There were five minutes left before the game ended on the Play. Shouts, harangues, some insults. The supremacy of Oner and his Barça was ending with PSG under the command of Tess La. Nobody wanted to stop the game, but it was necessary. Important announcement. “Carpediem will not participate in the competition. His place is taken by Fat N”.
The hubbub paused. A small. Because when the game restarted the screaming came back. Tess beat her. Unexpected result, although not as unexpected as the news of the absence of the local champion. Fat N was already at the hotel the day before. He haunted like a ghost. The substitute has to be there. Someone else’s misfortune is now his opportunity. “There are several that I can give a fight to in the first round and even take out. “I’m keeping my profile low,” the Cali rapper told us hours before the official announcement. It will be his debut at the Red Bull Batalla International Final and he looks unfazed. Or there is no time or desire to show nerves.
It is lunch time. In an hour the buses arrive to take the MCs to a basketball game. Fat N comes to one of the tables. Jota eats a piece of meat with salad and Exodus Lirical eats a chicken fricassee. He shows her the picture announcing him as an official contestant. “Manito, I am very happy. Motivated.” He says that while he simulates dribbling a basketball, shooting three points and announcing.
His mother, Rocío Cortés, watches him from a neighboring table. Her “warrior,” as she calls him, has a dream opportunity.
Time to go play basketball. Lyrical Exodus does not go. It has class. He is in the first trimester of clinical psychology and doesn’t want to miss it. While the buses arrive, the one from the Dominican Republic shows Jota his favorite play list: “Damn, what a damn bachata.” He puts his headphones on the Peruvian and the one from Trujillo dances in his chair while he chews meat with cherry tomato.
The day before, Aczino and Gazir, current champion, and their world champion chose their teams.
Team Aczino in locker rooms
© Gary Go
Aczino
Yoiker
Oner
Fat N
SNK
Whom
Jesse Pungaz
Spectrum
Beautiful
Team Gazir in locker room
© Gary Go
Gazir
Bnet
Mecha
Lyrical Exodus
Chuty
Abel
Reverse
Diego Flores
Skipper
Fat N was on the blue team. On paper the captain was Azcino. On paper. Because in practice Fat N, at 17 years old, commanded the team from the dressing room. He directed the warm-up, located his teammates, defined the changes and the strategy. It was evidently not the first time he had played basketball. And he proved it.
Fat N faces the basket in the Champions game
© Gary Go
The blue team defeated the red team 35 to 21, but the result is an anecdote, because the MCs who compete for the title next Saturday agree that the best of the wood was Fat N. A madness to which they now call “Fat Nordan.” He scored 13 points.
“It could have been better. My mother had a financial crisis. She already did freestyle, but at the same time she played basketball, but my shoes were damaged and I didn’t have money to pay for training and I decided to stop playing. What I earned fighting in the squares, instead of buying shoes, was better used to help my mother.”
And of course the public that attended the basketball court at the Centro de Felicidad las Cometas in the north of Bogotá were surprised by Fat N, as well as his fellow freestylers, but the most surprised was Mrs. Rocío Cortés. “I didn’t know she played so well. The thing is that I have missed many things about my children because I have been working, but she makes me feel very proud. If he is happy, I am twice as happy.”
Daniel Acosta Romero and Juan Camilo López, match referees, confess to never having officiated a match featuring rappers. “There is one or another who knows how to play. As we say, you know the player by the tennis shoes,” says López while he looks at Fat N. Romero also recognizes players with qualities in Bnet, Yartzi and Yoiker.
In the third quarter Bnet could not continue. An old knee injury took its toll.
Four days before the Red Bull Batalla international final, a couple of things are already clear. We already know that the best basketball player of this edition is the same one who will represent Colombia.
Red Bull Batalla 2023 World Final – Bogota, Colombia
© Gary Go
Bnet, Fat N, Reverse and Diego dispute a rebound
© Maximiliano Blanco / Red Bull Content Pool
Gazir disputes the ball with Yartzi
© Gianfranco Tripodo
Blue Team
© Gary Go / Red Bull Content Pool
Team Aczino in locker rooms
© Gary Go
Team Gazir in locker room
© Gary Go
Fat N faces the basket in the Champions game
© Gary Go
Gazir team is ready
© Maximiliano Blanco / Red Bull Content Pool
Champions match
© Gary Go
Bnet takes the ball
© Maximiliano Blanco
Red Bull Batalla 2023 World Final – Bogota, Colombia
© Gary Go
Red Bull Batalla 2023 World Final – Bogota, Colombia
© Gary Go
Red Bull Batalla 2023 World Final – Bogota, Colombia
© Gianfranco Tripodo
Red Bull Batalla 2023 World Final – Bogota, Colombia
© Gianfranco Tripodo
Red Bull Batalla 2023 World Final – Bogota, Colombia
© Maximiliano Blanco
Red Bull Batalla 2023 World Final – Bogota, Colombia
© Maximiliano Blanco
Red Bull Batalla 2023 World Final – Bogota, Colombia
© Gianfranco Tripodo
Red Bull Batalla 2023 World Final – Bogota, Colombia
© Gianfranco Tripodo
Red Bull Batalla 2023 World Final – Bogota, Colombia
© Maximiliano Blanco
Red Bull Batalla 2023 World Final – Bogota, Colombia
© Maximiliano Blanco
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This story is part of
Red Bull Battle
Many speak, few rhyme, only the best improvise
2023-11-29 15:02:20
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