“The Colosseum” is the ultimate battle arena. And as a song, it represents the battle element of emceeing, with my blaring string & horn driven beat providing the battleground for Big K.R.I.T., Termanology, and Inspectah Deck to showcase their lyrical abilities. It also pays homage to some of the great lyrical emcees that paved the way, such as Big Pun, Big Daddy Kane, The D.O.C, and others… who you hear vocally on the hook.

Sonically, I was inspired by DJ Premier & RZA and you can hear that from the intro, to the scratching, and the Kung Fu movie snippet at the end. Big K.R.I.T. sets the track off lovely with his southern drawl and precise wordplay.

I met K.R.I.T. at a meet & greet before a show he had in Chicago. I introduced myself, told him about my project, and gave him a beat CD. The next day, I got an email with his verse over this particular beat, which I never would’ve thought K.R.I.T. would pick. But it shows his versatility as an artist and his ability to stand out on any type of record.

I then sent it to Termanology, who I’m a fan of and knew he would kill it. But I didn’t anticipate him laying down one of my favorite verses on the album.

Then with Inspectah Deck, I had sent him a different beat and asked for that “Triumph” & “Above The Clouds” type of feel, which he definitely delivered on and made it easy to tie everything together. However, I had lost the scratches I had previously done before my turntables broke. So at the last minute, I had the homie DJ Scend re-do what I had lost. However, he added his own flavor to it and even improved upon what I had originally intended.

Overall, I’m really proud of this song and love everything about it…the concept, the intro, the beat, the beat switch up, the verses, the DJ cuts, and outro. It’s just a hard rap record and is the essence of Hip Hop…good beats & rhymes. – A-Villa

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