MC Battle
The day Arkano dug deep to send his career into the freestyle stratosphere
How the Spaniard rapped his way to the top with a world record attempt on home soil cementing his legacy.
The snapshot:
October 28, 2016. Madrid, Spain. The eyes and ears of the global freestyle rap scene switch to the Puerta del Sol square as battle rapper Arkano attempts to unleash his rhymes non-stop for more than 24 hours. The event is live streamed around the planet and the crowd on site reaches 24,000 passionate fans.
The beginning:
Arkano started rapping when he was seven years old after listening to his sister's hip-hop music. He entered his first rap battle in 2008 and became such a hot sensation on the scene that he won the Spanish national final of Red Bull Batalla de los Gallos in 2009 aged just 15. He was still so young he wasn't admitted to the after party.
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The battle of the roosters:
Red Bull Batalla de los Gallos officially started in 2005 with a who's who of Spanish-speaking freestyle rap stars, like Frescolate, Link One and Dtoke spitting out lyrics.
With success at national level, Arkano finally broke through when he got the better of local Chilean favourite Tom Crowley in Santiago's 2015 international. The Spaniard's quarter-final win over Dtoke is the most viewed rap battle ever on YouTube with over 42 million people having watched it.
The world record:
October 12, 2016 was the day when Los Angeles rapper Murs set the Guinness World Record for the longest freestyle rap session after 24 hours and 15 minutes behind the mic. Just over two weeks later, Arkano used his 2015 title win to fuel the anticipation behind his own tilt. He only allowed himself three-second breaks between songs and just protein shakes and gels, eventually recording 24 hours, 34 minutes and 27 seconds to break both the English and Spanish language freestyle rap world records.
As dawn approached during his attempt, he joked: "Can you imagine that I get stuck? That I may end up expressing myself only through improvised verse, from now on?"
The future:
Arkano, aka Guillermo Rodríguez Godínez, released a popular book in the same year, while finishing third behind winner Skone at the Red Bull Batalla de los Gallos international final in Lima, Peru. He bagged another international podium with third place again at Mexico City in 2017, appeared on his first studio album Bioluminiscencia and finished his degree in computer engineering.
