With hip-hop all over again.
I drove to Greensboro, NC for the “Money, Power Moves, and Respect” b-boy battle. I wasn’t going just to watch the battle, but moreso because Kaze was performing during the intermission and I was DJing for him.
So I get there and deal with the usual “I’m DJing so I don’t have to pay” scenario with the girl collecting money/checking IDs. You know, the whole “That’ll be $10” … “I’m DJing, I should be on the list…” “I Don’t see your name on here” … Eventually it all leads to me getting in free..
Once I got inside I felt instantly refreshed to see such a diverse crowd;I was happy from the jump. This is one of the reasons I love hip-hop, it brings together people from so many different backgrounds. Every imaginable ethnicty was represented and every style of dress was in the place (we hip-hoppers are fashionable people, trendsetters if you will). It was beautiful and I love it (it makes me want to move out of raleigh to somewhere like new york).
DJ SK of Chaos Mathematics was the selector for the night, playing all the classic break music. He’s also a rep for red bull music academy and held an info session recently here in Raleigh with Rich Medina(dope individual right here, folks). If he wouldn’t have reminded me about RBMA I would have forgotten to submit on time, so big ups to him:
I got some good video of the breakdancing competition and I wish I had memory card for my camera with more capacity. Luckily my digital camera isn’t limited to those silly 30 or 60 second clips, but can record until the memory stick is full (good job Sony). Pretty much all of the crews were dope, but this crew AWR from Washington DC took the title (and $1000 in cash). I’m no judge on technical aspects but this crew was the best all around. The one thing that seperated them from the rest was the fact that they used teamwork with choreographed routines (hey, it was a 5 on 5 battle after all). Here’s about three minutes of AWR vs. Mixed Motions that I grabbed (AWR is the crew in black, closest to the camera):
If you’ll notice I had a great view of the battle thanks to SK letting me hang out on stage with him and his crew. There was a professional film crew there filming the event for DVD as well, I’ll update when it’s available for purchase. There was an MC battle in the interim but it wasn’t that great to be honest with you.
I had a great time and the battle made me realize why I love hip-hop. I really wish I could describe how it made me feel but I am neither a good writer or an expresser of emotions. At least I didn’t have to hear any damn snap music all night long…
