Red Bull Beat Battle Weekend 2007

*written by the JNR's

Workshop

As part of the Red Bull Beat Battle event, Red Bull had organised some Bboy workshops. The nearest one to us was in London but it was only for young people living in London. One of the organisers had heard about us and specially invited all of the JNR Sinstars to the London workshop. All four of us, (RascElle, Curious George, Soul Baby and Mar-Shki) attended the workshop with great enthusiasm and it all paid off! We arrived at the Hackney Empire at around 11 and prepared for some hardcore Bboying. We weren’t the only ones who turned up, there were a few other people there and as we were walking around, we saw 20 Japanese Bboys all wearing the same spin jackets! We also saw Flo Mo.
The class was challenging but not too difficult. We were asked to warm up first and then we began by each telling Crazy Legs what we thought Breakin’ was in our own opinion. Crazy Legs wasn’t the only person teaching us, he was accompanied by another FRESH Bboy who goes by the name of YNot. A couple of us favoured his style over Crazy Legs. He was very original and crisp … some may call him silky… J.
We learnt a top-rockin’ routine with YNot and he showed us the plain top-rock and other styles, and explained the difference between the beat and the off beat. We had a little circle to show off our top-rockin’. After that we went across the floor and then learnt another routine. I enjoyed all of the class but thought that learning the 2nd routine was the most fun. Many new skills were gained during the learning period and we liked them so much, that most of us now have incorporated many moves into our sets.

After lunch , YNot passed over to Crazy Legs. He told us what the ‘original’ baby is. He then taught us even more top-rockin’ and a little routine which he added the baby to. We chose partners and made our own routine to add onto the material crazy legs taught us. We ran through the whole thing and then it was question time. One of the first questions was from a boy who some of us recognised from a TV advert, and he asked if Hip Hop is about gangsters...
It was finally the end of the day and we were ready to go home. Overall, it was a good experience, which we will always remember and use when we can. And I’m sure Crazy Legs will never forget us, or one of us at least, as Mar-Shki gained his own nickname… Fart Boii. There’s no need to go into any details the name is pretty self- explanatory. And believe it or not soon after that, at the UK Championships Crazy Legs saw us and shouted “hey … fart boii”.

L2R: RascElle, Crazy Legs, Mar-Shki, Curious George, Soul Baby & YNot

Beat Battle

The journey started with all the JNRs meeting up at HQ - all happy and rearing to go, wearing our freshest outfits; George’s gazelles, Nice! But little did we know what was instore for us.
We piled into the car, it was only the four of us and Kilo. As always the car journey on the way there was better than on the way back (Hint Hint). It was a legend car journey, just plain loudness, fun fun fun! We got to London and parked in a perfect place right next to Hackney Empire, which was where the event was held. We met up with some people that Kilo new and talked for a bit before we joined the queue. We got in and took our seats. It was a really big theatre set up and it had a massive stage with Red Bull written all over it.

Crazy Legs started the show, explaining what it was and how it was going to be judged. It was a competition between different crews who had six weeks to make up a piece to a set mix that was given to them. After working with Crazy Legs at the workshop, we recognised different bits and bobs that he taught us like when he did his James Brown tribute top-rock we recognised his steps.
The show was really impressive, it was a very good night and at the end the German crew Flying Steps took first place and were crowned Red Bull Beat Battle Champions but Natural Effects should have won it - well that’s what everyone thought and the crowd moaned!

Flying Steps & their crazy book of spells!

Natural Effects definitely should have won the competition because their piece was immense! It was clever and the choreography was brilliant and Freesssshhh!! But I suppose everything happens for a reason. I think that if the JNRs had entered this competition, we would have found it extremely difficult but have a great advantage at the same time as we have lots experience in that sort of Hip Hop theatre stuff. At the end of the night, we saw Crazy Legs and he spoke to us about the show and we left the building and went to go and find the car.
It wasn’t there! We thought we’d left it in a different place but no, it wasn’t there.
We started to get a bit worried and Kilo called up the council to try and find things out. We then found out that the car had been towed away. We walked around trying to find somewhere warm to stay and asked someone where the police station was. They gave us directions so we made our way there. Soul Baby was the only one with a jumper so he was sharing it with everyone. We got to the police station and talked a bit with the guy on night shift and called a taxi. By the time the taxi got to us it was about 2:00am. The taxi took us to the car-towing place but what was this?! A sign at the window “lunch break back at 4:30am”

We couldn’t believe it! You don’t have lunch breaks on night shifts! So we called around and reached the night shift’s manager. We told him what had happened and that we could hear them all talking in the background. We got them in trouble and eventually we got our car back. We got home at about 5 in the morning. It was a long night but when you look back on it, it was hilarious.

Many thanks to Kilo for keeping us safe… Yabba!