When it comes to break-dancing there are two extremes of opinion, with most of us falling somewhere in the middle. There are those for whom it is one of the four fundamental elements of hip hop and/or a sacred art form, and those who consider breakers irrelevant show offs, their sole purpose being to look cool and take up precious space on the dance floor. As champion b-boys and girls from around the globe descended on Brixton last weekend they certainly did look cool. Elevated up there on the stage even those in the later group would have had to admit that there was something truly incredible about what were doing. Persuadably they would be only too quick to check themselves and taunt ‘Buts what the point?’ that is of course only after they’d scooped their jaws up off the floor; and anyway what’s the point in dancing or music or anything really?
Breakdance is one of those things that is incredibly difficult to describe. I could perhaps provide a list of the moves say that France pulled off against South Korea or Japan laid down against the UK (and to be honest I probably would if I knew their names) but to most it would be meaningless. The true beauty of breakdance is that it is indescribable - you have to see it to believe it and from where I was standing it was still pretty hard to believe. I mean we’ve all seen dodgey downloads of people who have had all their bones replaced with elastic bands dancing on the net or witnessed some random spinning on his heads at a club, but this is next level. This is the crème de la crème of the b-boy world. Let us not forget the hosts either. Crazy Legs deserves all the respect he gets for keeping everything running smoothly and his repeated, albeit futile, attempts to get the crowd going. I have to say I was a little disappointed not to see a little demo from the godfather of breakdnace himself but I guess he had enough to deal with trying to keep the stage clear. And Hocch, well Hocch kept himself busy screaming for someone to bring him chicken, weed and alcohol punctuated with the occasional shout of ‘AFTERPARTY!’ - He seemed to be enjoying himself anyway.
While what happened on stage was faultless the crowd was poor to say the least. While Crazy Legs did his best to get everyone going his excitement fell on deaf ears. Even the early, and wholly undeserved, departure of the UK’s Soul Mavericks failed to cause much more than a faint murmur. Time after time the judges seemed to go against what I and apparently most others thought. America’s Rock Steady Crew were sent packing much early than would have been just and while I mean no disrespect to the new champions, Korea’s Project Soul, they were no real match for France’s Pokemon. And the crowd’s reaction to all these injustices - to stand obediently and applaud. There were a few moments of hope, such as when some manic head-spinning by Japan caused a few screams but as swiftly as the excitement rose the crowd returned to its more sombre ways. As I made my way home the streets were full of mutterings that Pokemon were the real champs and that they shat all over Project Soul. That just sums it up really; hip hop crowds aren’t usually known for venting their dissatisfaction in muffled whispers on the way to the tube station. Come on guys this is about as good as it gets, show some appreciation and some balls for God’s sake.
Despite the lameness of the crowd let us not forget what we were there for, to see some world class b-boys and girls and that’s what we got.
UK B-Boy Championship 10th Anniversary Special - Brixton Academy 8th and 9th October 2005
Words By: Joe Kent
