Traveling

It’s been a busy start to the spring and summer. Bashville usually seems to kick off a string of events for me every year. For some reason I don’t get a lot of bookings until after March. I guess I’m seasonal. This year’s no different. Right after Bashville I was in Asheville, NC for a jam thrown by Frantic and Hunab Kru, then Baton Rouge for Sickest of the South 3 then spent a week in Pensacola with the crew. Just figured I’d give a quick recap of what went on.

Bashville Stampede 7 was another success. I got into Nashville Friday night for the workshops and if you weren’t there you missed out. This was probably one of the best years in terms of workshops with classes for B-boys taught by Palmer, Flexum, Remind, and an enlightening lecture from Ivan. For other dancers there was a good introduction to vogueing taught by X-centric, a New Jack/Locking workshop from Dark Knight, and a popping workshop from Popula. The cyphers were going pretty much all night spun by DJ Basic, B-ryan, and myself. If you’re coming to Bashville you really owe it to yourself to get there a day early and hit up the workshops. There’s always a lot to learn and the cyphers won’t let you down.

Saturday was the main event and my first time checking out the new Rocketown venue which moved after Bashville 6. The old Rocketown was, hands down, my favorite venue. The staff was always super helpful when it came to setting up my gear, the sound and lighting was good, and there was more than enough space for cyphers, battles, and vendors. For me, the new spot is an upgrade. Everything I liked about the old Rocketown but on a bigger scale.

The new Rocketown is comprised of two buildings, one larger one with a big stage and a ton of floor space where the B-boy battles were held. Then across the street is a smaller building where the All Styles battles were held. The smaller building is a great little venue and was the perfect size for the All Styles room. Not too small that it can’t accommodate cyphers, not too big that the vibe gets lost because everyone is spread out. We were also able to work out the lighting to give the room a more “clubby” type vibe. It was really more like a party in there than a competition.

My only complaint is that with the buildings being spread out, there was a lot less traffic between the All Styles room and the b-boy room which was unfortunate. I always enjoyed seeing b-boys wander in a little skeptical of the All Styles room and slowly adjust to the slightly different vibe. Some b-boys I talked to wanted to see some of the All Styles battles but didn’t know where the building was or were afraid they might miss their name being called for battles. Spoke to Q and a few others and we might work it out so that the All Styles and B-boy rooms are in the same building to solve that problem. Regardless of that, I think we might have had the biggest crowd we’ve ever had in the All Styles room.

I didn’t get a chance to check out a majority of the b-boy battles except for prelims since I was in the All Styles Room most of the night so I can’t really speak to that but I will say that the times I was there, the crowd was DEAD. It’s a trend I’ve noticed at a lot of b-boy events but at Bashville it was extremely noticeable. I don’t know what it is but people refuse to give props for anything anymore. People were throwing some incredible shit but at most you might get a couple of half-hearted woos or the obligatory hand wag. Luckily for me, the All Styles room was the exact opposite. Everyone was giving props during the battles and half the people on the sidelines were dancing as much as the ones battling. Every song got a big reaction from the crowd which is always a great feeling for a DJ. The cyphers were nuts but we only had time for a few due to time constraints. DJ SekUno spun a killer house set after the prelims and I was able to do a quick New Jack set before the Top 8. At one point the entire room was doing the electric slide. I don’t care how you feel about All Styles dancers or battles, at least they know how to have fun. 

The All Styles battles were exciting to watch as always. It’s always interesting to see who comes out. Last year there were a lot of poppers that came out and this year and tended to be more house dancers. Everybody did there thing. I tried to get a little more risky with track selection and dig a little deeper and for the most part it paid off. I felt there were a couple of times where some dancers got through due to poor track selection on my part. It was too heavily biased towards one dancer or another’s style. It wasn’t intentional but at times if I don’t know the dancers on the floor, it’s hard to pick a song that doesn’t favor one person over another. In the end Brave Monk from Chicago went home with the prize.

A week after Bashville, I took the short drive up to Asheville, NC to spin Off the Rockas for Frantic and Hunab Kru. It was a small jam with maybe 40 people or so but it was fun. The venue was a studio run by Hunab Kru that focuses purely on B-boying. A majority of the people there were students of the studio or practiced there. I haven’t been to an NC jam in a couple of years so it was good too see some new faces along with the old. I spun with a DJ up there named Brett Rock who had a great selection of Midtempo/Funky breaks tracks and is worth checking out. I expect to see him at more jams in the future. AJ from HBO won in the finals against Dark Knight of Illville.

And a week after that I went to one of my favorite places; Louisiana. Specifically Baton Rouge for Sickest of the South 3 but I rarely cross the Mississippi without going to New Orleans. Louisiana is always a fun trip. Got a lot of friends out there that I always like to see and there’s plenty to do and eat. It doesn’t hurt that you can buy alcohol at a CVS anytime of the day or night. Honestly, a lot of times when I spin a jam in Louisiana, the jam is rarely the highlight. Not because they’re bad jams, just because there’s a lot of other shit I like to do in the area. Mainly eat. The finals were between Jungle Brothers from Texas and New Jack Hustlers made of the people I traveled down with from Atlanta; Dark Knight (Illville), Black Dynamite (headhunters) and Nick. Jungle Brothers took the win. Look out for a cat on their squad named Dang who was tossing off all night. Pensacola also came out and repped hard. We also got to check out a practice spot in the West Bank, New Orleans where a lot of younger kids are just starting to learn. They’ve got a lot of motivation and good teachers in Monkey and Kevin and I expect to see a lot from them in a couple years.

After BR, it was a trip home for less than 12 hours then I was back in the car to Pensacola. First time down there just to chill. Me, Kane, and Fathom from my crew were going to be staying with another crewmate, Vicious James as a sort of celebration since this is RftA’s fifth year under that name and with the current roster. We spent a majority of the week training and just hanging out. I spent most of it overwhelmed by hospitality because people kept buying me drinks. I vaguely remember Monday and Saturday because of it. It was good to travel somewhere with the crew and not have to worry about spinning a jam or battling. I haven’t done that in a loooong time. It was a good chance to remind us all why we’re a family first and a crew second. Risen from the Ashes is one of the few crews I can think of where the members can call each other family and really mean it. I think we all consider each other a brother and that’s what a crews supposed to be. I see a lot of younger kids coming up and they seem to change crews every other week or just start a random crew with people they don’t even know. A crew can’t work that way. We’ve been able to survive drama free for five years because we pared things down to the essentials; we put who someone is as a person before their skills. Our philosophy is that you can teach a cool person to be a better b-boy but you can’t teach a dope b-boy to be a good person. You either are or you aren’t. It’s made us all closer and a better crew in the end. Hoping to make some more trips like this in the future.

That’s it for this entry, it was a long one. Going home today to unpack my DJ gear and get back to work on mixtapes and practicing. At the end of the month I’ll be Battle Ground Zero 3 in Indianapolis so holla at me if you can come out.

-AlphaTrion