went out to Kool Mix and then to Modern last night. man, had such a dope night. i had two tickets to kool mix that i got at dmc last friday so i tried to get christine to come with me, but i couldn’t reach her. i picked up nemo since he skratches also and we rolled up to nation. when we got in there they were still having the mc battle. it was pretty lame, bunch of black guys spitting in a mic. i don’t know, it didn’t entertain me at all really, i thought the talent level was pretty mediocre. after that was over the dj battles started. this was the primary focus of the event – it was the dc kool mix final, so the winner of this wins $2,500 cash and goes to the kool mix finals in chicago. the four finalists were as-one, geometrix, mike bree, and dj supreme. as-one and supreme were at dmc last week, both were finalists (supreme got 2nd, art got 3rd). supreme is well knock for gimmicky routines. lots of body tricks, walking on the table around the decks while doing juggles, actually juggling records (throwing them up in the air), skratching with his elbows, etc. technically, he’s not extremely sound, but he has a lot of crowd pleasing moves. art is strong, but not strong enough to beat him. geometrix is good, but i wasn’t sure if he’d be able to beat supreme, especially in a battle that’s largely decided by crowd reaction, as opposed to dmc in which the winner is determined by a panel of judges.
the first round was geo vs supreme. supreme started off, did his usual gimmicky shit, the crowd was liking it. he threw records into the air, did his run dmc “i walk on stage” juggle while walking around the decks on the table, skratched with his elbows, etc. geo responded with a set that was largely a technical juggle, but i thought that it was overly technical and not musical or crowd pleasing enough. his opener was a rock the bells diss which i’m sure he planned thinking that supreme would start with his blindfolded rock the bells juggle that he used at dmc. well, he didn’t, and that didn’t go the way he wanted. he ended with ‘how you like me now’ with his gangsta face. supreme won, went to the finals.
next round was art vs mike bree. i pretty much knew what would happen here. and that is, mike would rip him to pieces. respect to art, but mike is clearly on a different level. his main juggle was the most musical of the night, really funky and rhythmic. it reminded me of enferno, that same kind of really musical style. art had equipment problems;¬† his upfaders weren’t working. mike won with ease.
the final round was where it really got interesting. the battles took place in the main room at nation, and the place was absolutely packed (having slick rock, raekwon, and ghostface on the bill) and people were really excited about this last battle. i figured it could only be good, and i was praying that mike would destroy him. my dream came true because this was the most vicious head to head battle i’ve ever witnessed. supreme’s set was sloppy as fuck, just awful, worse than i’ve come to expect from him. mike’s follow was incredible. the entire set was a series of disses. calling him a bitch, saying he’s got no skills, then “watch me imitate you” followed by a series of wack skratches calling out his lack of technical cuts. the place is going off at this point, and then he pulls out some of the cleanest, funkiest cuts i’ve seen. here comes the highlight of the entire night. out of nowhere, circus music starts playing, mike has a clowns nose on, and he takes a step back from the decks and juggles three tennis balls, imitating supreme. i can’t even describe what happened to this place when this happened; it absolutely went OFF THE DEEP END. everyone yelling, going nuts, completely losing their shit. no one had ever seen anything like that. best diss i’ve ever seen, and highlight of the night, easily. mike won and got the oversized $2,500 check on stage.
30 minute intermission after that, slick rick gets up on stage and the place goes nuts. i was wedged between like 4 guys and right next to the left speaker so i wouldn’t say that all of the conditions were optimal, but it was cool to see slick rick for free. we listened for about 30 minutes before getting hot and frusterated enough to be ready to leave, so i found nemo and we dipped. we left at 11pm and went to modern where i knew kevork was just finishing up. nemo was bitching at me about how long we’d stay but i told him to chill out. we get inside and i say whats up to kevork and eric and run into a few people i don’t know too well. watched some breakers for a bit, got some shots:
i really don’t mean to just get shots of sonny, but he’s clearly the best one there and he’s always holding poses for a few seconds to give me the opportunity to shoot him. got a silly pic of kevork:
talked with miko for while, had pretty decent conversation. last week it was basically confirmed that she’s erics, and i’m cool with that. she goes out a lot, i told her to check out tuesday at andalu with me next week and she said she would. i gave her my card and told her to shoot me an e-mail, lets see if it happens. i think that’s all i have to say about last night – lots of fun.
got some new records today:
dj crystl – let it roll 2004 – photek
asc – drum track 2 / twitchy droid – offshore
pfm – the western / hypnotising – glo
pieter k – proof / saturnine – bbs