Friday, July 4, 2008

SET UP BBOY BATTLES


The Son of Jarel and I probably talking smack after we've witnessed yet another crash by those fearless crowd pleasers. I gotta give them credit though, they've got a lot of heart.


Last Thursday, I dj'd at a bboy class and open floor session at Hot Monkey Love with some minimal Internet promoting (myspace, yelp, message boards, etc.) Four people showed up. Alma, the owner of the place, asked how we can get people to come. I told her that we'd throw some type of bboy battle to see if people came. Dat, the organizer of the jam, decided to his 3 on 3 battle for 50 bucks to the winners, and I decided to incorporate The North Vs. South battle (Northside bboys vs. Southside bboys). I made an internet flyer for the event and did the same amount of minimal internet promoting within a weeks time and 51 people showed up last night. Still not a great amount of people, but it was a drastic change from last week's class/jam. Of course this isn't new for me. I've tried throwing jams without set-battles and still get a low percentage of people that come those nights. Maybe I have to learn to accept that Bboying has always been a dance based on competition. Is Bboying really a "fight dance?" Most of the bboys looked like they were ready to kill their opponents especially during The North Vs. South battle. Hey, to each his own.

Btw, I'm growing less and less interested in DJing for bboys, and it's not because of the bboys. I dunno, maybe I do it too much. For the last 5 weeks, I've dj'd something bboy related. The thing that keeps me content is being around friends at jams. There's nothing like hanging out with friends.

This is a real battle.

6 comments:

Unknown said...
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Anonymous said...

Damu pa kmu to?.. Nano ni klase blog man?

Anonymous said...

Yutarets! kasagad bah!

Anonymous said...

there are bboys/bgirls out there that still rep in the ciphers no matter what and haven't stopped. for me i stopped caring about competitions about 2 years ago and i've been repping the ciphers ever since, and i couldn't be anymore happier.i rarely enter competitions, only here and there. so don't be discouraged because i'm one of the bboys out there that rep in the cipher till i "retire" and been known for it instead being known as a "competition bboy", haha. sorry for the long reply but just wanted to share my thought and give you encouragement to keep spinning for the bboys/bgirls plus hella props for spinning those real breaks and you're one of my favourtie djs hhaa. peace

miguel- dedicate ugly crew
Vancouver, Canada

stormko said...

I gotta give them credit though, they've got a lot of heart.

Do they? I mean, they are only doing the moves that they think the crowds will respond to. That doesn't take much heart. That's just doing what you think others will like.

A guy like Optic dances with heart.

Is Bboying really a "fight dance?"

No. It's just promoted that way. People think that's the way it is because that's the only way it is ever really portrayed to them. Promoters never think of an original idea to get people excited; they can just throw a battle instead of actually having to be creative. Hip Hop promoters don't act like they have ever learned anything from Hip Hop: be creative, original, inventive, have style. What promoters (or events) have that anymore? Although, they'll make that a qualification for the dancers in their contest.

I'm sure there's probably SOMEONE in the world doing something interesting, but 90% of all jams are just the same shit, copied from someone else's jam, and the scene let's them get a way with it. If you do that in B-Boying or MCing or DJing or Writing then you get called on it. But promoters don't. Promoters just bite each other and hope they can profit from it.

I'm not saying promoters aren't important--they are. I just don't see why they are exempt from the rules of Hip Hop everyone else has to follow.

Most of the bboys looked like they were ready to kill their opponents

Yeah, but that's just some fake act they always put on. They see others do it in a video, and so they copy it.

djmaneone said...

thanks Miguel that means a lot.
I'm sure you've never seen me spin live, but thanks haha.


I guess when I said "they have a lot of heart", I mean that they put a lot of time and effort into those moves, but yeah they are just doing it to please crowds...


word Storm, no excuses...