Cambridge Hip Hop Week 2005 Review

Over the Easter Holidays from March 28th - April 1st 2005 SIN Cru in association with The Centre At St Pauls and Cambridge City Council, ran it's fifth annual Hip Hop week. Five days of intensive dance, art & music courses: essentially Hip Hop school for kids... and adults!

For the kids it's a unique opportunity to have access to all the elements of Hip Hop culture under one roof. With specialist Hip Hop guidance and training the week builds towards performances & exhibitions at the after party Urban Sinfonie. For the local up & coming B-Boys and B-Girls who are too young to go to clubs or travel to other events Urban Sinfonie is the highlight of their dance year. It gives them the opportunity to battle older more experienced dancers who otherwise they would only see on videos. Win or loose, no doubt the kids come away inspired to take their dance to the next level when up against some of the UK's best.

The Hip Hop Seminar opened CHHW05 with guest panelists: legendary UK MC Blade, graffiti artist Skore, old school UK B-Girl legend Bubbles, & Kilo discussing the current state of Hip Hop and it's future with the audience. A good starting point & introduction to the week ahead...

Courses in all the Hip Hop elements were on offer to the absolute beginner up to the more advanced Hip Hop head. On the dance side Breakin', Locking, Poppin' & Hip Hop Dance were available with Graffiti Art and Graffiti Customisation representing the visual side. MCing, DJ Skills & Beatboxing represented the audio elements. Big Dada Recording artist and SIN Cru member TY ran the MC workshop. Specifik showed budding turntablists how to get busy on the one & twos and local UK beatbox champs finalist Gummy showed how to make music with your mouth.

L to R: Biz Markie, Ill Boogs, Babe Ruth & B-Boy Munch

Activities were also run on each evening including Hip Hop Karaoke which saw Kilo as The Beastie Boys winning best performance with B-Boy Munch as Babe Ruth being awarded the worst performance. Ill Boogs as Biz Markie must get a mention for the most "illest" & most bizarre costume! The pub style Hip Hop quiz saw heads dropping knowledge to questions being asked by very special guest host Baloo from The Nextmens dad! - Mr Ellis.

The Urban Sinfonie afterparty and battles brought CHHW05 to a close on the Friday night. The latest SIN Cru choreographed hip hop dance piece History kicked off the event followed by performances by participants from the various CHHW05 courses - they showcased the skills they picked up over the five days. The Spinney vs St.Pauls kids grudge match crew B-Boy battle was first up, it being April fools day they brought jokes to the dancefloor as well as moves. Winners: home team - St.Pauls

L to R: US05 winners: Bugs, Benjammin', Ill Boogs & Upstart

Dancers from all over the UK came through to represent in the battles: Edinburgh, Bristol, Northampton, Southampton, Brighton, Kent, Norwich, Devon, London & even Italy were in the house. DJ's Specifik (Bomb The City Records) & Ben Swift (The Essence/Nonsinthetik) rocked the one & twos. Judges were Twista from Style First Crew, SIN Cru's own TrubL Roc, & Bubbles from The B-Boys. Bubbles is famed for her "no easy props" skills that matched any b-boy back in the day & appearances in classic UK Hip Hop documentaries Bombin' & Electro Rock. Current and next generation B-Girls came out to show her respect. The B-Girl circle kicked off & Jnr Sinstar B-Girl Rude was announced as "Lil Bubbles" by Bubbles herself after the battles.

The individuals winner was Funk & Disorderly's man of the moment Bugs, who fought his way through Swifty (The Allied Forces), Mittens (JNR Sinstars), 9 year old AirOne who brought pure B-Boy style and flavour to the close call battle, ending up facing the return of Roland Rat with out previous years doubles partner Kevin the Gerbil! The 2on2's winner repping the old to the new was Ill Boogs & Ben Jammin' (Sinstars/JNR Sinstars) who took on B-Girl Rude & Yes (JNR Sinstars), Edinburgh B-Girl routine rockers Raquit & Remmady (Sinstars/Mean Feet) Bristols incredible move of the night partnership Wilkie & Splendid (Physical Jerks) and meeting freeze fiends Tom & Jim in the final. The Poppin' title was scooped by Upstart (JNR Sinstars) who faced Swifty (The Allied Forces) & University popper Zimzimma in the final.

Post event feedback has been very positive with participants and punters alike recognising our efforts to keep real Hip Hop alive...

"I think you're doing good things for the Hip Hop scene not only by introducing kids to all this creativity and personal expression but also showing their parents Hip Hop is not all about bling, bitches and cars, seem to be a crew who really invest in the next generation... there was a really good standard on display"

"wow! what a night ! well first things first you gotta give it up to the jnr sins who were off the hook! they had a wicked attitude and wicked style which is a credit to their teachers... Hip Hop has those other elements of love, peace, respect and unity which need to be emphasised more in the Hip Hop world"

Respect and thanks to all the dancers who came through and everyone who ripped up the hype open circles.

Thanks to John Quysner, Elaine Shortt and our friends at Addict, Fresh Cotton, LRG Clothing, Mecca USA, Supreme Being, Eastpak, Redbull, Jelly Belly, Scratch, Nokia UMF with The Princes Trust, Polydor Records & Zebra Traffic Records for their support and super fresh prizes.