11 years ago, freestyle in Spanish experienced perhaps its most emblematic scene. In the semi-final of the Red Bull International held in Argentina, local Dtoke faced Chilean Stigma, originally from Santa Cruz, VI region of Chile.
A very tough introduction where the host kept warming up the audience by shouting “war!” started a more-than-tense opening round that is impossible to watch again without reliving a deep rage and a feeling of injustice. Dtoke ends his minute by leaving the microphone on the floor and disconcerting a young Stigma.
In an interview with Cayú in 2020 he reflects: “The Stigma of 2020 would take a deep breath, pick it up (the microphone) and pass it to him. I got so angry, I should have just rapped. The anger instead of helping me distracted me, but I still think it was for a retort.”
In 2021, he told The Clinic the behind-the-scenes of that unforgettable moment. “More than with him, I was angry with the world. It was a frustration, I was very focused on winning. It was part of the plan. There was too much fanaticism, too.”
“They went to celebrate and we stayed at the hotel, in the room with the Chileans. Then we saw each other at 5 in the morning. I remember that we hugged each other, everything was fine. We laughed our heads off. We are friends,” he also said.
That confrontation ended up changing the rules of battles. Since that incident, each MC is given a personal microphone.
In a recent interview, Dtoke referred to Stigma as follows: “It’s different, where he stands he sets fire to the stage. I really enjoy seeing it, it is a true phenomenon.”
The story of Cristóbal Palacios aka Stigma begins like this: “I liked hip hop since I was a kid. I first listened to aggro with my brothers, I liked Papa Roach and Limp Bizkit. When I discovered Vico C I started listening to rap, it also coincided with the emergence of the Internet. I like Wutang, Krs One, Rakim, also rap from Chile, Venezuela and Colombia.
“When I was 12 or so I put on Stigma, I liked the word, I found it strong. Then I saw the movie Stigma and I liked it more. Over time I have tried to find a greater meaning to the name, but I don’t think that happened anymore. “I would change it but I can’t, I’m going to look like this for history,” he told Cayú, laughing.
There he says that his first battle was the BDM of 2009 or 2010. “I was 14 or 15 years old. But in Santa Cruz there were no battles, so he went once a year to Puente Alto to the BDM.”
Unlike most freestylers, and it makes sense because he’s not a common freestyler, Stigma’s real schooling wasn’t in a square but on a beach. One lyric made all the difference.
“When I was 14, I had a 17-year-old friend, Diego, who would go with me to the beach in Pichilemu, which was packed. We would go around rapping in groups. In those contexts, you couldn’t insult someone without expecting it to turn into a fight. It was more street-wise, archaic if you like,” he said.
With his group of friends, he recalls, they would go to gigs, there was one who danced break, then they would go rap. “I had an upbringing closely linked to hip hop. For me it was never entertainment, or a show, it was something very serious, very strict, rap was just rappers”he claimed.
Once you know his story, who Stigma is, lThe scene of seeing him out of his mind, on the verge of losing control when Dtoke puts the microphone on the floor, becomes even more powerful.
“I had a hard time understanding why some colleagues saw it as a sport.now I see it a little more like that too. I learned that it was not necessary to be the greatest rapper in the world, the most real. There I fell in love with the circuit again, when I stopped taking everything so seriously, for example, being kicked out was intolerable” he confesses in that Zoom interview with Cayú, alluding to 2016, when after a kick out of Sony at the BDM, he pulled her ear, physical contact that ended up costing him the battle.
“For me this has never been a game, over time I have started to have fun and enjoy it more, but before I was a Mike Tyson,” recognize.
The coming battle
In three months, a day will take place that promises to become a classic and that is already being presented in 90 days, when Stigma faces El Menor in Barrabase’s written format, described by Aczino himself as the successor to the throne.
“I hope to come across rap and bars, not fights or imbecilities. I love and respect the Minor, but I tell you: get ready because I’m not going to be cool like 2019, but heavier.. I hope you are not surprised and we do not lose respect, because I really like being a rapper, that is being intelligent and having codes,” she said in one of the preview videos.
The battle comes exactly 11 years after the semi-final with Dtoke but also a decade after the God Level final, when he fell to the current Latin rap icon, Akapellah, the Venezuelan who faced Residente in a duel of throws with the song “You are not a rapper.”
In 2013 and at 19 years old, Stigma was national champion of the Red Bull Batalla de Gallos.
“I would love for writers, MCs, rappers to be able to participate in this event. I think there are many CHRs, Ricto, or Chystemc, it would be wonderful. We have to find a way to bring about these crossovers. The idea is to motivate brothers and sisters to do it, so that people don’t stay with what they know about the battles. If my attendance can help the most purist to open up to things like this, it would be wonderful,” he added.
Professor Stigma
“More than being a reference, I am interested in being a tool, it fills me to know that I have been part of this growth. However, I would like to be a contribution, a bridge, to transmit some wisdom and the seed that led me to do it, to contribute to hip hop as a culture,” Stigma said in an interview with the El Círculo program in 2020.
There he said that during the pandemic he had started giving hip hop workshops. “Like a dojo,” he described it then..
In the interview with Cayú he delved deeper into his teaching side:
“What I want to do is what I would have liked to happen to me. Today I can do that workshop and transmit hip hop as a tool for cognitive development, self-esteem, and relief. “I see it as therapy, an exercise in releasing emotions.”.
“In my opinion, from a perspective outside the show, I think it is still not dimensioned what hip hop can be as a pedagogical tool for singing, dancing, design, music, writing, painting, etc.”.
There he revealed what he considers to be his greatest weakness and his greatest strength: “My greatest weakness is concentration, I am very scattered. My greatest strength, on the other hand, is that I am a complete rapper, I gave my life to this, I study hip hop and I dedicate myself to teaching it.”
At 29 years old, Cristóbal Palacios already has a couple of things to share. In a post from December 2023, exactly 10 years after the battle with D-toke, Stigma wrote a long post where he recalled:
“I was only 18 years old at the time and I didn’t take the PSU that year because I was going to Buenos Aires to represent Chile. My flight was the same day and I chose rap. I followed my heart on a long and difficult road, but here we are a decade later, with stories to write a book about (maybe I will).”
