“I want to find that middle ground” - Jarred Brooks wants to bridge gap between rap and MMA

If there’s one thing that Jarred Brooks loves as much as mixed martial arts, it’s hip hop. As a fan of everything from hip hop’s golden era of the 90s to the underground scene of today, Brooks enjoys a wide array of the lyrical art form.

Jarred Brooks has even spit his own rhymes from time to time, though for now, the strawweight title challenger sees it as nothing more than a hobby.

In an interview with The MMA Superfan just days away from his ONE strawweight world championship showdown with reigning titleholder Joshua Pacio, Brooks spoke about the influence that Eminem has had on the hip-hop community and his own dream of bridging the gap between being a rapper and being a mixed martial artist:

“I gotta give it to Eminem. Eminem made every white boy want to rap. I just like to rhyme and flow. It's just a hobby outside of fighting that makes me happy. Mixed martial arts and rap. If rappers want to be mixed martial artists, then mixed martial artists want to be rappers. I want to find that middle ground.”

The No.1-ranked strawweight contender even delivered his own diss track on Hiroba Minowa ahead of their ONE: Only the Brave bout in January.

Watch the full interview below:

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Jarred Brooks breaks down his top five favorite hip hop artists

In an interview with ONE Championship, the 29-year-old strawweight star shared his top five favorite hip-hop artists of all time. Landing and number one for ‘The Monkey God’ is perhaps the most successful rapper of all time, Eminem:

“If you’re talking about the best of all time, you got to go with Eminem. I would say the reason why is because of [his] lyrical ability mixed with the show performance inside of the song. He treats it like a real performance, and you can hear that in his music.”

Coming in at number two for him is the London-born emcee MF Doom. At number three, Jarred Brooks has the legendary New York-based group, A Tribe Called Quest:

“I mean, you got Phife Dawg. You got Q-Tip. You got some of the best guys in the world, and you had J Dilla go on an album for ‘em. So yeah, much respect to A Tribe Called Quest, and I think that they’re definitely in my top five as well.”

Rounding out the bottom two on Jarred Brooks’ list include west coast standout, Earl Sweatshirt, and Brooklyn’s Bobby Shmurda:

“The reason why I like Bobby Shmurda is because he has everything that you would want out of an entertainment rapper. He’s definitely an entertainment rapper, but I get so pumped up to his music.”