Ok... the battle was... kinda what i expected. Judgment in these type of events is ALWAYS an issue. So i'll won't start bitching about that immediately lol. And it's easy to just start summing up all the negatives, but that would give a wrong idea.
Because it was just dope as f*ck to have an event which whole purpose was to put hiphop producers in the spotlight and make THEM the stars. Because we are normally the dudes in the background while others shine with music your at least 50% responsible for. Don't take that the wrong way rappers, singers etc., that's our role of course! But it was dope to have so many talented musicians who normally play the background take center stage for once.
And apart from the sometimes ridiculous moments, the crowd was packed and lovin' it. There should definitely be a next edition. BUT not with some adjustments.
The heat in the venue was ridiculous... It was more than 30 degrees Celsius, easily. People were skipping battles to get some fresh air and the heat had an effect on the enthousiasm and energy of the crowd. So i would suggest to get Air Conditioning up in there, or choose another venue.
And yeah, the judgment didn't work out at all. We couldn't really judge the crowd noise on stage, and Lefto had to make decisions based on that, along with his own preference. Maybe a DB-level meter and at least 3 judges next time? And I would suggest that one of the judges 'd be a hiphop producer with a respected rep, preferably not from Holland. Someone the participants look up to or are fans of.
Oh and please, next time, 2 dj setups, please! the stage was microscopic with only one cd player and this way you had to rush and make a decision on what beat to play next, which was one of the most important battle elements.
But enough whining haha, it was a dope experience. Much respect to all the competitors! Nobody acted like assholes or let the whole battle element get to them, you could sense the amount of respect for each others craft. Bigup to the winner Hayzee as well. I had to leave early so i missed most of the battles after my elimination, but twitter kept me up to speed ;) .
Oh yeah, my battles. I won the first round agains I.N.T., i thought it was a tie. I'm sort of a veteran, but I.N.T. had shit out on vinyl that was dope (deadly maniacs) when i was just starting to make beats. I did throw 2 of my favorite and hardest beats i had into that battle, but the response was not what i anticipated. Lesson learned, even if you've been making beats for 15 years, you still can't really anticipate the response to your own music.
Round 2 against Statik Music. Well i went in, thinking i could never win this one, no matter what i dropped. Statik Music had brought along a pretty big following, which easily was the loudest. But on top of that, their first round against FS GREEN was ridiculous. They had 2 ridiculous beats, so they had the crowd and the heat to back it.
So i thought, fuck it, and threw in some crazy shit. The first beat i threw in got a pretty good response. But i was really feeling the first beat they had, and at that point i really felt i lost already. Their second beat wasn't a killer though, but still good enough. There was almost no time to pick a beat, so i went through all my beats, stumbled upon this crazy beat i did years ago with a awkward cadence, hit play... and the Crowd went apeshit... Surprised the hell out of me!
So the host asked who won, and the crowd actually sounded louder when my name came up. Unfortunately, Lefto judged it differently... Too bad, really was hyped after the response on my last beat and really wanted to go some more rounds. Would loved to do a tie-breaker at least, but fuck it, wasn't meant to be. Statik Music (which consists of 3 producers) and their following were so cool afterwards. They told me they thought i won and felt bad about the way it went down. That took most of my disappointment away right there and then.
So even though i maybe deserved at least one more round, i felt i held it down and proved i can bang with the best of 'em, and left feeling good about the night.
Bigup to
Moovmnt.com, keep me posted about future editions!
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