‘Genesis,’ 1st major Ultimate Rap League event co-produced by Drake, coming to Atlanta, Caffeine

Battle rap culture has existed in certain pockets of the country for decades, but now Drake is making sure you can experience it anywhere.

The rap superstar has partnered with Caffeine, one of the internet’s fastest rising streaming platforms, to bring the Ultimate Rap League to its growing audience.

“I’m particularly excited about the battle raps. Battle rap has been around since the early 2000s and has a massive community of fans that has largely stayed underground,“ said Ben Keighran, founder and CEO of Caffeine.

URL will stream weekly live and interactive shows on Caffeine, culminating in a major live rap battle event. The first of which, Genesis, takes place in Atlanta on Feb. 29 at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT.

URL was co-founded by Smack White in the early 2000s. It had existed almost exclusively as an underground product available to paying viewers.

Drake has been involved with URL for a few years and is using his influence to bring it to a larger audience at no cost to the consumer.

“For Smack and Drake, Caffeine is a way to bring battle rap to a new platform, expose it to new audiences and really elevate the battle scene. It is exactly the reason we created Caffeine and I’m grateful that Drake, Smack and their communities will be coming to Caffeine to check it all out,” Keighran explained.

As the platform’s biggest star yet, Drake has agreed to make Caffeine the exclusive home for his live streaming.

Other celebrities like Offset, Juju Smith-Schuster and Doja Cat have already been streaming their video gaming to thousands of followers, which makes Caffeine a rival to services like Twitch.

Having URL on board helps set Caffeine apart from its competition.

This station is owned by the FOX Corporation.

This story was reported from Atlanta.