Zanotti vs. Wordlife - The Danger of Clout Chasing

There is an old saying that misery loves company, how haters just want to be loved. This impression surely sprung to the minds of most that clocked the recent beef between young, pissed off Trowbridge rapper Zanotti and Bristol’s Wordlife label - specifically the two head honchos; Krazy & Impact Merv. 

Over the past decade, Wordlife became a renowned force for promoting music artists through live shows, as well as being a label for releasing music by its founding members and affiliates. In recent years Wordlife has also operated a weekly radio show on Ujima Radio 98FM, every Tuesday night from 8-10PM. Since its inception there have been few UK hip-hop icons that haven’t graced Wordlife’s live stages, the label is enviable for sustaining its persistent success in Bristol despite fierce competition between promoters. Becoming so much a part of Bristol’s hip-hop culture that the name Wordlife eventually became synonymous with it, their notoriety surpasses the South West borders across the whole of the UK. 

Although Zanotti was relatively unheard of until he had released a bizarre send at Wordlife in September 2020, a search of his YouTube channel revealed he’s been making music since at least 2016. Primarily spitting over grime, he had minor success with an accumulation of around 10,000 views across approximately 15 uploads by 2019. Judging from the release of multiple music videos since uploading his first Wordlife diss - which was sharply taken down within days after receiving a backlash - Zanotti clearly had music ready for release before deciding to send for Wordlife. An educated guess is that he was looking for ways to promote himself differently, as his previous attempts (re-10,000 views/15 uploads) had clearly failed. 

In the time running up to Zanotti’s first Wordlife diss, he had actually asked Wordlife for promotion multiple times. Reaching out to Krazy, Zanotti repeatedly begged for radio play on the Wordlife podcasts, as well as opportunities to perform at Wordlife events, despite receiving little response from Krazy himself. Around September, Zanotti asked Krazy for feedback on his then-most recent single Picky One, to which Krazy responded calling it “the worst thing I have seen in a long time.” Although Zanotti didn’t actually seem too phased by this in his conversation with Krazy, Zanotti then went and uploaded a diss onto facebook with a half naked woman in a mask rubbing his body, as he rhymed over Eminem’s ‘The Real Slim Shady’ instrumental. Not only was this really cringey, it was actually hilarious. Zanotti predictably took the video down shortly after, due to the ridicule it quickly attracted. Krazy and Impact Merv decided to capitalise on the humour, releasing the video diss single Zanotti Diss (Reply) within the following days.

Depicting Zanotti as a Pot Noodle headed Forrest Gump - how Wordlife perceived Zanotti in his Picky One video - the emcees essentially tell the truth of the situation from their perspectives, whilst taking the piss out of Zanotti for trying to war with them. Voyeurs of this dispute thought that all was surely over, as Zanotti went quiet for over a month after Wordlife’s reply. However Zanotti had really been busy, preparing another diss track ironically called Facts Only. Uploaded via Sound of the South West’s YouTube channel, Facts Only see’s Zanotti ‘fire back’ at Wordlife with claims such as “Wordlife have no money,” that Krazy’s had a dead show… And that’s about it, in terms of disses. There is not much substance to it at all, reflected by the amount of dislikes in comparison to likes on the video currently. Nonetheless, Krazy presumably had enough time given the lockdown to reply with yet another diss in response, Beg On Toast. Accompanied with a visual released this morning at 2AM on DHACK Media’s YouTube channel, Krazy actually shot this reply in Zanotti’s Trowbridge ‘ends’ to make complete light of the situation. Packed with comical punchlines, see what may be the final reply below.

From an outside perspective, Krazy seems to be continuing the beef just for fun. It would be interesting to see if Zanotti has anything left to say in another potential diss track, because in terms of offensiveness Krazy is clearly leagues ahead of Zanotti’s battling inexperience. Some say that any publicity is good publicity, but at this point it seems to be doing Zanotti a lot more harm than good. Although Zanotti clearly has a passion for music, he appears to still be experimenting and finding his lane. Unfortunately with the lacklustre bars he’s offered so far, his efforts have been nothing but laughable. If Zanotti can take anything positive from this, it will surely be a lesson on the danger of clout chasing, and judging from Krazy’s quick replies - not to start a battle that he can’t finish.

Disclaimer: All opinions are that of the author @ethanevo and may not represent the opinions of Wordplay Magazine.