.
Avocado: A long time ago,
when I was 13, I used to rap. I
thought all rappers’ names were
silly. I think most people aren’t
very proud of their rap name. I
recently just saw some flier for
an upcoming battle and there’s
literally a battler named “Space
Ghost Coast to Coast.”
Then I started following the
World Rap Championships and
I went to Scribble Jam a couple
of times. As I was going to
these emcee competitions, I met
Lush One. I starting filming a
documentary on the West Coast
battle scene called “Fresh Coast”
and that was initially how I
first met everybody else. That
was right around the time that
GrindTime was starting up and
when Lush decided to make a
Fresh Coast division.
But yeah, basically I thought
every rapper’s name was stupid
so I thought, “I’m going to come
up with the dumbest name I can
think of ”; and it was “Avocado
Breath.” I didn’t even like
avocados at the time, but now I
love them. Eventually I dropped
the “breath” part of the name.
Ever since then, “Avocado” just
stuck.
Evan: So how did you originally
get into battling and, specifically,
the Fresh Coast scene?
Avocado: I’ve been a fan of
battling for a long time. I used
to rap and battle [by] myself
way back in the day; like 1998
and the 2000 era. I found
out pretty quickly that I was
terrible at it. I used to be pretty
involved with a battle site called
http://www.emceebattles.com.
I met a lot of people through
there, including a guy named
Phillip Drummond. He started
inviting me to all sorts of emcee
Evan: What has been your favorite
battle to film?
Avocado: “The Saurus vs.
Illmaculate” is probably my
favorite battle that I’ve ever
filmed. Just because before I
was involved in battling, I was
a huge fan of them. I remember
when Lush confirmed that battle
at Battle of the Bay 5. I wasn’t
that excited about it, because
they had already battled before.
But when it actually happened,
everybody in the room was so
enthralled and captivated by
it. The energy in the room was
like nothing I had seen yet in a
battle. And I had the best seat in
the house.
Evan: What’s been the biggest
difference, for you, between
working for Grind Time and
avocado
Seen & Heard
working for King of the Dot?
Avocado: I feel like King of the
Dot is not just one person. It’s
a bunch of individuals coming
together for a common goal.
Everybody works together. We
have such a large team and we
all bounce ideas off each other.
It used to be a situation where I
felt like GrindTime West Coast
was its own league.
I didn’t even know about
GrindTime Midwest, or
GrindTime Florida or what they
were doing at all. But now it’s
like we’re all one big thing. We
all help each other out equally
with every event. For instance,
I knew I wanted Illmaculate
to battle at Battle of the Bay 6,
so that’s how we came up with
“Illmaculate vs. Bigg K”.
Evan: How has filming battles
changed for you over the years?
Avocado: Back in the day it was
just me filming and editing. Now
I have a team that I work with.
My right hand man, Nelson
Carayannis, he owns a media
company called Mindframe
Cinema. I grew up with him and
made skateboard videos with
him. He’s the guy that films
battles with the Red camera,
which is used for feature films.
He’s filmed the last four or five
Fresh Coast events. So whenever
there’s an idea for an event, I
approach him like, “hey, we’ve
got this thing coming up. Let’s
think of a new way to shoot
something.”
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